Freeway (movie)
From Academic Kids
Freeway is a 1996 movie starring Kiefer Sutherland, Reese Witherspoon and Brooke Shields. It was directed by Matthew Bright.
Plot
Bob Wolverton, a serial killer and rapist, who picks up Vanessa Lutz, an illiterate teenage runaway, after her car breaks down and promises to take her to her grandmother's house. After manipulating Vanessa into confessing to him the details of her painfully dysfunctional life, including a prostitute mother and a sexually abusive stepfather, Bob reveals his true colors and tries to kill her. The tables are turned, however, as Vanessa eventually shoots him several times and escapes. Vanessa is quickly arrested and questioned by two detectives who write her off as a carjacker, even though she insists Bob had tried to kill her and had told her about his other murders. Bob survives, severely handicapped, and Vanessa is put on trial, with everyone believing (at first) that Bob is the innocent victim he claims to be. Vanessa goes to prison, while Bob and his socialite wife, who knows nothing of his crimes, are treated like heroes.
Scared at first, Vanessa eventually makes friends in prison, including a Hispanic gang leader and a heroin-addicted lesbian, who help her escape.
Meanwhile, the detectives look back over the evidence and find that she was telling the truth. They search his house, finding violent pornography and human remains in his garage. Confronted at last with what her husband really is, Wolverton's wife commits suicide. Arriving home to find a police car at his house, Wolverton panics and flees to Vanessa's grandmother's house (she had told him where it was before trying to kill her.)
Posing as a prostitute, Vanessa steals a car and drives to her grandmother's house, where he finds both her grandparents dead and Wolverton waiting for her with a knife. After a struggle, Vanessa kills him just in time for the detectives to arrive.
The movie is a dark comedy loosely modeled after the story of Little Red Riding Hood; Vanessa's goal is to reach her grandmother's house, is Red Riding Hood, while Bob represents the Big Bad Wolf.
Tagline: Her life is no fairytale.
Cast
- Kiefer Sutherland – Bob Wolverton
- Reese Witherspoon – Vanessa Lutz
- Wolfgang Bodison – Detective Mike Breer
- Dan Hedaya – Detective Garnet Wallace
- Amanda Plummer – Ramona Lutz
- Brooke Shields – Mimi Wolverton
- Michael T. Weiss – Larry
- Bokeem Woodbine – Chopper Wood
- Guillermo Díaz – Flacco
- Brittany Murphy – Rhonda
- Alanna Ubach – Mesquita
- Susan Barnes – Mrs. Cullins
- Conchata Ferrell – Mrs. Sheets
- Tara Subkoff – Sharon
- Julie Araskog – Prosecutor
