Transit is a 2012 American action thriller film directed by Antonio Negret. Its stars Jim Caviezel, James Frain, Diora Baird, Elisabeth Röhm, Harold Perrineau, Ryan Donowho and Jake Cherry.
Four criminals rob an armoured car and get away with $4 million. When confronted by a police roadblock, they stash the stolen cash in the luggage of the Sidwell family who are stopped at a rest stop. Nate Sidwell is just out of prison and is taking his family on a camping trip in an attempt to to regain their trust. The police wave the innocent looking Sidwells through the roadblock. But now the crooks need their cash back and are in hot pursuit, but task proves not to be as easy as they had thought.
Tropes:
- Armed Blag: The film starts with a gang knocking over an armoured car on a remote country road.
- Attack the Injury: While interrogating Nate in the swamp, Marek grinds his heel into the bullet wound in Nate's leg. Later, during their fight in the cabin, Marek hits Nate's injured leg with a length of chain.
- Badass Driver: Evers, the driver for the robbers, who drives at speed the wrong way along a freeway—including playing chicken with a semi—to catch up with the Sidwells.
- Blood Is Squicker in Water: When the wounded Nate slides off the jetty into the bayou, a pool of oily looking blood forms on the surface of the murky water.
- Car Fu: The Sidwells manage to flag down the same patrolman that arrested Nate, but he doesn't believe their wild stories of anyone chasing them. Suddenly, he's run down and killed by the robbers and the family flees again.
- Chain Pain: During the fight in the cabin, Marek uses a length of chain to hit Nate's wounded leg before trying to strangle him with it.
- Extremely Short Timespan: The entire film spans less than 48 hours.
- Fingore: While trying to force the location of the loot out of Nate, Losada cuts the fingers off Nate's left hand with a machete.
- I Lied: During the Armed Blag at the start of the film, Marek shoots the driver, causing the Inside Man to object:Man: Nobody's supposed to die! You said that nobody's supposed to die.
Marek: I lied.
[shoots him] - Inside Man: One of the guards in the armoured car is in on the Armed Blag. Once he has secured the cash, Marek calmly shoots him.
- A MacGuffin Full of Money: The plot is driven by the bag containing $4 million the crooks hide in the Sidwells' SUV and then go to great lengths to recover.
- Machete Mayhem: Having been forced to abandon the guns, Losada uses a machete to intimidate Nate and cut some fingers off his left hand.
- Money to Burn: When trapped in the hunter's cabin by the robbers, Robyn lights a bundle of cash and throws it in front of them: yelling that she will set fire to the rest of it if they don't back off.
- Mutilation Interrogation: While trying to force the location of the loot out of Nate, Losada cuts the fingers of Nate's left hand with a machete.
- One-Word Title
- Outside Ride: When Arielle steps out of the SUV, Robyn immediately attempts to drive off. Arielle leaps on to the back of the car and attempts to smash her way in through the rear window.
- The Radio Dies First: After fleeing through the swamp, the Sidwells meet a local in a skiff. He agrees to call the sheriff and picks up his radio handset. As he does so, he gets shot and falls off the side of the boat. The Sidwells take the boat to escape, but find that when he when he went overboard, he took the handset with him, rendering the radio useless.
- Reusable Lighter Toss: During a standoff with Marek, Robyn holds a lit Zippo over the pile of alcohol-soaked cash while he is holding a gun on her. When he attempts to call her bluff, she drops the lighter, setting fire to the money.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Shane Sidwell is a rebellious teenager who swears a lot primarily because it aggravates his father Nate. His mother Robyn's comments indicate that this behaviour may only have started since Nate was released from prison.
- Tae Kwon Door: When breaking into Robyn's motel room, Marek kicks the door into her face.
- Water Torture: Marek attempts to extract the location of the bag of stolen cash from Nate by repeatedly showing him face down into the bayou: holding down slightly longer each time.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After ambushing the armoured car at the start of the film, Marek shoots the driver. When the driver's partner, who is the Inside Man on the Armed Blag, objects, Marek calmly kills him as well.
