Enter a Rotten Tomatoes movie slug to inspect the stored movie, batches, snapshots, and reviews.
Movie ID: 1177
RT slug: wages_of_fear
RT URL: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/wages_of_fear
Release year: 1955
Runtime: 156 mins
Wide release date: —
Limited release date: —
Festival premiere date: —
Streaming release date: 2017-03-23
Tomatometer final: 100%
Audience score final: 94%
Genres: Mystery & Thriller
Directors: Henri-Georges Clouzot
Writers: Georges Arnaud, Henri-Georges Clouzot, Jérôme Géronimi
Producers: Henri-Georges Clouzot, Louis Wipf, Raymond Borderie
MPAA rating: —
Executive Producers: —
Created: 2026-08-15 12:42:44
Updated: 2026-08-15 12:42:44
In the South American jungle, supplies of nitroglycerine are needed at a remote oil field. The oil company pays four men to deliver the supplies in two trucks. A tense rivalry develops between the two sets of drivers on the rough remote roads where the slightest jolt can result in death.
An existential suspense classic, The Wages of Fear blends nonstop suspense with biting satire; its influence is still being felt on today's thrillers.
Canonical reviews: 54
Canonical fresh: 54
Canonical rotten: 0
Canonical calculated Tomatometer: 100%
Latest snapshot UTC: 2026-08-15 11:11:34
Snapshot Tomatometer: 100%
Snapshot review count: 54
Snapshot fresh count: 54
Snapshot rotten count: 0
Source note: Imported from manual review paste batch #2811 (full_snapshot)
| Company | Role |
|---|---|
| DCA Releasing | distributor |
| Filmsonor | production |
| Vera Films | production |
| Billing | Name | Character |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yves Montand | Mario |
| 2 | Charles Vanel | Jo |
| 3 | Peter van Eyck | Bimba |
| 4 | Véra Clouzot | Linda |
| 5 | Folco Lulli | Luigi |
| Batch ID | Status | Mode | Created | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1193 | processed | — | 2026-08-15 12:42:44 | Processed successfully into movie_id=1177 using update_mode=merge_non_empty. |
| Batch ID | Local Snapshot | UTC Snapshot | Entered % | Entered Count | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2811 | 2026-08-15 06:11:00 (America/Panama) | 2026-08-15 11:11:34 | 100% | 54 | processed | Mode=full_snapshot. Processed 54 row(s); 0 row error(s). Parsed unique reviews in this batch=54, fresh=54, rotten=0, tomatometer=100%. Net new reviews added=54, fresh=54, rotten=0. Current canonical totals=54 reviews, 54 fresh, 0 rotten, tomatometer=100% (100.000%). Entered review count matched parsed batch count (54). Entered tomatometer matched parsed batch value (100%). |
| ID | Critic | Outlet | Fresh? | Score | RT Time Raw | Approx Published UTC | Quote |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 244575 | Matt Brunson | Film Frenzy | Fresh | 4/4 | 2025-11-22T22:55:23.000Z | 2025-11-22 22:55:23 | Nitroglycerin figures prominently in the plot of Henri-Georges Clouzot’s The Wages of Fear, but it’s the movie itself that’s truly explosive, a powder keg of social outrage and cinematic thrills. |
| 244576 | Michael J. Casey | Boulder Weekly | Fresh | 5/5 | 2025-07-11T13:22:41.000Z | 2025-07-11 13:22:41 | Bleak as hell but so expertly made it’s hard not to sit in awe. |
| 244577 | Frank J. Avella | The Contending | Fresh | A | 2025-03-25T15:29:13.000Z | 2025-03-25 15:29:13 | To say it’s an extraordinary sit is not doing justice to this the nail-biting, anxiety-inducing, nihilistic look at the world. |
| 244578 | Rudie Obias | Battleship Pretension | Fresh | — | 2025-03-25T02:38:09.000Z | 2025-03-25 02:38:09 | The movie feels modern, even though it was made more than 70 years ago. |
