''Joy Ride'' (known as ''Road Kill'' in the UK and ''Roadkill'' in Australia) is a 2001 American

road A road is a thoroughfare used primarily for movement of traffic. Roads differ from streets, whose primary use is local access. They also differ from stroads, which combine the features of streets and roads. Most modern roads are paved. Th ...

thriller film directed by

John Dahl John Dahl (born June 15, 1956) is an American film and television director and writer, best known for his work in the neo-noir genre. Early life John Dahl was born and raised in Billings, Montana, the second of four children (his brother is fi ...

and written by

Clay Tarver Clay Tarver (born November 8, 1965, in San Antonio, Texas) is an American guitarist and writer. He was the co-showrunner and an executive producer of ''Silicon Valley (TV series), Silicon Valley''. Biography Music career Tarver—who graduated f ...

and J. J. Abrams. It stars

Steve Zahn Steven James Zahn ( ; born November 13, 1967) is an American actor. In film, Zahn is best known for his lead roles in '' That Thing You Do!'' (1996), '' Happy, Texas'' (1999), '' Joy Ride'' (2001), ''National Security'' (2003), '' A Perfect Geta ...

Paul Walker Paul William Walker IV (September 12, 1973 – November 30, 2013) was an American actor. He was best known for his role as Brian O'Conner in the ''Fast & Furious'' franchise. Paul Walker began his career as a child actor in the 1980s, gainin ...

, and Leelee Sobieski. It follows three young people on a

road trip A road trip, sometimes spelled roadtrip, is a long-distance Travel, journey traveled by a car or a motorcycle. History First road trips by automobile The world's first recorded long-distance road trip by the automobile took place in German Em ...

who talk to a trucker on their

CB radio Citizens band radio (CB radio) is a land mobile radio system, a system allowing short-distance one-to-many bidirectional voice communication among individuals, using two-way radios operating near 27 MHz (or the 11-m wavelength) in the high freq ...

, then must escape when he turns out to be a psychopathic killer. The film had its world premiere at the 26th Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2001, and was theatrically released in the United States on October 5, 2001, by

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film studio, film production and Film distributor, distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the ...

. It grossed over $36.6 million worldwide against a $23 million budget. It received positive reviews from critics, who praised Dahl's direction, the screenplay, and performances of the cast (particularly Zahn), and was nominated for Best Action, Adventure, or Thriller Film at the

28th Saturn Awards The 28th Saturn Awards, honoring the best in science fiction, fantasy and horror film and television in 2001, were held on June 10, 2002 at the St. Regis Hotel in Century City, Los Angeles. This year introduced categories that honored DVD release ...

. The film has since become a

cult classic A cult following is a group of Fan (person), fans who are highly dedicated to a person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some List of art media, medium. The latter is often cal ...

and spawned two

direct-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, television series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strat ...

sequels, '' Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead'' (2008) and '' Joy Ride 3: Roadkill'' (2014).

Plot

While traveling from

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

to pick up his childhood friend and crush Venna, Lewis Thomas reluctantly stops in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

after he learns his estranged brother Fuller has been arrested. Lewis bails him out and Fuller tags along for the ride. Fuller has a

installed in Lewis's car and the two begin listening in on truckers' chatter. Fuller coaxes Lewis into playing a prank on a truck driver nicknamed Rusty Nail, asking him to pretend to be a woman named Candy Cane. They set up a meeting with Rusty Nail in a motel where Lewis and Fuller are spending the night; they tell Rusty Nail that Candy Cane will be in room 17, the room of a disrespectful businessman with whom Fuller had an encounter at the front desk. When Rusty Nail arrives, the brothers listen from the adjoining room; an argument and sounds of a scuffle are briefly heard. The next morning, Lewis and Fuller learn that the police found the businessman on the highway, leaving him in a coma with his lower jaw ripped off. Lewis admits they were involved and Sheriff Ritter accosts them for their role in the incident, but lets them go. Back on the road, Rusty Nail is heard again on the radio looking for Candy Cane. Lewis reveals the prank to Rusty Nail and Rusty Nail demands an apology, but Fuller insults him instead. Rusty Nail then notes they should get their

taillight Automotive lighting is functional exterior lighting in vehicles. A motor vehicle has lighting and signaling devices mounted to or integrated into its front, rear, sides, and, in some cases, top. Various devices have the dual function of illumin ...

