He punishes those who he sees as committing some form of injustice (especially when he himself is the victim of it, though he has punished those who have wronged others besides himself, as well), whether it is pulling a prank on him, taking one of his cars, or refusing a request. Another thing known about Rusty is that he has at least above-average physical strength (especially considering that he does not seem to have a very burly build), shown by the fact that he is able to tear a man's jaw off with one hand. One thing known about him is that he owns a farmhouse out in the country where he lives when he is not on long haul trucking jobs (the barn attached to it is where he enjoys torturing his victims). But what is known about him is that he is a homicidal lunatic, he has an extremely aggressive temper, and all who cross his path are completely at his mercy. Also, other truckers could be spotting for him, and every semi in the background looks ominous.Not much is known about Rusty Nail. That would also explain some (but not all) of his info about Venna's roommate Charlotte ( Jessica Bowman). It's puzzling at first how Rusty Nail, whose truck would seem to be hard to hide, is apparently able to follow them everywhere and know what they're doing my guess is, when he tells them ''look in the trunk'' and they find their CB radio there, he's rigged it so he can eavesdrop on them. Abrams, find the details and pacing to make the unlikely into the inevitable. It will be impossible for critics to review this movie without mentioning Steven Spielberg's TV debut film, ''Duel'' (1971), and it does admittedly feature an implacable foe in a big truck, but the details are all different and original, and John Dahl (" Red Rock West" " The Last Seduction") is a master of menace in everyday life. It is a convention in road movies that the heroes never take the interstate, and always find ramshackle gas stations that in real life have been bankrupt for years the atmosphere of menace is further underlined by the obligatory redneck bar with the menacing drunks who threaten the girl (Zahn's character defuses this situation with a brilliant improvisation). The movie then settles into a series of high-tension action scenes, as Rusty Nail, driving an enormous semi, tracks the Chrysler down the back roads of the Plains states. He somehow finds a note of realistic goofiness he's funny, but you believe he's like this all the time. Later, when the guy in Room 18 is found in the middle of the road in a coma and Fuller is talking to the police, he says he heard a noise like-well, you have to hear Zahn performing it. The device of the never-seen enemy is particularly effective here, as Rusty Nail pounds on the door of the neighbor, there are some indistinct voices, and then a long silence. The practical jokers are next door in Room 18. ''She'' says she'll be in Room 17 of a roadside motel-which, Lewis and Fuller know, will be occupied by a customer who's a particularly obnoxious racist. As Candy Cane, Lewis makes a date with a trucker named Rusty Nail. Fuller, who has a gift for attracting trouble, and another gift for seeking it out when it doesn't come to him, talks Lewis into buying a $40 citizen's band radio (''kind of a prehistoric internet''), and then eggs him into imitating a woman's voice on the air. The plot has already tightened its screws. This evens the score, I guess, for the mountains that were in the background in " Rumble In The Bronx". No matter. Then it's on to Boulder, while we have lots of time to wonder why the movie spends so much time repeating that Venna goes to Boulder, Boulder, Boulder-only to show us an absolutely flat neocolonial campus with no mountains in the background. Lewis makes a detour along the way-to Salt Lake City, where his feckless brother Fuller ( Steve Zahn, with a ''What? Me Worry?'' expression) needs to be bailed out on drunk charges. Ordinarily the Newport would be a convertible it needs to be a hardtop this time, so they can be trapped inside. True to the Ebert's Little Movie Glossary entry, which explains that all movie heroes on cross-country journeys drive gas-guzzling classics, Lewis buys a 1971 Chrysler Newport (most of the cars since 1980 look nerdy).
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