The episode of Revisited covering Joy Ride was Written, Edited, and Narrated by Kier Gomes, Produced by Tyler Nichols and John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.
Prank calls are like a right of passage for children of the 80s and 90s. The ritual of hanging out at a friend’s house on a Saturday night when you’re a kid usually included at least one or two calls to unsuspecting households with immature and entertaining interactions. Harmless enough? Well… Mostly. What if the person you prank called turned out to be a sadistic serial killer with limited patience for practical jokes, and even less patience for unruly young people who waste his time and give him the dreaded… blue balls. That is the premise for 2001’s Joy Ride (watch it HERE) – a horror thriller about a pair of brothers and their childhood friend who are making their way cross-country when a road trip prank gone wrong results in a relentless weekend of death, car chases, sabotage and even a bit of pink champagne. It’s a movie that plays on the classic teen slasher moodiness while also substituting blood and guts with more subtle haunts like the monotone and rough voice of the killer being the main terrifier in the story.
The movie opens with Lewis Thompson, played by a newly famed Paul Walker- as he buys a car following his first year at Berkley and plans to drive all the way from California to Colorado to pick up his girlfriend Vena, played by Leelee Sobieski, and take her back home for the summer. When Lewis gets a call that his older brother Fuller, played by the criminally underrated Steve Zahn, was arrested in Utah, Lewis takes a detour to collect his brother before the two pick up Vena.
The characters introduced so far are definitely tropey, but I think for this kind of movie, it’s kind of perfect. We have Lewis as the young, innocent straight man, Fuller as the edgy and less put together comic relief, and a series of roadside hick cops and diner employees to build out this rural highway environment. Little has been reported about the production of this film, but director John Dahl- who you’d know as the director of Rounders and several episodes of Showtime’s Dexter– has gone on record stating that the film consists of MANY endings which have since been seen by fans of the film in the movie’s DVD release. And make sure you stick around to the end because we’re going to talk all about them.
While on the road, Fuller buys Lewis a CB radio as a gag gift for their trip. The two immediately begin tinkering around with the device until Fuller has the brilliant idea to make a prank call out to a lonely truck driver who goes by the handle Rusty Nail. He convinced Lewis to use a woman’s voice and seduce the truck driver over the radio- which is equal parts mean spirited and entertaining for the two boys. The voice of the man they prank is the sandy and gravelly voice of actor Ted Levine, who also starred in The Fast and the Furious with Walker that same year. While Ted Levine isn’t credited in the movie- you’d recognize his voice immediately if you’ve ever seen him in a film.
The truck driver is never fully identified- but he seems to take quite a liking to Lewis under his CB radio prank call alias, Candy Cane. It gets a little too real for the boys, and they cut the conversation off thinking that’s the end of it. But, oh man… it’s not. Not even a little.
When the brothers stop off at a roadside motel for then night, Fuller has a small and harmless altercation with a fellow patron of the motel and decides that the best revenge would be invite their new CB radio friend over to meet with his beloved Candy Cane. They call him on the radio and invite him to the room of the customer Fuller had beef with, which is right next door to their own room. The plan is for the truck driver to show up with a bottle of pink champagne and be surprised when the person he visits is just a regular dude… So… Is this a prank on the dude they had an altercation with or a prank on the truck driver who up to this point, did nothing to deserve this… Well, don’t feel too bad because it turns out the truck driver is a violent killer that deserves much worse than a few prank calls.
So, things begin getting increasingly scary for the brothers as they discover the truck driver has killed the man in the hotel room, and the police are nowhere near catching him. When they hit the road and head towards Denver to pick up Vena, they start receiving CB radio calls from Rusty Nail, who is now taunting them and looking for Candy Cane. Of course we know that Candy Cane is just Paul Walker with a third-rate female voice, and thanks to the taunting nature of Fuller’s interaction with Rusty- now he knows too. This ain’t gonna be good…
So, the cat is out of the bag and now the two boys have admitted the prank to Rusty, and they think it’s all over now. As it turns out, he’s not ready in the slightest to let it go. He begins harassing the boys from their radio and as things get more and more scary- their only comfort is knowing that their true identities and location are unknown to the lonely driver. Rusty Nail drops THIS bomb on them… “You should really get your taillight fixed.” This line STILL haunts the absolute shit out of me.
