Love truck-driving films? We do too! That’s why we compiled a list of the best trucker movies of all time. It’s not easy to choose your favorite movies, much less so when movies are about topics you’re passionate about, such as trucking. Nowadays, we have some popular TV shows about trucking like “Truck My Truck ” or “Ice Road Truckers”(I enjoy watching “Ice Road Truckers,” a Great show!).
But there are movies about trucking, road romances, chases, and all those other things that make truck driving such a thrilling experience. Did American cinema capture that independent spirit of this great profession? Fortunately for us, they did. In the mid-late 70s, America was in love with the trucker culture. Everybody knew CB lingo and many guys added CBs to their vehicles. Some of the greatest trucking movies were made in this period. For this golden era, we can only say, “Thank you, Hollywood.”
Our Best Trucker Movies List
A little disclaimer on our side before we begin, there isn’t an exact metric we used to rank these movies, it was done by heart, and we warmly advise you to check them out, regardless of their ranking. There were many movies we loved and enjoyed watching, but sadly they didn’t make it on the list. Please share some of your favorite movies in the comment below. So without further delay, here is our list of the best truck-driving movies:
10. Breakdown (1997)
IMDb rating: 6.8
Storyline:
Jeff and Amy Taylor are moving to California and must drive across the country. When they find themselves stranded in a desert with hardly anyone or anything around, their trip comes to a sudden halt. Amy had taken a ride with a friendly trucker to a small diner to call for help, but after a long time, Jeff becomes worried. He finds that no one in the diner has seen or heard from his wife. When he finds the trucker who gave Amy the ride, the trucker swears he has never seen her. Now Jeff must attempt to find his wife, who has been kidnapped and is being held for ransom. But who can he trust?
Director: Jonathan Mostow
Writers: Jonathan Mostow (screenplay), Sam Montgomery (screenplay)
Stars: Kurt Russell, J.T. Walsh, and Kathleen Quinlan
Comment: Lesson for the day: Do NOT let your wife go for a joy ride with a handsome trucker. She might be kidnapped or worse. Unless you want to get rid of her.
Quotes: Red: You’re a tough man to get a hold of, Jeffery.
Jeff: What do you want?
Red: It’s not what I want; it’s what you want and how badly you want it. ‘Cause, it’s gonna cost you. Can’t show it to you right now, but it’s about 5’5″, 115 pounds, three or four of that just pure tit. Nice curly brown hair, upstairs and down. Interested?
9. Big Rig (2007)
IMDb rating: 6.1
Storyline: A portrait of contemporary American life, as seen through the eyes of long-haul truck drivers.
Director: Doug Pray
Writers: Brad Blondheim (screenwriter), Doug Pray
Comment: Another great movie showing that truckers are the spine of the USA. Times have certainly changed, and transportation has gone downhill. Which is quite a shame. If all truckers stopped working for three days, our economy would be crushed.
Quotes: I’ve got a total of 268 lights on this truck. You gotta impress the girls, you know? Everything I do is for women.
8. Every Which Way But Loose (1978)
IMDb rating: 5.9
Storyline:
Philo Beddoe is an easy-going trucker and a great fist-fighter. With two friends – Orville, who promotes prize-fights for him, and Clyde, the orangutan he won on a bet – he roams the San Fernando Valley in search of cold beer, country music, and the occasional punch-up. But he is floored by a dainty little country and western singer, who gives him the slip when she realizes he’s getting too serious. Phil, Clyde, and Orville set off in pursuit, pestered by bikers.
Director: James Fargo
Writers: Jeremy Joe Kronsberg
Stars: Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, and Geoffrey Lewis
Comment: Before Kimbo Slice, the toughest fist-fighter nowadays, we had Philo Beddoe. This is the movie for real men. Trucks, pretty women, country music, tons of testosterone, fist-fighting, and Clint Eastwood. Do you want anything more?
Quotes: Cholla: The first thing we do is find out who we’re talking about. I mean, we don’t even know where to find him.
Elmo: How are we gonna find him?
Cholla: Well it appears to me that there can’t be too many guys driving around this valley with an ape.
