1986 | Auteur Theory

Directed by: Robert Harmon

Cast: Rutger Hauer [John Ryder], C. Thomas Howell [Jim Halsey], Jennifer Jason Leigh [Nash]

Jim Halsey picks up a hitchhiker named John Ryder while transporting a car from Chicago to San Diego. After a daring escape followed from Ryder claiming to be a serial killer, Jim hopes that he would never see the man again. But when he spots the murder of an entire family by the hitchhiker, Jim follows Ryder with the help of a waitress named Nash, battling against each other in a deadly series of car chases and murders.

My rating: 8/10

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Narrative aspects

‘The Hitcher’ plays with character portrayal very well since there is little to nothing explored on the backstory of the people involved in the plot. An audience needs to work with what they are shown on screen to figure out what could happen next or why the character is acting a certain way, which makes watching the film a more enthralling experience. Upon meeting with Jim Halsey, immediately an audience is aware that he has probably been driving for a long time straight since he falls asleep on the wheel and almost crashes into an oncoming truck. It is from these hidden clues that form the story of the film, minus the rather unnecessary details that some films provide the audience with. As the audience follow Halsey’s journey they learn more about him, like when he stops at the diner and talks to Nash, the waitress working there. She represents the cluelessness of the audience since he is meeting her for the first time and thus explains his situation in an appropriate way that a stranger, like an audience member, would understand. Similarly, when John Ryder makes his first appearance on screen as the ‘plain and simple’ hitchhiker looking for a ride to his destination, the audience needs to look at his demeanor to pinpoint what is his purpose in the story and how could he possibly cause problems, since the title of the film, ‘The Hitcher’, gives a large hint towards Ryder being a significant point in the plot. Ryder’s mundane appearance is immediately countered when he refuses to answer Halsey’s questions and describes how he cut off the limbs of the person he had hitchhiked with just before. It grows clear that the protagonist has crossed paths with a cunning and scheming man with psychopathic tendencies, who proves to be exactly that when he murders an entire family following Halsey throwing him out of his car and getting another ride. The audience suddenly feels threatened by his presence in the film, wanting what is best for the main character Jim.

This film is a parable for the classic story of ‘Little Red Ridinghood’, as it draws parallels to the main plot of it. An unsuspecting traveller is met with a ‘big bad wolf’ that tries to meddle with their life and eventually ends up at the scene with bringing some sort of calamity to the ‘grandma’, or in this case, Nash, killing her then threatening to do the same to the poor traveller. Given this description, it is clear to see the similarities between the film and the old story, down to delivering goods to ‘grandma’s house’ (Jim is travelling because he’s transporting the car he’s driving from Chicago to California for a dealer). Unconsciously, the audience could be drawn towards finding a film more enjoyable if they have experienced or heard such a tale before, with a different version and in different words. The general idea is that humans are drawn to the things we know better than those we know nothing of. Like the story, the film shares the same moral of ‘stranger danger’ and keeping an eye out for a ‘big bad wolf’ that could appear from nowhere.

Infer & Deduce: Upon watching the film’s beginning sequences, the reason for the title becomes clear since it clearly refers to John Ryder, the man that Jim Halsey stumbled upon on the road while driving to California, who is known as a hitchhiker while meddling with the lives of unsuspecting travellers on the road. The audience immediately deduces that he is a major part of the film and expect a lengthened appearance of him while interacting with Jim Halsey.

Technical Aspects

‘The Hitcher’ is an interesting film since the majority of it follows the story on the road, and in a car in most cases. While Jim is the main character, he is seen spending a large chunk of the movie trying to stop John Ryder in his car, while stepping out from time to time to visit a diner, where he meets Nash, a sheriff’s station and a jail cell, and an abandoned repair warehouse. The effect of this lack of location changes in turn makes the film more interesting to watch since the audience are drawn to the fact that the only thing this main character is connected to is his car, where he goes to places and progresses the story while driving it and also prevents himself from dying and the antagonist winning the battle while driving it. The climactic ‘good vs. evil’ battle that most action films have in a significant grand place just so happens to take place on the road while battling in vehicles in this film, just like the rest of it. It depicts a sense of danger throughout the film since the final fight is on the same road he’s been driving on for days.

The film uses a variety of camera techniques, divided clearly between movement-inclined (when a scene involves a car chase) and shot angle-inclined (when there’s a calmer and much more emotionally driven moment). There is a significant use of long shots and establishing shots to set the scene at certain main points in the plot and show the vastness of the setting. This makes Jim Halsey, the protagonist, appear as an insignificant part of the bigger picture while travelling through the wide open spaces of the suburbs and the unpopulated areas of America. The film makes use of a mixture of diegetic and non-diegetic sound; with the rain pouring onto the roads or hitting the windows of a car and cars driving along the highway, and suspenseful, but subtle at times, music playing in the background to compliment the mood of the scene and project a certain influential atmosphere on the audience. The lack of soundtrack in some sequences gives the film a natural feeling, which one would find in the wilderness while being on their own just like Jim Halsey. The gloomy and dimly lit set up of scenes also adds on to the ambiguity of the film. While the majority of the scenes take place during the day with natural lighting, night scenes are quite dark comparatively. Car scenes are lit up by the headlights outside or the roof lights inside the car, while the motel scene, for example, has light coming in from the open curtains or from the washroom left open.

Favourite Scene

This scene is the last showdown between Jim Halsey and John Ryder, the climax contains literally no dialogues as the two men muster their last bit of energy to finally settle the chaos between them. As the tension rises with nothing but actions, there are a lot of jump-cuts, with some shots only lasting a couple of seconds. This makes the scene feel fast-paced, creating anticipation about whether Halsey is prepared enough to put Ryder to an end or has he got his work cut out for him. To add on, a few moments are filmed in slow motion, making the scene much more impactful and dramatic, and clearing the way for a conclusion that the audience could or could not anticipate. The great stretch of silence in this scene is captivating and suspenseful, with the subtle drumming music in the background at some parts in the scene creating a much more deepened effect of tension. The lack of dialogue adds to the fact that this scene serves as a different kind of climax scene comparing to the conventional action film, where it would involving heroic acts, displays of emotions, right-on-time accuracy and an adrenaline-filled fight against the protagonist and antagonist. Though ‘The Hitcher’ does not tick off any of these categories, with its climax scene being one that is one of the most calming interactions between the two polar-opposite characters. The scene is not fast-paced and rather takes time to emphasize just how tiresome this whole journey has been for both Jim and John as if the ending was inevitable. The scene becomes nervewracking when Ryder grabs a large weapon from the ground and starts shooting one bullet at a time at Halsey while he’s trying to start the car to drive away. As Ryder grows closer to Halsey, the audience becomes more restless towards wanting the main character to survive, the tension keeps rising.

What would I do differently?

The film appealed to me since I enjoy the thriller and suspense genres quite a lot. The characters, though not having any backstory details spent time on, where pretty in-depth. An audience, by looking at their choices and their pick of words and actions, can figure out their personality and probably their fate in the film. However, one thing I would like to change is the rather ambiguous ending which I personally felt did not lead to anything in particular. John Ryder hinted that Jim should be smart and figure out why he is doing this to the young man but the explanation for the ending is left at that. People have speculated that Ryder wanted Jim to go through what he had gone through, or that wanted to make him reckless so that Jim could kill John without any problems. Still, whether theories are close to the actuality or not an audience can never know since no dialogue or action really led to a certain topic of ending.