The Hitcher
Encyclopedia
The Hitcher is a 1986 thriller, directed by Robert Harmon
and written by Eric Red
. The film stars Rutger Hauer, C. Thomas Howell
, Jennifer Jason Leigh
and Jeffrey DeMunn
.
), a young man delivering a car from Chicago to San Diego
, spots a man hitchhiking
and gives him a ride. The man, John Ryder (Rutger Hauer), is a brooding, soft-spoken man; when Jim passes a stranded car, however, Ryder's personality suddenly shifts. Ryder calmly states that the reason the car is stranded is because he murdered and mutilated the driver, and he intends to do the same to Jim. Terrified, Jim asks what Ryder wants. He replies, "I want you to stop me." Ryder produces a switchblade
knife and taunts Jim for several moments before Jim realizes Ryder had never put on his seat belt and that the car door was left ajar, so he knocks him out of the car's passenger door.
Relieved, Jim continues on his journey but sees Ryder with a family on vacation. He tries to warn them but loses control of his car and spins off the road. He continues driving and after a while comes across the family's car, with blood oozing out the doors. He carries onwards and pulls into an abandoned gas station to use a phone. While there, Ryder corners him in the garage, but simply throws back the keys he took from Jim's car and leaves. Jim chases after him, rushing outside into a rising sandstorm, but Ryder has already hitched a ride with a man in a truck and leaves. Jim continues driving and eventually sees another gas station. While filling up his car, Ryder attempts to run him over, crashing into the pumps, causing gas to flood onto the concrete. As Jim attempts to flee Ryder drops a match, igniting the spilled gas. The ensuing explosion destroys the gas station. Jim's car bursts from the flames and speeds away. Jim eventually stops to a roadside diner, where he meets a pretty young waitress named Nash (Jennifer Jason Leigh
) and calls the police. She then serves him a cheeseburger and french fries; he starts to relax. Upon discovering a severed finger among the fries, Jim realizes Ryder is present and attempts to flee. Two police officers arrive and, quickly finding Ryder's bloody switchblade in Jim's pocket, arrest him.
Jim wakes up in his cell and soon finds the door is unlocked. When he leaves he discovers all the officers at the station have had their throats cut. He steals a gun and flees. While attempting to use a payphone at another gas station, he sees a police car driving up. Holding the two officers in the car hostage, he orders them to get in and drive while he rides in the back. As they are driving, Jim speaks via radio to the officer in charge of Jim's case, Captain Esteridge (Jeffrey DeMunn
). He and the two officers in the car convince Jim to trust them and surrender, but Ryder pulls up alongside the police car and kills the two officers. The car crashes by the side of the road and Ryder disappears once again. Jim contemplates suicide but resolves to keep going. Soon seeing a stopped bus, he sneaks on and hides in the bathroom. When Nash gets on and knocks on the door, he grabs her and tries to explain his situation. They sit down at the back of the bus and Jim tells his story. A police car then pulls the bus over. Knowing the police know he is on board, Jim gives himself up. The two officers are furious, believing Jim just killed two of their friends. One officer tells Jim to wipe his wrist. Knowing that once he does he will be shot in what will look like an act of self-defense, Jim refuses. This infuriates the officer further and he threatens to shoot Jim anyway. Suddenly Nash appears and holds the two officers hostage. Once they drop their weapons Nash and Jim flee. Ryder has been watching the entire event nearby. While the two flee, Ryder helps them by shooting down a police helicopter, which crashes and wrecks several police cruisers that had been coming after them.
Nash is kidnapped by Ryder. When he begins looking for Nash he is grabbed by Esteridge and another officer who, instead of arresting him, say they "Have a situation". Jim sees a large trailer and a truck with Nash tied up in-between. Esteridge informs Jim that Ryder asked for him specifically and that his men cannot shoot him as his foot will slip off the clutch, which would kill Nash. Once Jim gets in the truck, Ryder gives him a gun and tells him to shoot. Jim refuses as Nash would die anyway. Ryder, disappointed, presses down the accelerator and rips Nash in half. Ryder is arrested, but the police are unsure of what to do with him, as they cannot find any information on him at all. As Ryder is being transferred to another facility, Jim cannot contain the urge to kill Ryder in revenge for the death of Nash, so he steals Esteridge's weapon and car, forces the police captain out of the vehicle, and goes after Ryder. As he is driving behind the police bus, the door swings open to reveal Ryder has killed all officers inside. He jumps onto the hood of Jim's car, but Jim hits the brakes and throws him off. Ryder stands up and begins firing a shotgun at the Jim's vehicle, until Jim runs him over and seizes his weapon. Ryder slowly gets up once again behind him and smiles. Jim finally shoots back and kills him. The film ends with Jim in a similar silhouette to Ryder, cast against a blood red sky as he lights a cigarette.
