John Ryder

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Villain Overview Gallery

Evil-doer
Full Name	Unknown
Alias	John Ryder The Hitcher
Origin	The Hitcher (1986)
Occupation	Vagabond
Powers / Skills	Combat Driving Durability Gunmanship Stealth
Hobby	Killing people. Stalking Jim Halsey.
Goals	Stalk and psychologically torture Jim Halsey. Continue his killing spree until someone is able to stop him. Get murdered by Jim Halsey (all succeeded).
Crimes	Mass murder (including child murder) Stalking Torture Mutilation Arson Incrimination Escaping from lawful custody Grand theft auto Kidnapping Theft Attempted rape (remake only)
Type of Villain	Enigmatic Serial Killer

“	I'm gonna sit here... and you're gonna drive.	„
	~ John Ryder refusing to leave Jim Halsey's car.

John Ryder is the titular main antagonist of the 1986 road thriller The Hitcher and the 2007 Remake of the same name. He is a mysterious drifter and a sadistic serial killer who slaughters anyone he hitchhikes with. After hitching a ride with Jim Halsey and failing to kill him, Ryder begins relentlessly stalking him at every turn.

In the original he was portrayed by the late Rutger Hauer, who also played Roy Batty in Blade Runner, Wulfgar in Nighthawks, Kurt Barlow in the 2004 Salem's Lot TV series, Lothos in Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, Morgan Edge in Smallville, and Cardinal Roark in Sin City.

In the remake, he was portrayed by Sean Bean, who also played Sean Miller in Patriot Games, Alec Trevelyan in GoldenEye, Patrick Koster in Don't Say A Word, Ian Howe in National Treasure, and Dr. Merrick in The Island.

Personality

John Ryder is shrouded in mystery: It is never explained who he is or why he commits his atrocities, and it is heavily implied that the name "John Ryder" is little more than an alias he made up. When the police try to identify Ryder through his fingerprints, they come up with nothing and are unable to find a driver's license, birth certificate or criminal records tied to him, as if he may as well not exist as a person.

From what is known of him throughout the film, Ryder is a brutal, sociopathic and cunning killer who appears to have a death wish. Unlike one who would exhibit typical suicidal tendencies, Ryder seems to be intent on butchering as many people as he can before he dies rather than finding an easier way to take his own life. To this end, he relishes in attacking innocent people, children included, for sport in the hope that they manage to kill him. Jim Halsey, a young man who fights back and thwarts Ryder's attempt at killing him, earns Ryder's obsession with seeking death, thus stalking and tormenting Jim throughout the film.

He is a master of stealth, appearing and disappearing at an almost supernatural level, at one point managing to slip a severed finger in Jim's meal shortly after Nash cooks it for him without anyone noticing him. Ryder is also highly skilled with weapons, such as guns and knives, and is a master of combat, wiping out numerous cops throughout the film just so he can continue terrorizing Jim. He even manages to kill the three officers at the police station in a way that made Jim look responsible for Ryder's murders.

In spite of his obsession with Jim, Ryder remains vague about ulterior motives he might have beyond wanting to die, killing people, or ruining Jim's life. When asked by Jim why he is hunting him down, he initially struggles to find an answer before replying. In response, Ryder simply puts two pennies on Jim's eyes and states: "You're a smart kid. You figure it out." and hands Jim bullets for the gun he picked up in the police station. It appears that in order for him to seek death, Ryder wants to challenge himself by seeing if Jim can keep putting up a struggle in Ryder's efforts to kill him. So by framing Jim for his murders, making several attempts on Jim's life and tearing Nash in half, Ryder seems to be employing a sadistic, elaborate way for him to encourage Jim into becoming a killer himself by ending John's life. By the end of the film, Ryder flashes a wicked smile at Jim before he dies, possibly believing that he not only succeeded in dying at the hand of one of his victims, but also corrupting Jim.

Biography

John Ryder holding Jim Halsey at knife point.

