Shuttle (film)

''Shuttle'' is a 2008 American thriller film about a group of young travelers who are kidnapped by an airport shuttle driver with unknown motives. The film was written and directed by Edward Anderson, and it stars Tony Curran, Peyton List, and Cameron Goodman.

''Shuttle'' premiered at South by Southwest on March 8, 2008 in Austin, Texas. The film opened theatrically in limited release in the United States on March 6, 2009.

Plot

Mel ( Peyton List) and Jules (Cameron Goodman) are best friends returning from a trip in Mexico. Seth ( James Snyder) and Matt (Dave Power) arrive with them on the same plane and introduce themselves upon landing. Jules takes Mel into the bathroom to help her deal with her motion sickness, where Mel tells her that she has broken up with her fiancé.

Mel's luggage is lost, so she must return the next day to get it. Outside, they board a shuttle bus after its driver (Tony Curran) offers to charge them half the price of a regular shuttle. On board, they meet Andy (Cullen Douglas), a shy family man. Seth and Matt see them and attempt to board, but the driver tells them he can only make three stops at a time. Jules informs him that the men are with them.

During the ride, Mel shows Matt her signing skills while Seth and Jules flirt with each other. After taking an unusual detour, they are run off the road by a car, and the driver gets out to survey the damage, which turns out to be a flat tire. Jules tries to call a taxi, but there is no cell phone service. Matt offers to help change the tire, but while his hand is on top of the tire, the bus falls off the jack and onto Matt's hand, severing his fingers. They quickly drive off to the hospital.

After a while, the driver calmly pulls over, much to the astonishment of the passengers. He pulls a gun on them and demands cooperation, taking everyone's phones and wallets. Mel and Seth argue about doing something, and Jules finds a flare from the safety kit used to bandage Matt's hand. Mel comes up with a plan to get the window open, but Andy sees her and causes a commotion. A struggle ensues, and the flare is ignited. The driver sees this, stops the bus, and removes the flare.

The driver slashes Seth's face with a knife as a warning to the others. He informs them of a "change of plans", and drives them to an enclosed ATM so Jules can withdraw money. While she is inside, she sets a paper fire to set off an alarm. The driver sees this and rushes towards her, but she slams the door shut. Mel escapes, but the driver shouts at her that he will let Jules suffocate from smoke inhalation if she doesn't return to the bus.

At a supermarket, Mel uses sign language into the closed-circuit camera (CCTV) to describe her plight, and then gives the clerk a note to check the recording after paying for a list of items given to her by the driver. Seth gets free, makes a run for it, and is eventually run over by the bus. Later, Mel shows Matt a knife that she hid in some purchased ice, which she uses to cut their belts off. Matt uses the ice bag to smash the window, and they all shout for help. When the driver walks towards them with a gun, Mel cuts the guy's wrist with the knife, and Matt hits him over the head with the bag. Mel then grabs the gun and threatens to shoot the driver. She makes him hand over the keys to the belts, and Jules is able to get herself and Andy free.

Mel drives the bus, leaving Matt with the gun and Andy with the knife to watch over the driver. Andy then nonchalantly stabs Matt in the throat, which no one notices at first. He grabs the gun and puts it to Mel's head, telling her to stop. Andy then reveals himself to be in league with the driver. They stop at a bridge to throw the boys' bodies off, and afterward, Andy torments the girls for a few minutes before the driver gets him to stop.

Mel get a tire iron from under the seat. Andy wraps tape around the girls' mouths and scissors a lock of their hair. Mel hits him several times with the tire iron, and the driver is forced to stop. Mel seizes control of the van and drives away, but the driver rushes towards her. She slams the brakes and accelerates to throw him about the bus. Andy tries to attack her, but she grabs a fire extinguisher and hits him with it. The bus then crashes into a wall during the struggle.

Jules finds Andy dead and the driver and Mel unconscious; she flags down a passing car but, while speaking with 911, the bus runs over that samaritan. The driver then takes the ladies to a warehouse, where he burns a tattoo from Jules' body; he also takes the girls' driving licences and puts them in a drawer, which is already full of other IDs of people the driver has kidnapped before. He has Jules dye Mel's hair blonde, then makes Mel and Jules strip down to their underwear and white high heels for an inspection. The man who inspects them is revealed to be the man that ran them off the road earlier, and the same man who was seen observing them at the airport in the opening scene. The driver inspects their bags and finds that Jules has antifungal medication for a yeast infection. Since Jules is of no use to the driver, since both girls must be in good health, he takes her onto the bus and gasses her.

Mel threatens to cut her face with a shard of glass, which would make her useless to the driver. She eventually she stabs him in the leg with it, and then hits him in the face with some light fixtures. She finds the gun, loads it, and shoots him. Thinking he is dead, she tries to escape in the bus. Before she can leave, he attacks her again. He forces her into a large wooden crate, which contains the items Mel purchased earlier in the grocery store: a flashlight, a loaf of bread, two jugs of water, two magazines, kitty litter, and a litter box, as well as her motion sickness pills.

Trapped inside the dark crate, Mel yells for help, and, when someone eventually comes with a forklift, he turns out to be in on the operation. While being carried away, she finds a photo of seven young white women. The photo depicts the despondent-looking girls completely naked, hair dyed blonde, and wearing white high heels (like the ones Mel and Jules were forced to wear). It is implied that these girls were also kidnapped by the driver and forced to become sex slaves overseas. Mel looks at the photo in horror. The crate is eventually loaded onto a cargo ship destined for Asia.

The final shot is of Mel's lost luggage turning up at the airport the next day.

Critical reception

The film received mixed reviews from critics.

References

External links

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* {{mojo title, shuttle

2008 films
2008 directorial debut films
2008 thriller films
2000s English-language films
American thriller films
Films about human trafficking
Films about kidnapping in the United States
Films shot in Massachusetts
Films scored by Henning Lohner
Magnolia Pictures films
Works about sex trafficking
2000s American films
English-language thriller films