song "Riders on the Storm
". He found that the "elements of the song - a killer on the road in a storm plus the cinematic feel of the music - would make a terrific opening for a film". Red had a lot of time to think about the song and it inspired ideas for the story. During his seven-month stay in Austin, he drove a taxi cab and wrote The Hitcher. In 1983, he sent a letter to several Hollywood producers asking if he could send them a copy of the screenplay for The Hitcher. His letter concluded: "It (the story) grabs you by the guts and does not let up and it does not let go. When you read it, you will not sleep for a week. When the movie is made, the country will not sleep for a week". Script development executive David Bombyk received a copy of Red's letter and was intrigued by the description of the film. Red sent him a script that was approximately 190 pages in length (one page traditionally equals one minute of screen time).
Feldman and Meeker decided to come on board as executive producers. Ohman and Red spent six months reworking the script, removing most of what Ohman felt was repetitive violence. Once they got it in good enough shape, Ohman gave it back to Bombyk and also to David Madden, a production executive for 20th Century Fox
. Within a few days, Madden called back and told them the script was "terrific". However, the studio was not comfortable with the subject matter but felt that the writing was unique and interesting enough to give the filmmakers a letter-of-intent to distribute the film. This would allow them to get financing and then once filming was completed, the studio would reimburse them for the budget.
In early drafts of the script, John Ryder had been described as skeletal in nature and so actors like David Bowie
, Sting, Sam Shepard
, Harry Dean Stanton
, and Terence Stamp
were mentioned. Harmon was set on casting Stamp and even carried around his picture to pitch meetings. Stamp received a copy of the script but he turned down the role. Sam Elliott
was offered the role but an agreement could not be reached on his salary. Singer mentioned Dutch actor Rutger Hauer. While in L.A. for a short visit, Hauer read the script. Even though he was looking for non-villainous roles, the script "really got ahold of me ... I thought, 'If I do one more villain, I should do this.' I couldn't refuse it". The one reservation Hauer had was with the scene where the girl is torn apart and Feldman told him, "you are the bad guy and you'll be the baddest bad guy there ever was!" Red mentioned to Hauer that he had Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards
in mind when he wrote the part of Ryder. Furthermore, Red felt that the character should have an electronic voice box.
For the role of Jim Halsey, the producers mentioned Matthew Modine
, Tom Cruise
and Emilio Estevez
. They agreed on C. Thomas Howell and liked his look. At the time, he was being more selective with the roles he took and heard that the script was a generic thriller. Harmon personally gave Howell a copy of the script. He could not put it down and "couldn't believe the things that happened to my character in the first 12 pages. I knew I wanted to do it". He also wanted to work with Hauer. Unbeknownst to Hauer, Howell found him "frightening, intimidating, and that he was in a constant state of fear, almost as if he really was John Ryder and I really was Jim Halsey".
Jennifer Jason Leigh agreed to do the film because she wanted to work with Hauer again (they co-starred in Flesh + Blood
and loved the character of Nash because "there was a real person there".
In addition to the cast, veteran character actors Billy Green Bush
(known for playing ill-fated police officers in Electra Glide in Blue
and Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday
), Gene Davis
(known for playing the naked psychopathic killer Warren Stacy in 10 to Midnight
), Armin Shimerman
(who would later be the voice of General Skarr in The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy) and Emmy-winner Henry Darrow
make cameo appearances as police officers who pursue Jim Halsey.
and Warner Brothers passed on it, as did smaller ones like Orion Pictures
and New World Pictures. Many executives liked the script but balked at the girl being ripped apart scene. At least two studios were willing to consider making it but only if Harmon was replaced. However, the film's producers had faith in their director and stuck by Harmon.
Independent producer Donna Dubrow heard about The Hitcher while working on another film and to her it sounded like, "Duel with a person". When she went to work for Silver Screen Partners
/Home Box Office
, she contacted Feldman, a former employer, and asked for a copy of the script. She submitted it to her boss, HBO senior vice-president Maurice Singer. He liked it and sent it back to New York to be read by Michael Fuchs, HBO chairman and chief operating officer. They needed Fuch's approval to get the film made. It would not be easy to convince him because it was not the kind of material that he liked and he did not want to make it. However, Dubrow had to go back to New York on other business and met with Fuchs. She mentioned The Hitcher script and pitched the Hitchcockian thriller angle. When she returned to L.A., Singer told her that Fuchs agreed to make the film but with the stipulation that the girl would not be torn apart and the violence would be reduced. The film's budget was set $5.8 million.
