The Open Road: The Hitcher (35mm)
October 15, 2026
“What do you want?”
"I want you to stop me."
On a dark and stormy night, a fatigued Jim Halsey (C. Thomas Howell), driving cross country from Chicago to deliver a luxury vehicle to its San Diego owner, decides to pick up a mysterious hitchhiker (Rutger Hauer) in West Texas. Hoping for light conversation to fend off drowsiness, Jim ends up with much more than he bargained for: a psychotic killer who whips out a switchblade and dares Jim to stop his killing spree. What follows is a relentlessly sadistic cat-and-mouse nightmare under the unforgiving sun of the American Southwest. Director Robert Harmon utilizes surreal, nightmarish dream logic within the genre framework to deranged ends, putting Jim and his companion Nash (Jennfier Jason Leigh) through the ringer in high gear. The wide open vistas of the desert have never felt so isolating.
35mm print from a private collection.
- Original Language Title: The Hitcher
- Director: Robert Harmon
- Principal Cast: Rutger Hauer, C. Thomas Howell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jeffrey DeMunn
- Country: USA
- Year: 1986
- Running Time: 97 min.
- Producer: Kip Ohman, David Bombyk, Paul Lewis
- Screenplay: Eric Red
- Cinematographers: John Seale
- Editors: Frank J. Urioste
- Music: Mark Isham
- Filmography: They (2002), Nowhere to Run (1993)
- Language: English