Russell Crowe’s 2020 road-rage thriller Unhinged took influence from Steven Spielberg’s very first movie: the acclaimed 1971 made-for-TV actioner Duel. Unhinged begins 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. Unhinged was 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 film Firelight in 1964, which he helmed at age 17. But Firelight has never been officially released. Spielberg’s first professional directing gig was the made-for-TV road thriller Duel, which aired on ABC in 1971 as a part of the ABC Movie of the Week series.
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 feature Duel stars 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 chase with the unseen driver of a Peterbilt 281 tanker truck who 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.
Duel quickly became a beloved cult classic and 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 direct Jaws for Universal. There are many movies that have been influenced by Duel, but the influence is particularly clear in Unhinged; the only difference is that, in Unhinged, the pursuing driver gets plenty of screen time.
Was Unhinged Based On A True Story?
Unhinged Is A Fictional Story
Since Unhinged tells 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. While Unhinged isn’t a true story in the traditional sense, it does speak to a larger truth about road rage.
Unhinged is a Thriller and Action film starring Russell Crowe. The 2020 film was written by Carl Ellsworth and directed by Derrick Borte. The film sees a young woman being stalked and attacked by a seemingly deranged man after the two experience a road rage situation.
- Director
- Derrick Borte
- Writers
- Carl Ellsworth
- Runtime
- 90 minutes