Over the next few months, the filmmakers negotiated two keys scenes in the script: the girl getting ripped apart and the eyeball in the hamburger. For the latter scene, Harmon just changed the body part to a finger. As for the former, everyone at HBO/Silver Screen, except Dubrow, wanted it changed. Fuchs did not want the girl to die and Dubrow argued that this would change the story significantly. There were arguments about how the girl should die and Dubrow remembers, "they were trying to make her death not horrible, when - by the nature of the script - it had to be". The studio even suggested softening her death by having a funeral. The filmmakers refused to back down and Silver Screen executives finally relented at the last minute.
awarded it no stars and wrote, "But on its own terms, this movie is diseased and corrupt. I would have admired it more if it had found the courage to acknowledge the real relationship it was portraying between Howell and Rutger, but no: It prefers to disguise itself as a violent thriller, and on that level it is reprehensible". In her review for The New York Times
, Janet Maslin wrote, "Mr. Harmon, making his feature debut, displays a much surer hand for action than for character, though even some of the action footage here looks meaninglessly overblown". In his review for the Washington Post, Paul Attanasio wrote, "The script (by Eric Red) is laconic in a dull way, much Cain but hardly able. And Harmon and his cinematographer, John Seale
, have shot the movie in such brown murk, you can hardly make anything out. By the end, you're willing to forgive Ryder his worst if someone would just change the light bulb". In his review for the Globe and Mail, Jay Scott
described the film as a "slasher movie about gay panic, a
nasty piece of homophobic angst for the age of AIDS
". A rare positive review came from Newsweek
magazine's Jack Kroll who called it, "an odyssey of horror and suspense that's as tightly wound as a garrote and as beautifully designed as a guillotine".
One of the film's producers claimed that the film's commercial failure was because of a lack of violence and that Nash's death should have been shown: "There's other gore in the movie, other killings, but this is the main one. It's the motivation for the hero. You can't show all the killings we showed and then not show the main one. It's cheating the audience".
A remake
was filmed and released on January 19, 2007, which starred Sean Bean
as John Ryder, Zachary Knighton
as Jim Halsey and Neal McDonough
as Esteridge. The film added a female protagonist named Grace Andrews, who was portrayed by Sophia Bush
, and had Halsey suffer Nash's fate. It was released to generally negative reviews.
Robert Harmon
Robert Harmon is an American film and television director. He is best known for the 1986 horror classic The Hitcher, starring Rutger Hauer, as well as for films like They and Nowhere to Run....
and written by Eric Red
Eric Red
Eric Red is an American screenwriter and director, best known for writing the horror films The Hitcher and Near Dark.-Early life:...
. The film stars Rutger Hauer, C. Thomas Howell
C. Thomas Howell
Christopher Thomas "Tommy" Howell , known by his stage name C. Thomas Howell, is an American actor and film director. He starred in the films The Outsiders as Ponyboy Curtis and in The Hitcher as Jim Halsey. He has appeared in The Da Vinci Treasure,Soul Man, Red Dawn, Secret Admirer, Gettysburg, H. G...
, Jennifer Jason Leigh
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Jennifer Jason Leigh is an American film and stage actress, best known for her roles in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Single White Female, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Georgia and Short Cuts...
and Jeffrey DeMunn
Jeffrey DeMunn
Jeffrey DeMunn is an American theatre, film and television actor.-Life and career:DeMunn was born in Buffalo, New York, the son of Violet and James DeMunn. Stepson of noted actress Betty Lutes DeMunn...
.
Plot
Jim Halsey (C. Thomas HowellC. Thomas Howell
Christopher Thomas "Tommy" Howell , known by his stage name C. Thomas Howell, is an American actor and film director. He starred in the films The Outsiders as Ponyboy Curtis and in The Hitcher as Jim Halsey. He has appeared in The Da Vinci Treasure,Soul Man, Red Dawn, Secret Admirer, Gettysburg, H. G...
), a young man delivering a car from Chicago to San Diego
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
, spots a man hitchhiking
Hitchhiking
Hitchhiking is a means of transportation that is gained by asking people, usually strangers, for a ride in their automobile or other road vehicle to travel a distance that may either be short or long...
and gives him a ride. The man, John Ryder (Rutger Hauer), is a brooding, soft-spoken man; when Jim passes a stranded car, however, Ryder's personality suddenly shifts. Ryder calmly states that the reason the car is stranded is because he murdered and mutilated the driver, and he intends to do the same to Jim. Terrified, Jim asks what Ryder wants. He replies, "I want you to stop me." Ryder produces a switchblade
Switchblade
A switchblade is a type of knife with a folding or sliding blade contained in the handle which is opened automatically by a spring when a button, lever, or switch on the handle or bolster is activated A switchblade (also known as an automatic knife, pushbutton knife, switch, Sprenger, Springer,...
knife and taunts Jim for several moments before Jim realizes Ryder had never put on his seat belt and that the car door was left ajar, so he knocks him out of the car's passenger door.