Stranded on the side of a road during a stormy night, John Ryder hitchhikes with a young man delivering a car to San Diego named Jim Halsey. While Jim tries to make conversation with Ryder, the hitchhiker is vague and unresponsive, avoiding even the most basic questions Jim has to offer. After Jim approaches a car stranded on the side of the road, Ryder suddenly pushes Jim's leg down on his car's accelerator to pass by the car. Uneased, Jim urges Ryder to leave his car, but Ryder refuses and insists he continues driving. The tense Jim asks "What do you want?", but Ryder responds by bursting into a fit of laughter. Ryder explains he is laughing because "That's what the other guy said!" Referring to the owner of the stranded car, Ryder coldly reveals he dismembered and decapitated the driver alive while he hitched a ride with them, and says he plans on doing the same to Jim.

John Ryder taunting Jim as he plans on murdering the family he is hitching a ride with.

Passing by road construction, Ryder pulls a switchblade out and menaces a petrified Jim at knifepoint. When Jim asks what John Ryder wants, Ryder simply orders Jim to "stop" him and tries to push Jim into confessing that he wants to die. While struggling to figure out what to do, Jim notices that Ryder not only has his seatbelt unbuckled, but also accidentally left the passenger side door ajar. Jim screams "I DON'T WANT TO DIE!", throws Ryder out of his car and speeds away. Ryder staggers to his feet and watches Jim driving away from afar. The next day, Jim unexpectedly spots John Ryder hitchhiking with a father, mother, and two children, smiling at Jim from the back of the car. Jim desperately attempts to pull the family over, yelling that Ryder is dangerous, but fails when he almost crashes into a bus. He catches up to the family's car only to find it stranded on the side of the road, with Ryder nowhere to be seen. Discovering that the family has been gruesomely murdered by Ryder, Jim vomits at the sight of it and flees the scene.

Arriving at an abandoned gas station, Jim runs into Ryder again while trying to call the police. Ryder simply approaches Jim and tosses Jim's own car keys at his feet after breaking into his car before wordlessly departing, hitching a ride with two people in a pickup truck. As Jim tries to head to another gas station, Ryder repeatedly rams the back of his car in the same pickup truck he hitched a ride with before driving off into the desert. The two people he hitched with were nowhere to be seen. At the next gas station, Ryder ambushes Jim by trying to run him over, soaking Jim in gasoline after destroying a fuel dispenser. He tries to set Jim on fire with a match, but a terrified Jim escapes in his car just as the gas station explodes.

At a roadside diner being managed by Nash, Jim calls the police on Ryder, waits for officers to arrive and changes into new clothes as Nash prepares a meal for him. However, Ryder secretly makes his presence known by planting a severed finger of one of his previous victims (revealing that he killed the two people in the pickup truck) in Jim's French fries, which Jim almost bites into. Jim is sent into a panic and runs outside, only to be arrested by the police. Believing Jim to be the suspect in John Ryder's murders, they discover Ryder's bloodied switchblade in Jim's pocket, planted there at the abandoned gas station by Ryder so that Jim is incriminated for the killings. Ryder also stole Jim's wallet and driver's license to ensure that Jim is unable to prove his innocence with his identification.

John Ryder shooting two police officers.

After Jim rests in his jail cell for a while, he finds his cell to have been mysteriously unlocked. He exits his cell to discover that all the officers in the police station were killed by John Ryder in a way to make Jim look responsible, sending Jim on the run when a police response team arrives. Armed with a revolver, Jim hijacks a police car and takes two officers hostage in order to negotiate with police Captain Esteridge. However, John Ryder catches up to him and guns down the two officers, leaving Jim stranded, hopeless and contemplating suicide.

John Ryder confronting Jim Halsey at a café.

Later, Ryder unexpectedly confronts Jim at a motel café, to which Jim frantically pulls his revolver on him from under the table. John observes Jim's revolver and, disappointed, informs Jim the revolver has no bullets. He proceeds to shatter Jim's confidence by challenging Jim to shoot him while pretending to aim a gun of his own at Jim from under the table, only to then slam the table from underneath. The startled Jim hopelessly pulls the trigger on his empty revolver multiple times while Ryder stares at him with a mix of amusement and pity. Jim, broken, begs Ryder to tell him why he is doing this to him. Rather than giving Jim a direct answer, Ryder plants two pennies on Jim's eyelids and tells him to figure it out on his own. As he departs, Ryder gives Jim a handkerchief containing several bullets. John Ryder continues to stalk Jim, who with the help of Nash is being chased by several police cars and a helicopter. In order to continue tormenting Jim, Ryder assists him by shooting down the police helicopter, causing it to fall on one of the police cruisers, killing several officers in the process. While Ryder departs, Jim and Nash abandon their hijacked police car and head to a motel on foot and rest for the night.

