Breakdown

Breakdown

1997 "It could happen to you."
Breakdown
Breakdown

Breakdown

7 | 1h35m | R | en | Drama

When his SUV breaks down on a remote Southwestern road, Jeff Taylor lets his wife, Amy, hitch a ride with a trucker to get help. When she doesn't return, Jeff fixes his SUV and tracks down the trucker -- who tells the police he's never seen Amy. Johnathan Mostow's tense thriller then follows Jeff's desperate search for his wife, which eventually uncovers a small town's murderous secret.

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7 | 1h35m | R | en | Drama , Crime , Mystery | More Info
Released: May. 02,1997 | Released Producted By: Paramount , Spelling Entertainment Country: United States of America Budget: 0 Revenue: 0 Official Website:
Synopsis

When his SUV breaks down on a remote Southwestern road, Jeff Taylor lets his wife, Amy, hitch a ride with a trucker to get help. When she doesn't return, Jeff fixes his SUV and tracks down the trucker -- who tells the police he's never seen Amy. Johnathan Mostow's tense thriller then follows Jeff's desperate search for his wife, which eventually uncovers a small town's murderous secret.

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Cast

Kurt Russell , J.T. Walsh , Kathleen Quinlan

Director

Lee Maymen

Producted By

Paramount , Spelling Entertainment

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Darth-Helmet Boston couple Jeff Taylor (Kurt Russell) and his wife Amy (Kathleen Quinlain) are on their way moving to San Diego, they are in the middle of nowhere in Utah until their car breaks down and need help. A friendly looking truck driver named Red Barr (JT Walsh) stops to help and Amy wants to go to a diner to get a tow-truck for help, so she goes with the truck driver to go get help. Then for a long time, Jeff begins to worry as he goes to the diner to find his wife is not there, then finds the same truck driver yet Red has claimed he has never saw him or his wife when he is lying when something is fishy, his wife has been kidnapped by him and a few other fellows as now it's up to Jeff to find his wife and track down the demented trucker and his hooligans.An exciting, well paced and well written action mystery thriller from director Jonathan Mostow who co-wrote the film as it's a thrilling, edge of your seat suspenseful movie. The film co-stars M.C. Gainy from the same year's Con Air as Earl, Jack Noseworthy as Billy and Rex Linn as Sheriff Boyd. The performances in this movie are fantastic and so is the premise of "It can happen to you" in it's tagline. The movie delivers a good script especially intense sequences like Jeff in the car with Earl after pulling out money when it's actually one dollar bills with 20s in front of them disguised as a thousand dollars then him stabbing Earl in the shoulder blade with a letter opener then tying him up with fix-it tape even to his neck to drive his vehicle to interrogate him to ask where his wife is. The climax is quite astonishing as you come to hate Red in this movie as JT Walsh makes an excellent scumbag you wish would die in this movie and you get a very crowdpleasing death of him in this movie which i can't reveal for you have to see the movie for yourself.Highly recommended.
SnoopyStyle Married couple Amy (Kathleen Quinlan) and Jeff Taylor (Kurt Russell) are driving across the country to move to San Diego. They get into a close call with driver Earl (M.C. Gainey). When their car breaks down, they're happy that trucker Red Barr (J.T. Walsh) stops to help. Amy gets a ride from him to a diner close by. Jeff finds some wires disconnected. He restarts the car and drives to the diner but nobody had seen his wife. He tracks down Red Barr's truck but he claims to have never seen him or his wife. Sheriff Boyd (Rex Linn) passes by but a search of the truck reveals nothing.The movie ramps up the tension at every turn. It is quite unrelenting. There are a couple of scenes that feel too manipulative. There is no real reason to climb around while traveling under the truck although dropping the gun is fully expected. The final section has him catching the family unawares. There is no reason for him to start shooting other than a sense of movie morality. The movie keeps pushing the tension to an ultra-high level and it pushes too hard in a couple of places.
breakdownthatfilm-blogspot-com There's something about Kurt Russell and a lot of the roles he has chosen over the years in his filmography during the 1980s & 1990s. As far as it has been seen, Russell has three major sides. There's the cult role, where although it wasn't recognized upon release, it became popular later. There's also the comedy or action role he has taken part in that people remember him for fondly for. And then there's Kurt Russell's thriller side of films, where he plays an ordinary man caught in extremely dangerous situations that could happen in the real world. But as far as situations go, this is by far the film that hits closest to home just because of how nerve-rackingly possible it can be. Not to mention but the tag line to the movie says it all - "It Could Happen to You". Great, thanks for reminding us.The story to this thriller is about couple Jeff and Amy Taylor (Kurt Russell and Kathleen Quinlan) who are moving to California from Massachusetts. On their travels, their car stalls and manage to get a passerby's attention driving an 18-wheeler. The trucker, Red