David Mann (Dennis Weaver), commercial traveller, in a Californian highway overtakes a powerful semitrailer with a tank. The truck driver, probably only irritated, overtakes and gets back in front. But Mann, annoyed by the terrible whiffs of smoke coming out of the truck, overtakes again. The duel starts here! From that moment, the truck driver, after a two-tune blast, a true declaration of war, doesn’t give in to the unlucky car driver, and everything that follows is a mortal challenge fought on the edge of high speed in a sequence of breathtaking dramatic coup de théatre.

All of a sudden, the chosen narrative solution doesn’t appear different from the one of the 'The Car' o 'Christine' (which were inspired, without any doubt, by Spielberg's masterpiece) namely that the ‘evil’ vehicle is controlled by a devilish entity, nearly omniscient, rather than by a man. Anyway, the final confrontation shows the peaceful David, transformed into a murderer by events, who deals a mortal blow to his opponent.

A curiosity. The ‘David Mann’ element, who from a peaceful bourgeois turns into a murderer, in order to save his own skin, has given life to an analogy with David Banner (Bill Bixby), who, in the mind of the scriptwriters of 'L'incredibile Hulk' in a fit of rage turns into the green being. In the episode of the series 'Never Give A Trucker An Even Break', different sequences of ‘Duel’ are used or, to be more precise, only few new sequences, with the TV series characters, are added to the screen adaptation of Spielberg’s movie. It will be the green giant (Lou Ferrigno) who will defeat the monstrous Peterbilt in the final sequence.