Years before J.J. Abrams transitioned to feature-length directing in the underrated Mission: Impossible III and later revitalized the Star Trek and Star Wars franchises, his filmography focused primarily on his work as a showrunner for acclaimed television series such as Felicity and Alias, and as a screenwriter from Taking Care of Business to Armageddon. He also co-wrote Joy Ride with Clay Tarver of TV’s Silicon Valley fame, a road thriller that marked John Dahl’s return to his familiar genre territory after Kill Me Again, Red Rock West and The Last Seduction.
The story boasts an interesting hook: Fuller (Steve Zahn), fresh off jailhouse bail, purchases a CB radio and installs it in his brother Lewis’s (Paul Walker) car, initially wanting to pass the time listening to truckers’ communications throughout their long cross-country journey.
Then comes the prank against one of the truck drivers, nicknamed Rusty Nail, where the mischievous Fuller persuades Lewis to pretend to speak to him in the voice of a lonely woman named Candy Cane. What begins as harmless fun turns into a nightmare after Rusty Nail discovers he’s being deceived and tracks them down. Leelee Sobieski co-stars as Venna, the friend they pick up along the way.
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Who Voiced Rusty Nail in Joy Ride? Ted Levine, but Stallone Was Reportedly Considered
One of the highlights of Joy Ride includes the introduction of Rusty Nail, whose identity is predominantly heard in Ted Levine’s sinister (and uncredited) voice while his physical appearance, played by Matthew Kimbrough, is deliberately shot in silhouette or in glimpses. Casting Levine, who is no stranger to playing a psychotic killer seen in The Silence of the Lambs (1991), turns out to be a brilliant move, as his voice is more than enough to send shivers down one’s spine.
But Levine wasn’t brought in until post-production, after Dahl and co-producers J.J. Abrams and Chris Moore reportedly realized that Kimbrough’s heavily obscured presence needed to be matched with the right intimidating voice on the CB radio. This reportedly led them to seek potential voice candidates, including Eric Stoltz, Eric Roberts, and even Sylvester Stallone. The latter seems like an odd choice, given the actor’s primary filmography in playing larger-than-life heroes and underdogs.
But the turn of the millennium wasn’t kind to the once-bankable action star, unlike his heyday from the late ’70s through the mid-’90s. Knowing his career wasn’t what it used to be, he began diversifying outside his usual comfort zone, from playing an out-of-shape, partially deaf sheriff in Cop Land (1997) to a stoic mob enforcer in the Get Carter remake (2000). So, the idea of having him on board to voice Rusty Nail with his distinct baritone sounds like an initial perfect fit.
The producers ultimately pivoted to Levine for securing the voice role of Rusty Nail. But still, it would be one of the intriguing what-if scenarios to hear Stallone voicing the character, which may make or break the success of bringing the character to life.
Joy Ride Alternate Endings: 6 Finales Were Filmed, but Only One Lets Rusty Nail Live
Interestingly, the biggest hurdle in Joy Ride lies in finalizing the right ending, as the filmmakers went so far as to shoot a whopping six of them, beginning with the intended third act lasting around half an hour. The original ending, unlike the eventual theatrical cut set in a motel room, didn’t do well after test audiences reportedly balked at the drawn-out scene, which stalled the momentum of the movie’s otherwise well-paced thriller. Dahl was forced to scrap the whole finale and reshot five more, one of which included spending over $100,000 on a water tower that sat behind Rusty Nail’s Peterbilt 359 semi-truck explosion. The DVD release features a 29-minute alternate ending plus four shorter ones, and the theatrical cut is the only version in which Rusty Nail survives, which left the door open for the sequels.
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Joy Ride Box Office and Reviews: A Modest Hit That Spawned Two Sequels
Budgeted at $23 million, Joy Ride didn’t exactly light the domestic box office on fire when it debuted at just No. 5 during the October 5-7 opening weekend, grossing only a single-digit $7.3 million, with a pair of newcomers, Training Day and Serendipity, dominating the top two instead. The movie fared better over its theatrical run, grossing roughly $22 million domestically for a worldwide total of $36.6 million.
Despite the box-office result, Joy Ride managed to garner positive responses (74% on Rotten Tomatoes), and the fact that the movie’s subsequent home video release reportedly drove DVD sales and rentals proved there’s a market for turning it into a franchise. The studio – then-20th Century Fox – then used the low-risk, potentially high-return business model of releasing not one but two direct-to-video follow-ups, Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead in 2008 and Joy Ride 3: Roadkill in 2014.
Where to Watch Joy Ride (2001): Streaming Options
Joy Ride is available for streaming for free on YouTube and Plex at the time of writing. You can also rent or purchase the movie on Apple TV and Prime Video.
Joy Ride Movies in Order: Directors, Cast and Rotten Tomatoes Scores
| Film | Director | Main cast | Tomatometer | Popcornmeter |
| Joy Ride (2001) | John Dahl | Steve Zahn (Fuller) Paul Walker (Lewis) Leelee Sobieski (Venna) Jessica Bowman (Charlotte) Matthew Kimbrough (Rusty Nail, on camera) Ted Levine (Rusty Nail, voice, uncredited) | 74% (116 reviews) | 66% |
| Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead (2008) | Louis Morneau | Nicki Aycox (Melissa) Nick Zano (Bobby) Laura Jordan (Kayla) Kyle Schmid (Nik) Mark Gibbon (Rusty Nail) | No score yet (1 review) | 27% |
| Joy Ride 3: Roadkill (2014) | Declan O’Brien | Ken Kirzinger (Rusty Nail) Jesse Hutch (Jordan) Kirsten Prout (Jewel) Ben Hollingsworth (Mickey) Dean Armstrong (Officer Williams) | No score yet (4 reviews) | 25% |
Rotten Tomatoes scores checked October 5, 2026. The two sequels have too few critic reviews for a Tomatometer score.
Joy Ride |
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Three young people on a road trip from Colorado to New Jersey talk to a trucker on their CB radio, then must escape when he turns out to be a psychopathic killer. |
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| Studio: 20th Century Fox |
| Running Time: 97 minutes |
| Release Date: October 5, 2001 |
| Cast: Steve Zahn, Paul Walker, Leelee Sobieski |
| Director: John Dahl |
| Writers: Clay Tarver, J. J. Abrams |
| Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Action |
| Box Office: $36.6 million |
