Anyone got any good movies with trains in them to recommend? Some of my favs are: 'Runaway Train', 'Money Train' and The 'Taking Of Pelham 123'.
North West Frontier (Kenneth More, Lauren Baccall, dir. J.Lee Thompson IIRC) The Train (Burt Lancaster, Paul Schofield, dir. John Frankenheimer) The First Great Train Robbery (Sean Connery, Donald Sutherland, dir. Michael Crichton) The Silver Streak (Gene Wilder, Richard Pryor, dir. Arthur Hiller) There are many British Transport Films shorts worth seeking out and, thanks to YouTube, you don't need to look too hard for The Night Mail, The Elizabethan and Snowdrift at Bleath Gill (I knew one of the chaps in that last one) among many others.
Thanks for the recommendations, I'll be sure to check them out. 'The Train' with Burt Lancaster is a great movie, forgot about that one. Also I enjoyed 'Night Train' starring Danny Glover.
I liked Unstoppable but I didn't love it. Apart from good production values, it's the sort of thing that would be a movie of the week on American telly in the '70s probably starring William Shatner (wonder if that's how Chris Pine got the gig). The writing's a bit first draft and it's also all rather shrill and silly, "You're aiming for the fuel cut-off. Its only a few inches away from the fuel tank- that has thousands of gallons of fuel in it so for gahd's sake don't hit that!" "Thousands of gallons of Diesel sarge. It's got a really high flash point- you can actually put a fire out by pouring Diesel on it.*" "Really? OK guys new plan- weapons to automatic and put as many holes in the fuel tanks as you can. We'll let fuel starvation stop this thing." "It's a missile** the size of the Chrysler Building and it's got a clear run all the way to the city! WhattaWeGonnaDo?!?" "Switch the next signal to red- the emergency brakes will stop it." "Oh... yeah." (The end of The Silver Streak has the same obvious weakness but we've had our fun by then.) Not a great swan song for Tony Scott. * True but don't ever try it. ** Pronounced like missal (a book of prayers) of course which is always hilarious.
How did I forget The General (Buster Keaton)? A bit flabby and indulgent compared to some of Keaton's films but still great.
The railway children filmed on the keithley and worth valley railway. brief encounter filmed on Carnforth Station
I saw Unstoppable for only the first time last Fall. It's your typical Tony Scott formula action movie (Top Gun, Crimson Tide, Days of Thunder). That means it's exciting as hell, but not very realistic. All his movies require a rather huge suspension of disbelief, and not too close attention to the details. That being said I still really enjoyed it (R.I.P. Tony), plus I'm a big Denzel Washington fan, so I'll watch nearly anything he does. I would like to check out some more grounded recommendations in this genre, though.
Completely agree- Scott was a great craftsman but not one to let plausibility get in the way of the spectacle. Runaway Train mentioned in the OP is a corking thriller but, again, you wonder why the emergency brakes don't kick in after it runs the first adverse signal. Another nit-pick- both film versions of Murder on the Orient Express and ITV's adaptation with David Suchet feature trains with four coaches. Four! It's The Orient Express not the last commuter service to Morpeth. This might get me in trouble but does anyone else find The Titfield Thunderbolt little more than an assemblage of contrived whimsy and eccentricity lacking any genuine enthusiasm for its subject? Don't get me wrong I still enjoy it but, if I have to watch an Ealing comedy with trains in it, I'd much rather watch The Ladykillers.
For the emergency brakes to activate at a red signal, the locomotives need to have a safety system. Even if this was implemented in Unstoppable, the air hoses weren’t connected to the cars so the brakes would have done nothing.
To my most Faves of movies are -Runaway Train -Unstoppable -Silver Streak -Empeor of the North Note: to most that don't do behind-the-scene looks to these movies, Unstoppable was in fact based on a true event that happened a long time ago (infos here and here). Some of these movies were researched to be as accurate as possible.
That is indeed exactly what happened (more or less- the locomotive brakes were on but overcome by the engine and just wore to nothing) and thanks to Challenger for the links. Well... Interesting and not at all worrying to learn that, in the 21st Century, US railways have the same safety systems as my old train set- none.
Yeah, I knew Unstoppable was based on a true event. I believe that might even have been stated in the opening credits. But, like I said, some of the specific details is what you have to ignore (I won't say which, cause spoilers). Thanks for those links. It also reminded me of this tragic event I once heard about. Very sad.
Yeah, I know the rest is more movie magic to keep the suspense rolling. Interestingly enough, Runaway Train was also based on a true event, from the screenplay, as well (The article here, down to page 79) less intense than Crazy 8's story though.
A number of Bond films have train scenes: From Russia With Love, Live And Let Die, The Spy Who Loved Me, Octopussy, Casino Roylae, Skyfall and SPECTRE all have various sized scenes on trains. There's a Gene Hackman film called Narrow Margin. It has a tense, and from what I remember lengthy, segment on a train. Also if you like films with chases in them, Narrow Margin has an overlooked helicopter/jeep chase down a mountainside forest, which leads into the train segment.
It's a remake of a pretty good RKO B-movie. Both worth a look. In case it wasn't clear I do recommend The Ladykillers. The trains provide a sort of Greek chorus for the last act. If you're interested in films The Wrecker is worth a look. It's a mostly silent film with a sound sequence toward the end, some really good photography of the trains, kind of a silly plot and what was reckoned to be the most expensive single set-up in British silent films with the train crash. You can find it (the crash) on YouTube- it was covered by 20-odd cameras one weekend and, the railway company had the line open again for Monday.