John Ryder killing Nash by ripping her in half.

Later that night, Ryder manages to track them down and breaks into their room while Jim is in the shower. Ryder lays right next to Nash while her back is turned and pretends to cuddle her. Nash realizes too late that it isn't Jim before Ryder cups his hand over her mouth and kidnaps her. Realizing that Ryder came for her, Jim tries to track Ryder down only to be stopped by Captain Esteridge and the rest of the police. Jim discovers that Ryder, while in the driver's seat of a running truck, gagged and tied Nash up between the truck and the truck's trailer. Esteridge convinces a furious and desperate Jim to negotiate with Ryder, who has left the police unable to help Nash by revving up the truck's engine with a clear threat of tearing her in half. Jim sits in the truck with Ryder, who instructs Jim to take his revolver and shoot him point blank in the head. However, Jim hesitates to shoot Ryder, knowing that it will release Ryder's foot from the clutch and cause Nash to die. Disappointed that Jim refuses to kill him, Ryder, not caring that he will get arrested, releases his foot from the clutch while glaring at Jim, ripping Nash in half regardless of Jim's decision.

John Ryder is taken into police custody by Captain Esteridge for his crimes, though Esteridge and the rest of the police are unable to verify Ryder's name, fingerprints, criminal record, driver's license or birth certificate. While interrogated, Ryder refuses to answer any questions the police provide and mocks them when they ask him where he is from. Esteridge allows Jim to enter the interrogation room to get answers from Ryder, but Jim spits in Ryder's face without exchanging words. Ryder is later set to be escorted to prison, smiling at Jim as he is put into a prison bus. Esteridge tries to drive Jim home, but Jim is unconvinced that the police will ever be able to hold Ryder in prison. To this end, Jim steals Esteridge's gun from his holster, forces Esteridge out of the police car and speeds off to kill Ryder once and for all.

A bloodied John Ryder preparing to open fire on Jim with a shotgun.

Jim manages to catch up with the prison bus, but Ryder breaks out of his chains and shoots the driver and the guards dead with a shotgun. Jim prepares to shoot Ryder as he blows open the backdoor of the prison bus, but Ryder dives through the windshield of Jim's police car, causing Jim to drop his gun. Ryder taunts Jim as he tries to aim his shotgun at Jim's head, but Jim speeds up and hits the brakes to throw Ryder out through the shattered windshield, also causing the police car to stall. While Jim recovers from hitting his head against the steering wheel, Ryder staggers to his feet and opens fire on Jim. Jim struggles to get the car's engine to start while Ryder shoots at the car several times. Once the engine starts running, Ryder goads Jim into running him over, to which Jim slams his foot on the accelerator and rams into Ryder. Jim steps out of the car to inspect Ryder's body, believing him to be dead. As Jim heads back to the car with Ryder's shotgun, a bloodied and injured Ryder suddenly springs to his feet and throws handcuffs to the ground, catching Jim's attention. When Jim pumps the shotgun, Ryder simply grins at Jim with satisfaction. Jim turns around and guns John Ryder down, putting an end to Ryder's killing spree and the torment he suffered at Ryder's hands.

2007 remake

John Ryder returns as the titular main antagonist of the 2007 remake of The Hitcher.

Ryder is a ruthless and psychopathic killer who constantly harasses a young couple named Jim Halsey and Grace Andrews after he hitches a ride with them. Inside the vehicle, he reveals himself as a psychopath and attempts to kill them, though they manage to knock him out onto the road and escape. Ryder tracks them down several times and continues to brutally attack them, forcing the terrified couple to flee for their lives.

John Ryder after escaping the van and preparing to open fire on Esteridge.

