Breakdown

Released: 1997
Suspense
Director: Jonathan Mostow
Starring: Kurt Russell, Kathleen Quinlan, J.T. Walsh
Rated: R
Running Time: 93 minutes

The breakdown for Breakdown: During a long trip through the desert, a man's wife disappears after their car breaks down in the middle of nowhere.

So this couple (Russell and Quinlan) is moving across the country from Boston to San Diego for new jobs.  During the trip through the southwest they have an almost accident with a rough looking older pick up that pulls out right in front of them.  At the gas station later on, they see the same pick up stopped there as well and have a few tense words with the driver.  A little way down the freeway they have some car trouble and have to flag down a big semi for help.  The husband is a little reluctant to leave the car alone and travel with the trucker and his wife 5 miles down the road to a little cafe, otherwise, the next town is 60 miles ahead (says the trucker).  So the wife hitches a ride with the nice trucker and says she'll call a tow truck from there and see him later.  He waits for a while and then realizes what is wrong with the car isn't so hard to fix on his own.  He drives down to the cafe to meet up with his wife (only 30 minutes has passed since they split up) and she's not there.  No one in the cafe says they've seen her and they are also not much help.  He leaves, going on down the road to look for her and sees the same semi driving down the road.  He speeds up, catches up to the trucker and makes him pull over.  When they start talking, the trucker says he's never seen him or his wife.  He acts like he has no idea what Kurt Russell is talking about.  A cop happens along and Kurt Russell flags him down.  He explains that he thinks this trucker has his wife and the cop inspects the semi.  He talks to the trucker and lets him go saying he can't see any signs of struggle and there's no sign of Russell's wife anywhere.  The cop tells him to go 30 miles to the nearest town and see his deputy.  File a report for a missing person and hopefully they'll figure this out soon.  Russell goes down there and isn't comforted by what he sees.  In the police station there's a big pin board with TONS of missing persons fliers.

This story unfolds to a conclusion that was interesting, but the action scenes towards the end of the film are very far fetched, taking away some of the pleasure of the film for me.

Overall, it's a good enough movie.  I've seen a lot worse lately.
I give it 3 and 1/2 out of 5 for a good story, but some ridiculous action sequences that are totally unrealistic.