If you’ve ever laid into your horn while stuck behind an unmoving car at a green light, this film may inspire you to be a little less trigger-happy next time around. In Unhinged, road rage turns life-threatening when a man loses his temper behind the wheel and becomes fixated with teaching an impatient driver a lesson. From director Derrick Borte (The Joneses) and writer Carl Ellsworth (Disturbia), the psychological thriller stars Academy Award winner Russell Crowe, Caren Pistorius, and Gabriel Bateman. 

“The film is, No. 1, entertainment. It’s an edge-of-your-seat ride for 90 minutes,” Borte told Entertainment Weekly upon the film’s 2020 release. “It just gets you to realize, wrong place, wrong time, honk your horn at the wrong person on the wrong day, and it can go horribly wrong … It’s a heck of a ride.”

When will Unhinged be released?

The film, first released in theaters in 2020, is available to stream now. 

Who’s in the cast of Unhinged?

• Russell Crowe (Gladiator, The Pope’s Exorcist) as Tom
• Caren Pistorius (The Marsh King’s Daughter) as Rachel Flynn, a hair stylist
• Jimmi Simpson (Westworld) as Andy, Rachel’s friend who’s also her divorce lawyer
• Gabriel Bateman (The Fabelmans) as Kyle Flynn, Rachel’s son
• Austin P. McKenzie (When We Rise) as Fred Flynn, Rachel’s brother
• Juliene Joyner (A League of Their Own, the series) as Mary, Fred’s fiancée
• Lucy Faust (Looking for Alaska) as Rosie, Rachel’s neighbor
• Anne Leighton (Grimm) as Deborah Haskell, one of Rachel’s clients
• Devyn A. Tyler (Clarice) as Mrs. Ayers, a school employee
• Stephen Louis Grush (The Righteous Gemstones) as Leo

What happens in Unhinged?

An exhausted young hair stylist, Rachel (Pistorius), is having an incredibly bad day. She’s running late for her son’s school drop-off, which causes her to keep an important client waiting. To make matters worse, Rachel gets into a verbal altercation with an irate driver, Tom (Crowe), after she honks at him for stalling at a green light. But it doesn’t end there. Tom, who seems hellbent on making Rachel pay for her provocation, begins trailing her. Is this merely a case of road rage, or inklings of something much more dangerous? 

Is Unhinged based on a book?

No, it’s an original screenplay, though Crowe says that the film was partially inspired by Steven Spielberg’s 1971 made-for-TV thriller Duel.  

“That was definitely one of the influences of the film. People ask me about how we based the character, and the director and I talked about him in terms of the shark from Jaws,” Crowe told Screen Rant in a 2020 interview. “The character’s already triggered before the movie starts, and he’s just gonna go about operating the way his instinct to catch his prey is making him operate … It’s that same thing that the shark does. The shark has its own reasons, and it’s just doing what it does naturally. And that’s what this guy is.”

Is Unhinged based on a true story?

No, the film is entirely fictional. 

Where does Unhinged take place?

Unhinged takes place in and around New Orleans.

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