Taglines: No Exit. Her life is no fairytale.
Freeway movie storyline. Little Red Riding Hood for the 1990’s: After her mom and step-dad are arrested, 15-year-old Vanessa Lutz decides that instead of once again being put into a foster home, she’d rather go and search for the grandmother she’s never met, and live with her.
“On the way to grandma’s house,” (actually a trailer park) Vanessa’s car breaks down, and she’s picked up from the side of the road by Bob Wolverton, a counselor at a school for troubled boys. Bob slowly earns Vanessa’s trust, and eventually convinces her to talk about her sexual abuse at the hands of her stepfather. When Vanessa realizes that Bob is enjoying what she’s saying, she realizes that he’s “The I-5 Killer,” from the news. She tries to get out of his truck, but the inside door handle has been removed…
Freeway is a 1996 crime film written and directed by Matthew Bright, starring Kiefer Sutherland, Reese Witherspoon and Brooke Shields. The plot of this film resembles the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood. Despite being a commercial failure and having censorship problems due to graphic language and violent content, it received mostly positive reviews from critics and has become a cult film.
About the Film
Vanessa Lutz is a poor, illiterate, though not ignorant, teenage girl living south of Los Angeles. Her mother, Ramona, is arrested in a prostitution sting and her stepfather, Larry, is taken into custody on drug and child abuse charges. Social worker Mrs. Sheets comes to take Vanessa away, but Vanessa handcuffs her ankle to a bed and runs away. She takes her parents’ run-down car and plans to go to her grandmother in Stockton.
Along the way, Vanessa stops to see her boyfriend Chopper Wood, a local gang member, to tell him about her trip and he gives her a gun to sell upon arriving at her destination. Minutes after Vanessa leaves, Chopper is killed in a drive-by shooting by rival gang members. Later, Bob Wolverton, a counselor at a school for boys with emotional trouble, picks her up after her car breaks down and offers to take her as far as Los Angeles where he is headed.
Over the long drive, Vanessa comes to trust Bob, and confesses to him the details of her painfully dysfunctional life, including being sexually abused by her stepfather. At one point, Vanessa shows Bob a photo she keeps in her wallet of her biological father. That evening, Bob reveals he is a serial killer of young girls – known in the press as the “I-5 Killer”. He tries to kill Vanessa when she refuses to give in to him. The tables are turned, however, as Vanessa eventually pulls out her gun and shoots him several times before escaping. She goes to a local restaurant where her blood-stained appearance attracts attention from the patrons and staff.
After leaving the restaurant, Vanessa is quickly arrested and questioned by two police detectives, Mike Breer and Garnet Wallace, who write her off as a carjacker, even though she insists Bob had tried to kill her and had told her about his other murders. Bob has survived, but the bullet wounds have left him severely handicapped and disfigured.
Vanessa is put on trial, with everyone believing that Bob is the innocent victim he claims to be since he has no criminal record, while Vanessa has a long record and is a veteran of juvenile homes. Vanessa goes to prison, while Bob and his socialite wife Mimi, who knows nothing of his crimes, are treated like heroes.
Scared at first, Vanessa eventually makes friends in prison, including a heroin-addicted lesbian named Rhonda and a brutal Hispanic gang leader named Mesquita. Undaunted, Vanessa plots to escape and continue her journey to visit her grandmother. Remembering what her stepfather taught her about life in prison, Vanessa constructs a crude knife from a toothbrush as a weapon.
The following evening, Vanessa and Mesquita are being transferred to a new maximum security prison. En route, Mesquita and Vanessa subdue and escape from the prison guards assigned to escort them, with Mesquita killing one. After their escape, Vanessa and Mesquita part ways as Mesquita goes off to be reunited with her gang, and Vanessa continues her journey to her grandmother’s house.
Freeway (1996)
Directed by: Matthew Bright
Starring: Kiefer Sutherland, Reese Witherspoon, Wolfgang Bodison, Dan Hedaya, Amanda Plummer, Brooke Shields, Michael T. Weiss, Melinda Renna, Kathleen Marshall
Screenplay by: Matthew Bright
Production Design by: Pamela B. Warner
Cinematography by: John Thomas
Film Editing by: Maysie Hoy
Costume Design by: Merrie Lawson
Set Decoration by: Caitlin Blue
Music by: Danny Elfman
MPAA Rating: R for strong lurid violence and sexual dialogue, some sexual situations, drug content and language.
Distributed by: Republic Pictures
Release Date: August 23, 1996
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