Breakdown (film)

Infobox_Film
name = Breakdown

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caption = Promotional Poster for Breakdown
director = Jonathan Mostow
producer = Dino De Laurentiis
Martha DeLaurentis
writer = Jonathan Mostow (story)
Jonathan Mostow and
Sam Montgomery (screenplay)
Shane Salerno (production re-write)
starring = Kurt Russell
J. T. Walsh
Kathleen Quinlan
music = Basil Poledouris
cinematography = Douglas Milsome
editing = Derek Brechin,
Kevin Stitt
distributor = Paramount Pictures
released = May 2, 1997 (USA)
runtime = 95 minutes
language = English
budget = $36,000,000 (estimated)
gross = $50,129,186 (USA)
imdb_id = 0118771

"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.

Plot summary

Jeff and Amy Taylor, a married couple, are driving across the country to move to California and almost collide with another truck on the road. Jeff is later confronted by its driver, Earl, at a gas station. A short time afterwards, their car breaks down in the middle of the desert. Amy accepts a ride with a trucker named "Red" Barr to a small diner to call for help, while Jeff stays with the car. Jeff discovers disconnected wires to be the problem with the car and drives to the diner, but no-one there has seen his wife. When he catches up with Barr, the trucker swears that he has never seen her, or Jeff, before. Jeff hails a passing Sheriff, but a brief search of Barr's truck is fruitless.

Jeff returns to the local police station where he is advised to go back to the diner and wait for his wife. Jeff does so, only to end up meeting with Billy, supposedly a 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 gives chase, but is ambushed on the road by Earl. Jeff escapes by driving his car into a river. He exits the sinking car and floats down the river, later circling back around to where his attackers are salvaging it from the water. He is then knocked out by Billy. Jeff awakes in the trunk of a car. Billy opens it and asks how much money Jeff has, which is then demanded in exchange for his wife, who is being held hostage. Jeff heads into the local bank to withdraw money and starts to confide in the bank manager, but is dissuaded by an unknown person entering the bank. While the bank manager is busy with the transaction, Jeff steals some money ribbons and the bank manager's letter opener. Jeff is then instructed by phone to leave town, where he is picked up by Earl. While gloating about how easy Jeff and his wife were to trick, Earl discovers that Jeff has wrapped 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. Jeff then stabs Earl with the letter opener and forces him to reveal where his wife is. A Sheriff, seeing the erratically-driven truck, pursues and attempts to arrest both Earl and Jeff. Earl shoots the sheriff with a pistol concealed in his boot. As Earl is about to shoot Jeff, the wounded sheriff shoots and kills Earl. Jeff calls for an ambulance on the Sheriff's radio, then leaves to find his wife. Although initially unsuccessful at finding Billy or his wife at the truck stop Earl mentioned, Jeff sees Barr, who is preoccupied with a telephone call to an accomplice. Jeff manages to jump onto Barr's moving truck.

Barr eventually returns to his family's farm. Jeff hides in a barn and watches Barr, Billy, and Al take Amy from a compartment underneath the truck. They lock her in the basement under the barn and repair to the house.

Jeff slips into the house and demands the barn keys from Barr at gunpoint. Barr's son appears with a gun and threatens Jeff, but accidentally shoots Al in the arm after Jeff knocks the gun from his hands. Jeff forces them to return to the barn. Barr's wife opens the barn basement, and frees Amy from the box. Jeff locks everyone in the basement, then he and Amy steal a pickup truck and leave. Billy, who escaped the house during the struggle, then opens the basement.

Billy, Al and Barr pursue Jeff and Amy; the former in cars, the latter in his truck. Jeff manages to force Billy and Al's cars off the road, but Barr then corners them on a road bridge and tries to push their truck through the barrier. Amy's leg is trapped under the truck's dashboard, but Jeff escapes and attacks Barr in his truck, which is eventually driven off the bridge, getting caught on a barrier support. While Jeff hangs off the truck, Barr tries to whip him with a chain but Jeff grabs it and pulls Barr off the truck, making him fall to the rocks below. Jeff frees Amy and the two look down at the seemingly-dead Warren, who then starts to move. Amy pulls the stick shift on their pickup truck — which has been holding Barr's truck in place — and it falls, crushing him. The film ends with the couple on the bridge, holding each other.

Cast listing

* Kurt Russell (Jeff Taylor)
* J. T. Walsh (Warren `Red` Barr)
* Kathleen Quinlan (Amy Taylor)
* M. C. Gainey (Earl)
* Jack Noseworthy (Billy)
* Ritch Brinkley (Al)
* Moira Harris(Arleen Barr)
* Rex Linn(Sheriff Boyd)
* Kim Robillard (Deputy Len Carver)
* Jack McGee (Belle's Bartender)
* Helen Duffy (Flo)
* Vincent Berry (Deke)
* Ancel Cook (Barfly at Belle's Diner)
* Steve Waddington (Cowboy In Bank)
* Gene Hartline (Tow Truck Driver)
* Rick Sanders (Truck Stop Trucker)
* Thomas Kopache (Calhoun)

Trivia

* 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 and one year earlier in Executive Decision

External links

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