Joy Ride 3 is a 2014 American thriller horror film. The film was written and directed by Declan O'Brien and released by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. It is a direct-to-video sequel to the 2008 film Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead and the third installment of the Joy Ride series. The film stars Ken Kirzinger, Jesse Hutch, Kirsten Prout, Ben Hollingsworth, and Dean Armstrong.
This film provides examples of:
- 555: Rusty's cellphone number is a 555 number.
- Agent Scully: Trooper Jenkins repeatedly denies the presence of Rusty, or that his deaths are murders despite how he's become Famed In-Story (and not in a good way) by that point.
- All for Nothing: all the attempts to save Poor Jewel.
- Asshole Victim: The meth addicts who try to rob Rusty Nail.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: The meth-heads get a moment of this when the boy comforts the girl as Rusty has captured and is threatening them.
- Beta Couple: Mickey and Alissa, although they have a falling out over Mickey wanting to abandon the hunt after hearing Bobby die while Alissa is determined to keep helping.
- Beard of Evil: Rusty, when we finally see his face in the series, sports a fairly impressive beard.
- Berserk Button: In every single film, Rusty kills those who have wronged him in some way. It could be anything from a cruel prank to insulting those who work in his profession. He does not kill anyone otherwise.
- Big Bad: Rusty Nail.
- Big Damn Heroes: Alisa is sent to Bring Help Back, but instead helps Jordon in the climax, ramming her car into Rusty's truck as he's preparing to kill Jordon.
- Call-Back: In the pre-opening credits of the movie, one of the meth heads uses "Candy" as her CB handle prompting Rusty to respond that he knew a Candy Cane once.
- Cassandra Truth: The group really should have listened to Barry about not taking that shortcut, although to be fair, the fact that there was a cop nearby denying his claims helped.
- The Cavalry Arrives Late: Williams and several other cops arrive right after the climax.
- Childhood Friends: Mickey the crews mechanic has been Jordon's buddy since sixth grade
- Conspiracy Theorist: Barry is completely on the money with his warnings that there is a serial killer stalking the highway. That being said, he also believes that the killer is a Satanist and that there is an NSA communications-jamming system and socialist pot smugglers out there, making it harder for Jordon and Austin to take him seriously.
- Cool Car: The racing team's heavily customized Subaru Impreza.
- The Coroner Doth Protest Too Much: Officer Jenkins believes that two bodies ripped apart by Rusty's truck are victims of an animal attack.
- Creepy Gas-Station Attendant: Averted. The gas station attendant, while having a slightly vacant stare, is a fairly pleasant, non-threatening guy. It's merely the fact that the characters are rattled after their run-in with Rusty that has them creeped out already. Played straighter in an extended version of the scene, where the guy appears suddenly with a wrench in his hand after Jewel and Alissa go inside, but then this is explained when he apologizes for scaring them and says he was working on his car in the garage and didn't hear them at first.
- Creepy Good: Barry the trucker is a bit unsettling to be around, with his intense warnings and twitchy smiles. However, his warning to stay away from Rusty's highway which has been dubbed "Slaughter Alley" for all of the people Rusty's killed on it is an earnest one that could have saved several lives if followed.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: All over the place. Throughout the film we see Rusty shove one guy's hands, and later face, into the cooling fan of his truck engine; use an electric winch and chain to drive a bunch of bolts slowly and painfully into another guy's skull; etc...
- Damsel in Distress: Jewel. Or so the others think, but it turns out Rusty lied and already killed her.
- Darker and Edgier: In the first film, Rusty only kills about two people to throw the police off of his trail and the main group of teens who tricked him is left intact; this suggests that his primary goal was to teach the group a lesson. In this film and the one before it, he just kills left and right.
- Decoy Protagonist: To an extent. While Jordan is clearly The Hero of the movie, Jewel, his girlfriend, is set up to be the co-lead and Final Girl. She's the biggest name of the teen cast, a fairly Nice Girl, dating The Hero, and even taken hostage by Rusty with a large amount of emphasis placed on saving her life. She ends up dying while Alyssa, who comes off as a disposable supporting victim, survives the film instead.
- Deadly Rotary Fan: Shows up when Rusty uses his truck's engine fan to dispatch one of his victims.
- Disproportionate Retribution: All of the film's protagonists harmed Rusty Nail in varying ways, but none of their wrongdoings warrant the gruesome deaths he deals out as punishment and Austin (although admittedly he had insulted Rusty earlier) and Jewel was going to alert the authorities to get help after thinking he might be hurt after the drag race when he first attacked them.
- Dumb Blonde: Candy the meth head seems a little slow and erratic during the conversation with her boyfriend, as well as taking a little bit to get, and start helping with his plan to lure Rusty (although this is more likely due to being an Addled Addict and/or being hesitant about robbing someone).
- Evil Sounds Deep: Rusty Nail has a guttural voice and is probably at his cruelest in this movie.
- The Faceless: Averted for Rusty this time around. His face is seen within the first five minutes of the movie and is shown on multiple occasions thereafter, although his hat is often pulled down over his eyes.
- Final Girl: One girl survives the movie.
