Basic Trope: A hitchhiker attacks or victimizes the driver who picks them up.
- Straight: Pete accepts a ride from Carol. Then he pulls out a knife (or gun) and robs her.
- Exaggerated: Pete accepts a ride from Carol. He assaults her (possibly even kidnapping, raping, or murdering her), and then steals her car to go on a road trip in order to commit more crimes.
- Downplayed: Pete doesn't do anything violent, but he does surreptitiously steal some money out of Carol's glove compartment.
- Justified: Pete is an escaped convict or mental patient. Carol really should have obeyed those warning signs that were placed near the penitentiary / psychiatric hospital.
- Inverted: Pete accepts a ride from Carol. Then she pulls out a knife (or gun) on him.
- Subverted: Pete has the Face of a Thug and first appears in a Lightning Reveal, but he is actually perfectly pleasant to Carol.
- Double Subverted: ...Because his real goal is to figure out where she lives so he can lie in wait for her there.
- Parodied: Pete tries to thumb a ride while decked out in full Hockey Mask and Chainsaw.
- Zig Zagged: Both Pete and Carol are psycho criminals. Once they are in the same car, they spend the rest of the night taking turns being the cat and the mouse.
- Averted:
- Pete and Carol have a completely uneventful ride together.
- Nobody hitchhikes at all.
- Enforced: Writer: "Think we can get away with a Whole-Plot Reference to The Hitcher?"
- Lampshaded: "Haven't you noticed that recently everybody who is walking by the side of the road looks like a maniac?"
- Invoked: Carol is a Death Seeker and picks up Pete hoping he'll murder her.
- Exploited: While riding with Carol, Janet spots her Sitcom Arch-Nemesis Pete by the side of the road and, out of a petty desire to inconvenience him, warns Carol about the dangers of picking up hitchhikers.
- Defied: Carol sees Pete thumbing and doesn't like the look of him, so she doesn't stop.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
Back to Hostile Hitchhiker.