Relieved, Jim continues on his journey but sees Ryder with a family on vacation. He tries to warn them but loses control of his car and spins off the road. He continues driving and after a while comes across the family's car, with blood oozing out the doors. He carries onwards and pulls into an abandoned gas station to use a phone. While there, Ryder corners him in the garage, but simply throws back the keys he took from Jim's car and leaves. Jim chases after him, rushing outside into a rising sandstorm, but Ryder has already hitched a ride with a man in a truck and leaves. Jim continues driving and eventually sees another gas station. While filling up his car, Ryder attempts to run him over, crashing into the pumps, causing gas to flood onto the concrete. As Jim attempts to flee Ryder drops a match, igniting the spilled gas. The ensuing explosion destroys the gas station. Jim's car bursts from the flames and speeds away. Jim eventually stops to a roadside diner, where he meets a pretty young waitress named Nash (Jennifer Jason Leigh
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Jennifer Jason Leigh is an American film and stage actress, best known for her roles in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Single White Female, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Georgia and Short Cuts...
) and calls the police. She then serves him a cheeseburger and french fries; he starts to relax. Upon discovering a severed finger among the fries, Jim realizes Ryder is present and attempts to flee. Two police officers arrive and, quickly finding Ryder's bloody switchblade in Jim's pocket, arrest him.
Jim wakes up in his cell and soon finds the door is unlocked. When he leaves he discovers all the officers at the station have had their throats cut. He steals a gun and flees. While attempting to use a payphone at another gas station, he sees a police car driving up. Holding the two officers in the car hostage, he orders them to get in and drive while he rides in the back. As they are driving, Jim speaks via radio to the officer in charge of Jim's case, Captain Esteridge (Jeffrey DeMunn
Jeffrey DeMunn
Jeffrey DeMunn is an American theatre, film and television actor.-Life and career:DeMunn was born in Buffalo, New York, the son of Violet and James DeMunn. Stepson of noted actress Betty Lutes DeMunn...
). He and the two officers in the car convince Jim to trust them and surrender, but Ryder pulls up alongside the police car and kills the two officers. The car crashes by the side of the road and Ryder disappears once again. Jim contemplates suicide but resolves to keep going. Soon seeing a stopped bus, he sneaks on and hides in the bathroom. When Nash gets on and knocks on the door, he grabs her and tries to explain his situation. They sit down at the back of the bus and Jim tells his story. A police car then pulls the bus over. Knowing the police know he is on board, Jim gives himself up. The two officers are furious, believing Jim just killed two of their friends. One officer tells Jim to wipe his wrist. Knowing that once he does he will be shot in what will look like an act of self-defense, Jim refuses. This infuriates the officer further and he threatens to shoot Jim anyway. Suddenly Nash appears and holds the two officers hostage. Once they drop their weapons Nash and Jim flee. Ryder has been watching the entire event nearby. While the two flee, Ryder helps them by shooting down a police helicopter, which crashes and wrecks several police cruisers that had been coming after them.
Nash is kidnapped by Ryder. When he begins looking for Nash he is grabbed by Esteridge and another officer who, instead of arresting him, say they "Have a situation". Jim sees a large trailer and a truck with Nash tied up in-between. Esteridge informs Jim that Ryder asked for him specifically and that his men cannot shoot him as his foot will slip off the clutch, which would kill Nash. Once Jim gets in the truck, Ryder gives him a gun and tells him to shoot. Jim refuses as Nash would die anyway. Ryder, disappointed, presses down the accelerator and rips Nash in half. Ryder is arrested, but the police are unsure of what to do with him, as they cannot find any information on him at all. As Ryder is being transferred to another facility, Jim cannot contain the urge to kill Ryder in revenge for the death of Nash, so he steals Esteridge's weapon and car, forces the police captain out of the vehicle, and goes after Ryder. As he is driving behind the police bus, the door swings open to reveal Ryder has killed all officers inside. He jumps onto the hood of Jim's car, but Jim hits the brakes and throws him off. Ryder stands up and begins firing a shotgun at the Jim's vehicle, until Jim runs him over and seizes his weapon. Ryder slowly gets up once again behind him and smiles. Jim finally shoots back and kills him. The film ends with Jim in a similar silhouette to Ryder, cast against a blood red sky as he lights a cigarette.
