Rest Stop

Jess Hilts, played by Joey Mendicino, and his girlfriend Nicole Carrow Jaimie Alexander speed toward California in a bright convertible, chasing a sense of freedom as the open road stretches ahead. Nicole’s insistence on taking a restroom break disrupts the mood, and what should be a simple detour quickly spirals into a nightmare: when Jess steps out, he vanishes without a trace. A deranged truck driver suddenly appears and, cruelly, tosses Nicole the red cell phone from the convertible, claiming that he has Jess and that she must follow his trail.

Nicole’s desperate attempt to find help leads her to a nearby RV, where she bangs on the door and begs for assistance. The ride inside is brief but unsettling, filled with uneasy glances toward a deformed individual hidden in the back. She is ejected from the vehicle for staring, a moment that plants fear alongside confusion. Back at the restroom, Nicole encounters Tracy Kress Deanna Russo, a coughing, bloodied girl with cuts who warns her about the deranged killer who tortured her. Tracy’s plea is chilling, and before Nicole can fully process it, Tracy bleeds out and disappears, leaving behind a haunting missing person poster showing that she has been missing since 1971.

The tension escalates as Nicole tries to track the yellow truck, which seems to elude her at every turn. A motorcycle cop arrives on the scene to restore a semblance of order, but the driver’s menace proves formidable: the officer is struck by the yellow truck and left incapacitated. Nicole, driven by a mix of adrenaline and fear, drags the injured officer into the restroom to shield them both. The killer returns, locking them inside. In a brutal turn, the driver bites off Nicole’s finger through the lock, a savage detail that underscores the immediacy of the danger. The officer, recognizing Nicole’s worsening shock, commands her to shoot when the killer finally reappears.

From behind the door, Nicole fires four shots from the officer’s revolver, but she cannot know whether she has hit her target. The killer then drops a camera into the restroom through the window, and the footage reveals Jess being tortured with a knife, his tongue cruelly cut out. A hose is threaded through the window to flood the room with gasoline. Nicole climbs toward a ceiling hatch, searching for an escape route, while the officer urges her to act decisively—using the remaining two bullets to end the threat rather than endure a grisly, burn-filled death. When the killer returns, Nicole does not hesitate; she uses the last two bullets to kill him and escapes as flames engulf the room.

Outside, Nicole discovers that the officer’s body has vanished and that the yellow truck’s driver seems to be waiting just out of sight. She leaps from the roof to the ground and begins a perilous pursuit on foot, the killer’s truck now a looming threat behind her. The next morning finds her on the highway, the yellow truck gaining ground once more. In a bold, improvisational act, she bathes in fear but chooses survival over surrender: she scavenges a whiskey bottle from a Park Ranger’s station, fills it with gasoline, and fashions a Molotov cocktail.

With a determined strike of a flame, she hurls the improvised weapon at the truck; the vehicle instantly erupts in flames, and the explosion lights up the roadside. Nicole checks the smoking wreckage, finding no obvious occupant, yet the menace does not appear to be put to rest. She turns, only to realize that the man in the yellow truck is still behind her, continuing the chase.

The narrative then shifts to a disturbing postscript. A different girl arrives at the rest stop, now renovated after the fire, and begins to explore the scene. She discovers Nicole hidden behind janitorial equipment in the maintenance room and races to alert a Park Ranger—who has returned to his post—only to find the room empty when help arrives. The new survivor flees, while Nicole remains, coughing and vomiting blood as the camera lingers on her bleak, unresolved fate.

The film closes with a chilling tableau captured on a video camera: the father from the RV is shown burying Jess’s body, a grim reminder of the family’s dark secret. Realizing he is being filmed, he retreats into the RV and speaks to his deformed son, whispering, “This is our little secret.” The yellow truck then drives away along a deserted road, leaving the fate of Nicole, Jess, Tracy, and the others shrouded in lingering dread.

This is our little secret.

Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 15:12