Trivia: Steven Spielberg "interviewed" over 100 trucks before finding the forboding, evil looking one for the movie.
Trivia: At the end of the film when the truck goes off the cliff, we hear an odd groaning sound. This is a dinosaur growl from an old movie Spielberg likes. Interestingly, this same sound is also used at the end of Jaws as the shark sinks to the bottom of the ocean. Spielberg did this to show that Jaws and Duel would always be closely connected.
Trivia: This film garnered so much critical praise that it was theatrically released in quite a few countries, though it was originally a made-for-TV-movie for NBC in 1972.
Trivia: The scene where the truck goes over the cliff had to be perfect the first time - the production team could not afford to purchase other trucks due to the extremely low budget.
Trivia: This was the full-length feature directorial debut of Steven Spielberg.
Chosen answer: The movie opens with him in downtown Los Angeles, California, so he's probably from there or somewhere in Southern California. He's heading to Bakersfield, California, which is north, about 2 hours away. In the short story, he's heading to a client in San Francisco. However, in the film he gets off the main freeway running from LA to Bakersfield (IH-5) and takes Highway 14 towards Canyon Country.
Bishop73