Cast
- Rutger Hauer as John Ryder
- C. Thomas HowellC. Thomas HowellChristopher Thomas "Tommy" Howell , known by his stage name C. Thomas Howell, is an American actor and film director. He starred in the films The Outsiders as Ponyboy Curtis and in The Hitcher as Jim Halsey. He has appeared in The Da Vinci Treasure,Soul Man, Red Dawn, Secret Admirer, Gettysburg, H. G...
as Jim Halsey - Jennifer Jason LeighJennifer Jason LeighJennifer Jason Leigh is an American film and stage actress, best known for her roles in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Single White Female, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Georgia and Short Cuts...
as Nash - Jeffrey DeMunnJeffrey DeMunnJeffrey DeMunn is an American theatre, film and television actor.-Life and career:DeMunn was born in Buffalo, New York, the son of Violet and James DeMunn. Stepson of noted actress Betty Lutes DeMunn...
as Captain Esteridge - John M. JacksonJohn M. JacksonJohn Murice Jackson is an American actor, best known for playing Rear Admiral A. J. Chegwidden on the CBS series JAG....
as Sergeant Starr - Billy Green BushBilly Green BushWilliam Warren Bush is an American actor, sometimes credited as “Billy Greenbush”.Notable movie appearances include Five Easy Pieces , The Culpepper Cattle Company , Electra Glide in Blue , Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore , The River , The Hitcher , Critters , and Jason Goes to Hell: The Final...
as Trooper Donner - Jack Thibeau as Trooper Prestone
- Armin ShimermanArmin ShimermanArmin Shimerman is an American actor. Shimerman is best known for playing the Ferengi bartender Quark in the television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Principal Snyder in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Kramer's caddy Stan on Seinfeld, voicing Dr. Nefarious in the Ratchet & Clank series, and Andrew...
as Interrogation Sergeant - Gene DavisGene Davis (actor)Eugene M. "Gene" Davis known for playing the psychotic killer Warren Stacy in the 1983 film 10 to Midnight with Charles Bronson; he also played a killer in another Bronson vehicle, 1988's Messenger of Death...
as Trooper Dodge - Jon Van Ness as Trooper Hapscomb
- Henry DarrowHenry DarrowHenry Darrow is a prolific Puerto Rican-American character actor of stage and film. Darrow is probably best remembered for his role as Big John Cannon's teasing brother-in-law, and Buck Cannon's favorite ranch hand, and best friend, Manolito Montoya, in the 1960s television series The High...
as Trooper Hancock - Tony Epper as Trooper Conners
Development
When writer Eric Red was 20 years old, he made a short film entitled "Gunman's Blues" in the hopes of getting the opportunity to direct a feature-length film. When no offers came, he moved from New York City to Austin, Texas, taking a drive-away car cross-country. While driving from one city to another, he got the idea for a film from The DoorsThe Doors
The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger...
song "Riders on the Storm
Riders on the Storm
"Riders on the Storm" is a song by The Doors from their 1971 album, L.A. Woman. It reached number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, number 22 on the UK singles charts and number 7 in the Netherlands.-Overview:...
". He found that the "elements of the song - a killer on the road in a storm plus the cinematic feel of the music - would make a terrific opening for a film". Red had a lot of time to think about the song and it inspired ideas for the story. During his seven-month stay in Austin, he drove a taxi cab and wrote The Hitcher. In 1983, he sent a letter to several Hollywood producers asking if he could send them a copy of the screenplay for The Hitcher. His letter concluded: "It (the story) grabs you by the guts and does not let up and it does not let go. When you read it, you will not sleep for a week. When the movie is made, the country will not sleep for a week". Script development executive David Bombyk received a copy of Red's letter and was intrigued by the description of the film. Red sent him a script that was approximately 190 pages in length (one page traditionally equals one minute of screen time).
Screenplay
The original script was not for the faint of heart. An entire family was slaughtered in their station wagon, an eyeball was discovered inside of a hamburger, a woman was tied to a truck and a pole and then torn in half, there was a decapitation as well as several slashings, shootings and car crashes. In its original form, Bombyk found the script to be "extremely brutal and extremely gory", but he and personal manager Kip Ohman (who later became co-producers of the film) also saw in it "a level of challenge, intensity and poetry". Bombyk and Ohman were worried about getting it into good enough shape to show their boss, producer Ed Feldman and his partner Charles Meeker and prove to them that it was more than an exploitation film. Bombyk worked with Red via several long distance phone calls to Texas and eventually the writer moved to Los Angeles. Red agreed to work with Ohman on the script until it was ready to be shown to Feldman and Meeker. They liked the script but wondered, "how could we manage to translate it to the screen without making a slasher movie?" Meeker said.Feldman and Meeker decided to come on board as executive producers. Ohman and Red spent six months reworking the script, removing most of what Ohman felt was repetitive violence. Once they got it in good enough shape, Ohman gave it back to Bombyk and also to David Madden, a production executive for 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
. Within a few days, Madden called back and told them the script was "terrific". However, the studio was not comfortable with the subject matter but felt that the writing was unique and interesting enough to give the filmmakers a letter-of-intent to distribute the film. This would allow them to get financing and then once filming was completed, the studio would reimburse them for the budget.
