Theo gegen den Rest der Welt (1980)

Truck driver Theo Gromberg from Herne runs a small haulage company with his Italian friend Enno. Their only vehicle and entire capital is a Volvo tractor-trailer. During the opening credits, Theo is seen just outside Herne, completely exhausted after driving 800 kilometers on the way back from a job. He still has to stop for a pee, and while he is doing so, the truck is stolen. A little later, he sees it drive past on the other side of the road. On impulse, Theo jumps into the Fiat 500 belonging to Ines Röggeli, a Swiss medical student, and chases the truck until the little car’s engine overheats. His partner Enno, whom he has alerted, comes to pick him up in a borrowed Peugeot 404 station wagon, with chickens in the back that are supposed to go to a poultry show in Bielefeld that afternoon. Ines joins them to get compensation for the damage to her car. Theo confesses to Enno that he had been carrying illegal goods as return cargo and had intended to use the fee to pay the final installment on the truck—which is why they cannot call the police. In Liège, where Theo says stolen trucks are bought and sold, they do indeed find their Volvo, but when Theo tries to climb into the cab, the thieves knock him out. They go to Maurice “Double-Dieter” Moreau, a brothel owner Theo knows, and learn that their stolen truck may be in Marseille. Theo, Enno, and Ines drive aimlessly toward Marseille through the night. Theo navigates using only the small map of Europe in his pocket diary, gets lost, and veers off the road at dawn. When they stop for breakfast, they discover that they are being followed by the debt collector for their lender, to whom they still owe the final installment. Since they are now in the French-Swiss border region, they decide to take Ines home first. The Peugeot is completely worn out by the time they arrive. Ines has not yet told her wealthy parents that she failed her preliminary medical exam. To support her, Enno and Theo accept her invitation to stay. At the reception celebrating what is believed to be her passing the exam, Theo explains to the assembled bourgeois types how unimportant it is that Ines failed “physics.” After all, he himself failed his driving test twice, but is now Westphalian champion in truck slalom. On this occasion, Enno learns that there is a market for stolen trucks in his Italian hometown of Milan, and decides to go there to find the truck with his brother’s help. Since Theo still wants to go to Marseille, they part at the train station, where Theo again runs into the debt collector. The collector gives him 72 more hours to pay, but makes clear he means business by breaking one of Theo’s fingers. Next, Theo travels as a stowaway in the caravan of a German camping family. But they are not, as they claimed, going to the south of France; they are also headed to Milan, where the three meet up again. Enno manages to get a shady acquaintance of his brother, who is taken with Ines, to promise to return the Volvo in Genoa. But in the meantime, Theo has been making out with the daughter, Angelina, in her caravan, which leads to a brawl. The friends only escape when the debt collector intervenes again. Enno’s brother drives them to Genoa in his sightseeing bus. During the night, Ines examines Theo’s badly swollen finger and has to amputate it. In Genoa, from a lookout point, they spot their Volvo truck aboard a cargo ship, but the ship sets off toward Naples before they can reach it. Ines arranges a flight to Naples, a death-defying trip in a rickety plane with a drunk pilot. There, they reach the right ship, only to discover that the Volvo they spotted is not theirs after all, since its steering wheel is on the right-hand side. The debt collector appears again, as the latest extension has just expired. They escape onto a fishing boat—and, since the truck must now be in Marseille after all, they set off by sea to get there, as the distance is only twelve millimeters (on the map of Europe in Theo’s pocket diary). The film ends as they sail out of the harbor.