I know I'm probably writing this in vain...
But try to watch the movie again - but keep these possible things in mind:
1) David Mann's biggest fear is the fear of confrontation/conflict. You can hear it in the phone conversation he has with his wife early on in the movie, plus at the diner he has a very hard time confronting the person he thinks is responsible. He also equates the chase with painful war memories (voice over, while in the bathroom at the diner).
2) The truck represents this fear of confrontation/conflict.
Yes, it is a real truck, and yes anybody can see it, touch it, smell it. But it is David Manns personal terror, it poses no threat to anyone but him. It is his demon to face - alone!
3) The truck shows up the first time just as Mann is listening to a prank call on a radio show, where the host claims to not be in charge of the household anymore because his wife decides everything... Something which probably rings a bit too close to home for Mann.
On his way to a business meeting, working for a company he doesn't like and married to a woman who treats him like crap, wants to confront everybody, but never does. The radio show instantly turns his life into a very poignant joke - and there's the truck!
4) If he tries to flag down other motorists, it chases them away. He must stand up to it himself. (Happens both when he tries to swerve off the road to get the attention of "the police" (turns out to be a pest control vehicle) and nearer the end when he flags down an old couple to get them to call the police for him).
He has to deal with his own issues by himself, otherwise it won't do any good!
5) If he tries to get someone else to deal with his problems, aka calling the police himself, the truck forces him to deal with the situation... This would be the scene at the snake-farm/gas station. The truck could easily have mowed him down right there and then, but it let it's horn blare out a few seconds before reaching the telephone booth, to give Mann enough time to get out.
Now why would it do that if not to make him deal with his own problems.
6) At one point (just after Mann has tried to get the old couple to call the police for him) he decides that he has had enough, and walks towards the truck. The truck then avoids him - and just moments before it purposfully spared his little red car, as he ran away from it, when it could have easily crushed it. At this moment Manns red car becomes a representation of his old life and his old self. The truck needs for him to face his fears AS his old self, as the person who actually HAS the fears.
7) As Mann straps himself down in his car, puts on his driving glasses and slowly nears the truck, a beefy arm sticks out of the truck window and waves for him to drive on. This is my favourite moment. It is a small gesture in a quiet scene, but the truck is telling him that this is it! You want to face your demons? You want to face your fears? Are you really ready to do that? GO!
8) Had Mann stayed on course - meaning had he continued to be the chased, or had he continued to try to run away from conflict - he would most likely have been consumed by it... Gotten killed. But, and try to stay with me here; He turns his old life around, sticks his old self (represented by his briefcase) behind the wheel and lets his old self and his old life face his demon.
The demon kills his old self, releases him from his old life and with that the demon is destroyed. Elation follows.
I skipped a whole bunch of things about the truck, just for time. Like how it taunts him by doing things he cannot to (school bus), how it ignores other motorists and focuses just on him, and how it drives away and leaves him alone when he makes small attempts at facing his fears (confronting customer at diner) but comes back as he returns to his old pattern.
There's more, both regarding Mann himself, his car and the truck.
This movie is fantastic, if one so choses to see the brilliance in it.
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