The film Highway Patrolman is about a girl who travels to another city to visit her parents during the Christmas holidays. At the university, she finds a guy who agrees to give her a lift. The film does not name the characters.
On the way, they have a conversation, during which the guy mentions the theory of the eternal return. They took the same exam, and the question about this theory was contained in the philosophy test. The theory of eternal return suggests that a person, dying, is reborn. But not as in the case of reincarnation, where he receives a new body and personality, remaining in the normal course of time, but reappears at the beginning of his life. Man is doomed to live his life again, the one he has already lived. This topic does not stand out in the general wave of conversation “about everything”, and only at the end it will emerge as the main motive of the film.
The film makes it clear that it is in the horror genre when fellow travelers stop at a gas station. The girl goes to the toilet and cannot get out of it. She screams for someone outside to help her, but no one can hear her, even in such a small space. She manages to get out on her own and the film doesn’t explain what happened. But it shows the end of the guy’s conversation with the cashier, who suggests a shortcut to the destination, via Highway 606. The film deceives the viewer. While the camera focuses on the accidental malfunction of the toilet door, the story starts in parallel. Highway 606 is the main setting, driving along which will bring serious trouble to the heroes.
The meaning of the film Highway Patrolman by G. Jacobs
The guy pulls off the main road and the atmosphere heats up. The girl raises her tone, persuading him to return and go the usual way. She then learns that he has been lying about himself and begins to suspect that he is not who he claims to be. The guy doesn’t live in the city they’re heading to and only went there to pick up the girl. This alarmed her – the motives of a stranger are unlikely to be kind. In the end, they get into an accident. The car that was going to the meeting took up the entire road, so I had to turn sharply onto the side of the road. The car skidded and the guy lost control.
The quarrel, which began even before the accident, continued. The girl is alarmed that the accident was set up by the guy. But soon she becomes convinced that they have problems of a different nature – the tank of the car is leaking, they are at night, in the forest. From this moment, the main mood of the film is manifested – anxiety. It began with a scene at a gas station, continued in a quarrel between fellow travelers, and now it has acquired a distinct connotation. The girl sees silhouettes in black clothes and asks them for help, but they ignore her.
In every tense scene of the film, there is someone next to the hero. There are customers in the gas station scene, but they don’t hear the girl asking for help. Figures in black robes do not respond to calls. The guy finds the only people in the area, but they are dead. The main problem of the characters is the problem of loneliness. No matter how hard they try to find help, strangers seem unable to hear them. This problem also finds its place between fellow travelers. They don’t understand each other. The guy just wanted to give the girl a ride with no other goals. He saw her as a possible friend, but everything went wrong due to a misunderstanding. And at the moment of danger, they begin to approach each other. Instead of quarreling, they have light conversations to get rid of the anxiety of the outside world. They decide to wait until dawn.
Soon a policeman finds them. Fellow travelers tell what happened to them, but he did not come up for this reason. He accuses them of breaking the law. The idea of not understanding other people continues. First, the girl asks for help, and the policeman leads his own line of conversation, calling them violators. She then begins to think that he is asking for a bribe and offers him all her money. But even now she did not guess the intent of the policeman. He attacks her and drags her into his car. The guy manages to hit him with a tire iron, and the fellow travelers return to their car again, to safety.
The guy becomes ill due to injuries sustained in the accident. The girl is trying to contact the rescue service using the handset that was in the trunk of the car. She manages to dial 911 for help, but when she returns to the car, the guy is already dead.
In the morning, the girl meets a snowplow on the road, and the driver agrees to help her. But the accident that happened at night is repeated. Another car is also turned over, and the man went to her to help the victims. In the driver of another car, the girl recognizes a policeman who attacks a man and kills him.
The ending tells that once upon a time on Highway 606 there were several murders. They were made by a policeman. Once he had an accident and was crushed by his car. People, recognizing him, refused to help him and left him to die. Since then, the ghost of a policeman has continued to commit murders on Highway 606. The meaning of the movie Highway Patrolman becomes clear, as well as talk about the theory of eternal return. The policeman relives his already lived life.
