Joy Ride

Lewis is talking to Venna on the phone, and their distance between colleges makes the idea of a reunion feel urgent. To project capability, he fibs about owning a car and vows to drive across the country for her. The plan plants the seed for a road trip that will soon demand real commitment.

The next day, Lewis buys a used car, turning the fantasy into something close to reality. He shares the update with his family and begins mapping the journey in earnest. The decision marks the first concrete step toward Venna's rescue.

Back home, Lewis learns that his brother Fuller has been arrested again, a weighty burden that forces a detour in their plans. He agrees to stop and pick Fuller up on the way toward Venna, adding risk and responsibility to the road trip. The trip suddenly feels less carefree and more charged with consequence.

On the highway, a routine trip becomes tense when Lewis is hit with an illegal traffic move ticket and a broken tail light. The minor annoyance foreshadows larger dangers to come as the trio pushes toward Venna. The car ride grows heavier with each mile.

At a gas station, Fuller pays to rig a CB radio and they begin a risqué prank. Lewis pretends to be a seductive caller named Candy Cane, while Fuller acts as the supposed man answering. What starts as a joke quickly threads danger into the fabric of their journey.

The prank escalates when another trucker replies as Rusty Nail, and the plan moves toward a motel stop where Room 17 becomes the stage for taunting calls and a bottle of pink champagne left behind. The exchange shifts from playful mischief to something menacing and uncontrollable.

By dawn, the consequences of their stunt catch up with them. A neighbor is attacked, and the police confront the trio with anger and a firm demand to leave the state. The prank has become dangerous real-world trouble that they can’t outrun.

The radio calls resume and the threat lingers as Rusty Nail presses for a meeting. An encounter with an ice truck driver at a gas station adds another layer of tension, anchoring the sense that danger can arrive from unexpected places.

They finally pick up Venna, who introduces her roommate Charlotte as their circle tightens. In a bar, Venna is harassed, heightening the fear, and the group flees back to Venna’s room to regroup. The night deepens the sense that safety is slipping away.

A phone call reveals that the killer knows who is in the room, sending everyone into a panicked scramble toward Venna’s place. Road signs begin to feel like instructions, including a cryptic hint to look in the trunk as they move closer to danger.

The trucker forces them into a cruel show, making them walk into a diner naked and order six cheeseburgers. They bolt from the scene into a corn field, but a speeding truck reappears and Venna is seized, turning a prank into a deadly pursuit.

The chase leads to a truck-stop hotel, with room 17 becoming a haunted stage for the killer’s reach. A car explodes, police arrive, and Fuller is wounded as the trio fights to rescue Venna. Though the police disrupt the immediate danger, the room and its secrets feel broken and abandoned.

A watch found in the back of an ice truck ties the killer to someone named Jones who works for an ice company, shattering the trio’s certainty about who was behind the threats. Yet the danger isn’t truly over, as the killer’s voice crackles through the CB one last time. The mystery threads linger even after the immediate chase ends.

Charlotte and Venna are reunited with relief at the ambulance, while Lewis and Fuller process the night’s horror. Police pieces together the chaos, but the final note remains: Rusty Nail endures in memory and in the faint crackle of the CB radio, a reminder that some threats never completely vanish.