Breakdown

Mostow's directorial debut is definitive white-knuckle, edge-of-the-seat entertainment that grabs you from the opening titles and rarely refuses to let go.

Jeff Taylor (Russell) and his wife Amy (Quinlan) are heading to San Diego to start a new life when their Jeep breaks down in the middle of the desert. Help is on hand when kindly trucker Red Barr (Walsh) stops to assist them and, unable to locate the problem, offers Amy a lift to the nearest diner to phone for assistance. But before help arrives, Jeff manages to get the vehicle started and sets off for the diner, only to find no sign of his wife. It turns out no one has seen her, and to make matters worse, when he eventually catches up with Red, the truck driver denies ever meeting him or his wife.

Jeff is forced to take things into his own hands as he fights to prove a sinister motive behind his wife's seemingly inexplicable disappearance, and the ensuing action disregards high concept in favour of a tightly-plotted mystery thriller with no pretensions.

A highly memorable and nail-biting film, Breakdown is arguably one of the best thrillers of 1998. A film that doesn't have to rely on action set-pieces but instead utilises their very plausibility to build genuine suspense and further heighten the tension.

Simon C. Williams