Twentieth Century Fox has been putting a good deal of money into running trailers on TV for this Tony Scott movie. They make the film appear exciting-- but the reality is, it's even BETTER than the teasers make it look!...
The story starts out in a train yard in Pennsylvania. While some of the workers there are diligent, others are at times SLACKERS-- & one of those makes a number of screw-ups that cause a freight train to not have its AIR BRAKES connected & to not even have its ENGINEER on board
It turns out that the "fail-safes" end up being more FAILURES than safe, & the train starts barreling down the tracks at an increasingly high speed around the countryside. A female schedule-controller named Connie (ROSARIO DAWSON) tries to find a way to STOP the train-- but she has to deal with oblivious "big-shot" higher-ups like Galvin (KEVIN DUNN) & certain others who are either overly-concerned with the financial "bottom-line" or simply can't properly get the job done
In time, the scene shifts to some other rail workers handling another train, in the form of long-time train engineer Frank (DENZEL WASHINGTON) & his new comparatively-young assistant Will (CHRIS PINE) who's having marital troubles that distract his attention Their train happens to be on the same track as the RUNAWAY train, & those two elements start to interact & shall-we-say "COLLIDE" with each other
It's bad enough having a train out of control, but it's at least doubly bad when it happens to have a number of its cars containing TOXIC CHEMICALS. As Rosario points out, it's like having a traveling guided "MISSILE the size of the Chrysler Building" Clearly, the train needs to be stopped (lest it risk badly injuring the populace near the train tracks)— but HOW?!...
Those working in the train industry -- including another engineer named Judd Stewart (DAVID WARSHOFSKY) & safety inspector Wemer (KEVIN CORRIGAN) -- keep trying to come up with a SOLUTION to the problems: Can they stop the train by getting someone ONTO it?... Can they somehow CONTROL it?... Can they DERAIL it in a way that there won't be massive damage to the area?... Can other train ENGINES be used to somehow affect its speed?...
The movie is a wonderful THRILL RIDE of various attempts to fix the problems. You can bet that DENZEL & CHRIS will be involved, but it's handled with exceptionally superior expertise: a friend of mine, whose father used to work in rail yards, commented that his dad would have LOVED seeing the film, since it does such a fine job in consistently giving you a feeling of the SPEED & POWER of the trains involved & what can go wrong if they're not handled properly
It's a FINE adventure, with well-constructed & highly-delineated characters, first-rate acting, an intriguing action-filled story, & I'd rate it 8.5 out of 10 stars
The story starts out in a train yard in Pennsylvania. While some of the workers there are diligent, others are at times SLACKERS-- & one of those makes a number of screw-ups that cause a freight train to not have its AIR BRAKES connected & to not even have its ENGINEER on board
It turns out that the "fail-safes" end up being more FAILURES than safe, & the train starts barreling down the tracks at an increasingly high speed around the countryside. A female schedule-controller named Connie (ROSARIO DAWSON) tries to find a way to STOP the train-- but she has to deal with oblivious "big-shot" higher-ups like Galvin (KEVIN DUNN) & certain others who are either overly-concerned with the financial "bottom-line" or simply can't properly get the job done
In time, the scene shifts to some other rail workers handling another train, in the form of long-time train engineer Frank (DENZEL WASHINGTON) & his new comparatively-young assistant Will (CHRIS PINE) who's having marital troubles that distract his attention Their train happens to be on the same track as the RUNAWAY train, & those two elements start to interact & shall-we-say "COLLIDE" with each other
It's bad enough having a train out of control, but it's at least doubly bad when it happens to have a number of its cars containing TOXIC CHEMICALS. As Rosario points out, it's like having a traveling guided "MISSILE the size of the Chrysler Building" Clearly, the train needs to be stopped (lest it risk badly injuring the populace near the train tracks)— but HOW?!...
Those working in the train industry -- including another engineer named Judd Stewart (DAVID WARSHOFSKY) & safety inspector Wemer (KEVIN CORRIGAN) -- keep trying to come up with a SOLUTION to the problems: Can they stop the train by getting someone ONTO it?... Can they somehow CONTROL it?... Can they DERAIL it in a way that there won't be massive damage to the area?... Can other train ENGINES be used to somehow affect its speed?...
The movie is a wonderful THRILL RIDE of various attempts to fix the problems. You can bet that DENZEL & CHRIS will be involved, but it's handled with exceptionally superior expertise: a friend of mine, whose father used to work in rail yards, commented that his dad would have LOVED seeing the film, since it does such a fine job in consistently giving you a feeling of the SPEED & POWER of the trains involved & what can go wrong if they're not handled properly
It's a FINE adventure, with well-constructed & highly-delineated characters, first-rate acting, an intriguing action-filled story, & I'd rate it 8.5 out of 10 stars