Continuity mistake: When Jim pushes John out the car, in the shot where John is lying on the road, his head is on the road's white stripe, yet when it cuts to a closer view, his chest is on the white line, not his head. (00:12:30)
The Hitcher (1986)
Directed by: Robert Harmon
Starring: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Rutger Hauer, C. Thomas Howell, Jeffrey DeMunn
Continuity mistake: In one scene C. Thomas Howell almost runs head-on with an 18 wheeler, but just misses it. However, the truck clips the car he is driving and clearly takes the bumper clean off. The next driving scene shows the bumper back on the car.
Revealing mistake: When Jim hits the brakes in his stolen patrol car, the two pursuing police cars turn and flip over and over. As they roll, the 'roll cannon' is visible on the underside of one of the cars (a round steel tube in a hole in the floor) and at left, the two cannon slugs from both cars bounce down the road. This device fires the slug downward, and the force behind it lifts the car when the slug hits the road, launching the car over.
Jim Halsey: Why are you doing this to me?
John Ryder: You're a smart kid... figure it out.
Jim Halsey: Do I look like a killer to you?
Proprietor: Well, what happened to you?
Jim Halsey: Nothing.
Proprietor: Nothing?
Jim Halsey: Nothing happened.
Question: In the shot where John Ryder is in the van and uses a metal like object to unlock the handcuffs. When Jim Halsey was to be talking to John in prison, they are holding hands. I was wondering if Jim could've put the metal object into John's hands, so that John could escape and Jim could kill him himself? As like a kind of getting back at thing for all that he had to go through.
Question: When John dives from the prison truck through the windshield of the Sheriff's truck, the windshield glass breaks (not shatters) as a flat, house window would break. I don't know when safety glass was first introduced, but can anyone confirm if the glass for this type of vehicle would actually break this way?
Answer: The windshield glass would have not broken this easily (like regular window pane glass in your home or such). I am going to guess that kind of glass hasn't been used on car windshields since at least the early 70's, if not before. The Sheriff's truck didn't appear to be that old, either.
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Answer: What you see him playing with is a link on the chains around his waist - note chains, not handcuffs. We know he's a resourceful guy, and just before he escapes, we see the two guards playing cards, with the shotgun loosely on one's lap - based on what we know about the configuration of the truck, John would have easily been able to leap forward and grab the shotgun while we see Jim driving up to the truck. John then shoots the guards with the shotgun we now know he just grabbed.