Duel

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Duel

TV-PG,

1971,

1h 35m,

Mystery & Thriller

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Watchlist

Watchlist

89%

47 Reviews

Tomatometer

84%

25,000+ Ratings

Popcornmeter

89%

Tomatometer

47 Reviews

84%

Popcornmeter

25,000+ Ratings

David Mann (Dennis Weaver), a mild-mannered electronics salesman, is driving cross-country on a two-lane highway when he encounters an old oil tanker driven by an unseen driver who seems to enjoy annoying him with dangerous antics on the road. Unable to escape the demonic big rig, David finds himself in a dangerous game of cat and mouse with the monstrous truck. When the pursuit escalates to deadly levels, David must summon his inner warrior and turn the tables on his tormentor.

Critics Consensus

Duel makes brilliant use of its simple premise, serving up rock-solid genre thrills while heralding the arrival of a generational talent behind the lens.

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Desmond Ryan

Philadelphia Inquirer

Feb 21, 2026

3.5/4

Weaver gives us a nicely calibrated trajectory of rising panic.

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Mitchell Beaupre

Little White Lies

Sep 22, 2022

4.5/5

This is a film stripped back to its bare essentials, and Spielberg thrives in having to get creative to make each moment feel as fresh and energised as the last.

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Kevin Maher

The Times (UK)

May 29, 2021

4/5

A shoestring marvel.

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Yasser Medina

Cinefilia

Aug 11, 2026

7/10

An exercise in pure, high-octane tension in which Spielberg, as a young debutant, demonstrates an economy of means to unleash a thriller, where he turns a desert highway, a car and a truck into an existential battleground. [Full review in Spanish]

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Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

Nov 8, 2025

3.5/4

Duel gets plenty of mileage (no pun intended) out of its simple premise.

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Joshua Ryan

Movies We Texted About

Jul 19, 2025

8/10

Duel is a perfectly assembled thriller that signaled the arrival of a masterclass filmmaker and serves as a time capsule of early 1970s cinema.

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Harry R

Apr 24, 2019

Thrilling to the very end.

Hagrid R

Mar 2, 2019

A pretty solid thriller which is quite effective in the way of suspense. In addition to several intimidating camera angles and several cool set pieces which kept me engaged throughout such as the diner scene, I liked how we never saw who the truck driver was. Due to this choice, the film was an effective example of one of my favorite horror/thriller tropes - fear of the unknown. What's interesting about this film is how it causes you to begin to imagine the truck itself as the villain. Overall, this film made great use of such a simple premise. As for the setup though, I was a bit confused by it. How long has the truck driver had that job? Is David Mann the only person who's ever cut him off? I figure that would be commonplace. Is this the first time he went berserk or has he done it multiple times? Fortunately, the movie was still really good in spite of this. Check it out if you haven't yet.

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Albus P

Oct 13, 2018

Duel is a movie based on a really simple plot: A motorist is stalked on the road by a truck driver. Spieldberg adapted the plot so perfectly to the screen there is no question why he went so big in his directing career. Some of the techniques used in this movie (camera perspectives, voice-over narration) were really effective on building psychological tension. The way scenes were built also remind of Hitchcock. In retrospective, Duel is an eternal major classic of the thriller genre that had influences on many others films today .

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Kylo P

Oct 9, 2018

Excellent thriller,weaver is perfect.

Finn R

Aug 4, 2018

The Hitchcockian premise may be silly, but having thrilling car choreography and suspenseful direction, this being Steven Spielberg's first feature, this has "Yep, he still had it back then" written all over it.

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Finn R

Aug 2, 2018

Acho o filme ótimo, já assisti ele mais de 10 vezes, é o pai dos Road-Movies e um dos mais impressionantes e interessantes que já vi pois esse filme te prende pela curiosidade de saber como vai acabar, Recomendo a todos que o assistirem, e o que mais me impressiona é que é um filme muito bom e foi barato aos produtores, com jogo de CÂMERAS muito bom e trilha sonora boa também.

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Synopsis

David Mann (Dennis Weaver), a mild-mannered electronics salesman, is driving cross-country on a two-lane highway when he encounters an old oil tanker driven by an unseen driver who seems to enjoy annoying him with dangerous antics on the road. Unable to escape the demonic big rig, David finds himself in a dangerous game of cat and mouse with the monstrous truck. When the pursuit escalates to deadly levels, David must summon his inner warrior and turn the tables on his tormentor.

Director: Steven Spielberg
Producer: George Eckstein
Screenwriter: Richard Matheson
Production Co: Universal TV
Rating: TV-PG (L), PG
Genre: Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 1, 2015
Runtime: 1h 35m

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