There are a ton of movies about trucking out there, but not very many of them do a very good job of showing what like is really like on the road. What’s worse, a lot of movies perpetuate untrue stereotypes about truck drivers. We’ve made a list some of the least realistic stereotypes we’ve seen on the big screen.
Five Incredibly Untrue Movie Trucker Stereotypes
1. The Killer Trucker. This is the trucker in movies like “Joyride” and “Breakdown”. These movies assume that truckers really have nothing better to do with their time than follow around four-wheelers and make their lives hell. Please. It’s called sleep and it’s way more fun than murder.
2. The Trucker That Isn’t There. This stereotype is perpetuated by the faceless, nameless, voiceless truck driver in “Duel” and the evil ringleading 18-wheeler in “Maximum Overdrive”. Contrary to what most people think, we are not our trucks, okay?
3. The Cat-Calling Lowlife Trucker. This is the guy in “Thelma and Louise” making obscene gestures at women out the window of his truck. Most professional truckers see way more obscene behavior from the drivers of 4-wheelers than they will ever see from any of us!
4. The Ridiculously Badass Trucker. This stereotype is inspired by guys like Sylvester Stallone in “Over the Top” and Patrick Swayze in “Black Dog”. We’re not saying that the average trucker isn’t tough as nails, but not many of us have biceps like Sly or dodge bullets in our trucks on a daily basis like Swayze.
5. The Ghost Trucker. Large Marge in Tim Burton’s “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure” is perhaps the most unrealistic of all the trucker stereotypes. Very few of us out there are actually vengeful phantoms trying to frighten hitchhikers. I hope. Right?