History Film / Breakdown

* EvilPlan: [[spoiler:Red and his crew target tourists with broken-down cars, kidnap them by offering them a ride, say they'll let them go if they give up all the money in their bank accounts, then kill them anyway. It's implied they even cause the breakdowns to begin with, as Earl gloats to Jeff that sabotaging his car was easy.]]

Jeff Taylor (Russell) and his wife Amy (Quinlan) are driving cross-country from Boston to San Diego. The first sign of trouble is a barely-avoided collision with a truck, followed by meeting its driver, Earl, (Creator/MCGainey), at the gas station. Not long after leaving the station, their vehicle breaks down. A trucker named Warren "Red" Barr (Creator/JTWalsh) stops by and offers to take Amy to a nearby diner, from where she can hopefully call for help. Jeff soon finds out that their vehicle had a very specific problem: disconnected wires. And when he gets to the diner, Amy is nowhere to be seen. The rest of the movie follows Jeff as he struggles to find his wife.

* CorruptHick: Subverted. At first Jeff ''thinks'' the local police and sheriff are like this through a combination of their quite justified skepticism of [[YouHaveToBelieveMe his story]] and only going through the motions in helping him, and further aided by Jeff's paranoia (which was in fact counted on and planted by the villains). But it turns out they really have nothing to do with the plot, and as soon as one of the cops becomes aware there really is something strange going on, [[HopeSpot he takes action to investigate]]. Unfortunately, this leads to him getting shot by Earl, so that Jeff is on his own again.

* ShutUpHannibal: Near the end of the movie, Red starts to threaten Jeff and his wife (the latter having just been rescued from the [[StuffedInTheFridge chest freezer]] in which the villains left her to suffocate), only to be silenced nine words in when a severely stressed-out Jeff screams "You '''FUCK!!!'''" and kicks him in the face.

* FamousLastWords: "Hey, ''SHIT-FOR-BRAINS''!" [[spoiler:Earl.]]

Jeff Taylor (Russell) and his wife Amy (Quinlan) are driving cross-country from Boston to San Diego. The first sign of trouble is a barely-avoided collision with a truck, followed by meeting its driver, Earl, (Creator/MCGainey), at the gas station. Not long after leaving the station, their vehicle breaks down. A trucker named Warren "Red" Barr (J.T. Walsh) stops by and offers to take Amy to a nearby diner, from where she can hopefully call for help. Jeff soon finds out that their vehicle had a very specific problem: disconnected wires. And when he gets to the diner, Amy is nowhere to be seen. The rest of the movie follows Jeff as he struggles to find his wife.

Jeff Taylor (Russell) and his wife Amy (Quinlan) are driving cross-country from Boston to San Diego. The first sign of trouble is a barely-avoided collision with a truck, followed by meeting its driver, Earl, (M.C. Gainey), at the gas station. Not long after leaving the station, their vehicle breaks down. A trucker named Warren "Red" Barr (J.T. Walsh) stops by and offers to take Amy to a nearby diner, from where she can hopefully call for help. Jeff soon finds out that their vehicle had a very specific problem: disconnected wires. And when he gets to the diner, Amy is nowhere to be seen. The rest of the movie follows Jeff as he struggles to find his wife.

Jeff Taylor (Russell) and his wife Amy (Quinlan) are driving cross-country from Boston to San Diego. The first sign of trouble is a barely-avoided collision with a truck. Followed by meeting its driver, Earl, (M.C. Gainey), at the gas station. Not long after leaving the station, their vehicle breaks down. A trucker named Warren "Red" Barr (J.T. Walsh) stops by and offers to take Amy to a nearby diner, from where she can hopefully call for help. Jeff soon finds out that their vehicle had a very specific problem: disconnected wires. And when he gets to the diner, Amy is nowhere to be seen. The rest of the movie follows Jeff as he struggles to find his wife.

* ConvenientlyPlacedSharpThing: Enforced. Jeff [[spoiler:steals a letter opener from the bank, probably to use as a weapon, but it comes in handy when he is tied up. Then he uses it as a weapon.]]
* CoolCar: Jeff's brand new car. It also [[spoiler:makes him look like a wealthy target to the kidnappers.]]
* CorruptHick: Subverted. At first Jeff ''thinks'' the local police and sheriff are like this through a combination of their quite justified skepticism of [[YouHaveToBelieveMe his story]] and only going through the motions in helping him, and further aided by Jeff's paranoia (which was in fact counted on and planted by the villains). But it turns out they really have nothing to do with the plot, and as soon as one of the cops becomes aware there really is something strange going on, [[HopeSpot he takes action to investigate]]. Unfortunately this leads to him getting shot by Earl, so that Jeff is on his own again.

* EvilGloating: Earl, after he has [[spoiler:taken Jeff's money, and has him tied up in his car. His gloating lets Jeff know why they were targeted, and that the kidnappers intend to kill them anyway.]]
* FamousLastWords: "Hey, ''SHIT-FOR-BRAINS''!" [[spoiler: Earl.]]
* GuileHero: Amy, who [[spoiler: avoids getting killed by telling the kidnappers Jeff has a lot of money.]] Jeff also [[spoiler:manages to keep up the charade long enough to locate Amy.]]

