Breakdown (film)

Breakdown
Promotional poster for Breakdown
Directed by	Jonathan Mostow
Produced by	Dino De Laurentiis Martha DeLaurentis
Written by	Jonathan Mostow (story & screenplay) Sam Montgomery (screenplay)
Starring	Kurt Russell J. T. Walsh Kathleen Quinlan M. C. Gainey
Music by	Basil Poledouris
Cinematography	Douglas Milsome
Editing by	Derek Brechin Kevin Stitt
Studio	PolyGram Filmed Entertainment
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures Gramercy Pictures (North America) Buena Vista Pictures Distribution (Some markets)
Release date(s)	May 2, 1997
Running time	95 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$36,000,000 (estimated)
Box office	$50,129,186 (USA)

Breakdown is a 1997 American thriller film, written and directed by Jonathan Mostow. The film stars Kurt Russell, J. T. Walsh and Kathleen Quinlan. The original music score was composed by Basil Poledouris. The film was produced by PolyGram Filmed Entertainment and released on May 2, 1997 by Paramount Pictures and Gramercy Pictures.

Plot

While driving cross country from Boston to San Diego, Jeff Taylor (Kurt Russell) and his wife Amy (Kathleen Quinlan) narrowly miss colliding with a beat up pickup truck that darts in front of them from the side of the deserted highway. Later, while stopped at a gas station, the driver of the truck exchanges hostile words with Jeff before the couple resume their journey. Shortly afterwards, their car breaks down in the middle of the desert. Leaving Jeff with the car, Amy accepts a ride from a passing big-rig trucker named Red Barr (J.T. Walsh) to get to a nearby diner to call for help. Jeff eventually fixes the car and drives to the diner, only to find no one there has seen his wife. When he catches up with Barr and forces him to stop, the trucker claims that he has never seen Jeff or his wife before. Jeff hails a passing sheriff, but a search of Barr's truck yields nothing and he is let go.

Jeff goes to a police station where he is advised to go back to the diner and wait. As he does so, Jeff meets a simpleton named Billy, who says he saw his wife arrive in one truck and leave in another, and tells Jeff where they have taken her. Jeff gives chase, but is ambushed on the road by Earl, the driver of the pickup truck. Jeff escapes by driving his car into a river. He exits the sinking car and floats down the river. Later circling back to watch his attackers salvaging it from the water, he is discovered and knocked out by Billy.

Jeff awakes in the trunk of a car surrounded by Billy (no longer feigning mental impairment), Earl and Red, who along with a man named Al have kidnapped him and Amy. Red tells Jeff his wife will be released in exchange for a large sum of cash the kidnappers think Jeff has in his bank account. Knowing he only has a fraction of the money they demand, Jeff enters a nearby bank to withdraw the little money he has. While the manager is busy with the transaction, Jeff steals some money ribbons and a letter opener from the manager's desk. With cash in hand, Jeff is then instructed by phone to leave town, where he is picked up and bound by Earl.

While gloating about how easy Jeff and his wife were to abduct by rigging their car to break down after leaving the gas station, Earl discovers that Jeff, using the money ribbons he took from the bank manager's desk, has disguised stacks of $1 bills between $100 bills on the top and the bottom of each stack. Jeff frees himself and stabs Earl with the letter opener, binds him, and forces him to reveal where his wife is. The sheriff, seeing the truck being driven erratically, pursues and stops the vehicle, forcing Jeff onto the road. Earl frees himself and shoots the sheriff with a pistol hidden in his boot. Just as Earl is about to shoot Jeff, the wounded sheriff shoots and kills Earl. Jeff uses the sheriff's radio to call for an ambulance and leaves to search for his wife.

Jeff spots Red waiting for Earl at a truckstop, and as he is driving away, Jeff jumps onto the moving truck, which returns to Red's farm. Jeff hides in a barn and watches as Red, Billy, and Al take a bound and gagged Amy and lock her in the barn's cellar and return to the house. Unable to open the locked cellar door, Jeff enters the house with a pistol and demands the key from Red, whose young son appears with a rifle and threatens Jeff, who pushes the gun away, accidentally shooting Al in the arm and allowing Billy to escape. Jeff then forces them to free Amy from the cellar, and locks everyone in it as he and Amy steal a pickup truck and drive away.

After Billy frees them from the basement, the gang pursues Jeff and Amy. Jeff forces Billy's and Al's cars off the road, but Red, in his big rig, follows them onto a narrow bridge and tries to ram the pickup over the edge. Amy's leg gets stuck underneath the dashboard, but Jeff escapes and fights Red in his truck, which drives over the edge of the bridge, catching on the pickup and a steel bridge support. As Jeff climbs up the hanging semi, Red swings a chain at him, but Jeff grabs it and pulls Red off the truck and he falls to the rocks below, but is still alive. Jeff frees Amy, who pulls the automatic shifter on their pickup truck, causing the semi to fall and crush Red. Sitting on the edge of the bridge, Jeff and Amy embrace each other.

Cast

• Kurt Russell as Jeff Taylor
• J. T. Walsh as Warren "Red" Barr
• Kathleen Quinlan as Amy Taylor
• M. C. Gainey as Earl
• Jack Noseworthy as Billy
• Ritch Brinkley as Al
• Moira Harris as Arleen Barr
• Rex Linn as Sheriff Boyd
• Kim Robillard as Deputy Len Carver
• Jack McGee as Belle's Bartender
• Steven Waddington as Cowboy in Bank
• Thomas Kopache as Calhoun

Production

Breakdown was filmed on location in Sacramento, California, Moab, Utah, and Sedona, Arizona.

Music

The score was written by Basil Poledouris, with contributions from Steve Forman, Judd Miller, Eric Colvin and Richard Marvin.

It was released as a limited edition of 3000 units by LaLaLand Records in June 2011 and as of October 2011 is still available. The release comprises of a 3-CD set: the first CD contains the complete score as heard in the film (which contains material from additional composers). The second CD contains an alternate early version of the score by Poledouris that represents a different, more orchestral approach to scoring the film. The third CD contains further alternates that demonstrate the changing nature of the music as scenes were rescored.

Release

Critical reception

The film had mostly positive reviews. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 79% of critics gave the film positive reviews based upon a sample of 47, with an average score of 7 out of 10. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 73 based on 19 reviews. Peter Stack of the San Francisco Chronicle praised the film, "Breakdown use[s] old-fashioned ingenuity — plus a compelling star, a fast-paced mystery and a deadpan villain — to come up with a sizzler." Roger Ebert gave the film a positive review, calling it "taut, skillful and surgically effective" although he felt the "ending is unworthy of it". Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post criticized Russell for not conveying a desperate husband willing to fight for his missing wife, writing "He does a lot of running around while making desperate faces, but he never projects a sense of deep rage. He never gets dangerous. Thus the movie is shorn of its one primitive gratification: the image of the civilized man who finds the Peruvian commando inside himself and lays waste to louts who have underestimated him."

Box office performance

Breakdown debuted at first place at the box office with $12.3 million. After initially opening to 2,108 theaters, the film later expanded to 2,348 theaters and grossed a total of $50,159,144 in the United States and Canada.

External links

• Breakdown at the Internet Movie Database
• Breakdown at AllRovi
• Breakdown at Rotten Tomatoes
• Breakdown at Metacritic
• Breakdown at Box Office Mojo