An entirely forgotten action thriller that scored a meager 23 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, earned just a shade over $2 million at the box office, and resolutely failed to make the most of what was an undoubtedly ambitious gimmick wouldn’t typically stand out as one with a place in the history books, but Vehicle 19 tragically stands out as Paul Walker’s final theatrical release before his death.
The South African-set genre film arrived on domestic screens in June of 2013, only weeks after he reprised his signature role of Brian O’Conner in Fast & Furious 6, with the actor’s fatal automotive accident occurring that same November. While Vehicle 19 had plenty of potential, it didn’t even come close to making the best use of its fascinating premise.
Walker stars as a parolee who accidentally picks up the wrong rental car, and swiftly realizes there’s an army of corrupt law enforcement officials on his tail desperate to retrieve the cargo contained within, regardless of the collateral damage left along the way. As it turns out, a woman he discovers tied up in the trunk is the key witness set to testify in an upcoming trial that could bring down all of the corrupt cops in one fell swoop, forcing them into a battle for survival.
Netflix’s Wheelman took roughly the same setup of delivering a high-stakes chase flick set entirely from the perspective of a single vehicle and did a much better job with it several years later, so it’s ironic that Vehicle 19 would end up finding a new audience on the exact same streaming service, after FlixPatrol revealed it to be one of the most-watched features on the global charts almost a decade on from its arrival.