fixed, indicating he is following them. They drive to a nearby gas station and unsuccessfully attempt to contact Sheriff Ritter. Seeing an ice truck pull into the gas station, they flee from the scene into a dead end, with the truck driver chasing them. The driver turns out to be a kind stranger trying to return Lewis's credit card, which he left behind in panic. The real Rusty Nail then drives through the ice truck and, as he slowly crushes Lewis's car against a tree, Fuller hysterically apologizes. Rusty Nail drives away, declaring his actions to be simply a retaliatory joke. Believing themselves safe, the brothers arrive in Colorado and pick up Venna. They stop at a motel and, as Lewis falls asleep, Rusty Nail calls his room, revealing he has noticed Venna has joined them. They flee from the motel, but see messages from Rusty Nail spray painted on road signs, instructing them to look in the trunk; they find the CB radio Fuller had previously thrown from the window of the car. Rusty Nail then contacts them again via the radio, announcing that he has kidnapped Venna's friend Charlotte, and he directs them to a cornfield where the three get split up. Rusty Nail kidnaps Venna. Rusty Nail sets up a meeting at another motel in room 17, mirroring the false date with which he was pranked. He sets up a trap that will kill Venna if the room door is opened. Fuller attempts to get in the room by a back window, but is injured by Rusty Nail and gets stuck outside. Lewis attempts to free Fuller as the police arrive to help Venna. Meanwhile, Rusty Nail's truck appears uphill and begins rolling down towards the motel. The brothers free Venna in time and everyone escapes as the truck crashes into the motel. As the police investigate Rusty Nail's truck, they see a dead body in the driver's seat and Charlotte, still alive, in the back. While Lewis, Fuller and Venna are treated for their injuries on scene, they learn that the dead man inside the truck was the ice truck driver who returned Lewis's credit card. From the CB in the ambulance, the group hears Rusty Nail's voice, learning that he is alive and free.

Cast

as Lewis Thomas *

as Fuller Thomas * Leelee Sobieski as Venna Wilcox * Jessica Bowman as Charlotte Dawson * Matthew Kimbrough (''uncredited'') as Rusty Nail. He is credited after all cast and crew in Spanish as "Clavo" meaning "nail". **

Ted Levine Frank Theodore Levine (born May 29, 1957) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Jame Gumb (Buffalo Bill) in the film '' The Silence of the Lambs'' (1991) and Leland Stottlemeyer in the television series ''Monk'' (2002–2009 ...

(''uncredited'') as Voice of Rusty Nail * Stuart Stone as Danny, Lewis's roommate * Brian Leckner as Officer Keeney *

Jim Beaver James Norman Beaver Jr. (born August 12, 1950) is an American actor, writer, and film historian. He is most familiar to worldwide audiences as Bobby Singer in ''Supernatural''. He also played Whitney Ellsworth on the HBO Western drama series '' ...

as Sheriff Ritter *

Hugh Dane Hugh Dane (October 21, 1942 – May 16, 2018) was an American character actor. He was best known for playing Hank the security guard on the television sitcom ''The Office'' from 2005 to 2013. Acting career Dane's professional acting career b ...

as Man at door *

Jay Hernandez Javier Manuel "Jay" Hernandez (born February 20, 1978) is an American actor. After making his television debut in NBC's '' Hang Time'', he made his film debut opposite Kirsten Dunst in the romantic drama '' Crazy/Beautiful'' (2001). He has sin ...

as Marine *

Basil Wallace Basil Wallace (born January 15, 1951) is a Jamaican-American actor, playwright, theatre director, and acting teacher. Early life Wallace was born in Kingston, Jamaica, Kingston and immigrated to the United States as a child with his four sibli ...

as Car salesman * Rachel Singer as Gas station manager * Satch Huizenga as Mr. Jones * Luis Cortés as Night manager * Kenneth White as Ronald Ellinghouse *

Walton Goggins Walton Sanders Goggins Jr. (born November 10, 1971) is an American actor. He has starred in various television series, including ''The Shield'' (2002–2008), ''Justified (TV series), Justified'' (2010–2015), ''Vice Principals'' (2016–2017), ...

(''deleted scenes'') as Cop * Anna Malle (''uncredited'') as Cable TV porn actress

Alternate footage

On the DVD release, there is a 29-minute-long

alternate ending An alternate ending (or alternative ending) is an ending of a story that was considered, or even written or produced, but ultimately discarded in favour of another resolution. Generally, alternative endings are considered to have no bearing on t ...

, and four other shorter alternate endings. The main one featured Rusty Nail's shotgun suicide 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 in which 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 scene A deleted scene is footage that has been removed from the final version of a film or television show. There are various reasons why these scenes are deleted, which include time constraints, relevance, quality or a dropped story thread, and can al ...

s. In the alternate ending where Rusty Nail's truck explodes, there is 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. Sobieski filmed two romantic interludes, one with Zahn and one with 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 of them.

Production

In July 1999, it was announced that Leelee Sobieski was set to star in ''Squelch'', the film's

working title A working title is a preliminary name for a product or project. The usage is especially common in film and TV, gaming, music and publishing. It is often styled in trade publications as (wt) and is synonymous with production title and tentative ...

, with

directing from a screenplay by

and J. J. Abrams. The other parts had not yet been cast, although

Tobey Maguire Tobias Vincent Maguire (born 27 June 1975) is an American actor and film producer. He is best known for starring as Peter Parker (2002 film series character), Spider-Man in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man in film#Sam Raimi's trilogy, ''Spider-Man'' tr ...

and

were understood to have been offered roles. In the next month,

joined the cast alongside Sobieski and Zahn. The film's budget was initially reported to be $20 million. ''Joy Ride'' was produced by Abrams and Chris Moore, while

Arnon Milchan Arnon Milchan (; December 6, 1944) is an Israeli billionaire businessman, film producer and former spy. He has been involved in over 130 full-length motion pictures and is the founder of production company Regency Enterprises. Regency's film cre ...

Patrick Markey Patrick Markey is an American film and television producer. He has also done production management and second unit directing work. He has worked with filmmakers such as Robert Redford and Sam Raimi. He is currently on the board of directors of th ...

, and Bridget Johnson served as executive producers. The film was shot in

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

, and

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

Release

The film premiered in the Special Presentations section of the 26th Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2001. It was released in the United States on October 5, 2001, and in the UK under the title ''Road Kill'' on April 26, 2002, and in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

as ''Roadkill''. The alternate titles were because of the negative connotations of “joy rides” as stealing cars rather than fun roadtrips.

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment 20th Century Home Entertainment (previously known as Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, LLC. and also known as 20th Century Studios Home Entertainment) was a home video distribution arm that distributes films produced by 20th Century Stud ...

released a

special edition The terms special edition, limited edition, and variants such as deluxe edition, collector's edition or expanded edition are used as a marketing incentive for various kinds of products, originally published products related to the arts, such as b ...

DVD on March 12, 2002.

Reception

Box office

''Joy Ride'' grossed $21,974,919 in the United States and Canada, and $14,667,919 in other territories, for a worldwide total of $36,642,838.

Critical response

Kevin Thomas of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' called the film "terrific escapist fare, stylish, outrageous and compelling." Thomas stated, "''Joy Ride'' is a high-wire act, full of risks and shameless in resorting to old ploys only to put a fresh spin on them. As an action comedy played at the darkest pitch, ''Joy Ride'' is a plus for all concerned, especially its actors."

A. O. Scott Anthony Oliver Scott (born July 10, 1966) is an American journalist and cultural critic, known for his film and literary criticism. After starting his career at ''The New York Review of Books'', '' Variety'', and ''Slate'', he began writing film ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' wrote that the film "is much more effectively terrifying than the usual overplotted, underwritten Hollywood thriller." Scott also commented, "It's also surprisingly funny, thanks to a playful script by Clay Tarver and J. J. Abrams and a mischievous performance by Mr. Zahn."

