The Hitcher
part of The Hitcher

Jim Halsey, a young man delivering a car from Chicago to San Diego, spots a man hitchhiking and gives him a ride. The man, John Ryder, is a brooding, soft spoken man; when Jim passes a stranded car, however, Ryder's personality suddenly shifts. Ryder calmly states that the reason the car is stranded is because he murdered and mutilated the driver, and he intends to do the same to Jim. Ryder produces a switchblade knife and taunts Jim for several moments, before Jim realizes Ryder never put on his seat belt and knocks him out of the ajar passenger door. Relieved Jim continues on his journey, until a station wagon carrying a family on vacation passes, and Jim is horrified to see that Ryder has hitched a ride with them. Jim attempts to signal the family, but ends up nearly totaling his car; when he finally catches up to the station wagon, Jim discovers the entire family has been hacked to death. The movie shifts into an elongated chase sequence, which finds Jim trying to flee Ryder both on foot and in his car, to no avail; wherever Jim runs, Ryder finds him: It seems that Ryder, impressed with Jim's show of bravery by knocking him out of the car, has decided that Jim is the man who is finally going to put his killing spree to an end.

Fifteen years after Jim Halsey's horror filled trip through Texas at the mercy of a crazed murderer, he works as a police officer, but has recently been suspended for using excessive force on a kidnapping suspect. It is revealed his girlfriend, Maggie, has her own crop dusting business. Jim makes a call to retired Captain Estridge in Texas, who asks Jim to come down to Texas to talk to him face to face about his mental scars from the last movie. Maggie, who obviously does not know about the event, pleads with Jim to let her tag along. Arriving in Texas, the couple pick up a car that Estridge has left for them, and set off to his house. Jim notices a sign along the highway announcing DANGER: DO NOT PICK UP HITCHHIKERS which sets him into flashback mode.

Grace Andrews and Jim Halsey are tormented by a mysterious hitchhiker named John Ryder, a.k.a. The Hitcher.