10 Horror Movie Twists That Made No Sense

A wholly unexceptional knock off of Spielberg’s classic TV movie Duel, Joy Ride is mostly noteworthy for setting off a string of backseat-set car-chase horrors of varying quality in the noughties. The Paul Walker vehicle (get it?) set the stage for everything from 2008’s Amusement, to 2005’s Monster Man, to the eventual inevitable Platinum Dunes-produced Hitcher remake.

However, unlike later highway horror-shows Dead End and Reeker, Joy Ride lacked anything resembling surprise when its twist ending came to a clanking, wheezing halt.

The flick sees a trio of unlikeable students play a prank on an unseen trucker voiced by Ted Levine, which can only end well, and it goes about how you’d expect—with the triumvirate narrowly avoiding death at the hands of a complicated rolling-truck-crushes-motel-room gambit.

Problem is, the last second on the film reveals that the trucker has evaded the authorities on account of propping up a dead body in the driver’s seat. Clever!

And as for the hostage lying in the passenger seat? Well, eh—she apparently didn’t notice this, or just didn’t think to mention it at the time. Understandable—maybe she thought his plan was already too convoluted and didn’t want to poke an open plot hole.

The flick was scripted by J.J Abrams, so if nothing else at least we know he’s gotten better at setting up twist endings, as Lost famously proved.