| 244579 | Wade Major | FilmWeek (LAist) | Fresh | — | 2025-02-11T19:27:58.000Z | 2025-02-11 19:27:58 | Your blood pressure will go up to dangerous levels while watching this. |
| 244580 | David Parkinson | Radio Times | Fresh | 5/5 | 2024-04-04T18:04:59.000Z | 2024-04-04 18:04:59 | A grindingly cynical study of human nature, with each participant willing to sacrifice the others for a bigger payoff. |
| 244581 | Eddie Harrison | film-authority.com | Fresh | 5/5 | 2024-02-19T17:48:42.000Z | 2024-02-19 17:48:42 | …this venerable, classic, timeless movie has been artfully revived (via 2024 UHD) n a way that should have you vibrating all the way to South America and back, over 500km of bad road… |
| 244582 | Vernon Young | Arts Digest | Fresh | — | 2024-01-30T22:05:17.000Z | 2024-01-30 22:05:17 | Cluzot’s treatment of the finale (I sighed in relief at his staying with the juggernaut irony of the book) is a tour de force. The actors are inordinately real, especially Charles Vanel. |
| 244583 | Sean Axmaker | Stream on Demand | Fresh | — | 2023-08-19T21:05:12.000Z | 2023-08-19 21:05:12 | Clouzot’s stark, simple imagery and painstaking attention to detail creates a riveting tension that never lets up.... It’s a white knuckler of the top rank. |
| 244584 | Jordan Brooks | Vague Visages | Fresh | — | 2023-08-01T20:59:59.000Z | 2023-08-01 20:59:59 | Henri-Georges Clouzot was the only man that Alfred Hitchcock considered a serious rival in terms of suspense in filmmaking, and The Wages of Fear is a resounding blow in the French master’s favor. |
| 244585 | Herman G. Weinberg | Film Culture | Fresh | — | 2022-06-07T22:10:47.000Z | 2022-06-07 22:10:47 | Clouzot makes the most of the suspense inherent in such a tale, you can be sure, but his attitude is hopeless from the start and a sense of doom hangs over the film from the very beginning, long before the terrible end. |
| 244586 | Brian Eggert | Deep Focus Review | Fresh | 4/4 | 2022-03-21T01:39:43.000Z | 2022-03-21 01:39:43 | The brutal narrative cynicism and political commentary in The Wages of Fear indicate the unflinching nature of its maker. |
| 244587 | Chris Barsanti | Eyes Wide Open (Medium) | Fresh | — | 2020-08-10T03:30:01.000Z | 2020-08-10 03:30:01 | ...the greatest thriller to ever turn a moviegoer's knuckles white. |
| 244588 | Hoshi Soffen | Shin Nichibei/New Japanese American News | Fresh | — | 2019-07-16T22:41:27.000Z | 2019-07-16 22:41:27 | The Wages of Fear will keep you tipped forward on the edge of your seat, your palms sweaty and your heart thumping wildly. |
| 244589 | Richard von Busack | MetroActive | Fresh | — | 2018-05-31T17:46:02.000Z | 2018-05-31 17:46:02 | A masterpiece of cruel suspense. |
| 244590 | Stephan Boissonneault | Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Alberta) | Fresh | 4/5 | 2018-03-15T18:46:12.000Z | 2018-03-15 18:46:12 | The actual driving scenes are full of suspense and bit of humour. You can tell Clouzot has fun putting the viewer in a false sense of security. |
| 244591 | Robert Martin | Starburst | Fresh | 10/10 | 2017-10-18T19:10:50.000Z | 2017-10-18 19:10:50 | This is filmmaking at its very best and rarely does a film grip with such intensity, some scenes being almost unbearable to watch as the situations the men find themselves in create palpable tension, which you believe utterly. |
| 244592 | Dave Kehr | Chicago Tribune | Fresh | 3.5/4 | 2014-04-01T22:02:50.000Z | 2014-04-01 22:02:50 | Turning the screws with a relentlessness that impresses even in this age of the ruthless, high-tech thriller, Clouzot strings together situations of vividly, almost sadistically imagined danger. |
