History Film / TheHitcher

* HateSink: John Ryder is a murderous, sadistic psychopath and an all-around creep with no redeeming qualities who kills others without any reason or provocation and spends the whole plot trying to ruin Jim's life.

* {{Jerkass}}: To call Ryder this is putting it very mildly.

* MisanthropeSupreme: Ryder has shades of this. If the fact he kills anyone who gets in his way wasn't obvious enough.

* NiceGuy: Jim starts out as this, though all the torment he goes through quickly changes that.

* TheSociopath: Ryder has nothing resembling empathy or a conscience. As far as he is concerned, he can hurt and maim whoever he wants like it's a game.
* SoftSpokenSadist: Ryder always speaks in a calm and gentle voice, even while he's committing acts of cruelty.

* TheSpook: Ryder is called a ghost because there is nothing that identifies him.

* TookALevelInJerkass: As the film goes on, Jim goes from a NiceGuy to a cold, callous JerkWithAHeartOfGold.

* WouldHurtAChild: Ryder massacres an entire family. Children included.

* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: Subverted in the sequel. [[spoiler: Jack after injuring a female police officer and is about to shoot her says that he's sorry in doing this since she was nice to him. He still kills her anyway.]]

* {{Expy}}: John Ryder is possibly inspired by the nameless truck driver from Film/{{Duel}}.

* BecauseYouWereNiceToHim. Subverted in the sequel. [[spoiler: Jack after injuring a female police officer and is about to shoot her says that he's sorry in doing this since she was nice to him. He still kills her anyway.]]

* BadassLongcoat: In a villainous example, John Ryder wears one.

* DaylightHorror: Much of the blood and gore happens during the day.

* ActorAllusion: This isn't the first time Henry Darrow played a VigilanteMan, as he had played one before as the iconic Franchise/{{Zorro}} in the 1981 animated series ''WesternAnimation/{{The New Adventures of Zorro|1981}}'' (through voice acting) and in the short-lived series ''Zorro and Son'' in 1983. Also, this is not the [[Series/TalesOfTheGoldMonkey first time]] Darrow played an InspectorJavert law enforcer attempting to execute a WronglyAccused protagonist for murder, while ignoring the accused's friend's protesting his innocence and attempts to stop the execution.
* AdaptationalHeroism: In the original screenplay, the second batch of arresting officers, Troopers Hancock and Hapscomb, while the former's still a VigilanteMan, were way more [[DirtyCop corrupt]] and Hapscomb was more willing to partake in the VigilanteExecution unlike in the actual film where he was a ByTheBookCop reluctant to participate, while Hancock, who unlike in the screenplay is instead on-screen [[AdaptationalExpansion had a justified and understandable personal motivation behind being a one man judge, jury and executioner out of thinking Jim killed two of his work friends and was in an emotionally compromised grief-stricken rage that was making him behaving irrationally and is hinted to be a]] HeroOfAnotherStory because of his reasons that are left unexplored in the final cut, tells him to shut up as he proceeds with the execution.

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: In the original screenplay, the {{Rabid Cop}}s on Jim's tail were more vicious, nastier, crueler and borderline [[DirtyCop corrupt]] towards him then in the actual movie, making their on-screen still-abrasive counterparts looking like upstanding sweethearts in comparison.
* AmbiguouslyEvil: The police officers who first arrested Jim, while their persecution of him can be viewed as them being {{Inspector Javert}}s towards Jim, it's left unknown if they really started to think Jim could be innocent after interrogation and only still booked and jailed him as part of police protocol until further confirmation of his innocence or they don't really care and are borderline {{Dirty Cop}}s who wants to imprison him anyway without giving him a chance to clear himself.

* ExpyCoexistence: Jack from the sequel is also clearly meant to be an {{Expy}} of Ryder, to the point where he not only has blonde hair like Ryder, but even dresses in exactly the same clothes. That, and he's psychotic killer who terrorizes people.

* FatalFamilyPhoto: It happens in the ending of the remake; one of the cops on the cop bus that's carrying [[AxCrazy John Ryder]] takes out a photo of his daughter.

** [[RabidCop The cops]] who mishandle Jim while arresting him also count as this. They even border on being CorruptCops, since they not only refuse to give Jim a chance to talk to his brother on the phone by deliberately hanging up the phone before his brother can even answer it, but they even outright say that "even a fool can tell Jim isn't a killer", heavily implying that they could care less whether Jim is innocent or not and that they just want an excuse to imprison him. However, they are AmbiguouslyEvil as this depends one viewer's interpretation and they are killed before their alleged and implied corruption are fully confirmed.
** Jack from the sequel is every bit as depraved and sadistic as John Ryder. Some of his actions are almost more brutal than John's, since Jack is not above scalping his victims.

* HeroOfAnotherStory: Trooper Lyle Hancock and his quest for vengeance against the killer of his friends would have been given more depth and emphasis if he was a main character. The fact alone Hancock was played by Franchise/{{Zorro}} at the time from the cartoon ''WesternAnimation/{{The New Adventures of Zorro|1981}}'' and live-action television show ''Zorro and Son'' also further attest to this.

