Joy Ride redirects here. For other uses of "Joy Ride" or "Joyride", see Joyride.

{{Infobox_Film | name = Joy Ride | image = Joy Ride Poster.jpg | caption = Original theatrical poster | director = John Dahl | producer = J.J. Abrams
Chris Moore | writer = Clay Tarver
J.J. Abrams | narrator = | starring = Steve Zahn
Paul Walker
Leelee Sobieski
Ted Levine {voice}
Jessica Bowman | music = Marco Beltrami | cinematography = Jeff Jur | editing = Eric L. Beason
Scott Chestnut
Todd E. Miller
Glen Scantlebury | distributor = Twentieth Century Fox | released = October 5, 2001 | runtime = 98 mins | country = United States of America | language = English | budget = | gross = | preceded_by = | followed_by = Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead | website = | amg_id = | imdb_id = 0206314 }}

Joy Ride is a 2001 thriller film directed by John Dahl and starring Paul Walker, Leelee Sobieski and Steve Zahn and is a remake of the same-named 1977 film. It was written by Clay Tarver and J.J. Abrams. In Australia and the UK (where Joyride has specific connotations) it was retitled Roadkill. According to IMDb, the movie was filmed between late September 1999 to February 2000, but sat unreleased for more than a year and a half, before finally being released in October 2001.

Plot

Lewis Thomas (Paul Walker)is a young man who decides to go cross-country to pick up his high school sweetheart, Venna Wilcox (Leelee Sobieski), from college. On his way there, he bails his brother, Fuller Thomas (Steve Zahn), out of jail. Fuller, looking for a good time, decides to ride with Lewis to pick up Venna. During their trip to pick up Venna, Fuller coaxes Lewis into playing a cruel joke, pretending to be a woman with the name Candy Cane, through their CB radio, on a truck driver, known only as 'Rusty Nail' (voiced by Ted Levine). When the joke takes a deadly turn, Lewis, Venna, and Fuller find themselves being relentlessly stalked by the psychotic truck driver who is looking for more than an apology.

Rusty Nail continues to stalk and taunt the three, and kidnaps Venna's friend, holding her hostage, before kidnapping Venna herself in a cornfield. Rusty Nail sets up a meeting for Fuller and Lewis at a motel, where he has set a trap that will kill the bound and gagged Venna if either of them open the door to the room. Fuller attempts to save Venna, but is injured by Rusty Nail, who gets to him before he can help. Lewis saves Fuller, and the brothers save Venna just in time before Rusty Nail crashes his truck into the hotel room. Meanwhile, the police have shown up, and they investigate Rusty Nail's truck, seeing a dead body in the driver's seat and the bound and gagged Charlotte on the floor. Thinking that Rusty Nail is dead the three huddle around an ambulance and get treated for their injuries. A CB in the ambulance is on and they hear a man that sounds like Rusty Nail recite a line that he had previously said in the beginning.

Featured cast

Actor	Role
Steve Zahn	Fuller Thomas
Paul Walker	Lewis Thomas
Leelee Sobieski	Venna Wilcox
Jessica Bowman	Charlotte
Ted Levine	Voice of Rusty Nail
Matthew Kimbrough	Rusty Nail
Stuart Stone	Danny (Lewis' Roommate)

Sequel

A direct-to-dvd sequel entitled Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead is set for an October 2008 release. The film will be directed by Louis Morneau, and will be starring Nick Zano, Kyle Schmid, Nicki Aycox, Rebecca Davis, Kathryn Kirkpatrick and Laura Jordan. The film will be distributed by 20th Century Fox.

Reception

Joy Ride was well received by critics, with a current score of 73% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

References

External links

• Official Site