| 244593 | Dennis Schwartz | Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews | Fresh | A | 2013-03-25T02:08:30.000Z | 2013-03-25 02:08:30 | Anti-capitalist exciting existential adventure film. |
| 244594 | Joshua Rothkopf | Time Out | Fresh | 5/5 | 2011-12-06T15:30:32.000Z | 2011-12-06 15:30:32 | Hitch's bomb-under-the-table suspense formula burnished to an expert sheen. |
| 244595 | Budd Wilkins | Slant Magazine | Fresh | 4/4 | 2011-12-06T06:06:17.000Z | 2011-12-06 06:06:17 | The Wages of Fear contains tension-fraught stretches of "pure cinema" that probably gave even the Master cold sweats. |
| 244596 | Fernando F. Croce | CinePassion | Fresh | — | 2009-09-25T20:58:48.000Z | 2009-09-25 20:58:48 | When contrabandists become businessmen and human life is blown away as simply as the tobacco in a half-rolled cigarillo, heroism and grace are notions that wither in the heat |
| 244597 | Unknown Critic | Film4 | Fresh | — | 2009-04-24T16:45:33.000Z | 2009-04-24 16:45:33 | An extraordinarily gripping thriller from Henri-Georges Clouzot that establishes and maintains a level of tension rarely equalled elsewhere in cinema. |
| 244598 | Eric Henderson | Slant Magazine | Fresh | 3/4 | 2009-04-20T13:09:12.000Z | 2009-04-20 13:09:12 | Now seems much less like Salt of the Earth-as-a-potboiler and a lot more like the spiritual godfather to every testosterone-fuelled thrill ride since. |
| 244599 | Peter Canavese | Groucho Reviews | Fresh | 4/4 | 2009-04-19T15:00:02.000Z | 2009-04-19 15:00:02 | A classic suspense film...also the screen equivalent of a classic existentialist drama...The chemical reaction Clouzot gets from these genres is pure dynamite. [Blu-ray] |
| 244600 | Cole Smithey | Daily Radar | Fresh | A+ | 2009-04-13T19:37:38.000Z | 2009-04-13 19:37:38 | "Wages of Fear" is an uncompromising parable about money, greed, and man's jealous desire for that which he can never have. Yves Montand is outstanding in this gritty and unrelentingly suspenseful picture. |
| 244601 | Emanuel Levy | EmanuelLevy.Com | Fresh | A | 2007-04-06T12:41:31.000Z | 2007-04-06 12:41:31 | One of the best existential thrillers ever made, Clouzot's 1952 film, which won the Cannes Fest Palme d'Or, is just as fresh, suspenseful, gritty and haunting today as it was decades ago; good companion piece to Clouzot's Diabolique. |
| 244602 | Patrick Peters | Empire Magazine | Fresh | 5/5 | 2007-03-01T21:05:20.000Z | 2007-03-01 21:05:20 | A nail-biting drama that's a must-see. |
| 244603 | Jonathan Rosenbaum | Chicago Reader | Fresh | — | 2007-03-01T19:01:17.000Z | 2007-03-01 19:01:17 | A significant influence on Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, this grueling pile driver of a movie will keep you on the edge of your seat. |
| 244604 | Unknown Critic | Variety | Fresh | — | 2007-03-01T19:00:02.000Z | 2007-03-01 19:00:02 | A harrowing odyssey of four derelicts inching two trucks loaded with nitro-glycerine over a tortuous terrain puts this in the strong meat department with a downbeat theme of fear and its manifestations. |
| 244605 | Unknown Critic | Time Out | Fresh | — | 2006-01-26T03:16:19.000Z | 2006-01-26 03:16:19 | A reeking bandana movie, with all the expected thrills, but a vision of men as scurrying insects with no redeeming features. |
| 244606 | James Kendrick | Q Network Film Desk | Fresh | 3.5/4 | 2005-10-29T03:44:55.000Z | 2005-10-29 03:44:55 | Each sequence is expertly shot and edited, drawing the maximum amount of tension from the situation while also revealing more and more layers of the characters. |
| 244607 | Chuck O'Leary | Fantastica Daily | Fresh | 4/5 | 2005-10-06T12:59:41.000Z | 2005-10-06 12:59:41 | — |