Casting
The film's producers then went looking for a inexpensive director. Still photographer-turned-cameraman Robert Harmon was given a copy of the script by his agent but thought it was just another script - that is, until he listened to a series of messages left by his agent on his answering machine encouraging him to read Red's script. Harmon read it and early the next morning called his agent and told him that he wanted to do it. In February 1984, Harmon met with the producers to talk about the script. He recalled, "even the exact actions that remained in the script were described in much bloodier and gorier detail". The producers were impressed with him and the fact that he also envisioned the film as a Hitchcockian thriller. However, Harmon objected to the eyeball in the hamburger scene and never planned to show the girl getting ripped in half.In early drafts of the script, John Ryder had been described as skeletal in nature and so actors like David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
, Sting, Sam Shepard
Sam Shepard
Sam Shepard is an American playwright, actor, and television and film director. He is the author of several books of short stories, essays, and memoirs, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for his play Buried Child...
, Harry Dean Stanton
Harry Dean Stanton
Harry Dean Stanton is an American actor, musician, and singer. Stanton's career has spanned over fifty years, which has seen him star in such films as Paris, Texas, Kelly's Heroes, Dillinger, Alien, Repo Man, The Last Temptation of Christ, Wild at Heart, The Green Mile and The Pledge...
, and Terence Stamp
Terence Stamp
Terence Henry Stamp is an English actor. Since starting his career in 1962 he has appeared in over 60 films. His title role as Billy Budd in his film debut earned Stamp an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor and a BAFTA nomination for Best Newcomer.His other major roles include...
were mentioned. Harmon was set on casting Stamp and even carried around his picture to pitch meetings. Stamp received a copy of the script but he turned down the role. Sam Elliott
Sam Elliott
Samuel Pack "Sam" Elliott is an American actor. His rangy physique, thick horseshoe moustache, and deep, resonant voice match the iconic image of a cowboy or rancher, and he has often been cast in such roles.-Early life:Sam Elliott was born in Sacramento, California, to a physical training...
was offered the role but an agreement could not be reached on his salary. Singer mentioned Dutch actor Rutger Hauer. While in L.A. for a short visit, Hauer read the script. Even though he was looking for non-villainous roles, the script "really got ahold of me ... I thought, 'If I do one more villain, I should do this.' I couldn't refuse it". The one reservation Hauer had was with the scene where the girl is torn apart and Feldman told him, "you are the bad guy and you'll be the baddest bad guy there ever was!" Red mentioned to Hauer that he had Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards
Keith Richards
Keith Richards is an English musician, songwriter, and founding member of the Rolling Stones. Rolling Stone magazine said Richards had created "rock's greatest single body of riffs", and placed him as the "10th greatest guitarist of all time." Fourteen songs written by Richards and songwriting...
in mind when he wrote the part of Ryder. Furthermore, Red felt that the character should have an electronic voice box.
For the role of Jim Halsey, the producers mentioned Matthew Modine
Matthew Modine
Matthew Avery Modine is an award-winning American actor. His film roles include Private Joker in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, the title character in Alan Parker's Birdy, high school wrestler Louden Swain in Vision Quest, football star turned spy Alec McCall in Funky Monkey and the...
, Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV , better known as Tom Cruise, is an American film actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and he has won three Golden Globe Awards....
and Emilio Estevez
Emilio Estevez
Emilio Estevez is an American actor, film director, and writer. He started his career as an actor and is well-known for being a member of the acting Brat Pack of the 1980s, starring in The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo's Fire...
. They agreed on C. Thomas Howell and liked his look. At the time, he was being more selective with the roles he took and heard that the script was a generic thriller. Harmon personally gave Howell a copy of the script. He could not put it down and "couldn't believe the things that happened to my character in the first 12 pages. I knew I wanted to do it". He also wanted to work with Hauer. Unbeknownst to Hauer, Howell found him "frightening, intimidating, and that he was in a constant state of fear, almost as if he really was John Ryder and I really was Jim Halsey".
