Road movies?

[Neville]

After watching the remake of "The Hitcher", I started thinking of how many movies must exist about people who lose their way in New Mexico / Arizona and end up in trouble. I can only think of "Breakdown", that one with Kurt Russell, or that other one with Christopher Lambert.

Any decent ones? I like the genre and the landscapes.

[Scott]

The original THE HITCH-HIKER (1953) and FAST AND THE FURIOUS (1955).

They don't really get lost, but you have South of the Border films in BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA (1974), FANDANGO (1985), LOSIN'IT (1983).

[Neville]

That 50s "The Hitch-hiker" sounds good. I found another, "Detour" (1945). But what about more recent stuff? You'd think "the Hitcher" should have spawned more imitations.

[RCMerchant]

Road movies...hmmm....as in movies that take place almost entierly on the road....I like road movies! I Once hitchiked from Mich. to NY when I was 16 with my brother Glenn...one of the big gest "adventures" in my life...(it took 2 and a half days...almost 3).
TWO LANE BLACKTOP-(1971) James Taylor and Dennis Wilson(?) race Warren Oates across the country...for no real reason at all. Yet it's a fasinating movie about...nothing!!! It really is good.
VANISHING POINT-(1971) Berry Newman pops pills and races cross country into a road block...for no real reason at all! Great movie!
EASY RIDER-(1969) Peter Fonda and Dennis Hooper on bikes get some dope,get high,pick up Jack Nicholson,listen to cool music,meet hippies and rednecks,and drop acid at Mardi Gras with Karen Black and Toni (MICKEY!) Basil . I like the scence where Jack Nicholson tries to explain about ufo's to Dennis Hooper...I wonder if they were really high...? I think so.
DEATHRACE 2000 (1976) One of my favorite movies!!! David Carridine is Frankenstien,Slyvester Stallone,Mary (Miss Togar!) Wornov,and a bunch of othe wild racers,killing people for points! I'm sure you've played this with your freinds before (without actually doing it)..."Look! Two kids on bikes! 30 points" My freind Bruce,when we were teenagers used to run over turltles in the road..."Only 2 points."
All the CANNONBALL RUN movies. Currently on TV...DRIVE. SMOKEY and the BANDIT movies.
RACE with the DEVIL(1975) Saw this at the Strand way back when. Peter Fonda (again) and Warren Oates (again) and their wives race from redneck satanists. Lotta fun.
I think the first to MAD MAX movies would qualify!
There are lots more....

[ulthar]

As for a THE HITCHER inspired movie, how about JOY RIDE (2001) starring the voice of Ted "Buffalo Bill" Levine?

Basic premise is some kids on a road trip think it would be funny use a CB to play a practical joke on a lonely trucker in the middle of the night.  They picked the wrong trucker!!

[Neville]

Despite the tilte of the thrad, I'm looking for movies more in the vein of "Breakdown" or "Joyride", that is, thrillers / horror movies that happen mostly on the road.

Any other titles?

[RCMerchant]

Would DUST DEVIL qualify?

Dang! DUEL!!!! With Dennis Weaver and the never seen insane trucker!
ROAD GAMES(1981) With Stacy Keach and Jamie Lee Curtis. Has in crazy murdering trucker in Austrlia. Never saw it,but rember seeing  the trailer on TV long ago (1981).

[Raffine]

IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD!

If I was ever force-injected with a massive dose of truth serum it wouldn't surprise me too much if I blurted out this is my favorite movie of all time.

[RCMerchant]

   
                 

                    LOL!!! I may have seen that movie more times when I was a kid than the WIZARD of OZ or TORA,TORA,TORA!

[Neville]

Would DUST DEVIL qualify?

From what I see at the IMDB, yes it would. It seems like a good one, I was very impressed with Richard Stanley's first film, "Hardware".

[peter johnson]

MAD MAD MAD WORLD:
Saw it in New York City when I was 9 or 10, on one of the old CINERAMA screens, the kind that wrapped around you -- Let me tell you, I will never forget the "total immersion" experience of Johnathan Winters destroying the gas station!
Years later I met a girl in Amsterdam who invited me out to Palos Verdes, California, for Christmas break -- Little did I know that her neighbor had the property with "The Big W" palm trees!!  Talk about visiting a Holy Shrine!!  As of 1976, those palm trees were still in place/still spelling out "The Big W" --
RC:  You get more points scored for stopping and saving turtles/moving them off the road . . . It's a fact!!
peter johnson/denny tortoise

[LilCerberus]

Outside Ozana
Although it's really a drama & the serial killer is a sub-plot (kind of like "Amateur Night at the Dixie Bar & Grill'), it has it's moments.

[Menard]

Some desert locale movies which may appeal:

Nature of the Beast - Two strangers become acquainted, not necessarily by choice, along a stretch of highway in the Nevada desert. To add to the tenseness of their journey, there are reports of a bank robber and a serial killer on the loose. They look upon each other with suspicion.

Retroactive - Murder and time travel collide along a lonely stretch of road in the Texas desert.

Baja - Offbeat thriller, not horror, set in the Baja desert.


You may have to check for alternative titles on these, depending on your region and coding.


Another I thought of:

Wheels of Terror - A school bus driver takes on an unseen driver in a black car who kidnaps her daughter. Locale is Arizona.

[BoyScoutKevin]

This one was apparently the inspiration for "Breakdown" and preceded it by some 24 years.

"Dying Room Only"

Cloris Leachman and Dabney Coleman stop at a roadside diner. He goes into the men's room and never comes out.  But was she there with her husband, or was she there by herself,  like everyone else in the diner swears she was.

Also with Ross Martin, Ned Beatty, and Dana Elcar.

[Neville]

That setup also reminds me of "The vanishing", a quite underrated 1993 thriller. It starts Kiefer Sutherland, Sandra Bullock (!) and Jeff Bridges, and the plot revolves around Bullock's vanishing and how some years later some man (Bridges) tells her boyfriend he can help him know what happened to her.