Now, we’re about halfway through the film and at this point, things are all shaken up for our main characters. They’ve caused an innocent man to be attacked, they’ve completely triggered a psychotic truck driver, and they’ve gotten no closer to getting themselves home safely.
The scene at the midway point when the boys first encounter Rusty Nails is a real edge-of-your-seat sequence. They get you with fake-outs where you think you see the killer but it turns out to be a helpful bystander, and you get a real confrontation between our guys and the killer. A confrontation that literally made me sigh a breath of relief when Fuller finally apologizes to the trucker just before the brothers meet their demise. This shit is BANANAS, people, I’m telling you.
Well, I’d say it’s about time something good happened here seeing as so far, it’s been mostly doom and gloom. The guys pick up Vena and hit the road for Denver. At first, it’s nothing but a fun and simple road trip adventure. You know, beef jerky and truck stop souvenirs, cheap tequila shots at dive bars, and even a little drunken scuffle at that bar.
Well, the good times roll but not for long. As Rusty Nails calls Lewis’ hotel room to taunt him once again. We thought the beef was squashed but when Rusty notice that the boys were now traveling with a cute young girl, he begins terrorizing the crew more than ever.
The motivation of our antagonist in this movie is very interesting. See, this guy is obviously a complete monster- who else would do something this horrific- but it seems that the humiliation of falling for such a juvenile pranks is really the driving force here. This is proven by the scene where Rusty Nail kidnaps Vena’s friend Charlotte and threatens to kill her if Lewis and Fuller don’t go into a diner stark naked and eat 6 cheeseburgers each, simply because… it’s embarrassing. This is the probably the least fucked up thing he does to these kids…
When the crew is instructed to travel to a roadside hotel and find Charlotte before she dies, the movie enters its final act. After chasing our main characters through a cornfield in his semi, Rusty Nail is able to kidnap Vena and use her as bait for the boys. You never fully see the killer as he’s either obscured by darkness, or hiding behind the high beams on his semi- but the voice of Ted Levine is enough to make this movie hinge on that one single aspect. It actually makes it much more effective in delivering the chills up my spine.
Fuller and Lewis are now scouring every motel on the side of the highway trying to find the girls before it’s too late- all the while we see Vena being tied up and the door of her room being rigged with a shotgun that is aimed right at her face. It’s here where Fuller gets to redeem his character’s rougher edges and complete a full arch when he essentially sacrifices his own safety to save Vena. This scene feels VERY well earned and more impactful because we’ve seen Fuller trying and not doing the best job at being an upstanding character. He’s not a bad guy and he’s not completely unlikable, but this scene makes us root for him.
So, right in the nick of time, Lewis is able to save his brother and his girlfriend and the police show up to take down the sadistic truck driver. After a shootout, the police stop the truck and discover Charlotte is alive and being held captive in the truck. Cut to a proper horror cliché ending scene with the main characters sitting in the back of an ambulance while the crane shot captures the final conversation… Only…
OOF, that’s right folks. The trucker is still out there and seemingly ready to strike again. And that’s the way it ends.
Except- there’s also 4 other versions to this ending that have since been released on the film’s physical media. According to John Dahl, this theatrical ending is the only ending in which Rusty Nail survives. The other versions would’ve shown the Killer nearly getting caught but getting shot to death instead, one where he blows up in his truck from the shootout, one where he kills himself, and even one where the police discover a huge stash of dead bodies in his truck before he dies. Ya know, I think the thetrical ending with him still being out there is the best ending. And it’s a shame that it was a bit of a waste as the Joy Ride sequel released in 2008 called Joy Ride: Dead Ahead and the later third installment Joy Ride: Roadkill were released straight to video and never saw any kind of acclaim.
In the end, this movie offers a chilling mystery and fun early 2000s characters to sink your teeth into. If you’re in the mood for a gritty thriller with a kick ass soundtrack and some great visuals- check out Joy Ride. But make sure your seatbelts are securely fastened first…
Two previous episodes of Revisited can be seen below. To see more of our shows, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals channel – and subscribe while you’re at it!