Midweek Mention... Breakdown
The dads are back in the mid-90s sweet spot with Breakdown (1997), a lean, relentless thriller starring Kurt Russell and his glorious Hollywood hair.
Jeff (Russell) and his wife Amy (Kathleen Quinlan) are relocating cross-country when their Jeep suddenly dies in the middle of nowhere. A friendly trucker (the ever-sinister J.T. Walsh) offers Amy a lift to a nearby diner. She never arrives. What follows is a stripped-down race against time, as Jeff discovers he’s stumbled into a gang’s deadly scheme — and has to transform from nervous everyman to desperate action hero.
We get into:
- Kurt Russell playing against type — less action hero, more anxious office guy (at least until the final reel).
- JT Walsh’s masterclass in quiet menace.
- The film’s meat-and-potatoes plotting: no fat, no filler, just pure tension.
- That massive finale, complete with a dangling truck, a fight to the death, and one of the all-time great overkill moments.
- Why films like this — simple setup, big stakes, 90 minutes — feel so rare today.
It’s part Duel, part The Vanishing, part pure 90s Saturday-night rental. Come for Kurt’s hair, stay for the escalating paranoia and truck-crashing mayhem.
🎧 Press play to hear the dads argue whether this is just a solid genre flick… or a strong recommend with extra hair-gel.
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Until next time, we remain...
Bad Dads
