The Hitcher - Why I Still Love It 

CHRISTOPHER Nolan has described 1986 thriller The Hitcher as one of his favourite films.

He said in a 2024 interview: “As a teenager, I never questioned the logic of this 80’s chiller, but now it seems mind-bendingly arbitrary plot-wise ... However, it does feature the criminally under-appreciated Rutger Hauer in his finest and most influential Euro-psycho performance this side of Blade Runner.”

My own journey with it started around the same time as Nolan’s. The film first came to my attention as a preview in a free cinema newspaper ( precursor to Flicks) that featured shots of the climactic tussle. Even the photographs looked thrilling.

Of course, I was too young to see it in cinemas in ‘86 (being four years shy of the 18 certificate). But as the film gained momentum on video, a best friend saw it and loved it, placing it almost on a par with the likes of Jaws and Alien for a film that I couldn’t wait to see.

Once I did, the film didn’t disappoint.

With time, The Hitcher’s flaws have become more obvious. There’s often a lack of logic to its scenes (most recently pointed out by my 14-year-old son), not to mention a predictability (again, highlighted via my son). Although even he admitted to finding Rutger Hauer’s central character kind of cool.

And therein lies the film’s true power - and, arguably, its reason for having become such a cult classic.

Hauer is something of a force of nature in the film: a chilling yet oddly charismatic presence who manages to be both remorselessly vicious yet strangely comical with it. There’s a mysticism surrounding his performance that defies easy explanation given some of the truly heinous acts his John Ryder commits.

Early on, for instance, he slays an entire family, while even prior to that he admits to C Thomas Howell’s unwitting Jim Halsey that he has dismembered and decapitated his previous victim. And that’s not forgetting the film’s most notorious scene, involving his decision to tie Jennifer Jason Leigh’s unlucky waitress Nash to a lorry and rip her in half after once more attempting to goad Halsey into stopping him.

It’s a scene that, at the time, many of the film’s potential financial backers balked at. But even though director Robert Harmon vowed to keep it, he never intended to actually show it. The film’s sense of restraint perhaps going some way to ensuring that Hauer’s villain wasn’t completely despised.

Rather, by keeping the scene’s focus on Hauer himself, the film allows him to work some magic of his own, hinting at a boredom in his killing that yearns for it to end. He does, after all, inform Halsey that “I want you to stop me” early on - and frequently seems to want to embrace his fate at Halsey’s hands.

But there’s also a delicious ambiguity to Hauer’s performance too, whether it’s in the way that he continually comes to the kid’s rescue, or his obvious enjoyment of the game he sets in motion. And there’s also a nicely honed sense of comic timing when he belatedly informs a police officer, when asked where he came from, “Disneyland”.

All of this creates that mysticism, toying with the suspicion that he could be supernatural in origin - a kerbside drifter quite literally from hell. Again, Hauer once referred to the film as an allegory in which Ryder represents evil.

If Hauer is the film’s biggest asset, there are many other elements that work too. Howell is a solid foil, nicely understated, suitably out of his depth, yet increasingly someone who finds himself connected to his tormentor. It’s a believable performance. While Leigh offers a rare ray of light: a decent woman completely undeserving of her grisly fate, especially given the plucky way she conducts herself throughout the film in a predominantly male world.

Harmon’s direction is also very slick. The Hitcher is a fast-moving thriller that boasts several fine action sequences, including a multi-car chase sequence (also involving a helicopter) that features some spectacularly staged crashes and a climactic tussle between Halsey and Ryder that is very nicely choreographed.

The director also makes the most of the screen-time between Hauer and Howell, making each exchange memorable in some way: a mid-film confrontation in a diner being a standout for the upper hand that Ryder always seems to have, as well as a somewhat surreal exchange while Ryder is in custody that seems to double down on the connection between the two.

Having revisited it again recently, The Hitcher still works for all of the reasons it did when I first saw it. Perhaps more so given the mystery that still surrounds its central villain and the legacy attached to Hauer’s unforgettable performance.

It’s an endlessly fascinating piece of work that somehow manages to combine the grotesque with a timeless sense of cool. I’m sure I’ll be thumbing a ride with it again some day.

Certificate: 18

Running time: 1hr 37mins