Young Jim Halsey (C. Thomas Howell) kindly picks up a hitchhiker while driving through a barren stretch of highway. Unfortunately, the hitcher (Rutger Hauer) is not a pleasant new acquaintance at all, but a serial killer stalking the highway for prey. There are sun bleached proofs of the hitcher's activities scattered along the wayside. Jim gets away, but the hitcher is stalking him. When Jim finds people to tell his story, nobody believes him and soon after, the hitcher comes along all icy menace and violent kills. Jim becomes the prime suspect for the hitcher's crimes and must try outrunning both the police and the hitcher.