Synopsis:
While awaiting the next fuel truck at a middle-of-nowhere Arizona rest stop, a traveling young knife salesman is thrust into a high-stakes hostage situation by the arrival of two similarly stranded bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty—or cold, hard steel—to protect their bloodstained, ill-begotten fortune.
What We Thought:
The Last Stop in Yuma County is a solid indie film that will definitely find a cult audience on physical media and streaming. As someone who grew up on Westerns it has a Western vibe mixed with a single location backdrop. It’s a nice little thriller with a cast of smaller yet known names putting in good work. I hope more people check it out.
What I like best about the film is that the filmmakers made it timeless. All the cars are older. It takes place at an old diner with an old gas station. You don’t see cell phones which would immediately date the era of the movie. By doing this and having the plot it does, the film could be 2024 or 1984. It’s been a few days since I watched it and I don’t remember if it even gave the year it’s supposed to take place, but by not specifically aging it with technology and set design, it doesn’t have to be any specific year.
With 99% of the film taking place in that diner/gas station combo, the movie relies on its characters and story. Everyone that shows up at the diner needs gas, but the pumps are dry. A truck is late and everyone is told to wait in the diner until it arrives. You have the waitress running the diner, the first man to arrive is a knife salesman, then two bank robbers, an older couple, and a young couple who want to be Bonnie & Clyde. A random cop stops in for coffee and there’s also the gas station clerk. The knife salesman sees the car the bank robbers arrived in and quickly realizes who they are and tells the waitress. But no one is 100% what they seem and that’s what causes it all to hit the fan.
I think some people will have an issue with the ending though. I give it credit for not going the way you expect it to go, but I also can’t say I love the climax. I don’t know how I would personally end the film, but the Fargo-esque ending might irritate some viewers.
The Last Stop in Yuma County should surprise people. If you watch enough smaller budgeted films you should recognize people like Richard Brake, Barbara Crampton, Faizon Love and Jim Cummings. It has a timeless feel and some good violence and no one feels out of place. The Making Of in the bonus features is fun too because while shooting in the desert it poured out and one of the producers sold his house to pay for the movie. If you want a cool little thriller then this is…
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