Throttle (film)

Throttle
Directed by	James Seale
Produced by	James Seale Neil Elman
Written by	James Seale Neil Elman
Starring	Grayson McCouch Adrian Paul Amy Locane
Music by	Neal Acree
Cinematography	Richard Lerner
Editing by	James Seale Peder Morganthaler
Distributed by	E5 Films LLC
Release date(s)	August 2, 2005
Country	USA
Language	English
Budget	~$50,000
Box office	Around $1,000,000

Throttle (also known as No Way Up) is a 2005 American thriller film starring Grayson McCouch. Other cast members include Adrian Paul and Amy Locane. It was filmed entirely in Denver, Colorado. It has several hidden references to a similar movie, Steven Spielberg's Duel. Its tagline is: Park at your own risk, or Park and die!.

Plot

Financial analyst Tom Weaver (Grayson McCouch) is a troubled man. He has recently broken off a potential affair with a co-worker named Rebecca. He is also arguing with himself if he wants to continue with a shady ten million dollar business deal with his boss. He has also discovered identical motel keys in his wife, Molly's purse and his boss's car, leading him to believe that she is having an affair. He confronts her about it and she denies this. He lies to her about where he is going and heads to his building to complete the deal to hopefully get himself rich.

Under heavy levels of stress, Tom shouts at the kind old security guard, Eddie before going into the building. At midnight, Tom goes five levels down in the building's underground parking garage to E-5. Tom argues with his boss about it, who tells him that he has gotten in too deep to back out now, as millions would be lost should the process be interrupted. Tom quits the deal and leaves to his car. He tries to call his wife when he discovers that he is too deep in the garage to get service. Tom discovers that his car has been vandalized and left immobile. Tom realizes he's not alone. Watching and waiting, a massive 6000 pound black SUV truck whose driver sits hidden behind a veil of tinted glass. The driver is a psychotic killer with only one goal: Not letting Tom get out alive. the driver at first taunts him, chasing him, honking the horn, and flashing its lights, and Tom goes to the stairwell. However, it has been chained shut from the inside. Worse yet, the elevators are shut down for the night. Tom finds a a fellow co-worker who is leaving and begs for a ride. Frightened, the woman maces him and flees. Armed with only a tire iron, Tom goes into the bathroom to wash the pepper spray out of his eyes, and discovers that the driver has attached a hose to the truck's exhaust pipe, and Tom flees his only safe place. Tom goes to a nearby truck where the driver appears and tries to mow him down with his truck. He manages to get away from the truck by hiding behind a construction truck. He climbs on top of the truck and manages to climb on top of the truck, where he discovers the dead body of the woman who had earlier maced him.

The truck's driver is willing to kill anybody who gets in the way of their goal. Tom realizes that he must outwit his pursuer and escape the garage while trying to figure out who wants him dead before it is too late. The driver realizes that Tom is on top of the car and bucks him into another car, before ramming it into the wall. Tom manages to flee and discover a repo man who also sees him as a threat. The repo man attempts to attack him, but he is thrown onto construction equipment and is impaled on nails. Tom believes the man is the driver, but he was actually the only man who could help him. Tom flees the path of the oncoming truck and hides in a parked car. He then sees Victor, the other security guard who knows his would-be mistress, Rebecca and appears to have a grudge against him. Victor sees the damage and attempts to arrest him, but Tom threatens him, right before Victor is mowed down by the truck. Tom flees and is nearly crushed behind a wall by the truck.

A paranoid and terrified Tom realizes anybody could be a suspect. He escapes and manages to call Eddie on Victor's walkie talkie. He hears a loud crash and the line goes dead, leading him to believe that Eddie has too been killed. He steals a gun from his boss's car and finds his boss, who has been stabbed and tells him that his wife never went through with the affair, which she had no part in. He dies right as he tells Tom that he has made sure that he will not be leaving the garage alive. A suspenseful game of cat and mouse ensues as the huge truck chases him through the garage's levels. Tom continues to hide and flee from the truck, before eventually hiding under the truck, which backs into his leg, pinning him to the ground.

The killer is revealed to be Eddie, who killed everyone because he finally snapped when he realized that Tom was pretending to like him, when everyone else didn't bother to mask their dislike for him. The garage doors open and Molly comes inside. Tom, despite a broken leg, manages to rescue Molly, who had been bound and gagged inside the toll booth, right before Eddie smashes it with the truck. Eddie is about to run them both down right as the police, whom Tom had called earlier at the top where there was cell phone service, arrive. Tom makes sure Molly is safe before borrowing a police car to finally destroy the truck with. He totals the truck, grabs a gun, and prepares to shoot Eddie through the windshield. The police stop this and open the door to discover that he has shot himself. Molly and Tom embrace at the top when Molly asks him "where did you park?".

Duel references

Although the two settings and characters are virtually different, it is no doubt that Throttle references a similar 1971 film called Duel, which was Steven Spielberg's first movie. Some of these include:

• The main character's last name is Weaver, a reference to Dennis Weaver who played David Mann, the main character in Duel,
• An actor that looks identical to Dennis Weaver (the same clothing, the same mustache, the same hairdo, the same sunglasses, and the same car, a red Plymouth Valiant) drives by and looks at Tom ominously.
• A painter's truck says Grebleips, which is Spielberg backwards. This was used in Duel.
• When Tom is hiding under the truck, we see (from his eyes) the driver's boots as the driver walks along the side of the truck. This was used in Duel.
• Both movies deal with a main protagonist fighting against a monstrous truck.

External links

Throttle at the Internet Movie Database