Jennifer Jason Leigh agreed to do the film because she wanted to work with Hauer again (they co-starred in Flesh + Blood
Flesh & Blood (film)
Flesh & Blood is a 1985 film directed by Paul Verhoeven. It is set in the year 1501 in Italy, and follows a group of mercenaries as they loot, rape and kill....
and loved the character of Nash because "there was a real person there".
In addition to the cast, veteran character actors Billy Green Bush
Billy Green Bush
William Warren Bush is an American actor, sometimes credited as “Billy Greenbush”.Notable movie appearances include Five Easy Pieces , The Culpepper Cattle Company , Electra Glide in Blue , Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore , The River , The Hitcher , Critters , and Jason Goes to Hell: The Final...
(known for playing ill-fated police officers in Electra Glide in Blue
Electra Glide in Blue
Electra Glide in Blue is a 1973 film starring Robert Blake as a motorcycle cop in Arizona and Billy Green Bush as his partner. The name stems from the Harley-Davidson Electra Glide motorcycle issued to traffic cops....
and Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday
Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday
Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday is a 1993 slasher film, the ninth—and, as the title suggests, intended final—installment in the Friday the 13th film series and the first sequel to be distributed by New Line Cinema....
), Gene Davis
Gene Davis (actor)
Eugene M. "Gene" Davis known for playing the psychotic killer Warren Stacy in the 1983 film 10 to Midnight with Charles Bronson; he also played a killer in another Bronson vehicle, 1988's Messenger of Death...
(known for playing the naked psychopathic killer Warren Stacy in 10 to Midnight
10 to Midnight
10 to Midnight is an action-crime-thriller film directed by J. Lee Thompson from a screenplay originally written by William Roberts. The film stars Charles Bronson in the lead role with a supporting cast that includes Lisa Eilbacher, Andrew Stevens, Gene Davis, Geoffrey Lewis, and Wilford Brimley...
), Armin Shimerman
Armin Shimerman
Armin Shimerman is an American actor. Shimerman is best known for playing the Ferengi bartender Quark in the television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Principal Snyder in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Kramer's caddy Stan on Seinfeld, voicing Dr. Nefarious in the Ratchet & Clank series, and Andrew...
(who would later be the voice of General Skarr in The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy) and Emmy-winner Henry Darrow
Henry Darrow
Henry Darrow is a prolific Puerto Rican-American character actor of stage and film. Darrow is probably best remembered for his role as Big John Cannon's teasing brother-in-law, and Buck Cannon's favorite ranch hand, and best friend, Manolito Montoya, in the 1960s television series The High...
make cameo appearances as police officers who pursue Jim Halsey.
Pre-production
Fox ultimately rejected the project over the budget and saw it as a "straight-out horror movie". Madden also admitted that he would have "argued to soften the movie. There were some people at the studio who thought it was pretty gross". Feldman and Meeker optioned the film themselves, paying Red $25,000. Major studios like Universal PicturesUniversal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
and Warner Brothers passed on it, as did smaller ones like Orion Pictures
Orion Pictures
Orion Pictures Corporation was an American independent production company that produced movies from 1978 until 1998. It was formed in 1978 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and three former top-level executives of United Artists. Although it was never a large motion picture producer, Orion...
and New World Pictures. Many executives liked the script but balked at the girl being ripped apart scene. At least two studios were willing to consider making it but only if Harmon was replaced. However, the film's producers had faith in their director and stuck by Harmon.
Independent producer Donna Dubrow heard about The Hitcher while working on another film and to her it sounded like, "Duel with a person". When she went to work for Silver Screen Partners
Silver Screen Partners
Silver Screen Partners, L.P. was organized in June 1983 to provide full financing for and own feature-length theatrical motion pictures through Walt Disney Pictures and their subsidiary Touchstone Pictures. A public offering of units of limited partnership interests was completed in June 1983,...
/Home Box Office
Home Box Office
HBO, short for Home Box Office, is an American premium cable television network, owned by Time Warner. , HBO's programming reaches 28.2 million subscribers in the United States, making it the second largest premium network in America . In addition to its U.S...
, she contacted Feldman, a former employer, and asked for a copy of the script. She submitted it to her boss, HBO senior vice-president Maurice Singer. He liked it and sent it back to New York to be read by Michael Fuchs, HBO chairman and chief operating officer. They needed Fuch's approval to get the film made. It would not be easy to convince him because it was not the kind of material that he liked and he did not want to make it. However, Dubrow had to go back to New York on other business and met with Fuchs. She mentioned The Hitcher script and pitched the Hitchcockian thriller angle. When she returned to L.A., Singer told her that Fuchs agreed to make the film but with the stipulation that the girl would not be torn apart and the violence would be reduced. The film's budget was set $5.8 million.
