Russell Crowe’s 2020 road-rage thrillerUnhingedtook influence from Steven Spielberg’s very first movie: the acclaimed 1971 made-for-TV actionerDuel.Unhingedbegins with a frustrated woman getting into a heated verbal altercation with a fellow commuter in rush-hour traffic,played by Crowe. When the other driver turns out to be violent and obsessive, he spends the rest of the day stalking and terrorizing her and her family in pursuit of revenge.Unhingedwas notable for being the first wide theatrical release after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Unhinged’s story of a commuter getting relentlessly pursued by another driver over the course of a really bad day was loosely inspired by the very first feature film directed by Spielberg. Technically, Spielberg made his feature directorial debut with the amateur filmFirelightin 1964, which he helmed at age 17. ButFirelighthas never been officially released. Spielberg’s first professional directing gig wasthe made-for-TV road thrillerDuel, which aired on ABC in 1971 as a part of theABC Movie of the Weekseries.
Unhinged Was Partially Inspired By Steven Spielberg’s First Movie Duel
Duel Is A Similar Story About A Relentless Rush-Hour Pursuit
Spielberg’s debut featureDuelstars Dennis Weaver as traveling salesman David Mann.On a drive across rural California to meet a client, Mann finds himself in a cat-and-mouse chasewiththe unseen driver of a Peterbilt 281 tanker truckwho seemingly won’t stop until he runs him off the road. Richard Matheson wrote the screenplay based on his own short story, which was in turn based on a real encounter in which a trucker cut him off on a California freeway in 1963.
Spielberg’s use of Hitchcockian tension, pitting a mild-mannered everyman against a foreboding monster, is what scored him the gig to direct Jaws for Universal.
Duelquickly became a beloved cult classicand it was promptly given a theatrical release with an extra 16 minutes of footage added in. Spielberg’s use of Hitchcockian tension, pitting a mild-mannered everyman against a foreboding monster, is what scored him the gig to directJawsfor Universal. There are many movies that have been influenced byDuel, but the influence is particularly clear inUnhinged;the only difference is that, inUnhinged, the pursuing driver gets plenty of screen time.
Was Unhinged Based On A True Story?
Unhinged Is A Fictional Story
SinceUnhingedtells a pretty believable story about a man with irrepressible road rage, it seems like it could’ve been based on true events. There are plenty of drivers out there who act a lot like Crowe’s character in the movie. But it’s not based on a true story or even inspired by true events; it’s a fictional creation of screenwriter Carl Ellsworth. WhileUnhingedisn’t a true story in the traditional sense, it does speak to a larger truth about road rage.
Unhinged
Cast
Unhinged is a thriller directed by Derrick Borte, featuring Russell Crowe as a man who becomes violently unhinged following a road rage incident. The film explores themes of escalating tension and personal safety as the protagonist, portrayed by Caren Pistorius, becomes the target of Crowe’s character’s wrath.
