Federal Marshals Jack La Roca (Lou Diamond Phillips) and Stephanie (Lori Petty) have recaptured a runaway material witness named Rabbit (Steven Williams) at a dive bar in Arizona. They are about to return to Los Angeles when they are attacked by two hitmen, (Sven-Ole Thorsen and Michael R. Long). One hitman is killed, when backup arrives in the form of fellow agents P.T. (Dale Midkiff), Nick (Alex McArthur), Mary (Mercedes Colon) and Joe (Rob Roy Fitzgerald). The other hitman is left behind when Jack shoots out his tires. The agents, along with Rabbit the witness, take off down Route 66 headed west.
When they get to a closed tourist attraction called “Rattlesnake Ranch” the agents decide to take a short cut on a closed off portion of the route. Jack begins to have visions of a road crew made up of four prisoners, Miles Hackman AKA Pickaxe (Gary Roberts), Frank Slater AKA Sledgehammer (Michael Chance), Steve Pikowski AKA Jackhammer (Peewee Piemonte) and John La Roca (Rhino Michaels), who were forced to work on the road. As these flashbacks occur Jack sees the men attempt to overthrow the guards. They are met with violence from the guards. Rabbit, who is familiar with the byways of Route 66, tries to tell everyone that the road is dangerous and haunted. He is, of course, ignored until they are attacked by the four spectral prisoners.
Jack, having grown up in the area, realizes that one of the phantoms is the ghost of his own father, who died when Jack was six. John had been a criminal who tried to settle down and have a family, but hard times forced him to go back to bank robbing. He ended up on the same chain gang as the three notorious murderers. Jack continues to have visions of his father and the other men working on the road.
In the meantime, Sheriff Bob Conaway (L.Q. Jones) learns from his son, Deputy Gil Conaway (Adam Vernier) that the marshals are on the closed off road. Jack somehow finds a working telephone booth and calls the sheriff wanting him to contact the federal marshals for assistance. Sheriff Conaway never makes the call. The sheriff has secrets of his own concerning the Devil’s Highway. He and his deputies, who are all his sons, head out to Route 666 to make sure no one comes back.
“Route 666” was released in 2001 and was directed by William Wesley. It is an American horror film.
This was sort of a typical 90’s “B” horror movie, strange concept with some over-the-top plot lines. Yes, there are aspects of the film that are silly and a bit ridiculous but we’re talking about four zombie-like phantoms that live inside a road and kill anyone they find. Sounds like a lot of fun to me.
There actually was a portion of a road that ran from Arizona to Colorado called Route 666 that existed between 1926 and 2003. In 2003, after numerous thefts of road signs the route was renamed U.S. Route 491. The reason it was called Route 666 was because it was the 6th spur of the main highway, Route 66, and was labeled based on U.S. Highway numbering guidelines. During its lifetime the route was given the nickname the “Devil’s Highway”, both due to the number being associated with Satan and the number of accidents that occurred along the byway.
Route 66 was established in 1926 and by 1938 was one of the nation’s first continuous stretches of paved road. When completed the Route spanned 2,448 miles. It ran from Chicago to Los Angeles and spanned eight states, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. In 1956, the Federal Highway Act created a system of highways crisscrossing the United States making Route 66 obsolete. Much of the route then fell into disrepair.