Over the next few months, the filmmakers negotiated two keys scenes in the script: the girl getting ripped apart and the eyeball in the hamburger. For the latter scene, Harmon just changed the body part to a finger. As for the former, everyone at HBO/Silver Screen, except Dubrow, wanted it changed. Fuchs did not want the girl to die and Dubrow argued that this would change the story significantly. There were arguments about how the girl should die and Dubrow remembers, "they were trying to make her death not horrible, when - by the nature of the script - it had to be". The studio even suggested softening her death by having a funeral. The filmmakers refused to back down and Silver Screen executives finally relented at the last minute.
Release
Contractually, Tri-Star Pictures was obligated to distribute any film by HBO/Silver Screen. They saw an early screening and Tri-Star president David Matalon said, "It's the best film that we have for 1986". The Hitcher opened in 800 theaters on February 21, 1986 where it made $2.1 million on its opening weekend and went on to gross $5.8 million in North America.Reaction
The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 59% rotten rating however upon the films original release The Hitcher was panned by film critics. Roger EbertRoger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
awarded it no stars and wrote, "But on its own terms, this movie is diseased and corrupt. I would have admired it more if it had found the courage to acknowledge the real relationship it was portraying between Howell and Rutger, but no: It prefers to disguise itself as a violent thriller, and on that level it is reprehensible". In her review for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, Janet Maslin wrote, "Mr. Harmon, making his feature debut, displays a much surer hand for action than for character, though even some of the action footage here looks meaninglessly overblown". In his review for the Washington Post, Paul Attanasio wrote, "The script (by Eric Red) is laconic in a dull way, much Cain but hardly able. And Harmon and his cinematographer, John Seale
John Seale
John Clement Seale, A.S.C., A.C.S. is an Australian cinematographer. He won an Oscar for the 1996 film The English Patient....
, have shot the movie in such brown murk, you can hardly make anything out. By the end, you're willing to forgive Ryder his worst if someone would just change the light bulb". In his review for the Globe and Mail, Jay Scott
Jay Scott
Jay Scott was the pen name of Jeffrey Scott Beaven , a Canadian film critic.Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Scott fled to Canada in 1969 as a draft dodger. He settled in Calgary, and began writing film reviews for the Calgary Albertan a few years later...
described the film as a "slasher movie about gay panic, a
nasty piece of homophobic angst for the age of AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
". A rare positive review came from Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
magazine's Jack Kroll who called it, "an odyssey of horror and suspense that's as tightly wound as a garrote and as beautifully designed as a guillotine".
One of the film's producers claimed that the film's commercial failure was because of a lack of violence and that Nash's death should have been shown: "There's other gore in the movie, other killings, but this is the main one. It's the motivation for the hero. You can't show all the killings we showed and then not show the main one. It's cheating the audience".
Sequel and remake
The film spawned a sequel in 2003, The Hitcher II: I've Been Waiting, with C. Thomas Howell returning to the role of Jim Halsey.A remake
The Hitcher (2007 film)
The Hitcher is a 2007 horror film starring Sean Bean, Sophia Bush, and Zachary Knighton. It is a remake of the 1986 film of the same name starring Rutger Hauer, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and C. Thomas Howell. The Hitcher was directed by Dave Meyers and produced by Michael Bay’s production company...
was filmed and released on January 19, 2007, which starred Sean Bean
Sean Bean
Shaun Mark "Sean" Bean is an English film and stage actor. Bean is best known for playing Boromir in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and, previously, British Colonel Richard Sharpe in the ITV television series Sharpe...
as John Ryder, Zachary Knighton
Zachary Knighton
Zachary Andrew Knighton is an American actor who currently stars as Dave Rose on the ABC comedy series Happy Endings. Prior to that, he co-starred as Dr. Bryce Varley on ABC's science fiction series FlashForward from 2009–2010....
as Jim Halsey and Neal McDonough
Neal McDonough
Neal P. McDonough is an American film, television and voice actor.-Career:In 1991, McDonough won the Best Actor Dramalogue for "Away Alone". McDonough has made many television and film appearances since then, including Band of Brothers, Boomtown, Star Trek: First Contact, Minority Report and The...
as Esteridge. The film added a female protagonist named Grace Andrews, who was portrayed by Sophia Bush
Sophia Bush
Sophia Anna Bush is an American actress, director and spokesperson. She currently stars in the CW television series One Tree Hill where she portrays Brooke Davis. Bush is additionally known for her film portrayals in the 2007 remake The Hitcher, John Tucker Must Die and The Narrows.-Early...
, and had Halsey suffer Nash's fate. It was released to generally negative reviews.