You might be scouring the internet for a Paul Walker movie called Roadkill and coming up surprisingly empty in the US. It’s a weird glitch in the matrix of movie marketing. Actually, it’s just a title change that has confused fans for over two decades.
If you live in the United States, you know this movie as Joy Ride. Released in 2001, right as the Fast & Furious phenomenon was taking off, it’s a masterclass in highway-based tension. But if you’re in the UK or Australia, that same sleek, terrifying thriller was slapped with the title Roadkill. Same movie. Same Paul Walker. Totally different vibe on the poster.
Why was Joy Ride renamed Roadkill?
Marketing departments are funny. In the early 2000s, executives in the UK and Australia worried that the phrase "Joy Ride" carried too much baggage. To them, it sounded like a movie about kids stealing cars for a laugh—a specific type of crime common in those regions. They wanted something grittier. Something that screamed "horror on the asphalt."
Enter: Roadkill.
It’s a bit of a spoiler of a title, honestly. It shifts the focus from the thrill of the trip to the grisly end of the prank. This rebranding is why you’ll see some old DVD covers featuring Paul Walker looking intense next to the word Roadkill, while others show him under the Joy Ride banner. It's the same 97 minutes of adrenaline either way.
The setup that ruined a road trip
The plot is deceptively simple. Paul Walker plays Lewis Thomas, a college kid who buys a beat-up 1971 Chrysler Newport to drive across the country. Why? To pick up his crush, Venna (Leelee Sobieski). It’s supposed to be a romantic gesture. A classic American road trip.
Then he detours to bail his screw-up brother, Fuller, out of jail. Steve Zahn plays Fuller with this manic, irritating energy that you both love and want to throttle. To pass the time on the long stretches of Wyoming highway, Fuller convinces Lewis to buy a CB radio.
"It's a prehistoric internet," Fuller quips.
That’s where things go south. They start pranking a trucker with the handle Rusty Nail. Lewis puts on a high-pitched voice, calling himself "Candy Cane," and lures the trucker to a specific motel room—one occupied by a guy who had been rude to them earlier. They think it’s a victimless joke.
It isn't.
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Rusty Nail: The voice of nightmares
One of the most effective parts of the roadkill film Paul Walker starred in is that you almost never see the villain. Rusty Nail is a presence. He’s a voice.
That voice belongs to Ted Levine, the same guy who played Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs. He brings this low, gravelly, rumbling menace to the radio that makes your skin crawl. When he realizes he’s been played, the movie stops being a comedy and turns into a high-speed survival horror.
Behind the scenes of a cult classic
Believe it or not, J.J. Abrams co-wrote and produced this. Yeah, the Star Wars and Star Trek guy. You can see his fingerprints all over the pacing. It’s tight. It doesn't waste time.
The production was actually kind of a mess, though. They filmed for two years—from 1999 to 2001—which is an eternity for a mid-budget thriller. They kept changing the ending. In fact, there are four different endings floating around on various DVD releases.
In one version, Rusty Nail dies in a massive explosion. In the theatrical version, they went for something much more haunting. They wanted the audience to know that the threat wasn't gone. That the open road was still dangerous.
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- Original Title: Squelch (Terrible, right?)
- The Car: A 1971 Chrysler Newport (It was actually multiple cars used for different stunts).
- The Locations: Filmed across California, Nevada, and Utah to capture that "middle of nowhere" isolation.
Paul Walker’s transition to stardom
2001 was a massive year for Walker. The Fast and the Furious came out just months before this. While that movie made him a global action star, the roadkill film Paul Walker chose showed he could play the "everyman" in over his head.
In Fast, he was the cool undercover cop. In Roadkill/Joy Ride, he’s just a guy who’s genuinely terrified. His chemistry with Steve Zahn is what keeps the movie grounded. You believe they are brothers who have dealt with each other's nonsense for years.
Honestly, the movie hasn't aged a day. The lack of cell phones—a common critique from modern viewers—is actually addressed. They’re in the "dead zones" of the American West. Even today, there are stretches of highway where your iPhone is nothing more than a paperweight. That isolation is what makes the movie work.
What you should do next
If you haven't seen this gem in a while, it's worth a rewatch, especially to see Walker’s early range. Don’t get confused by the sequels, though. There’s a Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead and a Joy Ride 3: Roadkill (just to make the naming even more confusing).
Those sequels were direct-to-video and didn't feature Walker or Zahn. They lean way harder into the "gore" territory, whereas the original is a psychological thriller.
Your next steps for the ultimate viewing experience:
- Search for the original 2001 film specifically—don't accidentally start the 2014 sequel also titled Roadkill.
- Check out the alternate endings on YouTube; the "Shotgun Trap" ending is particularly intense and changes the whole tone of the finale.
- Pay attention to the cinematography by Jeffrey Jur; he uses aircraft landing lights instead of standard truck headlights to make Rusty Nail’s rig look like a glowing monster in the rearview mirror.
This movie remains one of the best examples of the "highway horror" genre, standing right alongside classics like Spielberg’s Duel. Whether you call it Joy Ride or Roadkill, it’s a reminder that some pranks have a very high cost.