Unlike in the 1986 film, Jim is the one Ryder kills by chaining him between a truck and a trailer and pulling him apart rather than Jim's love interest. He is promptly arrested by the police and is put in a van to be taken across the state. During the trip though, Ryder breaks free and uses the handcuffs he'd been put in to kill the cop who was guarding him in the back. He also kills another cop riding up front and the chaos causes the van to flip. Ryder escapes from the back and kills Esteridge, only to be confronted by Grace when she shoots him in the back with a shotgun. Ryder grins and asks if shooting him had felt good, to which Grace says she felt nothing, and she shoots him in the head.

Quotes

Original

“	Jim Halsey: What do you want?! [John Ryder bursts into laughter] Jim Halsey: [chuckles nervously] What's so funny? John Ryder: That's what the other guy said! Jim Halsey: Who's the other guy? John Ryder: The guy who was driving that car back there. The guy who picked me up before you did. Jim Halsey: Was that him in the car? John Ryder: Sure it was. Couldn't have walked very far. Jim Halsey: ... Why's that? John Ryder: Because I cut off his legs... and his arms... and his head... And I'm gonna do the same to you.	„
	~ John Ryder revealing himself to be a murderer.

“	Do you wanna know what happens to an eyeball when it gets punctured?... Do you got any idea how much blood jets out of a guy's neck when his throat's been slit?	„
	~ John Ryder describing what he has done to other people while holding Jim at knifepoint.

“	How do you like Shitsville?	„
	~ John Ryder mockingly greeting Jim at the café.

“	John Ryder: Squeeze the trigger. Jim Halsey: I will! John Ryder: Please. Jim Halsey: Oh, I will! John Ryder: 'Cause you can sure as shit bet I'm gonna squeeze mine... [Ryder slams the underside of the table] Bang! [Jim, startled, repeatedly pulls the trigger on his empty gun]	„
	~ John Ryder toying with Jim while he is aware that Jim's gun is empty.

“	Jim Halsey: Why are you doing this to me? John Ryder: C'mere. C'mere... [Ryder places two pennies on Jim's eyelids] You're a smart kid. You figure it out.	„
	~ John Ryder vaguely answering Jim's question as to why he is tormenting him.

“	Jim Halsey: They'll catch you. John Ryder: [scoffs] Yeah. Sure. So what?	„
	~ John Ryder showing no care for getting caught if he kills Nash.

“	Oh, God... You useless... Waste...	„
	~ John Ryder disappointed by Jim refusing to kill him, moments before he murders Nash.

“	Interrogation Sergeant: Where are you from? John Ryder: Disneyland.	„
	~ John Ryder mocking a police interrogator's question.

“	Hi, kid.	„
	~ John Ryder taunting Jim after diving through Jim's windshield.

“	Come on!	„
	~ John Ryder's last words before getting hit by the police car and then gunned down by Jim Halsey

Remake

“	Don't worry about it. I wouldn't have picked me up either. [Both John Ryder and Jim Halsey begin laughing]	„
	~ John Ryder after Jim Halsey apologizes to him about driving away from him.

“	Jim Halsey: What's with the wedding ring, then? John Ryder: Helps strangers think I'm trustworthy. [Chuckles as he then grabs Jim's phone] Jim Halsey: Aren't you? John Ryder: No.	„
	~ John Ryder as Jim questions him about the ring on his finger.

“	Esteridge: So, where you're from?.. John Ryder: All over.. Esteridge: Is that so?.. You're a sick f*ck, aren't ya?.. The way you tortured that young man.. I know you enjoyed yourself.. I just can't figure out why you did it. You knew you'd get caught. Why'd you do it? John Ryder: Why not? Esteridge: ... How many others have you killed? John Ryder: Hard to say.. Esteridge: Hm.. You see, here in the great state of New Mexico, we do have a death penalty.. You don't seem too worried.. John Ryder: Should I be?	„
	~ John Ryder being interrogated by Esteridge.

“	John Ryder: Feels good, doesn't it?.. Grace Andrews: I don't feel a thing.	„
	~ John Ryder moments before being killed by Grace Andrews.

Trivia

• Ryder placing two pennies on Jim's eyelids is likely a reference to Charon's obol, the charge for taking the spirits of the dead across the River Styx.
• Rutger Hauer himself did most of the stunt driving for John Ryder throughout the film.

External Links

• John Ryder on the Pure Evil Wiki