Where They Went

The Wages of Fear (1953)

Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot

Four broke foreigners stranded in a remote Central American town take a suicidal job: driving two trucks of nitroglycerin over mountain roads to a burning oil well hundreds of kilometres away.

  • Travel shown
  • On foot, bike, skis or swimming
  • Not shown on screen
  • Fictional place
  1. 1Town, cantina and oil company depot
    Las Piedras (fictional)
    ≈ 00:00:00
    Stated on screenFictional

    Stranded men idle in the heat until the oil company offers $2,000 each to drive nitroglycerin to a well fire, and the four drivers set off.

  2. 2The washboard
    Mountain road to the burning oil well (fictional)
    ≈ 01:25:00
    InferredFictional

    Both trucks must race over a corrugated stretch fast enough not to shake the explosive.

  3. 3Rotten platform on the hairpin
    Mountain road to the burning oil well (fictional)
    ≈ 01:35:00
    InferredFictional

    The trucks reverse onto a rotting wooden platform over a precipice to round a hairpin bend.

  4. 4Boulder blocking the road
    Mountain road to the burning oil well (fictional)
    ≈ 01:50:00
    InferredFictional
  5. 5Oil-filled crater
    Mountain road to the burning oil well (fictional)
    ≈ 02:05:00
    InferredFictional
  6. 6Southern Oil Company well fire (fictional)
    ≈ 02:20:00
    InferredFictional
  7. 7Road back to Las Piedras
    Mountain road to the burning oil well (fictional)
    ≈ 02:25:00
    InferredFictional

The journey in numbers

Distance travelled
317 km
Places
3
Countries
1
Stops
7
  • Truck: 209 km
  • Car: 109 km

Distances are measured in a straight line between stops, so real road distances are longer.

Spotted a mistake?

Every journey is checked against the film, but we can still get things wrong.