From Wikipedia:
Joy Ride, also known as Road Kill, is a 2001 American thriller road movie. The film was written by J. J. Abrams and Clay Tarver, and directed by John Dahl. It stars Steve Zahn, Paul Walker, and Leelee Sobieski.
Lewis Thomas (Paul Walker), a university student at UC Berkeley in California, is packing to fly home at the end of his freshman year and the beginning of summer break. In an attempt to get his childhood friend, Venna (Leelee Sobieski), who attends the University of Colorado at Boulder, romantically interested in him, Lewis offers to pick her up and drive her home in a scenic and pleasant cross-country road trip. She enthusiastically agrees. He gets a refund on his airline ticket and uses the money to buy a 1971 Chrysler Newport, heading east to Colorado. However, his mother calls and asks him to bail out his troublesome older brother, Fuller (Steve Zahn), in Salt Lake City. Much to Lewis's chagrin, Fuller invites himself on the trip.
The brothers stop at a truck stop near the Wyoming border, where Fuller buys a CB radio for $40 merely for the purpose of fun and breaking the tension in the car. He chats with several truckers in a mock hillbilly accent. When one of the truckers gives a brief cryptic speech, Fuller coaxes Lewis into playing a cruel prank on the mysterious driver, who identifies himself as "Rusty Nail" (Ted Levine). Lewis pretends to be an attractive young woman named "Candy Cane," and sets up a meeting with Rusty Nail in the motel where Lewis and Fuller will be spending the night, in Table Rock, Wyoming, and tells him to bring a bottle of pink champagne.
Rusty Nail apparently falls for the joke, genuinely believing Lewis to be female. Instead of telling him to go to room 18, which is their room, Lewis then gives him the number of the room next door to his, room 17, which is occupied by a largely built, highly irritable and obnoxious businessman (Kenneth White), who had a brief altercation with Fuller while he was checking in, and racially abused the Native American night manager. That cold and rainy night, the brothers are waiting for Rusty Nail to arrive, and they hear him knocking on the next door. They listen, and they hear a brutal attack and the screams of the businessman. In shock, they stay in their room for the rest of the night.
The next morning, the brothers are questioned by the local police and discover that it was the businessman who was brutally attacked and horrifically mutilated with his jaw ripped, found alive nearby but in a coma. Rusty Nail, meanwhile, has easily evaded the authorities, due to his anonymity and also the untraceable nature of CB radio. Lewis tells the police everything that occurred, and they are ordered to leave Wyoming before sunset. Back on the road, they encounter Rusty Nail on the CB radio again, who demands the whereabouts of "Candy Cane". Lewis tells him about the joke, and Rusty Nail demands an apology, but Fuller simply yells at him abusively. Rusty Nail then makes a comment that they should fix their tail light-revealing that he can see them.
Horrified, Lewis and Fuller speed off as fast as they can, and eventually find a nearby gas station to fill up. To their horror, an ice truck enters the station. Convinced the driver must be Rusty Nail, they flee in panic, and the ice truck gives chase. They soon discover the driver is actually one Mr. Jones (Satch Huizenga), and is merely trying to return Lewis' credit card, which he left behind at the gas station. At that moment, the real Rusty Nail plows through the ice truck, killing Jones. Another chase ensues, and when they reach a dead end, Rusty Nail slowly drives his truck into their vehicle, turning it on its side, compelling Fuller to apologize and explain the reason for the joke. Rusty Nail accepts the apology and drives away, declaring his actions to be simply a retaliatory joke.
Believing themselves to be safe, the brothers meet up with Venna in Boulder, Colorado, and are introduced to her roommate, Charlotte (Jessica Bowman). While the three spend a night at a motel, Rusty Nail calls, believing they lied about the presence of a girl. He reveals he has kidnapped Charlotte, and is holding her hostage, and orders Lewis and Fuller to go into a crowded Nebraska diner completely nude, under the threat of killing Charlotte, so that they would understand the feeling of being "the butt of the joke". Next, he orders them to drive to a cornfield just inside the Nebraska border, step out, and walk 100 ft (50 m) ahead of the car. The truck then ploughs through the field, separating all three, and Rusty Nail kidnaps Venna, and destroys their car, though not before instructing them to meet him in Room 17 of a nearby motel, with pink champagne. But he does not specify which motel they must go to, and there are several in the nearby town.
As Fuller and Lewis search frantically, Rusty Nail binds Venna to a chair nailed to the floor with shrink wrap, gags her with scotch tape, and rigs a trap using wire attached to the trigger of a shotgun aimed at her head, and the door of the motel room, so that when opened, it will kill her. Eventually, Fuller and Lewis arrive at the right motel, but find room 17 empty. Rusty calls them and indicates that he is in the room next door. Fuller sneaks round the back, and hears muffled talking. He spots Venna through a window, but is attacked by Rusty Nail and barely manages to prevent Lewis from killing Venna. Rusty Nail nails Fuller to a nearby fence, and prepares to drive his truck into him. At that moment, the police arrive (called by Rusty Nail himself, reporting three bodies) and after Lewis manages to push Venna out of the way of the shotgun, he saves Fuller, just as the truck crashes through the motel. Inside the truck, they find a bloodied, dead body in the driver's seat and the bound and gagged Charlotte on the floor. Believing that Rusty Nail is dead, the three huddle around an ambulance and receive treatment for their injuries. At this point, the body is revealed to be the innocent ice truck driver, Mr. Jones. Lewis, Fuller, and Venna listen to the CB radio of the ambulance as Rusty Nail gives another brief cryptic speech, indicating his survival and escape.
The movie ends with Rusty Nail's catchphrase; " I like the rain- keeps everyone inside, washes everything clean"
Rated as 15 certifiucate and not to be supplied to persons below that age.