Yeah, I didn't mention the original as I haven't seen it. I'll have to find a copy to see how it compares to the remake. I've come up with two more: Von Ryan's Express starring Frank Sinatra & Trevor Howard The Ghost Train starring Arthur Askey
Isn't it just. In spite of winning an Oscar, I don't think Sinatra was ever really given his due as an actor. But Von Ryan's Express is one of a number of films I would point to, to show what he was capable of.
Like The Wrecker based on a play by Arnold Ridley best known as Private Godfrey of Dads Army. Of a similar vintage to The Wrecker (and as bad if not worse by any objective standpoint) is The Flying Scotsman. An early outing for Ray Milland playing second fiddle to Moore Marriott unrecognisable to anyone familiar with him as Will Hay's bearded sidekick. Both are acted off the screen by a certain A1 Pacific. Nigel Gresley was so appalled by the scant attention given to safety (coaches are uncoupled without brakes coming on and the heroine scrambles along the side of the train at speed- which could not have been faked) that a disclaimer had to be added at the start of the film and the LNER never supported another production.
Sorry (not sorry) for the bump, but reminding people of train films can never be a bad thing! I just saw the (I think) shortened version of The Wrecker here and I am stunned! It has all the cliches of a 70s disaster film including the final scene, but 40 years earlier xD. Highly recommended! My first recommendation is the 1972 horror spectacular Horror Express starring none other than experts of the genre Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, also Telly Savalas, because why not? You can watch it in decent quality here. Hard to describe the film really, it's very cheesy, but sort of like Snakes on a Plane mixed with Alien, set on the Trans-Siberian express in the early 20th Century (and filmed in Spain, naturally). If you like that sort of thing you may also like 2016's Train to Busan, it's a South Korean zombie horror film that takes place almost entirely on or around South Korean trains, it's got a fair amount of realistic gore though, so avoid if you really do not like that sort of thing. And of course no list of train-related horror recommendations could be complete the 1976 BBC adaption of Charles Dicken's The Signalman, which is horror in a sort that way only a 70's BBC period adaption can be horror.
That's the one. The train crash footage was used again in a Launder and Gilliat film thirty-ish years later. The SR staged it using what were then the oldest bogie coaches still in existence. They'd be priceless now but the whole lot was set on fire after the crash for the next sequence.
No one has mentioned The Cassandra Crossing, a 1976 film starring Burt Lancaster and Richard Harris about a plague infected terrorist making a escape attempt from Geneva to Stockholm by train. Classic 70's disaster movie also starred OJ Simpson and Michael Sheen.
Good call on The Casandra Crossing, though it's Martin Sheen, not Michael Sheen. Has anyone mentioned Terror Train (1980) or its remake Train (2008)? And another just came to mind; North West Frontier (1959) with crinkly haired Kenneth More, Lauren Bacall and Herbert Lom. Also one of the St. Trinians films has a train. Not sure which film, but the little sods nick a steam loco.
Thanks for the Sheen correction. Thought I'd made a mistake. The Geneva scenes were however filmed in Basel in the station opening scenes.
There is the famous car chase scene in The French Connection where Gene Hackman is trying to get ahead of the train on the railway above. There’s more car action than train action but it’s a pretty exciting five minutes in a great film.
Probably the best car chase ewver put on film. Completely forgot that one when I suggested Narrow Margin. The Gauntlet with Clint Eastwood has a train, though the film focuses on just one carriage.
The Great St. Trinians Train Robbery which must be Launder and Gilliat. Oh you should definitely remedy that. Not for the trains, which appear briefly and are entirely incidental, it's just a terrific film. On the same basis consider The Apu Trilogy made by Satyajit Ray (hang on- I'll just check the spelling on that... yep) in India.
Source Code was good. No idea of the train type or route though. Oh and Warriors, that was already mentioned in a previous thread, sadly the LIRR does not cross any of the tracks the Warriors would have taken in the movie.
One of few occasions when filmmakers have taken considerable pains to make the railway scenes as authentic as they could. I've lost count of the number of films and TV shows I've watched with railway scenes and thought that it's clearly shot on whichever preservation line gave them the best rate.
I would say "Snowpiercer" - a Bong Joon-ho film starring Chris Evans, Tilda Swinton & Ed Harris And "Train to Busan" - An awesome South Korean Zombie Apocalypse film
Well, beides the already mentioned, like Unstopable or Narrow Margin (Hollywood is for making entertainment, not documentary, and these movies are entertaining, I want to mention North by Northwest, an old Hitchcock classic with...hmmm...Cary Grant? besides the famous cropbuster-scene there is a longer part taking place in a train. I somehow liked Transsiberian with Ben Kingsley and Woody Harrelson, I think. Even Death Train with Pierce Brosnan got some nice moments. And the opening scene of the Peacemaker with George Clooney and Nicole Kidman is somewhat outstanding.
Burt Lancaster was in a movie called The Train. Very good movie in Black and White using French Steam Locomotives from during the war. Well worth the watch
Oh Mister Porter staring Will Hay is a great movie (bar the unrealism in some places) also black and white The Ghost Train with Arthur Askey, another Great movie and, surprise surprise, in black and white!
If you like a tense thriller, I can highly recommend giving Duel a watch. It's the daddy of just about every menacing truck scene you've seen in any film since it was made and still stands head and shoulders above all of the homages, 'inspired by' scenes and blatant rip offs.
Berlin Express (1948) with Merle Oberon and Robert Ryan, though I don't recall ho much of the train is seen.
The Brain (1969). David Niven, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Eli Wallach. A comedic "sequel" to the Great Train Robbery, involving stealing millions in NATO cash from the Paris-Brussels express.