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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | Looking forward to the storm. Keeps everyone inside, washes everything clean. | „ |
| ~ Rusty Nail's catchphrase. |
Rusty Nail is a main antagonist in the Joy Ride movies. He is an enigmatic, serial killing truck driver who stalks, tortures and kills his victims for those who have wronged him. He first appears as an unseen killer, then later making some appearances in Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead, and later makes his full, physical appearance in Joy Ride 3: Roadkill.
He was voiced by Ted Levine, who also played Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs, while physically portrayed by Matthew Kimbrough as "Rusty Nail" in Joy Ride. In Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead, he was portrayed by Mark Gibbon and in Joy Ride 3: Roadkill, he was portrayed by Ken Kirzinger.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Evil?[]
- Although he does go after the protagonists who had provoked him in order to gain justice, the victims he killed overall had nothing to do with his vengeance and it was more out of his twisted sadism and just kills his victims who had never wronged him at all.
- He kills an unnamed businessman by having his lower jaw ripped off, and later kills the unnamed ice truck driver by crushing him inside the truck.
- He verbally torments Lewis and Fuller inside the car via CB radio throughout, and almost crushed their car with the two inside.
- He almost ran over Lewis, Fuller and Venna through the cornfields.
- He had kidnapped Lewis' girlfriend, Venna, inside a motel room rigged with a shotgun tied to a doorknob. Lewis arrives in time and prevents them from getting shot just as the police break through.
- In a last-ditch effort, he attempts to kill both Lewis and Fuller, along with police officers, and drive straight through the motel before being gunned down. However, it turns out to be an unnamed trucker who took Rusty Nail's place, with the real Rusty Nail being heard through a CB radio inside an ambulance, indicating that he is still alive and remains at large.
- He had decapitated a prostitute by driving through the back of the trailer after trapping her on the truck window.
- He abducts Bobby from the café bathroom and ordered Nicole to crush the phones with his car they stole, not allowing them to call for help at all in order to play his "games" and meet his demands in getting Bobby back.
- He had secretly planted Bobby's severed finger inside the glove compartment ahead of time, knowing that Nicole will have disobeyed his first demands by having Kayla cut off a finger from a corpse instead.
- He forced Nicole to strip for him as part of humiliation, though the trucker was a different one who is not Rusty Nail at all.
- He ripped the bartender's lower jaw off with a sharp wallet chain while trying to get Bobby help. It is an indication that Rusty Nail kills any and all witnesses caught in the act.
- He forced Nick to cross-dress in an outfit as a woman in order to obtain crystal meth. Nicole even threatened to kill Nick if he doesn't fulfill his demands in order to save Bobby, forcing Nick to relent and traverse through the trailer park before being abducted by Rusty Nail.
- He taunted and chased Nicole and Kayla on the long stretch of road before running them off the road. While Nicole escapes, Rusty Nail drives and crashes through his own car with Kayla inside, killing her in the process.
- He forced Bobby and Nick to play a twisted game of craps, and the number from the die roll determines how the victims will be tortured. In this case, Bobby had his kneecap pierced by a pickax, and had his chest branded by a nail that's heated with a blowtorch. Nick had his head impaled by a rebar when he rolled double ones, killing him.
- He almost had Bobby hanged inside his trailer with a chain wrapped around his neck including the winch before Nicole arrives.
- He came close to killing Nicole trying to retrieve his hijacked truck, but later met his supposed demise from driving off a cliff, wrecking it and killing him. However, in the last shot, Rusty Nail had miraculously survived (with only a burnt arm being shown) and hitchhikes a stranded driver inside. Its unknown if she was killed off-screen by Rusty Nail or she arrived at her destination unharmed.
- He tied up two drug-addled couple, Rob and Candy, to the truck, with the chains wrapped around the truck's driveshaft. Despite the initial promise in pulling over after reaching a mile, he instead jerks his truck around, and Rob was pulled underneath the truck alongside Candy to their grisly deaths.
- While Austin did receive his comeuppance after having provoked Rusty Nail which then leads to his friends into becoming targets, this does not detract Rusty Nail's twisted sadism and it only shows how dangerous he can be, and his acts of getting justice is pure delusion in his views.
- He had kidnapped Jordon's girlfriend, Jewel, inside the trailer, torturing her throughout, both physically and psychologically. He had also abducted Bobby and killed him as punishment by having the chain net and nails pressed to his body, crushing him to death.
- He deliberately crashed and killed Officer Chris Jenkins in order to not get caught by the police. He also hauled in Rob's mangled body into the trailer for the trucker to get himself arrested in Rusty Nail's place.
- He sets up a trap for Jordon and almost killed him before being hit by the car driven by Alisa. However, this did not killed him, and it was revealed that Jewel was tied to the trailer and had her body ripped apart by a steel bridge structure.
- He came close to killing Alisa by repeatedly crashing into their car with the intent of crushing her inside before being seemingly killed by Jordon with the wrecking claw, and crushing him. Upon closer inspection, however, Rusty Nail is nowhere to be seen, and it is revealed that he had somehow escaped unharmed and is last seen hitchhiking inside the truck driven by an unnamed truck driver.
- He gets away with his crimes in all three movies, and had even gotten away from the police in the third movie overall.
What Prevents Him from Being Pure Evil?[]
- Despite his high amount of reprehensible actions, he ultimately fails the overall Heinous Standards in all three movies, and many of his worst crimes were entirely off-screen. Additionally, it is not shown that Rusty Nail targets families or children at all, though its either as an obvious result from off-screen villainy, or he simply shows no interest in torturing or murdering families and children alike. It was also shown that the 1971 Chevrolet Chevette in Joy Ride 2 was a gift from someone, but because he wrecked his own car and killing Kayla inside of it in cold-blood, this is a minor prevention.
