Rutger Hauer’s career may have spent more time in the ‘low budget’ leagues but he’s so ultimately unfuckwittable in The Hitcher (1986), that we are incapable of even attempting to watch the remake. Even if Sean Bean was actually pretty good in Game of Thrones.
Hauer’s terrifying turn as the psychotic John Ryder lives long in the memory. As does the shocking death of Nash, one of the three main characters in the movie.
When Ryder ties her inbetween two trucks in order to terrorise Jim Halsey (played by C. Thomas Howell), you’re not expecting him to actually hit the accelerator.
What happens next can only be described as bleak but is perfectly suited to the rest of the movie which remains one of the most taut thrillers of its decade.
4 thoughts on “Worryingly Bleak Deaths of the 80s #2 – The Hitcher”
I loved The Hitcher. Never did see the remake; not sure if I even want to. Watched the remake of The Omen, which wasn’t anywhere near as bad as I expected to to be… except for that Not Lee Remick woman and her neanderthal brow. As remakes go, however, it wasn’t bad. Still not watched the Fright Night remake.
I hated this scene with Nash being torn in half. John Ryder really is a deplorable villain, mysterious, psychotic and frightening. The Hitcher is a hard film to watch, because Rutger Hauer is both handsome and yet deadly as hell, it’s so unnerving, you can really feel the terror that engulfs Jim throughout…this is Mr Hauer’s greatest movie, and he’s never looked better than he does here- he’s scary as hell and also sexy as hell. I’m a girl btw in case there are any h o mo ph ob es browsing this ready to pounce on me for being “gay”… And yeah I think there’s some homoerotic stuff going on between Ryder and Jim, and I love it!
Well, I’m a bloke ML80 and I think Rutger is handsome in this film. When he smirks in the car when he first meets Jim? Classic Rutger!