| 244608 | John A. Nesbit | Old School Reviews | Fresh | A | 2005-09-09T03:15:51.000Z | 2005-09-09 03:15:51 | Clouzot's camera captures the suspense as visually as Hitchcock |
| 244609 | Jon Niccum | Lawrence Journal-World | Fresh | 5/5 | 2004-09-10T07:37:00.000Z | 2004-09-10 07:37:00 | One of the all-time great exercises in tension |
| 244610 | Jake Euker | F5 (Wichita, KS) | Fresh | 4/5 | 2004-06-26T15:16:40.000Z | 2004-06-26 15:16:40 | — |
| 244611 | Arthur Lazere | culturevulture.net | Fresh | 5/5 | 2004-06-03T23:47:05.000Z | 2004-06-03 23:47:05 | — |
| 244612 | Daniel M. Kimmel | Worcester Telegram & Gazette | Fresh | 5/5 | 2004-05-14T07:58:14.000Z | 2004-05-14 07:58:14 | — |
| 244613 | Carol Cling | Las Vegas Review-Journal | Fresh | 4/5 | 2003-08-22T18:40:24.000Z | 2003-08-22 18:40:24 | — |
| 244614 | Unknown Critic | TV Guide | Fresh | 4.5/5 | 2003-07-30T17:16:38.000Z | 2003-07-30 17:16:38 | Excellent, but nasty stuff. |
| 244615 | Nell Minow | Movie Mom | Fresh | 5/5 | 2003-06-19T18:42:18.000Z | 2003-06-19 18:42:18 | The most nail-bitingly tense movie ever made, unbearably suspenseful. |
| 244616 | Bosley Crowther | New York Times | Fresh | 5/5 | 2003-05-20T17:21:04.000Z | 2003-05-20 17:21:04 | The excitement derives entirely from the awareness of nitroglycerine and the gingerly, breathless handling of it. You sit there waiting for the theatre to explode. |
| 244617 | Nicolas Lacroix | Showbizz.net | Fresh | 4/5 | 2003-01-15T13:26:21.000Z | 2003-01-15 13:26:21 | — |
| 244618 | James Rocchi | Netflix | Fresh | 4/5 | 2002-11-07T13:22:38.000Z | 2002-11-07 13:22:38 | A terrific portrait of the class struggle that happens to have a few cases of nitro strapped to it to up the ante from the metaphorical to the extremely physical. |
| 244619 | Ken Hanke | Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) | Fresh | 4.5/5 | 2002-11-05T23:10:57.000Z | 2002-11-05 23:10:57 | A brilliant, though frankly overlong, exercise in filmmaking that creates a stunning portrait of a miserable corner of the world. |
| 244620 | Philip Martin | Arkansas Democrat-Gazette | Fresh | 3/5 | 2002-07-30T09:15:26.000Z | 2002-07-30 09:15:26 | — |
| 244621 | Jeffrey Westhoff | Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL) | Fresh | 4/5 | 2002-07-26T10:56:17.000Z | 2002-07-26 10:56:17 | — |
| 244622 | Chuck Rudolph | Matinee Magazine | Fresh | 5/5 | 2002-07-25T23:36:49.000Z | 2002-07-25 23:36:49 | One of the most suspenseful films ever made. |
| 244623 | Scott Weinberg | eFilmCritic.com | Fresh | 5/5 | 2002-07-25T23:01:11.000Z | 2002-07-25 23:01:11 | — |
| 244628 | Mark R. Leeper | rec.arts.movies.reviews | Fresh | — | 2000-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | 2000-01-01 00:00:00 | +3 out of -4..+4 A film that works, and works well enough to get audible gasps from the audience. |
| 244627 | Rita Kempley | Washington Post | Fresh | — | 2000-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | 2000-01-01 00:00:00 | An expertly directed, personally felt film. |
| 244626 | Kathleen Maher | Austin Chronicle | Fresh | 4.5/5 | 2000-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | 2000-01-01 00:00:00 | One of the all-time great truck movies. |
| 244625 | Roger Ebert | Chicago Sun-Times | Fresh | 4/4 | 2000-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | 2000-01-01 00:00:00 | The film's extended suspense sequences deserve a place among the great stretches of cinema. |
| 244624 | James Berardinelli | ReelViews | Fresh | 4/4 | 2000-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | 2000-01-01 00:00:00 | The kind of motion picture for which commonplace phrases like 'white-knuckle tension ride' have been coined. |
Showing the latest 100 canonical reviews for this movie.