* HostileHitchhiker: John Ryder in both the original and the remake, stalking and manipulating the protagonists after failing to kill them outright.

* InspectorJavert: The police pursuing Jim Halsey with Captain Esteridge as an exception.

* PoliceBrutality: Downplayed, but Jim Halsey ends up on the receiving end of this due to being WronglyAccused, whether it's either being abrasively mishandled while in incarceration, having an interrogator act seemingly coldly towards him despite Jim telling him about himself (though after sending Jim away, this is subverted when he privately expressed to one of the arresting officers, Trooper Jack Donner, that Jim is not a killer which "any fool can see that") or being a target of a vengeful {{vigilante|Man}} RabidCop with a personal agenda to [[VigilanteExecution summarily execute]] the one responsible for the murders before finally getting shot at during a car chase by officers who are following martial law to shoot-to-kill Jim and Nash rather then just to arrest them alive, forcing them to shoot back in self defense. So does Jim and Grace in the remake.

* {{Sadist}}: Ryder gets a kick out of not only killing people, but also terrorizing them and messing with them, all for his own pleasure.

* SpiritualSuccessor: The movie has been compared to ''Film/{{Duel}}'', another thriller movie about a man in the dessert being targeted and terrorized by a maniac who is possibly supernatural.

* UncertainDoom: After Jim tricks the the pursuing {{Rabid Cop}}s[=/=]{{Killer Cop}}s under orders to shoot-to-kill to blow each others tires away, it's unknown if the crash impact only knocked them out unconscious besides likely severe and possibly life-threatening injuries sustained from such a crash.

* VigilanteInjustice: The framed Jim was on the receiving end of this attempted by a [[RevengeBeforeReason very vengeful]] [[RabidCop Trooper Lyle Hancock]] before Nash saved him from this.

** HotBlooded [[RabidCop Trooper Lyle Hancock]] (played by Henry Darrow who had previously played a vigilante as Franchise/{{Zorro}} in the 1981 animated series ''WesternAnimation/{{The New Adventures of Zorro|1981}}'' and in the short-lived series ''Zorro and Son'' in 1983), who tried to invoke LoopholeAbuse to find an [[HeWhoFightsMonsters excuse for kill Jim rather then just arrest him out of]] [[JerkassWoobie blind grief-stricken rage]] [[RevengeBeforeReason to avenge the deaths of two of his police force buddies]]. When that does not work, he tries to shoot him anyway in front of a busload of witnesses, an action which would cost him his badge and have him be prosecuted for being a KillerCop and a borderline DirtyCop who went against typical police protocol. It could have been worse for him when Jim's innocence would be later revealed.
** Jim at the end becomes this, wanting to kill Ryder personally for all the torment he underwent because of him.

* VillainousValour: Exaggerated to the point that Ryder can take down an helicopter with just one single gun.

* DissonantSerenity: John Ryder, who never loses his calm as he continues killing people in gruesome ways. Exaggerated in the remake, where he basically degloves his own hand to escape from his cuffs while keeping a straight face the whole time.

* DissonantSerenity: John Ryder, who never loses his calm as he continues killing people in gruesome ways.
** Taken UpToEleven in the remake, where he basically degloves his own hand to escape from his cuffs while keeping a straight face the whole time.

** The sequel takes this UpToEleven. [[SerialKiller Jack]] slaughters cops by the dozens without breaking a sweat, and they don't suspect him even after he's caught at one of the crime scenes with no ID or anything to verify his identity. [[OnlySaneMan Sheriff Castillo]] is the only one who figures out how absurd this is, but [[spoiler:Jack blows him away with a shotgun before he can help]].

** The original film is a textbook example of this. After young teenager Jim Halsey manages to thwart serial killer John Ryder's attempt to add him to one of his list of victims, Ryder becomes [[FoeYay completely obsessed]] with [[StalkerWithACrush stalking]] Halsey and [[TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou killing or being killed by him]]. Ryder himself looks to be around 40 to 50 years old.

Compare with Film/{{Duel}}.

* StuffedIntoTheFridge: [[spoiler: Nash]].

** The 2007 remake manages to add a whole other layer of depravity to Ryder by making him a would-be rapist in addition to a thuggish, foul-mouthed misogynist.

** The 2007 remake manages to add a whole other layer of depravity to Ryder, making him a would-be rapist in addition to a thuggish, foul-mouthed misogynist.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: [[spoiler: It is not possible to rip a human apart between two trucks in the way shown in the remake. The joints - whether in the elbow, arm, knee, pelvis or feet - would give way earlier, and the victim would get their arms or legs ripped off instead of being ripped in half - still, a messy way to die.]]
** [[spoiler: In the original, a cop says the victim would be torn in half, but whether he meant that literally or not, nothing is shown.]]