7. White Line Fever (1975)
IMDb rating: 6.1
Storyline:
Carrol Jo Hummer–A working man who’s had enough! Sam Hummer was a local truck driver from Tucson, Arizona, who worked for a Tucson-based produce shipper called “Red River.” His driving partners were Duane Haller and “Pops” Dinwiddie. Eventually, Sam’s son, Carrol Jo, is old enough to ride with his father, and the two of them become partners.
Director: Jonathan Kaplan
Writers: Ken Friedman, Jonathan Kaplan
Stars: Jan-Michael Vincent, Kay Lenz, and Slim Pickens
Comments: This is a kick-ass movie! Sort of like a truck driver version of Walking Tall. It opens some difficult life themes. And always remember: Without truckers, the WORLD STOPS!!!
6. Sorcerer (1977)
IMDb rating: 7.1
Storyline:
A group of outcasts from different backgrounds/nationalities are forced by misfortune to work in a remote oil drilling operation in South America. When fire breaks out of control, four of the outcasts are given the opportunity to earn enough money to get out by transporting six crates of unstable dynamite through miles of jungle in two ancient trucks. Will they succeed and regain their honor and citizenship, or get blown up for their efforts?
Director: William Friedkin
Writers: Walon Green (screenplay), Georges Arnaud (novel)
Stars: Roy Scheider, Bruno Cremer and Francisco Rabal
Comments: It’s a remake of “The wage of fear.” But, still, it is a great movie. Without the use of miniature effects, the action is shot on location, even the gigantic explosion that ignites the oil rig. It all looks totally real. The huge lorries cross collapsing bridges and rocky canyons and get stuck in the jungle. The iconic scene (on the album cover and poster campaign) shows the trucks swaying on a rope bridge in a tropical storm. Admittedly, the collapsing bridge is carefully constructed with steel cables but looks like wood and rope. This didn’t prevent the production from losing several trucks in the river!
Quotes: Scanlon: [Nilo has been shot] What’re you gonna do with all that money, you hump? Talk to me! What’re you gonna do?
Nilo: Get… laid! Best whore in Managua!
Scanlon: Two whores! Two best whores in Managua!
Nilo: You do it. For me.
5. Convoy (1978)
IMDb rating: 6.0
Storyline:
While driving through the Arizona desert, Albuquerque-based independent trucker Martin Penwald – who goes by the handle “Rubber Duck” – along with his fellow truckers “Pig Pen” and “Spider Mike,” is entrapped by unscrupulous Sheriff Lyle “Cottonmouth” Wallace using a vital tool of the trucker’s trade, the citizens’ band (CB) radio. Rubber Duck and Cottonmouth have a long, antagonistic history.
When this encounter later escalates into a more physical one as Cottonmouth threatens Spider Mike, a man who wants to get home to his pregnant wife, Rubber Duck and the other truckers involved, including Spider Mike, Pig Pen, and “Widow Woman,” go on the run, figuring the best thing to do is to head to New Mexico to avoid prosecution. Along for the ride is Melissa, a beautiful photographer who just wanted a ride to the airport. As news of what happened spreads over the CB airwaves… a song of the same title by C.W. McCall.
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Writers: Bill L. Norton (screen story and screenplay), Bill Fries (song)
Stars: Kris Kristofferson, Ali MacGraw, and Ernest Borgnine
Comments: This movie is great! The screenplay is based on this song: The movie has the form of one long, occasionally interrupted chase as the independent truckers, objecting to unrealistic speed limits and corrupt highway cops, flee across Arizona to New Mexico. There are roadside-diner brawls filmed in slow-motion, a couple of spectacular traffic violations, and a lot of scenery so pretty it would tone up any postcard.
Quotes: Melissa: Why do they call you the Duck?
Rubber Duck: Because it rhymes with “luck.” See, my daddy always told me to be just like a duck. Stay smooth on the surface and paddle like the devil underneath!
4. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)
IMDb rating: 7.6
Storyline:
A former police officer is now a lone wanderer, traveling through a devastated Australia after a nuclear war, looking for now-priceless petrol. He lives to survive and is none too pleased when he finds himself the only hope of a small group of honest people running a remote oil refinery. He must protect them from the bike gang terrorizing them whilst transporting their entire fuel supply to safety.
