Stuck (2007)–Inspired By Reality, Elevated by Stuart Gordon

Loosely based on a real event, Stuck tells the tale of a down on his luck, recently homeless man who is hit by a car driven by a hard partying young nursing attendant, and gets stuck in her windshield, where she leaves him, hoping that he’ll die and she can forget the incident.

Tom (played by Stephen Rea), has had his unemployment run out, been kicked out of his apartment and rendered homeless. Forced out on the streets, he just wants a good nights sleep.

Brandi (played by Mena Suvari) is a nursing home care attendant, up for a promotion. She likes to party and this Friday is no exception. After drinking and doing Ecstasy (E) at the club with her best friend and boyfriend, she decides to drive home. Impaired and distracted by her phone while driving, Brandi doesn’t see Tom as he crosses the road and hits him, breaking his legs and lodging him in her windshield. Panicking, Brandi drives home, Tom in windshield and parks in her garage. Tom grans and freaks Brandi out. Asking for help, Brandi lies and tells him help is on the way.

When Brandi’s boyfriend Rashid (played by Russell Hornsby) gets to her place, he notices that she is visibly upset. Asking her what happens she explains that she got into an accident and hit a homeless man. Rashid tells her to relax, and that if no one saw anything, then she’s got nothing to worry about. He has no idea that Tom is in the garage, embedded in her windshield.

The next morning Brandi gets up and gets ready to go to work. She seems to forget aabout Tom, stuck in the windshield and enters the garage. Seeing Tom, and that he is alive, she tells him help is on the way ( a lie) and she scrambles out. Almost calling 911, she stops at 91… then calls for a cab to get her to work. Once the cab shows up (driven by John Dunsworth who plays Jim Lahey on the Trailer Park Boys), Tom, starts hitting the horn on Brandi’s car in an attempt to get help. Brandi runs in and tells him to stop and hits Tom, knocking him out. While at work, Tom wakes again and tries to get attention. At one point, when a neighbour’s son sees him through the window of the garage, you think he’s going to be saved. Not so. Actually, there’s a couple of times where it looks like he’ll be saved that doesn’t pan out.

Eventually Brandi explains the situation to Rashid and gets him to commit to helping get rid of Tom. Rashid goes out to the garage and gets ready to finish Tom off. Tom surprises Rashid and takes him out in a pretty cool struggle. Brandi comes out to investigate when she hears someone trying to start her car. Seeing Rashid on the floor of the garage, she kneels next to him and is knocked out briefly when Tom hits her with her car door. Having retrieved a gun from Rashid, Tom struggles down the driveway in an attempt to get help. Brandi wakes and takes after Tom with a hammer. Tom tells her to back off, and points the gun at her, but she is relentless. Missing her, she knocks him out with the hammer.

Okay… I am about to give up the ending so this is where I stop. Stuck is a great movie about one man’s struggle to survive and the story of a disgusting human being’s struggle for self-preservation at all costs.

This movie is excellent and you should see it. Full kudos to Stuart Gordon for creating another great movie.

Here is the trailer: