Breakdown (film)

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Breakdown

Promotional Poster for Breakdown
Directed by Jonathan Mostow
Produced by Dino De Laurentiis
Martha DeLaurentis
Written by Jonathan Mostow (story)
Jonathan Mostow and
Sam Montgomery (screenplay)
Shane Salerno (production re-write)
Starring Kurt Russell
J. T. Walsh
Kathleen Quinlan
Music by Basil Poledouris
Cinematography Douglas Milsome
Editing by Derek Brechin,
Kevin Stitt
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date(s) May 2, 1997 (USA)
Running time 95 minutes
Language English
Budget $36,000,000 (estimated)
Gross revenue $50,129,186 (USA)
IMDb profile

Breakdown is a 1997 film, written and directed by Jonathan Mostow. The film stars Kurt Russell, J.T. Walsh and Kathleen Quinlan. The film was released on May 2, 1997 by Paramount Pictures. It was filmed on location in Sacramento, California, Moab, Utah and Sedona, Arizona.

Contents

[edit] Plot summary

Jeff and Amy Taylor, a married couple, are driving across the country to move to California. Jeff's problems start when he nearly hits another man's truck. He is confronted by the man, named Earl, at a gas station later and is unsettled by him. His wife doesn't seem to be bothered until their car breaks down on the road in the middle of the desert. Amy accepts a ride with a friendly trucker named Warren "Red" Barr to a small diner to call for help while Jeff stays with the car. Jeff discovers that their car troubles were caused by dislodged wires and starts his car up again. He drives to the diner to find that no one in the diner had seen his wife. When he catches up with Warren, the trucker swears that he has never seen her.

Jeff returns to the local police station where the local authorities inform him to go back to the small diner and wait for his wife to return. Jeff does so, only to end up meeting with Billy, the town simpleton, who tells Jeff that he saw his wife come in with Warren and leave in another truck. Billy tells Jeff where they have taken her and Jeff drives off in his car as quick as possible only to be ambushed on the road by Earl. Jeff avoids the assault by driving his Jeep Grand Cherokee into the water. He escapes the sinking car and floats down the river. Now he must attempt to find his wife, who is being held at ransom.

At this point, Earl meets with Al, another of the hoodlums, and they salvage Jeff's Cherokee from the water. Jeff circles back around to where the men are towing the SUV from the river, and he spies on them from the bushes. Billy assaults Jeff from behind with a shotgun butt to the head, knocking him out.

Jeff awakes in the trunk of a car where he is asked how much money he has. The whole operation is a ransom for his wife for $90,000. They threaten to kill his wife if Jeff attempts to tell the police about the kidnapping.

Jeff heads into the local bank to withdraw money and starts to confide in the bank manager until an unknown person walks in. Jeff feels he has said too much already and clams up.

While the bank manager is busy with the transaction, Jeff steals some money ribbons and the bank manager's letter opener. After Jeff exits the bank a nearby pay phone starts ringing; it is Warren calling to give further instructions. Jeff walks out of town until Earl pulls up in his truck. Earl takes the money from Jeff, makes him turn around, and then binds up his hands with duct tape. He pulls him into the truck as they drive to Warren's barn.

Earl gloats about how easy Jeff and his wife were to trick, and starts thumbing through the money to discover that Jeff has cheated them by wrapping stacks of $1 bills with a single $100 bill on the top and the bottom of the stacks, using the money ribbons stolen from the bank manager's desk - the $90,000 dollar ransom is found to now only be about $4,000 or so. Earl is furious and just as he is about to shoot Jeff, Jeff uses the letter opener to stab Earl. They wrestle each other for the gun while Earl is still driving. Jeff wins the battle, bounds Earl, and violently forces him into revealing where his wife is. Meanwhile, Sheriff Boyd, seeing the erratically-driven truck, starts a pursuit. Pulling them over, the sheriff attempts to arrest both Earl and Jeff. Earl shoots the sheriff with a small pistol concealed in his boot. As Earl is about to shoot Jeff, the wounded sheriff shoots and kills Earl. Jeff momentarily goes to the aide of the officer, and calls for an ambulance on his radio, but is forced to abandon him to go after his wife.

Jeff heads to the Texaco station where Earl said Billy and his wife would be. Not finding them, he attempts to track them down with no success. He runs into Warren who doesn't notice him because he is preoccupied with a telephone call to an accomplice. Jeff manages to jump onto Warren's moving truck as Warren drives home.

Red eventually returns to his family's farm. Jeff gets into the barn unnoticed and sneaks into the small attic upstairs. He then watches as Warren, Billy, and Al pull out Amy's body from a compartment underneath the truck. She is revealed to still be alive, bound and gagged. The men put her in a freezer in a secret basement underneath the shed, lock it, then retreat into the house for breakfast.

Jeff slips into the house and softly goes to the kitchen, where everyone is seated. He waves his gun, threatening to kill Warren if he does not give him the key to the barn. Red's youngest son appears with a gun, threatening to kill him to protect his family. The boy ends up shooting Al in the arm after Jeff knocks the gun from his hands. Jeff forces them to return to the barn. Warren's wife opens the shed basement, and frees Amy from the box. The couple reunites in tears, and Jeff orders everyone to go down into the basement and locks the door. Billy, who managed to escape from the house during the struggle, finds his trapped family and frees them.

Meanwhile, Jeff and Amy have run out. They steal one of the trucks and drive away as fast as they can. Billy and Al follow in cars while Warren chases them in a truck. Jeff manages to force Billy and Al's cars off the road, where they are killed. Warren corners the couples truck and starts hitting them to break the road barrier and run them off a bridge over a deep ravine. Jeff escapes the damaged truck while Amy's leg is stuck and goes to Warren's truck where the two brawl. Warren's truck ends up dangling over the edge of the bridge. Warren and Jeff fight on the dangerously situated truck. While Jeff hangs off the truck, Warren starts to whip him with a chain which Jeff manages to grab onto and pulls Warren off the truck, making him fall to the rocks below. Jeff frees Amy and the two look down at the lifeless Warren. However, he suddenly starts to move; Amy swiftly pulls the stick shift and the truck falls nose first on to Warren, fatally crushing him. The last shot is of the couple holding each other, relieved to be together again.

[edit] Cast listing

[edit] Trivia

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • When Jeff goes inside Red's house, he can see that his son is playing Doom.
  • The road map at the beginning is a map of New Mexico, the road names have been changed and landmarks and town names have been changed or new fictitious ones added.
  • Kurt Russell was helicoptered in and out of the areas of shooting so he could be with his family in Los Angeles at night.
  • In the original script, Red talks briefly to Amy in the gas station store at the beginning of the film.
  • Film composer Basil Poledouris wrote and recorded two scores for the film, after the first score was rejected.
  • "Red"'s truck is a Peterbilt 377
  • Kurt Russell starred alongside J. T. Walsh almost ten years previously in Tequila Sunrise.

[edit] External links