Joy Ride (2001 film)

Joy Ride
Original theatrical poster
Directed by	John Dahl
Written by	J. J. Abrams Clay Tarver
Produced by	J. J. Abrams Chris Moore
Starring	Paul Walker Steve Zahn Leelee Sobieski Ted Levine Jessica Bowman
Cinematography	Jeff Jur
Edited by	Eric L. Beason Scott Chestnut Todd E. Miller Glen Scantlebury
Music by	Marco Beltrami
Production companies	Regency Enterprises New Regency Bad Robot Productions LivePlanet
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	October 5, 2001 (2001-10-05)
Running time	98 mins
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$23 million
Box office	$36,642,838

Joy Ride, also known as Roadkill, is a 2001 American thriller road film. The film was written by J. J. Abrams and Clay Tarver, was directed by John Dahl, and stars Paul Walker, Leelee Sobieski, Steve Zahn, and Ted Levine.

Plot

The film begins with Lewis Thomas (Paul Walker), a student of UC Berkeley in California, packing to go home as it is the end of his freshman year and the beginning of the summer holidays. At 3 AM he talks on the phone with his childhood friend Venna Wilcox (Leelee Sobieski) who attends the University of Colorado at Boulder, Colorado and is also packing to go home. She tells him that she has just broken up with her boyfriend, and, in an attempt to get her romantically interested in him, Lewis offers to pick her up and drive her home in a scenic and pleasant cross-country road trip, instead of both of them flying back home by airplane. She enthusiastically agrees to the plan, and he refunds his airline tickets and buys a car, a 1971 Chrysler Newport, from a used car salesman and sets off alone across the countryside heading East to Colorado.

When he calls his parents during the trip he learns his petty-crook older brother Fuller Thomas (Steve Zahn) has managed to once again get into trouble with the law, this time for being outside of his parole jurisdiction, San Diego, and for being drunk and disorderly far away in Salt Lake City, Utah. Since Salt Lake City is not too far from where he is, Lewis decides that, prior to picking up Venna, he will visit Fuller, whom he hasn't seen in five years. After being bailed out by him, Fuller decides to accompany his brother on the trip, though initially the two have a brief conflict.

The brothers stop at a truck stop near the Wyoming state line, where Fuller buys a CB radio for $40, merely for the purpose of fun and breaking the tension in the car. He chats with the other truckers in a mock hillbilly accent, giving himself and Lewis the handles "Black Sheep" and "Momma's Boy", respectively. One of the truckers gives a brief cryptic speech, and Fuller coaxes Lewis into playing a cruel prank on the mysterious driver, who identifies himself as "Rusty Nail" (voiced by Ted Levine in an uncredited role.) Lewis pretends to be an attractive young woman named Candy Cane, sets up a meeting with Rusty Nail in the motel where Lewis and Fuller will be spending the night, the Lone Star Motel in Table Rock, Wyoming, and tells him to bring pink champagne. Rusty Nail apparently falls for the joke, genuinely believing Lewis to be female.

Rather than giving Rusty Nail his own room number, room 18, Lewis gives him the number of the room next door, room 17, which is occupied by a largely-built, highly irritable and obnoxious businessman by the name of Ronald Ellinghouse (Kenneth White), who had a brief altercation with Fuller earlier that night in the Lone Star reception, of which Fuller wants revenge, while racially abusing the Indian night manager. The joke takes a fatal turn when Rusty Nail visits Ellinghouse's room and is believed to have been attacked. The next morning, the brothers are questioned by the local police and discover that Ellinghouse was the one who was brutally attacked and horrifically mutilated, found alive nearby but in a coma, with his entire jawbone removed.

Rusty Nail, meanwhile, has easily evaded the authorities, due to his anonymity and also the untraceable nature of CB radio. Lewis informs the police of the details of everything that occurred, much to Fuller's disapproval, and they are ordered to leave Wyoming before sunset. Back on the road, they encounter Rusty Nail on the CB radio again, who demands the whereabouts of "Candy Cane". Lewis tells him about the joke, and Fuller snaps at Rusty Nail when he demands an apology. The trip takes a terrifying turn when Rusty Nail reveals he's been following them.

Needing gas, Lewis and Fuller luckily find a nearby gas station but hastily fill up when an ice truck enters the station. Convinced the driver must be Rusty Nail, they flee in panic, only to discover the driver is Mr. Jones (Satch Huizenga), who is merely trying to return Lewis' credit card, which he left behind at the gas station. As the ice truck drives away, the real Rusty Nail plows through it, killing the innocent Mr. Jones. Another thrilling chase ensues which compels Fuller to apologize and explain the reason for the joke. Rusty Nail accepts the apology and drives away.

Believing themselves to be safe, the brothers meet up with Venna in Boulder, Colorado, and are introduced to her roommate, Charlotte (Jessica Bowman). While the three spend a night at a motel, Rusty Nail calls, believing they lied about the presence of a girl. He continues to stalk and taunt them, kidnapping Charlotte and holding her hostage. He orders Lewis and Fuller to go into a crowded Nebraska diner completely nude, under the threat of killing Charlotte, so that they would know understand the feeling of being "the brunt of the joke."

He orders them to drive to a cornfield, step out and walk 100 feet ahead of the car. He chases them with the truck in different directions within the field, separating them from one another, where he takes his chance to kidnap Venna.