Director: George Miller
Writers: Terry Hayes (screenplay), George Miller (screenplay), and Brian Hannant
Stars: Mel Gibson, Bruce Spence, and Michael Preston
Comments: Mad Max 2 is a sci-fi western about a stranger wandering into town to the inevitable showdown with the bad guy on a dusty road. Also one of the most successful action movies of the 80s. Great car chasing scenes, explosions. And while Mel Gibson is the star, many scenes are stolen by Bruce Spence, playing a crazed gyrocopter pilot who strikes up an uneasy alliance with Max. Worth watching the film.
Quotes: Max: I’m just here for the gasoline.
3. They Drive By Night (1940)
IMDb rating: 7.3
Storyline:
Brothers Paul and Joe Fabrini run a trucking business in California, mainly shipping fruit from farms to the markets in Los Angeles. They struggle to make ends meet in the face of corrupt businessmen and intense competition. They are forced into driving long hours, and one night they pick-up waitress Cassie Hartley who’s just quit her job at a truck stop. The three of them witness the death of a mutual acquaintance when he falls asleep at the wheel. This has a profound effect on Paul and Joe, and they become determined to find a way to make the business pay so they can quit.
Director: Raoul Walsh
Writers: Jerry Wald (screenplay), Richard Macaulay (screenplay), and A.I. Bezzerides (novel “Long Haul”)
Stars: George Raft, Humphrey Bogart, and Ann Sheridan
Comments: Great noir black-and-white movie. Real classic. You will be in love with the charismatic Bogie and beautiful Ann.
Quotes: Paul Fabrini: Sure, I want to sleep. Everyone sleeps once in a while, remember? You’d think I wanted to do something peculiar.
2. The Wages Of Fear (1953)
Original title: Le salaire de la peur
IMDb rating: 8.4
Storyline:
In the South American jungle, supplies of nitroglycerine are needed at a remote oil field. The oil company pays four men to deliver the supplies in two trucks. A tense rivalry develops between the two sets of drivers, and the slightest jolt can result in death on the rough remote roads.
Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot
Writers: Georges Arnaud (novel), Henri-Georges Clouzot (adaptation and dialogue), and Jérôme Géronimi (adaptation and dialogue)
Stars: Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, and Peter van Eyck
Comments: The most original and shocking French melodrama of the ’50s. This is a must-watch movie. Great characters. Great story. You will be driven deep into a jungle. The film was also a hit, with the public gaining 6,944,306 Admissions in France, the 4th highest-earning film of the year. The film was accused of anti-Americanism, and several scenes were cut for the U.S. release.
Quotes: Bill O’Brien: The Hell with the Union! There’s plenty of tramps in town, all volunteers. I’m not worried. To get that bonus, they’ll carry the entire charge on their backs.
Bradley: You mean you’re gonna put those bums to work?
Bill O’Brien: Yes, Mr. Bradley, because those bums don’t have any union or families. And if they blow up, nobody’ll come around bothering me for any contribution.
AND HERE IT IS! THE BEST OF THE BESTS:
1. Smokey and the Bandit (1977)
IMDb rating: 6.6
Storyline:
Bandit and Cledus are two truck-driving southerners who accept a dare from big-shots Big and Little Enos to pick up a truckload of beer from Texas and return it to them within a specified time. Picking it up is simple enough, but as they leave Texas, Bandit unwittingly picks up Carrie, a hitchhiking bride-to-be who just left her groom, Junior, at the altar. Junior, however, is the son of Sheriff Buford T. Justice. And when Buford and Junior discover what has happened, they go on a “high-speed pursuit” across the Southeast to catch the bandit.
Director: Hal Needham
Writers: Hal Needham (story), Robert L. Levy (story), James Lee Barrett (screenplay), Charles Shyer (screenplay), and Alan Mandel (screenplay)
Stars: Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, and Jerry Reed
Comments: Greatest trucker’s movie of all time! Prohibition couldn’t have been that bad because bootleggin’ booze looked like the best day job ever. Plus, only a true trucker would say: “For the good old American lifestyle: For the money, for the glory, and for fun… mostly for the money.”
Quotes: Alabama State Trooper: Did you see that? They went right through our roadblock!
Buford T. Justice: You som’bitches couldn’t close an umbrella!