Breakdown

Breakdown (1997) is Jonathan Mostow's lean highway thriller starring Kurt Russell, free to watch online on iFILM. When Jeff and Amy's brand-new SUV dies on an empty New Mexico road, a routine road trip turns into a nightmare.

A passing trucker offers Amy a lift to a roadside diner to call for a tow while Jeff stays with the car. He soon fixes the engine himself, drives to the diner, and finds no sign of his wife. Worse, the trucker looks him dead in the eye and swears to the police he has never met either of them. An ordinary husband is left alone on a desert highway, certain Amy was taken and surrounded by people who insist nothing happened.

J.T. Walsh plays that trucker with a chilling, unhurried calm, and the whole film rides on his standoff with Russell. There are no action-hero shortcuts here; Jeff reacts like a scared regular guy, which makes every turn nastier. It is a tight B-movie that squeezes maximum tension out of a simple premise and dusty open road. Stream Breakdown (1997) online on iFILM.