Frantically searching for Venna, the brothers discover their car set on fire and before it explodes, Rusty Nail instructs them to meet him in Room 17 of a motel in the nearby town of Medford, and to bring a bottle of pink champagne. He sets a trap in the room, designed to kill the bound and gagged Venna when the door to the room is opened by attaching a wire tied to the door handle on one end to the trigger of a shotgun aimed directly at her head. Lewis and Fuller eventually find the motel and the room, discovering that Rusty Nail and Venna are actually in Room 18. Fuller attempts to save Venna by sneaking to the back window while Lewis keeps Rusty Nail on the phone, but is caught by the maniacal driver. Finding his brother with his leg impaled and dangling from a fence, Lewis tries to release him, but when the police arrive, Lewis saves Venna in time as the cops open the door to the room, triggering the trap.

Meanwhile, Rusty Nail attempts to run Fuller over, but Lewis pulls him to safety as the police open fire on the approaching truck before it crashes through the motel room. The police search the truck, finding a bloodied, dead body in the driver's seat and the bound and gagged Charlotte on the floor. Believing that Rusty Nail is dead, the three huddle around an ambulance and receive treatment for their injuries. At this point, the body is revealed to be the innocent ice truck driver, Mr. Jones. Lewis, Fuller and Venna listen to the CB radio of the ambulance as Rusty Nail gives another brief cryptic speech, indicating his survival and escape.

Alternate titles of the film

In the United States, the term "Joyride" often means a pleasant car drive, thus the film's title provided an ironic backdrop to the film's plot. However, in other parts of the world such as Australia, Sweden, Finland, the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom and some other European countries the term "Joyride" has specific auto theft connotations (see Joyride (crime)), and so the film was retitled Roadkill. Some American releases of the film also carry the title Roadkill.

The film went under the working titles of Candy Cane, Highway Horror and Squelch. The film also goes under numerous other titles in other countries: Never Play with Strangers in Israel, Radio Killer in Italy, Never talk to strangers in Greece, and Road Killer in Japan.

Production notes

According to the Internet Movie Database the movie was written by J.J. Abrams and Clay Tarver in the mid-1990s and filmed between late September 1999 to February 2000, but sat unreleased for more than a year and a half, before finally being released in October 2001.

In his screenplay for Joy Ride, J. J. Abrams was influenced by the first film directed by Steven Spielberg, Duel, and there are numerous references to it. For example, in one scene, a seemingly maniacal ICE truck pulls up to a gas station that the brothers have pulled up to. In Duel, a likewise maniacal truck pulls up the protagonist portrayed by David Mann and a small billboard for ICE is visible in the background.

Most of Joy Ride is stated as being located in Wyoming, Nebraska and Kansas although the film was not shot in these states, but instead across California, Utah and Nevada, most notably along Interstate 80. Specific scenes were shot in Skull Valley, Nevada, and Battle Mountain, Nevada.

The central antagonist, "Rusty Nail", remains almost entirely unseen throughout the film and was portrayed by hulking actor Matthew Kimbrough in the brief shot of the villain towards the end of the film. Rusty Nail's voice heard on the radio throughout most of the film was provided by horror film legend Ted Levine, and was added in post production. Eric Stoltz and Eric Roberts also auditioned for the role of Rusty Nail. Rusty Nail's truck is a 359 Peterbilt.

Cast

Actor	Role
Paul Walker	Lewis Thomas
Steve Zahn	Fuller Thomas
Leelee Sobieski	Venna Wilcox
Jessica Bowman	Charlotte, Venna's Roommate
Matthew Kimbrough	Rusty Nail (Cameo) (End Only)
Ted Levine	Voice Of Rusty Nail
Satch Huizenga	Mr Jones, the ice truck driver

Alternate endings and deleted scenes

On the DVD release there is a 29-minute long alternate ending, and 4 other shorter alternate endings. The main one featured Rusty Nail committing suicide with a shotgun and numerous bodies are found by the police in his trailer. One featured Rusty Nail being arrested, another being beaten in a fight with both Thomas brothers, another whereby he is blown up in his truck, and another saw Rusty Nail run over with his own truck. The ending featured in the actual theatrical cut of the film is the only ending in which Rusty Nail lives. There are also numerous deleted scenes. It has been noted by fans of the film that the deleted scenes featurettes run like an entirely new film since the theatrical cut was mostly reshoots.

In the alternate ending where Rusty Nail's truck explodes, you can see a water tower behind the truck as it burns. The original intention was to have the truck hit the water tower and have the water come down and put the flames out so that it would be believable if Rusty Nail survived. However, time constraints kept the scene from being filmed. The water tower cost over $100,000.

Leelee Sobieski filmed two different romantic interludes, one with Steve Zahn and one with Paul Walker during the shooting and re-shooting of the film. Both scenes ended up getting cut. This may explain why Venna appears to be romantically interested in both brothers, a plot point not elaborated on in the theatrical cut of the film.

Box office

The film opened at #5 at the U.S. Box office raking in $7,347,259 USD in its opening weekend.

Reception

Joy Ride was well received by critics, and currently has an "fresh "score of 74% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Sequel

A direct-to-DVD sequel entitled Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead was released in October 2008 by 20th Century Fox. The film was directed by Louis Morneau, and stars Nick Zano, Kyle Schmid, Nicki Aycox, Rebecca Davis, Kathryn Kirkpatrick and Laura Jordan. It does not feature any of the original cast, and was noted by fans of the original for its toning down of the Alfred Hitchcock-type tension and atmosphere. Also, the character of Rusty Nail was not voiced by Ted Levine and it has been noted that the killer had been reduced from being an original, intriguing, mysterious, and intelligent yet unhinged character with complex motivations to a fairly unremarkable and cliché-ridden stock villain who merely acts on impulse.

External links

• Joy Ride at IMDb
• Joy Ride at Rotten Tomatoes