* HateSink: Red Barr or "Warren" as his real name is obviously meant to be despised as he turns out to be a cruel and sociopathic serial killer who is responsible for kidnapping Amy. He fulfills his schemes by lying to Jeff, making him paranoid and distraught, and refusing to listen to reason. The film itself went out of the way to let the audience know how much Jeff hates that guy. Also, Earl, one of Red's thugs, is almost assuredly this as well for the film. Not only does he set the whole plot in motion by [[spoiler: sabotaging Jeff and Amy's car]], but he proceeds to be one of biggest [[JerkAss Jerkasses]] in cinematic history. From routinely insulting Jeff to [[EvilGloating gloating about how he's going to kill Jeff and his wife]], there's never a moment where he comes off as an even slightly likable person. It makes it all the more satisfying when [[spoiler: Jeff smashes his face open with the butt of his own pistol, forcefully interrogates him by duct-taping his neck around his headrest and slamming the brakes, and then the sheriff finally shoots him dead]].

** In Red's [[spoiler:kitchen, Jeff thinks he's got Red, Billy, and Al right where he wants them...then Red's son comes in pointing a rifle at him.]]
** Earl, [[spoiler:when he realizes the stacks of money are simply 1-dollar bills sandwiches by two 100-dollar bills]]

** It's actually an interesting subversion, in that Earl is completely wrong about Jeff and Amy being "rich assholes looking for trouble." They're actually middle-class people who are ''not'' looking for trouble; Earl is just a serious hypocrite. And his surprise when he learn how wrong he is causes him to drop his guard for a second... and Jeff is able to overpower him.

* ShutUpHannibal: Near the end of the movie, Red starts to threaten Jeff and his wife (the latter having just been rescued from the [[StuffedInTheFridge chest freezer]] in which the villains left her to suffocate) only to be silenced nine words in when a severely stressed-out Jeff screams "You '''FUCK!!!'''" and kicks him in the face.

** It gets even worse when Jeff follows the BigBad home and discovers that he's an ordinary family man with a wife and kid -- neither of which has any idea of [[SerialKiller what he does in his spare time]].

* HateSink: Red Barr or "Warren" as his real name is obviously meant to be despised as he turns out to be a cruel and sociopathic serial killer who is responsible for kidnapping Amy. He fulfills his schemes by lying to Jeff, making him paranoid and distraught, and refusing to listen to reason. The film itself went out of the way to let the audience know how much Jeff hates that guy. Earl, one of Red's thugs, is almost assuredly this as well for the film. Not only does he set the whole plot in motion by [[spoiler: sabotaging Jeff and Amy's car]], but he proceeds to be one of biggest [[JerkAss Jerkasses]] in cinematic history. From routinely insulting Jeff to [[EvilGloating gloating about how he's going to kill Jeff and his wife]], there's never a moment where he comes off as an even slightly likable person. It makes it all the more satisfying when [[spoiler: Jeff smashes his face open with the butt of his own pistol, forcefully interrogates him by duct-taping his neck around his headrest and slamming the brakes, and then the sheriff finally shoots him dead]].

* HateSink: Red Barr or "Warren" as his real name is obviously meant to be despised as he turns out to be a cruel and sociopathic serial killer who is responsible for kidnapping Amy. He fulfills his schemes by lying to Jeff, making him paranoid and distraught, and refusing to listen to reason. The film itself went out of the way to let the audience know how much Jeff hates that guy.
Earl, one of Red's thugs, is almost assuredly this as well for the film. Not only does he set the whole plot in motion by [[spoiler: sabotaging Jeff and Amy's car]], but he proceeds to be one of biggest [[JerkAss Jerkasses]] in cinematic history. From routinely insulting Jeff to [[EvilGloating gloating about how he's going to kill Jeff and his wife]], there's never a moment where he comes off as an even slightly likable person. It makes it all the more satisfying when [[spoiler: Jeff smashes his face open with the butt of his own pistol, forcefully interrogates him by duct-taping his neck around his headrest and slamming the brakes, and then the sheriff finally shoots him dead]].

* HateSink: Earl is almost assuredly this for the film. Not only does he set the whole plot in motion by [[spoiler: sabotaging Jeff and Amy's car]], but he proceeds to be one of biggest [[JerkAss Jerkasses]] in cinematic history. From routinely insulting Jeff to [[EvilGloating gloating about how he's going to kill Jeff and his wife]], there's never a moment where he comes off as an even slightly likable person. It makes it all the more satisfying when [[spoiler: Jeff smashes his face open with the butt of his own pistol, forcefully interrogates him by duct-taping his neck around his headrest and slamming the brakes, and then the sheriff finally shoots him dead]].

Jeff Taylor (Russell) and his wife Amy (Quintana) are driving cross-country from Boston to San Diego. The first sign of trouble is a barely-avoided collision with a truck. Followed by meeting its driver, Earl, (M.C. Gainey), at the gas station. Not long after leaving the station, their vehicle breaks down. A trucker named Warren "Red" Barr (J.T. Walsh) stops by and offers to take Amy to a nearby diner, from where she can hopefully call for help. Jeff soon finds out that their vehicle had a very specific problem: disconnected wires. And when he gets to the diner, Amy is nowhere to be seen. The rest of the movie follows Jeff as he struggles to find his wife.