{"id":9199,"date":"2026-05-21T01:43:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T05:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shatpod.com\/movies\/?p=9199"},"modified":"2026-05-21T01:43:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T05:43:08","slug":"the-hitcher-1986","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shatpod.com\/movies\/the-hitcher-1986\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hitcher (1986)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<!-- iframe plugin v.6.0 wordpress.org\/plugins\/iframe\/ -->\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border:none\" src=\"\/\/html5-player.libsyn.com\/embed\/episode\/id\/41374725\/height\/100\/width\/\/thumbnail\/no\/render-playlist\/no\/theme\/custom\/tdest_id\/4706482\/custom-color\/87A93A\" height=\"100\" width=\"100%\" scrolling=\"no\" 0=\"allowfullscreen\" 1=\"webkitallowfullscreen\" 2=\"mozallowfullscreen\" 3=\"oallowfullscreen\" 4=\"msallowfullscreen\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\n\n<p data-start=\"40\" data-end=\"450\">Shat The Movies hits the open road with&nbsp;<em data-start=\"91\" data-end=\"104\">The Hitcher<\/em>, the 1986 horror-thriller that transformed an ordinary highway drive into pure nightmare fuel. Starring <span class= \"whitespace-normal\">Rutger Hauer<\/span> as the terrifying and impossibly calm John Ryder, the film follows a young traveler who makes the mistake of picking up a hitchhiker\u2014and spends the rest of the movie trying to survive the consequences.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"452\" data-end=\"976\">Gene and Big D break down why Hauer&#8217;s performance feels less like a human villain and more like an unstoppable force of nature, debate whether C. Thomas Howell&#8217;s Jim is incredibly unlucky or catastrophically stupid, and revisit the movie&#8217;s bleak, sweaty atmosphere that makes every gas station and desert highway feel hostile. Along the way, the guys discuss the film&#8217;s infamous truck sequence, the bizarrely useless police force, and why this movie permanently convinced an entire generation never to pick up hitchhikers.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"479\" data-end=\"500\"><strong>Full movie info below<\/strong><\/p>\n<p data-start=\"502\" data-end=\"922\">While transporting a car across the Southwest, a young man picks up a mysterious hitchhiker who quickly reveals himself to be a sadistic killer. Framed for a string of brutal murders and hunted by police, the driver is forced into a deadly game of survival across endless desert highways.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"650\" data-end=\"1225\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\"><strong>Subscribe Now<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Android: <a title=\"Android\" href=\"..\/..\/..\/android\/\" rel= \"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/www.shatpod.com\/android<\/a><\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Apple\/iTunes: <a href=\"..\/..\/..\/apple\" target=\"_blank\" rel= \"noopener\">https:\/\/www.shatpod.com\/apple<\/a><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>Help Support the Podcast<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Contact Us: <a href= \"..\/..\/..\/contact\/\">https:\/\/www.shatpod.com\/contact<\/a><\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Commission Movie: <a href= \"..\/..\/..\/support\/\">https:\/\/www.shatpod.com\/support<\/a><\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Support with Paypal: <a href=\"..\/..\/..\/paypal\" target= \"_blank\" rel= \"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/www.shatpod.com\/paypal<\/a><\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Support With Venmo: <a href=\"..\/..\/..\/venmo\" target= \"_blank\" rel= \"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/www.shatpod.com\/venmo<\/a><\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Shop Merchandise: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shatpod.com\/shop\" target=\"_blank\" rel= \"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/www.shatpod.com\/shop<\/a><\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Theme Song &#8211; Die Hard by Guyz Nite: <a href= \"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/guyznite\">https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/guyznite<\/a><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/directory.libsyn.com\/episode\/index\/id\/41374725\/tdest_id\/4706482\">Check out this episode!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shat The Movies hits the open road with&nbsp;The Hitcher, the 1986 horror-thriller that transformed an ordinary highway drive into pure nightmare fuel. Starring Rutger Hauer as the terrifying and impossibly calm John Ryder, the film follows a young traveler who makes the mistake of picking up a hitchhiker\u2014and spends the&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20624],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1990s"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Hitcher (1986) Review - Shat the Movies Podcast<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Podcast Movie Reviews for the 1980&#039;s and 1990&#039;s Movies that we all loved growing up.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/shatpod.com\/movies\/the-hitcher-1986\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Hitcher (1986) Review - Shat the Movies Podcast\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Podcast Movie Reviews for the 1980&#039;s and 1990&#039;s Movies that we all loved growing up.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/shatpod.com\/movies\/the-hitcher-1986\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shat the Movies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ShatTheMovies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-21T05:43:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/shatpod.com\/movies\/wp-content\/uploads\/cropped-Red-SP-512.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dick Ebert\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ShatTheMovies\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ShatTheMovies\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dick Ebert\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/shatpod.com\\\/movies\\\/the-hitcher-1986\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/shatpod.com\\\/movies\\\/the-hitcher-1986\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Dick Ebert\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/shatpod.com\\\/movies\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/473cad284b192ca56b2123678696d7ee\"},\"headline\":\"The Hitcher (1986)\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-21T05:43:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/shatpod.com\\\/movies\\\/the-hitcher-1986\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":309,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/shatpod.com\\\/movies\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"1990s Best Movies\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/shatpod.com\\\/movies\\\/the-hitcher-1986\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/shatpod.com\\\/movies\\\/the-hitcher-1986\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/shatpod.com\\\/movies\\\/the-hitcher-1986\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Hitcher (1986) Review - Shat the Movies Podcast\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/shatpod.com\\\/movies\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-21T05:43:08+00:00\",\"description\":\"Podcast Movie Reviews for the 1980's and 1990's Movies that we all loved growing up.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/shatpod.com\\\/movies\\\/the-hitcher-1986\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/shatpod.com\\\/movies\\\/the-hitcher-1986\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/shatpod.com\\\/movies\\\/the-hitcher-1986\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/shatpod.com\\\/movies\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"1990s Best Movies\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/shatpod.com\\\/movies\\\/category\\\/1990s\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"The Hitcher (1986)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/shatpod.com\\\/movies\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/shatpod.com\\\/movies\\\/\",\"name\":\"Shat the Movies\",\"description\":\"The Best 80s &amp; 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