1977 film based on the 1955 film the Wages of Fear, which was in turn based on the 1953 novel "Le Salaire de la peur" by Georges Arnaud. Several men are offered a huge sum of money to transport an extremely unstable explosive, nitroglycerine, through the jungles of South America in barely functioning trucks. The explosives are desperatly needed to extinguish a fire at a remote oil rig, but that piece of the plot is practically irelevant.
The film really shines in the tension of the cast as they navigate seemingly impossible roads in huge old trucks. Tension crackles through the entire film as brakes give out, and trucks fall over. This is one of those movies that - if you're so equipped - makes your testicles pull up in your throat and your knuckles go white when a truck barrels it's way over a rope bridge and around narrow roads cut in the side of cliffs. The stunt drivers in this movie did not get paid enough money, and I remaine convinced that someone died during production.
This film is one of Roy Scheiders most unsung works. His tense portrayal of a man willing to do anything, while still respectively fearful of death sells the emotion and draws you in to a very real sympathy with the main characters.
Also features an amusing scene where a confused native mistakes one of the trucks for a demon and attampts to fight and or scare it off with a spear and aggresive shouting.