In 2004, Jim Caviezel went from playing the Son of God in ‘The Passion of the Christ’ to playing a man hell-bent on revenge in ‘Highwaymen’. And since today is the day before Halloween, this movie is the perfect scary, marginally gory movie for gearheads.
If you check out the reviews of ‘Highwaymen’ on Letterboxd or Rotten Tomatoes, you won’t be impressed. But those elitists are looking for things like plot and character development. Come on! This is a horror movie about a guy who kills people with his customized 1972 Cadillac Eldorado, while being pursued by a vigilante in a ’68 Plymouth Barracuda dragster. What’s not to love!
Directed by Robert Harmon, who previously made the horror classic ‘The Hitcher’ (1986), this movie stars Jim Caviezel as Rennie Cray, a grieving husband whose wife was run over by a serial killer. Canadian actor Colm Feore plays Fargo, the twisted man behind the wheel of the monstrous Caddy. Hollywood hotties Rhona Mitra and Andrea Roth round out the cast in a movie that really deserved more respect.
The cinematography is considerably better than the critics would have you believe. The opening scene sets the mood and the plot in motion. Rennie watches from the balcony of an eerie, isolated motel in Arizona as Fargo deliberately swerves across the road, running over and killing Rennie’s wife. Seeing this was no accident, Rennie retaliates by chasing the Cadillac in his Mercedes-Benz S-Class, eventually T-boning the Caddy. The killer survives but is badly disfigured, while Rennie spends three years in prison.
The movie picks up years later, as both men have unfinished business. Fargo drives around the Southwest, running over innocent women with his customized Cadillac and sending press clippings to Rennie. Meanwhile, the protagonist has resumed the chase, this time driving a battered 1968 Plymouth Barracuda. The cars are extensions of the characters themselves.
Rennie is out for revenge, and his weapon of choice is a 1968 Plymouth Barracuda HEMI Super Stock on massive drag tires. The factory-built dragster is stripped down, brutally powerful, and capable of transforming a broken man into an avenger. The driver’s door gets ripped off during a pursuit, and the police later find it and put it into evidence. They reveal the door was from no ordinary car. The absence of sound insulation and the use of acid-dipped sheet metal to save weight show this car was built for a single purpose: to go fast.
Bad guy Fargo’s pale green 1972 Cadillac Eldorado coupe is the complete opposite. Long and low, the car seems to be nothing but an enormous hood and monstrous 500 cubic inch V8. After the last time these two men crossed paths, Fargo requires prosthetics and mechanical modifications to drive. His Eldorado has become Fargo’s exoskeleton, a rolling replacement for his shattered body. Steering, throttle and brakes are all operated with special prosthetic limbs. Outside the car, Fargo is almost helpless in his mechanical wheelchair, but inside the Caddy he is powerful, continuing his sick killing spree from behind the wheel. Even the Cadillac’s damaged headlight mirrors the driver’s injuries.
The Cadillac gives the killer his power, while the Barracuda gives Rennie his purpose.
These two men are mirror images of each other, separated only by morality. Predators of the pavement, with Fargo hunting strangers and Rennie hunting the killer himself. Both men are haunted by different demons, but they’re speeding toward the same final reckoning.
Canadian gearheads will be thrilled at how Toronto itself is included in the movie, doubling as the cold, rainy city where the two characters cross paths. Rennie arrives in town, his Barracuda barreling along the Gardiner Expressway while the cameraman carefully keeps the CN Tower out of frame. A massive chase scene takes place on Commissioners Street in Toronto’s Port Lands, unmistakable because of the high-voltage transmission towers running down the centre median. Even the old Cherry Street lift bridge makes an appearance. For local gearheads, spotting the locations is a thrill in itself.
But there’s something more interesting going on beneath all the roaring engines and twisted sheet metal. The movie is called ‘Highwaymen’, plural, and that’s no accident. Fargo isn’t the only highwayman in this story. Rennie has become one too. One man hunts innocent victims, while the other hunts the killer himself. They’re on opposite sides of morality, but both are consumed by obsession. Neither man has much of a life beyond the highway, and neither seems capable of simply driving away.
And therein lies the tragedy of ‘Highwaymen’. Fargo has lost much of his body, while Rennie has lost everything that made his life worth living. Revenge has given him a reason to get behind the wheel every morning, but what happens when there’s nobody left to chase? The Barracuda might be fast enough to catch the devil, but it can’t outrun the emptiness inside its driver.