The Hitcher II: I've Been Waiting

The Hitcher II: I've Been Waiting
Directed by	Louis Morneau
Produced by	David Bixler
Written by	Molly Meeker, Charles R. Meeker, Leslie Scharf
Starring	Kari Wuhrer Jake Busey C. Thomas Howell
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	July 15, 2003 (2003-07-15)
Running time	93 min.
Language	English

The Hitcher II: I've Been Waiting is the 2003 horror sequel to The Hitcher, which stars C. Thomas Howell, returning as Jim Halsey, Kari Wuhrer as his girlfriend Maggie, and Jake Busey as psychotic hitchhiker Jack.

Plot

Fifteen years after Jim Halsey's horror filled trip through Texas at the mercy of a crazed murderer, he works as a police officer, but has recently been suspended for using excessive force on a kidnapping suspect. It is revealed his girlfriend, Maggie, has her own crop dusting business. Jim makes a call to retired Captain Esteridge in Texas, who asks Jim to come down to Texas to talk to him face to face about his mental scars that resulted from the incidents that occurred in The Hitcher. Maggie, who is unaware of the previous events, pleads with Jim to let her tag along.

Arriving in Texas, the couple pick up a car that Esteridge has left for them, and set off to his house. Jim notices a sign along the highway warning motorists not to pick up hitchhikers, which leads to a series of flashbacks. The two see an RV that has been run off the road, with blood dripping through the door. Maggie wants to stop and help, but Jim speeds up, irritating her and making her more curious about his erratic behavior. Soon, a motorcycle speeds past them and wrecks. Maggie lets the driver into the back, against Jim's understandable protests. The hitcher reveals his name to be Jack, and after Maggie tells him her occupation he remarks "A farm girl!" He asks them what they are in Texas for, and Jim responds with "None of your damn business." The Hitcher doesn't appear fazed by Jim's impolite behavior. Jim suddenly envisions himself and Maggie being killed by the Hitcher, and pulls a gun on him and evicts him from the car. As they speed away, Jim informs Maggie of his last experiences with hitchers, while the Hitcher lights a cigarette and says to no one in particular, "Damn fool." An 18 wheeler stops behind him, and the Hitcher presumably steals it.

Jim and Maggie continue to Esteridge's home, but are pulled over by a cop. The same 18 wheeler, however, pulls up. The driver steps out, and appears to be the same driver as earlier. The cop says something to the effect of, "Earl, I'm on business here," to which the driver replies, "Well hell, so am I!" and promptly shoots the cop with a revolver. The man slides his 'hair' off his head, and we can see it to be the Hitcher (Jack), who scalped the driver and wore his hair as a disguise. Jim and Maggie get into the car. The Hitcher tries to grab Maggie and is dragged by the car before being forced out.

The couple then arrive at the Esteridge residence late at night. They find Mrs. Esteridge dead in the house, and then go to investigate the barn, finding the captain dead in there. Cops suddenly swarm the residence, including what appears to be the newest sheriff. Jim and Maggie discover the Hitcher in the hayloft of the barn, but can't do much about it, since the Hitcher has a rifle and they don't. The Hitcher fires a few shots at Maggie but hits Jim when he pushes her out of the way. The Hitcher picks off several officers, causing a hail of bullets to be fired on Jim and Maggie. Maggie drags Jim into a truck inside the barn. She drives off with him, evading the cops and the Hitcher. Jim tells her to kill the Hitcher ASAP, no matter what he says, and dies. Maggie falls asleep in the desert. When she wakes up she is knocked unconscious, presumably, by the hitcher. She then wakes up inside an abandoned water tower with Jack leering down at her. He tells her to look out, the tower isn't very sturdy, and leaves. Maggie escapes as the tower collapses, and takes the 18-wheeler truck that the Hitcher stole earlier to a remote gas station. She goes in, finding a clerk. After making a phone call and using a water pump out back to clean up she returns to find the clerk dead. She picks up a souvenir tomahawk, sees another dead clerk, and the Hitcher in the clerk's uniform. He acts uniformly normal, taunting her. She asks him why he's doing this, and he responds, "Sometimes you just get bored of watching television." Taking the tomahawk from Maggie he then cuts off his finger with the intention of blaming Maggie when the cops arrive.

The cops arrive and the Hitcher fires at them with a shotgun. He is grabbed by the cops, as is Maggie as she pursues him, and he concocts a fake story where she killed the clerks and cops and cut off his finger. He calls himself 'Jack' in the station, rather than Jim, which convinces Maggie he is the same man as 15 years before. Maggie is being transported to jail as the sheriff begins to have doubts about her guilt.

While Maggie is being transported to jail the van is struck and knocked on its side by an excavator which the Hitcher jumps out of. Jack then takes a gun from the deputy and shoots and kills the deputy in the driver seat before going to the back and shooting and killing the two remaining cops in the van and freeing Maggie from the van by taking the cuff key from one of the deputies. He tosses the key and the revolver to her to make it appear that she killed all the policemen. The sheriff tries talking Maggie down thinking she killed the cops. He is, however, shot by Jack who then gets into a pickup truck. Maggie takes several bad shots at him, and he gets away. Realizing now that there is no way to prove her innocence, Maggie finally becomes aware that the only way to end all this is to kill Jack before the police find and kill her.

Jack later pulls up to a tanker truck parked along the side of the road, kills the driver and takes the tanker truck. Maggie steals a crop duster plane from a nearby airfield, and goes after Jack. They exchange gunfire, air to ground style, before Maggie kamikazes the plane into the truck. She escapes the fireball, as does the truck, which grinds to a halt. She approaches it and finds an unconscious Jack. She ties him up to the truck, (much like the character of Nash in the first movie). Jack wakes up and pleads not to kill him because he claims not to be the same person, but Maggie cares little, and places a bag of feed on the clutch, ripping it open with a knife, slowly causing the truck to roll forward.

However, the police show up again. Still thinking that Maggie is responsible for all the killings, they free Jack and shoot Maggie in the leg as she attempts to enter the truck's cab. Predictably, as soon as he is free, Jack grabs a gun from the holster of one of the policemen and, in seconds, shoots and kills both cops. Maggie picks up a shotgun, aiming at him while limping away from Jack standing beside the truck. Jack taunts Maggie one last time by pointing his gun at her and saying: "Are you still scared?" Maggie replies: "No. I just don't want to get burned." Maggie aims the shotgun at the tanker, which is leaking flammable fluid caused from the crash. She fires a shotgun blast at the leak, igniting the fluid. The truck explodes, incinerating Jack and blowing him to pieces. The film then ends with Maggie dropping the shotgun to the ground and standing in the road facing the remains of the burning truck, relieved that Jack is finally dead. It is implied that Maggie still is on the run.

Cast

• C. Thomas Howell as Jim Halsey
• Kari Wuhrer as Maggie
• Jake Busey as Jack
• Mackenzie Gray as Lieutenant
• Shaun Johnston as Sheriff Castillo
• Steve Railsback as Police Officer (uncredited)

External links

• The Hitcher II: I've Been Waiting at the Internet Movie Database
• The Hitcher II: I've Been Waiting at AllRovi