Q:Build a movie plot around this: who stops his car , but it moves across the road? No one.
A:
David Mann (Dennis Weaver) sets out from Los Angeles on a business trip driving a 1970 red Plymouth Valiant. His eastward path takes him from the crowded freeways to a long stretch of 2-lane interstate crossing the California high desert. Mann's journey is going reasonably well until he encounters a slow-moving tanker truck. The truck is grimy and oil-stained, and constantly belching black smoke. Mann passes the slow-moving truck, but soon after, the truck roars past him, forcing him to steer sharply to avoid a collision, then returns to its slow-moving speed. Mann rolls his eyes and passes the truck a second time, eliciting a loud, startling blast on the truck's air horn.Mann soon pulls into a small gas station, into which the truck follows him. The driver of the truck, unseen except for a pair of hairy bare arms and blue jeans with brown cowboy boots, is watching Mann through his rear view mirror. He instead exits the truck on the passenger side and walks alongside it, not wanting Mann to see his face. Mann goes inside the station to phone his wife (Jacqueline Scott) at home who is a bit annoyed with him for not confronting one of their friends at a recent party who was making a pass at her. Mann argues that the friend had too much to drink and did not require that kind of overreaction. His wife's anger cools but she chides him for always being one who tends to avoid confrontation, leaving him feeling weak and emasculated. Afterward, the gas station attendant fills up Mann's car with gas and also mentions that Mann needs a new radiator hose for his engine, but he casually puts that off for the moment.Mann returns to his car and continues his drive. He assumes it'll be smooth sailing from here on, but soon the truck approaches him from behind, quickly. Mann politely gestures to the driver to go ahead and pass him, which he does, but then slows to a ridiculously low speed. Highly annoyed, Mann complains out loud, as if to the driver, eventually blowing his horn. Shortly thereafter they reach a passing lane...