Answer the following question: Build a movie plot around this: Why does Jim leave the motel room? To make a phone call
Answer:
Jim Halsey (C. Thomas Howell), a young man delivering a car from Chicago to San Diego, spots a man hitchhiking and gives him a ride. The man, giving his name as John Ryder (Rutger Hauer), 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 that the passenger door isn't fully closed and knocks him out of the car.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 horribly mutilated by Ryder.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.Jim then finds Ryder at an abandoned gas station. Ryder knocks down the gas pumps with a pickup truck and then lights a match. Both cars drive off and the gas station explodes. Jim retreats to a roadside diner, where he meets a pretty young waitress named Nash (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and calls the police. She then serves him a cheeseburger and french fries. He eats these in solitude, until discovering that one of the fries is a severed finger. Realizing that Ryder is nearby, Jim attempts to flee, but is stopped by the police who promptly place him under arrest, mistakenly thinking that he might be responsible for the dead bodies found by the side of the road. At some point, Ryder...