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

of ''The Chicago-Sun Times'' awarded ''Joy Ride'' three and a half stars out of a possible four, and described the film as "a first-rate pure thriller" which was "anchored by convincing characters in a halfway plausible setup." He had a few minor "quibbles" about aspects of individual scenes, but also said the climax was "relentlessly well-crafted".

Stephen Hunter Stephen Hunter (born March 25, 1946, in Kansas City, Missouri) is an American novelist, essayist, and film critic. Life and career Hunter was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and grew up in Evanston, Illinois. His father was Charles Francis Hunte ...

of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' opined, "In noir, everybody's guilty, and that's one of the pleasures of ''Joy Ride''" and "The flaw in ''Joy Ride'' isn't the ride at all — that's the cool part — but the arrival. The movie, like so many other American products of late, turns dully obvious at the end. ��''Joy Ride'', as much fun as it conjures, just ends up going no place fast."

Desson Howe Desson Patrick Thomson is a speechwriter, journalist and film critic. He was a speechwriter for the Obama administration and film critic for ''The Washington Post''. He was known as Desson Howe until 2003 when he changed his name after reunitin ...

of ''The Washington Post'' remarked, "The story, although it's scripted with impressive gravitas by Clay Tarver and J.J. Abrams, seems more like a conduit for suspense. That's why I call this movie an "exercise," because Dahl is almost playfully trying to scare the bejesus out of you. ''Joy Ride'' is about running — or driving — for your life, plain and simple."

Lisa Schwarzbaum Lisa Schwarzbaum (born July 5, 1952) is an American film critic. She joined ''Entertainment Weekly'' as a senior writer in 1991, working as a film critic for the magazine alongside Owen Gleiberman from 1995 to 2013. Early life Lisa Schwarzbaum w ...

of ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...

'' stated, "''Joy Ride'' zigzags across the conventions of genre, occasionally driving on the shoulders of black humor — it's a road movie for the way we process suspense today, and very recognizably the zany-brainy work of John Dahl, the urbane neo-noirist."

Joe Leydon Joseph Patrick Michael Leydon (born August 22, 1952) is an American film critic and historian. A critic and correspondent for '' Variety'' since 1990, he is the author of ''Joe Leydon's Guide to Essential Movies You Must See'' (Michael Wiese Pro ...

of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' called the film a "hot-wired, white-knuckle thriller" and wrote that it "maneuvers more smoothly, and avoids plot holes more consistently, as it steadily gains momentum while speeding through familiar territory." Paul Lê of ''

Bloody Disgusting Bloody Disgusting is an American independent multi-media company, which began as a horror genre-focused news website specializing in information services that covered various horror media. The company expanded into other media including podcast ...

'' opined, "The film yields every now and then so viewers can catch their breath, but once this taut and frantic thriller picks up speed again, ''Joy Ride'' earns its place as one of the best movies of its kind."

Accolades

Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Joy Ride 2001 films 2001 horror films 2001 action thriller films 2001 psychological thriller films 2000s American films 2000s English-language films 2000s horror thriller films 2000s mystery thriller films 2000s road movies 2000s serial killer films 2000s teen horror films American action thriller films American horror thriller films American mystery thriller films American neo-noir films American psychological thriller films American road movies American serial killer films American teen horror films Films about brothers Films about kidnapping in the United States Films about pranks Films about road accidents and incidents Films directed by John Dahl Films produced by J. J. Abrams Films scored by Marco Beltrami Films set in California Films set in Colorado Films set in Salt Lake City Films set in Utah Films shot in Long Beach, California Films shot in Los Angeles Films shot in Nevada Films shot in Santa Clarita, California Films shot in Utah Films with screenplays by J. J. Abrams Citizens band radio in popular culture Trucker films 20th Century Fox films Regency Enterprises films Bad Robot Productions films English-language horror thriller films English-language crime films English-language action thriller films English-language mystery thriller films LivePlanet films