May 2, 1997
Breakdown is a 1997 American action thriller film directed by Jonathan Mostow from the screenplay he wrote with Sam Montgomery. It stars Kurt Russell as a man whose wife is kidnapped by a truck driver after their car mysteriously breaks down during a cross-country drive, leading him on a desperate search to track her down and confront her captors. The film also stars J. T. Walsh and Kathleen Quinlan. The original music score was composed and conducted by Basil Poledouris and performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony. The film was produced by Dino De Laurentiis and Martha De Laurentiis.
Breakdown was released on May 2, 1997, by Paramount Pictures, and is the final film featuring Walsh to be released in his lifetime.
Storyline
Jeff Taylor and his wife Amy drive from Boston to San Diego in a new Jeep Grand Cherokee. Nearing the Arizona desert, they nearly collide with a battered pickup. At a gas station, the pickup's driver, Earl, angrily confronts Jeff before departing. On a remote stretch of road, the Jeep stalls. Amy accepts a lift from a passing tractor‑trailer driven by Red Barr to reach a diner and seek assistance, while Jeff remains with the vehicle. Inspecting the engine, he discovers the battery cables have been deliberately loosened. After reconnecting them, he arrives at the diner, where employees insist Amy never appeared. Jeff intercepts Red's rig, but Red denies knowledge. Sheriff Boyd searches the cab, finds nothing, and directs Jeff to the nearby town of Brackett.
Returning to the diner, Jeff is approached by Billy, a seemingly slow‑witted mechanic, who claims Amy left with several men and warns him to avoid the police. Following Billy's directions, Jeff is ambushed by Earl, escapes by plunging the Jeep into a river, and is captured by Earl and Billy, who reveals his slow-witted nature to be an act. They take him to Barr at an isolated hideout. Red demands that Jeff withdraw $90,000 from his bank account, threatening Amy's life. In Brackett, Jeff can access only $5,000, so he conceals one‑dollar bills between two hundred‑dollar notes and pockets a letter opener, abandoning an attempt to alert the bank manager when he suspects Red's accomplices are watching.
Earl collects Jeff, boasts of sabotaging the Jeep, and states that the couple will be murdered regardless. Jeff frees himself with the opener, stabs Earl, ties him up, and forces him to reveal a rendezvous point at a truck stop. The pair are halted by Boyd. Earl shoots the sheriff, but is shot dead in return. After radioing for aid, Jeff goes to the truck stop and finds and hides beneath Red's trailer and is carried to the latter's remote farm.
In the barn, Jeff discovers trophies from earlier tourist robberies. Billy and his accomplice Al arrive with a bound Amy and lock her in a cellar freezer. Armed with a revolver, Jeff confronts Red. A distraction from Red's young son Deke allows Billy to flee, but Jeff forces Red to open the cellar, releasing Amy, and locks him, his wife, and the child inside. The Taylors steal a pickup and flee, with Red and his group in pursuit. Billy dies when his car explodes, and Al is killed after crashing into Red's detached trailer. On a steel bridge, Red attempts to ram the couple's truck, and Amy's leg becomes trapped. Jeff boards the tractor unit, wrestles with Red and, after a struggle involving a chain, hurls him over the edge, but Red survives the fall. Amy releases the pickup's brake, dropping the dangling semi onto Red, killing him. The Taylors wait on the bridge for the authorities to arrive.
Movie Trailer
- Breakdown (1997) (Trailers)
Sound Effects Used
- Hollywoodedge, Truck Brakes Brake Sq TE047902 (Heard in a high pitch.)
- Sound Ideas, AUTO, CRASH - CRASH INTO SIDE OF SECOND CAR 02
- WB GLASS BREAK 01