1998 film starring
Patrick Swayze,
Randy Travis, and Meat Loaf.
Kevin Sorbo of '
Hercules' fame was supposed to play the lead role, but dropped out due to medical reasons, so Swayze took over the part of Jack Crews, a former
truck driver who did jail time for
vehicular manslaughter. In order to keep the bank from foreclosing on his home, he takes a job offer from his crooked boss to deliver a shipment from
Georgia to
New Jersey, despite the fact that his license has been revoked. Along the way he discovers that the shipment is a cache of illegal weapons, and that the
FBI,
ATF, and a group of hijackers are trying to take the vehicle down. Meanwhile, in order to get Swayze to do what he wants,
Meat Loaf kidnaps Crews' wife and daughter.
Black Dog was almost universally panned. I don't know... I kind of liked it... maybe just because it's a truck movie, and you don't see many truck movies around. I mean, "Smokey And The Bandit" had a truck in it, but it's really not a truck movie - neither Smokey or the Bandit is in a truck - that's Snowman. Black Dog was kind of a campy, cool, big rig flick... even if the ending sucked.
Oh yeah... the title 'Black Dog' refers to some kind of phantom dog that truckers see when they've been driving too long. In the film's flashback, Swayze sees the dog, swerves to avoid it, and ends up hitting a couple whose car is stalled by the side of the road.
The
Led Zeppelin song gets its name from a black
labrador retriever that wandered in and out of the studio while they were recording their
unnamed fourth album.