Kurt Russell - Man of Reaction

Digging into 1997's BREAKDOWN

I’m working on a new writing project and, as I make my way through the first draft, I’m resisting some films that evoke the same tone and energy I’m trying to channel for my own story. One such film is Jonathan Mostow’s 1997 backroad thriller BREAKDOWN.

In the early ‘90s, Mostow, who had previously made a name for himself with two low-budget horror comedies, was seeking to adapt Stephen King’s short story TRUCKS (a story King had used for his directorial debut with the adaptation MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE). When the deal to direct TRUCKS fell apart, Mostow took the research into big-rig trucks and ample location scouting he had already done and pushed it towards a different project. The idea for BREAKDOWN - a man must battle evil truckers after they kidnap his wife - came from the sense of unease Mostow felt while driving through Las Vegas with his wife. The final bits of the story came together after a friend in the FBI told Moscow about the large number of missing adults who are never found in America.

At its surface, BREAKDOWN is a very slick American thriller. Running a brisk 93 minutes, the film spends no time on frills or fluff - instead dropping audiences right into the story. Russell plays Jeff Taylor, a man on a road trip through the Southern United States with his wife Amy. They’re headed to San Diego for a new job and their trip is clouded by the usual stresses - money woes and uncertainty regarding a new change in their lives. Those stresses are compounded when the Taylors’ jeep breaks down. Luckily, a passing trucker (played by the fantastic J.T. Walsh) offers to give the two a drive into town where they can call a tow truck. Not wanting to abandon his car, Jeff stays behind but sends his wife along with the trucker.

It isn’t long after Amy leaves that Jeff realizes his jeep has been tampered with. After fixing the car and driving into town, Jeff finds zero trace of Amy at the diner they had agreed to meet back up at. What follows is a series of escalating stakes as Jeff realizes the full extent of his troubles - he and his wife have found themselves the targets of a ring of criminals. His wife is being held hostage, the kidnappers are demanding an undeliverable ransom and Jeff is firmly out of his league as he does not know who he can trust.

BREAKDOWN comes at a really interesting place in Kurt Russell’s career. After a busy youth as an actor working for Disney, Russell transitioned into adult films with some destined-for-cult-status genre movies such as THE THING, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, and BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA. By the late ‘80s, though, Russell had firmly established himself as a go-to action star and entered the ‘90s with some of the biggest hits of his career, including BACKDRAFT, TOMBSTONE, STARGATE, and EXECUTIVE DECISION. By 1997, Russell was more concerned about his family than potential acting gigs and - after wrapping ESCAPE FROM L.A. in 1996 - wasn’t looking to be away from his kids for an extended period. Mostow wooed Russell to BREAKDOWN by promising to helicopter Russell from his home in California to the shooting location in Arizona every other day.

Maybe it’s this dedication to his own family that drew Russell to the project. BREAKDOWN is, above all things, a male revenge fantasy. The movie is designed to speak to the part of the male brain that knows - despite what their unused gym membership or modest beer gut might tell them - they too have what it takes to be a hero when push comes to shove. Like DEATH WISH, ROLLING THUNDER, or any modern Liam Neeson movie, BREAKDOWN is about a man overcoming the odds to take vengeance on the criminals who have invaded his suburban tranquility. Unlike most of these other movies, Russell’s character isn’t seeking post-mortem revenge for his family, though, which is probably why BREAKDOWN was such a popular movie upon its release. A lot of dudes like to fantasize about being a hero - they’d prefer to do so without having those fantasies include dead wives.

What makes BREAKDOWN an interesting movie to me - and part of that inspiration for my new project - is the way it is also about a cultural divide. The Taylors are traveling from Massachusetts and are on their way to San Diego. They are coastal cats who have found themselves deep in the heartland of the Southwest - where the bad guys wear cowboy hats and chew tobacco. BREAKDOWN is about overcoming emasculation by killing the stereotypical alpha males that threaten you. The whole movie is set in motion because Russell does not know anything about the new vehicle he just bought. He’s unable to fix his problems with his own hands and - as such - finds his problems amplified by dirt-stained, flannel-wearing Men™ who take his wife from him.

Film has a long history of portraying the country bumpkin as the evil villain in movies about yuppies in over their heads. DELIVERANCE, SOUTHERN COMFORT, SURVIVAL QUEST - a whole genre of films exists that is all about how locals will kill you faster than any bear or wolf. It’s the fear of the unknown - except in this case, the unknown are our countrymen. I’m honestly surprised we haven’t seen more of these films as the cultural divide in this country has become more pronounced. More so, I’m surprised we haven’t seen a competing crop of films about clean-cut red staters who find themselves targeted by city-dwelling thugs after they venture downtown. Oh, wait. That’s every David Ayer film ever made.

Here’s the thing, though: I get it. It is scary to be in a part of the country you’re not familiar with. It is easy to start to suspect every red hat-wearing man and woman you see when you’re pumping gas at an interstate Exxon a hundred miles outside the nearest city. That’s why movies like BREAKDOWN are so effective. They feed into those fears and reward them by showing that even the most clueless of dudes can become a hero when pushed too far. And at least when these movies are casting fellow Americans as the foreign body boogeymen, at least they are giving a break to the people of color who are normally the bad guys in action films.

Is my new project also going to be a male revenge fantasy? Not a chance. But I am looking to take that language BREAKDOWN uses and tell a story that rhymes with the movie. I want to explore the feeling of fear that comes with not being understood, from believing you are being lied to, from feeling overwhelmingly out of your depth. But I want to tell that story from the perspective of somebody decidedly un-Kurt Russell-like.

Back to work.