Barr (J.T. Walsh), offers to drive them to a next stop so they can call a tow- truck. Not wanting to leave their car alone, Jeff lets Amy go with Red. After some time, Jeff manages to get his car running and heads to the stop where he was supposed to meet his wife. As it turns out she's not there and nobody saw her arrive. This starts Jeff on a long search and rescue and his findings reveal to him things he never thought possible. Written by Sam Montgomery and Jonathan Mostow (who also directed), this thriller is tense all the way although it becomes more fictitious as it goes on, it still is a thriller that crosses the boundaries of how plausible this situation actually is.The acting is one of the strongest parts to this story. Although Kurt Russell and Kathleen Quinlan do not have much screen time together, they feel like an authentic couple. J.T. Walsh as the passerby truck driver is also convincing in his performance for the character that he plays. There's also other roles played by other known actors like M.C. Gainey, Jack Noseworthy and Rex Linn as the town police officer. The only part of the writing that doesn't work in favor of the actors is the story's predictability. There really is no surprise. The trailer to the film alone allows some spoilers to slide. But even without viewing the trailer, the execution itself reveals its hand a little early. As to whether the secret was supposed to be kept hidden is unknown but again, it is rather obvious. The bigger question that'll linger on the audiences' mind is what's going on. This is the second strongest element to the film - tension.As the film progresses, small clue tidbits are given to the audience as to possible outcomes of what happened to Jeff's wife. With that, there's only so many solutions one can create to try understand the problem. Without the audience exactly knowing what happened to Jeff's wife is a great way to get the viewers' imaginations to run wild with thought. This is exactly why this thriller is so much scarier than running into the Sawyer family from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) (although it does have small traces of influence). The fact that several people everyday go missing is much more realistic than crossing paths with a chainsaw wielding cannibal, is why this hits closer to home; just like the movie's tagline, "It Could Happen to You". To assume any normal human being would want to be captured would be absolutely insane. Besides, if you wanted to be captured, then you're really not being captured as definition claims the action to be.Thankfully, along with the high tension come some worthy retaliation scenes that involve fighting back. Of course, if you want the protagonist to get what they want, it's going to be fun watching those scenes. Who doesn't like watching antagonists getting what they deserve? The cinematography is a nice addition as well. Handled by Douglas Milsome (Full Metal Jacket (1987)), numerous shots contain what they need to show; barren rock land,...better known as isolation. Yet as gloomy as the setting feels, it is quite beautiful to look at. Bright clear sunny skies, mountain ranges in the background and a single road highway. Definitely a different setting than your usual urban territory. Finally the music composed by Basil Poledouris (best known for his work on RoboCop (1987) and RoboCop 3 (1993)) was decently constructed. There's no recognizable main theme but Poledouris includes a number of tracks that emphasize the bleak emptiness that is the desert area of North America. Even so, his tracks that involve fighting are also well made too. All around, an intense watch.It has a bit of mystery in its story but much of that is revealed way at the beginning. However with chilling storytelling that concentrates on how it could happen to the person watching it, the events that occur are scary at times. The acting is solid, the music sounds organic and the camera-work looks great; all of which keep the tension high the whole time.
Christopher Culver In BREAKDOWN, Kurt Russell and Amy Quinlan play a wealthy New England couple who find horror in flyover country. While driving across the US, their car breaks down. The various local people they meet who initially seem helpful are in fact criminals working together. The wife is kidnapped, the husband is told to pay half a million to get her back alive, and Kurt Russell decides he'd rather fight.I found this a rather lame movie. Its believability goes way down when, for example, Kurt Russell rides on the bottom of a moving truck trailer and easily finds his way up to the cab. There are obvious continuity and other errors here: a villain gets a brutal rifle blast to his shoulder, but a few minutes later he's driving a car with no visible problems; a small child is shown playing video games (so it's early evening), but a few minutes later in the same scene dawn breaks.About the only entertainment here is the acting of J.T. Walsh and M.C. Gainey, who are caricatures but fun ones. Kurt Russell, on the other hand, acts like he's not particularly happy to have taken this role, and is just going through the motions until he gets his paycheck.I must say that the purported message, if any, of this film is intriguing. BREAKDOWN seems to be suggesting that decent people from the coasts shouldn't venture into the American heartland, since it's the den of rednecks who lie in wait for them.