Hired by a corrupt American oil company to transport volatile chemicals across dangerous terrain, four men risk life and limb in pursuit of a rich payday. The job’s much too risky for the refinery’s usual, unionized employees, but these louts are just desperate enough to throw caution to the wind and wager everything on their own driving skills. They’ve had their fill of kicking around a dusty, barren, South American nowhere town, waiting for work to materialize, and the mere thought of a big score has them spending the money before they’ve left the garage. The first act takes a while to find its footing, but once the rubber hits the road this is a master class in compounding suspense. Splitting time behind the wheel in two large, under-prepared equipment trucks, the men are soon at each other’s throats, stressed by the trying conditions and ever-present threat of mortal disaster. They weren’t exactly friendly before this endeavor, starting fights and waving weapons in a bar the night before, and the smothering anxiety only serves to fan those flames. Together, they’re forced to wind around a steep, jagged mountain road, cross a field of divots at high speed and slide through a lake of spilled oil, doing their best to cooperate (and often failing at that) while remaining hyper-aware of their payload’s touchy nature. The jerrycans of nitroglycerin that line their beds are so fickle, even a bad bounce could blow them all to kingdom come. You just know that, eventually, something’s going wrong. It’s tough not to nibble a fingernail as the twin teams navigate one obstacle after another, balanced precariously on the metaphorical tightrope. When disaster finally strikes, the film doesn’t knock our socks off. It focuses on the shockwave over the shock and awe, a whisper of rushing air that sweeps crumbled tobacco from a half-rolled cigarette and then departs, like spirits headed into the afterlife. It seemed destined that only one truck would finish this adventure - the oil company suspected as much - but the real question is, can the survivors still find a way to band together and overcome? And, if so, at what cost?

Astonishing creation of tension-building--the last 90 minutes are some of the most memorable you'll ever see. I remember the first hour being slow when I watched this in college, but upon rewatch it feels like the crux of the movie. The film wants us to understand the brutality and desperation that capitalism creates in order to better understand the journey the characters go on in the second half. It's like Sierra Madre on steroids, and it's incredibly effective.

Great film that conveys very well the feelings of the protagonists, that tension while transporting the nitroglycerin.

The beginning is quite boring, but I enjoyed it more as soon as they started driving. Not everything holds up, but most of it is fine. Biggest problem for me was, that they didn’t let Mario and Luigi drive together. 😉

The original title of the film is Le Salaire de la Peur.