Stupidity: Red and his gang have a barn full of stuff and talk about other couples and people they have kidnapped, robbed and probably killed. This indicates they have been in the "game" for a long time and been successful to avoid capture this long yet when Kurt Russell didn't want to get in the car, instead of cutting their losses, they went along with kidnapping his wife and initiating the whole ruse of her never getting in Reds truck which is what led to their downfall. Someone with the experience of this that Red has should know not to take such a big risk with a complicated story.
![Breakdown](/images/titles/0-999/208_sm.jpg)
Breakdown (1997)
1 stupidity
Directed by: Jonathan Mostow
Starring: Kurt Russell, J.T. Walsh, Kathleen Quinlan, M.C. Gainey
Continuity mistake: In the beginning of the movie Jeff and his wife were moving to San Diego from Massachusetts. Well, they were driving in their new Jeep (with Massachusetts plates) through Arizona. When Amy comments about how fast Jeff is driving, the camera shot shows the speedometer at 80 mph and the odometer shows the Jeep has only 245miles. That must be a new record from MA to AZ..... (Note: not visible on DVD version of film.)
Earl: What a man needs out here is a CB radio.
Jeff Taylor: Is that right?
Earl: 'Course, if you use a CB, you gotta have a handle. I'm thinking for you, "Shit For Brains."
Trivia: When Jeff tries to get Red to pull over on the road, he almost misses an RV and has to swerve at the last minute. In front of where he swerves is a big rock looking thing, right frame. It is there to hide the camera filming the lower angle shot we see in this sequence.
Question: Why were they even kidnapping people in the first place? The ransom seemed like it wasn't planned and they only did it when they discovered that Jeff was rich. So if there is no ransom usually, why even kidnap couples to begin with? If it's just to rob them, then that doesn't seem very lucrative for the risk.
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Answer: There was always a ransom, or at least that was always the intent. Anyone that didn't have money the kidnappers would just eliminate them. The kidnappers MO was to take a couple and force one of them to empty their bank accounts. Earl makes it clear that the difference in Jeff's case is that they were unable to kidnap the pair at the same time. For whatever reason, Jeff refused to get in the truck with Red, which caused the kidnappers to alter their plans slightly. Earl also gives some insight into how the group chooses their victims. He tells Jeff that he was targeted because he was driving a brand new SUV, which indicated he must have a fair amount of money in the bank. The kidnappers care very little about being caught, they have obviously committed many murders without being found out. They seem to leave very little evidence of their crimes for the police to find. Red is always several steps ahead of the police and is brazen enough to kidnap a man's wife and say directly to him in front of a police officer that the man must have him mistaken for someone else.
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