Originally published on March 4th, 2022
My recent post about trucks got me thinking about truck movies. For no other reason than the mental exercise of seeing how many I could think of, I present you this curated list, in no particular order.
Maximum Overdrive
A Stephen King classic starring Emilio Estivez. Trucks (and machines in general) become sentient and murderous. Count me in.
Convoy
Kris Kristofferson as “Rubber Duck” and Ernest Borgnine as “Dirty Lyle”. It’s a movie based on a 1970’s country song. I shit you not.
Duel
No less than Steven Spielberg’s first feature film.
Smokey and The Bandit
Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, and Jackie Gleason. Need I say more? Perhaps I should have said less.
Black Dog
Patrick Swayze gold. Okay, it’s crap, but gold crap, co-starring Meat Loaf.
The Gauntlet
Clint Eastwood. Nuff said.
Mad Max: Road Warrior and Mad Max: Fury Road.
Both featured trucks, though admittedly, I just like George Miller films and am partial to apocalyptic hellscapes.
Omitted and hopefully soon forgotten:
- Ice Road or some such recent Liam Nieson abomination. Nothing but a money grab based on the popularity of the Discovery channel show and utterly unwatchable.
- Speed Nope, buses alone don’t count. The only reason The Gauntlet made the cut is because of Clint. My blog, my rules.
- I vaguely recall a couple “space trucker” type movies, both more recent and ancient, though they might have been video game cut scenes I’m remembering or maybe I’m thinking space pirates?
Joy Ride
Updated 10/19/2022
Can’t believe I left this one out. Just saw it again on cable the other night. An excellent psychological thriller written by J.J. Abrams. The villain trucker, Rusty Nail, is voiced by none other that Ted Levine (Silence of the Lambs – “It rubs the lotion on it’s skin or it gets the hose again.”) Both he and the actor who played Rusty Nail are uncredited in the movie. Spawned several sequels which aren’t worth watching, but this one is a gem.
I meant to comment on this months ago.
It’s a mighty fine goddamn post. I say bring more like this about movies and your take on them.
Also love the original poster hunt you went on. Why don’t they make movie posters like this anymore.