The Hitcher (Also Known As: Liftaren) is a 1986 American thriller film directed by Robert Harmon and written by Eric Red. It released on 21 February 1986. The film stars Rutger Hauer, C. Thomas Howell, Jennifer Jason Leigh. A young man who escaped the clutches of a murderous hitch-hiker is subsequently stalked, framed for the hitchers crimes, and has his life made into hell by the same man he escaped.