- Gone Horribly Wrong: Rob and Candy's plan was to lure a trucker to their hotel room in order to steal his money and buy more drugs. Tragically, they picked the wrong guy to mess with.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: Well, woman in this case. Rusty ties Jewel onto the top of his truck's trailer and drives towards a low-hanging bridge.
- Hell Is That Noise: The group hears Bobby's agonizingly painful death over their walkie-talkies and they can't do anything about it.
- Hope Spot: Offer Williams is seen pulling over a truck leaving behind a blood trail and managing to handcuff the driver, while Jordon and the others trying to find Rusty notice a cop car up ahead. Then it turns out that they've come across Officer Jenkins, and the man who Williams is in the process of arresting turns out to be a second trucker who Rusty tricked into taking a crate with the bodies.
- I Have Your Wife: Rusty keeps Jewel hostage for most of the movie to draw in the others.
- I Lied: Rusty tells the meth heads he'll spare them if they can hang on the outside of his truck for a mile of driving. he doesn't, of course. Later, he also lies about keeping Jewel alive to Jordan and the others.
- Invincible Villain: By this film, Rusty has definitely reached this level. Sure, some of the heroes survive, but this is the third film in which Rusty has been caught in a situation in which there was no way whatsoever in which he wouldn't have survived his truck being destroyed without someone noticing he did, and he still does, merrily continuing to terrorize people on the highways.
- It's Personal: Williams becomes more intent on catching the killer after finding the wreck of his colleague Jenkins’ car, and Jordon also goes hard after Rusty upon finding that he killed Jewel.
- Jerkass: Austin, the blank-faced diner waitress who ignores Jewel saying she doesn't want any coffee, and Rusty Nail himself (who Austin calls "an even bigger prick than me") are all strikingly abrasive.
- Large and in Charge: Rusty is portrayed as an intimidating presence who fills up a doorway.
- Metallicar Syndrome: Averted. The racing team's customized Subaru Impreza is hard to miss.
- Moment of Weakness: Jordon is a fairly nice, sensible guy, but his refusal to call the police after Rusty gets run off the road is treated as a sleazy misdeed.
- Mugging the Monster: In the opening of the third movie, two meth-heads think it is a good idea to lure a trucker to their hotel room so they can rob him. Unfortunately for them, said trucker is Rusty Nail.
- Naked on Arrival: Rob and Candy the meth heads are introduced naked as they have sex and use up the last of their meth.
- Never Found the Body: Played very straight. The last we see of Rusty at the climax, he's unconscious inside of his truck as it's getting crushed and, even if he did woke up and escaped, he would have been clearly seen by someone. But he doesn't, and when the cops talk to the heroes at the end, they say that there were no human remains inside of the truck. Sure enough, aside from some limping, Rusty literally walks away as the film cuts to credits.
- Never My Fault: Rusty Nail accuses Jordon and Theo there of breaking their deal by talking to a cop, when he was the one who broke the deal by kidnapping Bobby instead of just making the exchange.
- No One Could Survive That!: Everyone assumes this at the end of the movie. They're wrong.
- Pit Girls: Jewel and Alisa both wear the outfits and serve the roles, although they also have other jobs on the team (business manager and media expert). Austin even lampshades that their outfits are improbably, unnecessarily sexualized.
- Police Are Useless: Zigzagged. Jenkins isn't very helpful and doesn't believe that there are any crimes, but Williams is a decent investigator who does believe that there's a killer out there, notices the signs that Rob and Candy were probably killed by a truck, and acts accordingly after finding the crashed car, as well as when encountering a potential suspect. Jenkins also gets a little redemption by believing the kids' story and hurrying to go follow the trucker he saw passing by. The rest of the cops also do a game job conducting roadblocks to try and trap Rusty Nail in the last act.
- Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: Bobby is disappointed when no one else gets it when he says a waitress looks like Large Marge from Pee-wee's Big Adventure.
- Pun-Based Title
- Race Against the Clock: Rusty Nail tells Jordon and the others that he'll release Jewel and Austin if they drive 100 miles in one hour to meet him at a location. They arrive on time, but, as usual, he refuses to keep his word.
- Run for the Border: After their first run-in with Rusty, the group tries to speed up for the Canadian border to avoid both him and the police in case he calls anyone.
- Schmuck Bait: Rusty forces two meth-heads who tried to rob him to ride on the front of his truck with their wrists chained to the drive axle. If they let go the chain will slacken, get caught in the U-joint and wrap around the axle, dragging them under the truck. Rusty promises them that if they can hold on for a mile he will not only let them go but give them a bag of meth which, he promptly tapes to the truck's windshield and if they try to grab it the chain will slacken. Three guesses what happens.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Said by Mickey to Jordan when he forces them to stop and gets out of the car. Unfortunately, he runs into Rusty while walking down the road.
- Shortcuts Make Long Delays: Barry warned the group not to take Highway 17, but because they believed it would get them to their destination quicker, they ignored the warning.
- Slashers Prefer Blondes: Played straight as two blonde girls - Candy and Jewel - are killed.
- Stay in the Kitchen: Austin and Jordon laugh a little when Alissa says she could drive the car instead of them.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: How does Rusty kill Jewel? He straps her to the top of his truck and rams it into the bridge.
- Trophy Room: Jordon has a lot of racing trophies on the wall of his garage.
