The feature debut of both screenwriter Eric Red (Bad Moon, Near Dark) and director Robert Harmon withstands time for many reasons. The road thriller offers exhilarating action sequences, an intense cat-and-mouse chase that spans the entire film, nasty deaths, and a unique relationship between the protagonist and antagonist. It’s the latter that transforms a well-executed thriller into something remarkable. Actor Rutger Hauer‘s career contained no shortage of defining roles, especially his more villainous turns. Hauer’s performance as icy cool John Ryder, the titular character, solidifies The Hitcher as an enduring genre highlight of the ’80s.
On a long road trip from Chicago to San Diego, young Jim Halsey (C. Thomas Howell) struggles to stay awake during the dark, desolate stretch of desert highway in Texas. He turns the radio volume up high and lights a cigarette to ward off sleep, but the rain isn’t helping. So, Jim does what his mother warned against: he picks up a hitchhiker. The man, introducing himself as John Ryder, behaves oddly almost immediately. When Jim passes a stranded vehicle not much farther up the road, John presses his knee down on the accelerator to pass it. The danger escalates until Ryder issues a challenge, “I want you to stop me.” It marks the start of a deadly game between Jim and Ryder that will claim the lives of many before it’s through.
Before The Hitcher, Hauer already had several iconic performances under his belt. His portrayal of replicant Roy Batty in Blade Runner marked an all-time career-high, but he also turned out equally commanding villains in Flesh+Blood and Nighthawks. He’d openly stated he wanted to move on from villainous parts in interviews, but Eric Red’s script drew him in instantly. That was fortuitous as Hauer was Harmon’s first choice to play John Ryder.
John Ryder remains an enigma throughout. His identity and backstory never come into play, and the lack of identification makes it all the easier for Ryder to pin the bodies piling up alongside the stretch of road on Jim. The elusiveness of Ryder is instantly intriguing, giving the character an almost supernatural feel as he takes far more damage than a human can usually withstand. The lack of character reveals also makes Ryder far more frightening as a psychopath gleefully killing without any apparent reason or motive.
Hauer elevates the already excellent material with a calculated and level-headed approach. Lines like, “Because I cut off his legs. And his arms. And his head. And I’m going to do the same to you,” become downright chilling with Hauer’s icy delivery. With a straight face and a bemused look in his eye, Ryder takes great pleasure in his sadism. This maniac enjoys inflicting psychological torture, perhaps more than homicide itself.
The evolution in the relationship between killer and target adds a unique layer to this propulsive thriller. It begins with a promise of violence. With every subsequent encounter, Ryder instead seems to be more interested in shaping Jim into a like-minded killer. In the film’s most infamous scene, Ryder finds Jim’s hotel room and kidnaps Nash (Jennifer Jason Leigh). Ryder strings her up between two trucks then climbs into the cab. Knowing they can’t take out Ryder without killing Nash in the process, the police send in Jim, hoping he can talk Ryder down. Instead, Ryder hands Jim a revolver and tells him to shoot. When Jim refuses, a disappointed Ryder ends Nash’s life. Ryder offers up his own life freely, hoping to push Jim into committing murder. Poor Nash would be dead regardless of which choice Jim makes, so this grisly scene is more about the battle for Jim’s soul.
It works. While Jim relents in this choice, it marks the shift that heralds in the climax with Jim now chasing down Ryder. Jim runs Ryder off the road and finishes him with a shotgun blast. The Hitcher ends as it begins with Jim striking up a match to smoke, alone on an empty stretch of Texas desert. But Jim isn’t the same person that he was in the opening; he’s been battered, psychologically scarred, and manipulated by a ruthless killer who has successfully left an indelible mark in his psyche.
The psychological back and forth between Jim and Ryder, acted to perfection by Howell and Hauer, sets this road thriller apart. Ryder is a terrifying and ruthless killer, but the truth is that Harmon leaves most of the deaths to the viewer’s imagination. It’s Hauer who sells it. The Hitcher was released thirty-five years ago on February 21, 1986, and with it came one of horror’s most unforgettable villains of all time.
source https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3652798/hitcher-turns-35-remembering-rutger-hauers-terrifying-performance-feb-21/
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