| Director | Jonathan Mostow |
|---|---|
| Budget | $36 million |
| Box office | $50.2 million |
Jeff and Amy Taylor are driving from Boston to San Diego in a new Jeep Grand Cherokee. In 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 passing tractor‑trailer driver, Red Barr, to reach a nearby diner and seek assistance, while Jeff remains with the vehicle.
Inspecting the engine, he discovers the battery cables were deliberately loosened. After reconnecting them, he arrives at the diner, where the owner and patrons insist Amy never appeared. Back on the road, Jeff intercepts Red's rig, but Red denies any knowledge. Sheriff Boyd arrives and, searching the cab, finds nothing and releases Red. He directs Jeff to the sheriff's office in Brackett to report Amy's disappearance.
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. He escapes by plunging the Jeep into a river, but is soon captured by Earl and Billy, whose slow-witted nature was an act. They take him to Barr at an isolated hideout.
Red threateningly demands that Jeff withdraw the $90,000 he says Amy claimed is in their bank account. At the bank 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 in the bank watching.
Earl collects Jeff, boasts of sabotaging the Jeep, and states that the couple will be murdered regardless of the money. Earl is enraged upon discovering the ruse just as Jeff frees himself with the opener. He stabs Earl, then binds him with duct tape, while forcing him to reveal a truck stop rendezvous point. Sheriff Boyd pulls the truck over and believes Jeff is the perpetrator. Earl shoots and wounds the sheriff but is shot dead in return. After radioing for aid, Jeff races to the truck stop and finds and hides under Red's trailer and is carried to the latter's remote farm.
Inside Red's barn, Jeff sees trophies from earlier tourist robbery-murders. Billy and another accomplice, Al, arrive with a bound Amy and lock her in a cellar freezer. Armed with a found handgun, Jeff confronts Red and the others inside the house. A distraction from Red's young son Deke allows Billy to escape, but Jeff forces Red to open the barn cellar, releasing Amy. He locks Red, his wife, Deke, and Al in the cellar. Billy frees them while Jeff and Amy flee in a pickup. Red and his group are in pursuit.
Billy's car flips, killing him in an explosion, and Al fatally crashes into Red's detached trailer. On a steel bridge, Red rams the couple's truck into the guard rail, pinning Amy's leg under the dash while leaving both vehicles perilously poised on the ledge. Jeff boards the tractor unit, wrestles with Red and, after a struggle, hurls him over the edge. Red lands on rocks below, seriously injured. Jeff frees Amy who releases the pickup's brake, dropping the dangling semi onto Red, killing him. The couple wait on the bridge for the authorities to arrive.