As the Forbes interview points out, “Breakdown” has a passionate following. When asked if Mostow had predicted a slow expansion of his film’s popularity, the director admitted he expected almost the opposite. He likely suspected he would release a zero-budget B-movie and merely hope someone somewhere bothered to buy a ticket. His ambitions, he said, were low. To quote:

“I had initially conceived ‘Breakdown’ as something I could do on a super low budget. I could shoot it out in the desert, I didn’t need to pay for lights because we’ll be mostly in daylight, and I didn’t need location permits or expensive locations because it was out in the middle of nowhere. ‘Breakdown’ was very early in my career, and the film I’d done right before this, I’d made for only $1 million, so in my mind, it was a movie that I was going to make for maybe $4 million.” 

The $1 million film in question was the 1989 horror comedy “Beverly Hills Bodysnatchers” which starred former “Batman” actor Frank Gorshin and Victor Tayback. Sadly, the film is not currently available on streaming. (Freelance archivists, however, have retained it on YouTube.)

Mostow expressed shock that “Breakdown” mutated from a modest B-picture into a proper studio thriller. In the interview, he revealed that the upgrade in production value was distressing, and that Kurt Russell’s commute was astonishing; it was not something a B-movie would have accommodated. He said:

“When it suddenly turned into a studio-sized film, with a big movie star, who was commuting to set every day from his house in Los Angeles by private jet, and I had this huge crew, I started to worry it was going to be the Emperor with no clothes.” 

But Mostow availed himself well.