Runaway Train
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 The best of the Cannon Group Inc. films.
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Runaway Train is a 1985 American independent action thriller film directed by Andrei Konchalovsky and starring Jon Voight, Eric Roberts, Rebecca De Mornay, and John P. Ryan. It is one of the few film companies to have the only good film in any company. The movie concerns the two escaped convicts and a female railroad worker who is stuck on a runaway train due to a heart attack from the engineer, as it barrels through snowy desolate Alaska and they must find their way to stop this runaway train from chaos.
The film received generally positive reviews from critics, audiences train fans alike was widely considered to be the only good film from Cannon Films (the company would later distribute Superman IV: The Quest for Peace in 1987), reaching a 86% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and it gains a huge cult following from the audiences who loved trains.
Plot
In snowy desolate Alaska, the two convicts named Oscar "Manny" Manheim was a ruthless bank robber and Buck McGeehy, escapes from a prison situated, and are full-steam for their freedom and after an arduous cross-country hike, including a swim across a freezing river, the two arrive at a switchyard. After stealing some railroad clothing, they inadvertently hop aboard a freight train with four diesels. To their dismay, they discover that the train is barreling out of control without an engineer (The engineer had a heart attack while the train was going Notch 8, or full speed), the trains smash into a caboose and going through switches, and they meet Sara. The train suddenly goes into a siding that leads to a dead-end, the three attempt to stop the train before they reach the end of the tracks. At the very end, Buck McGeehy jumps into a lead train and uncouples the three types of diesel and he and Ranken are ready to meet their end as the lone train disappears into the snowstorm, and the train crashes off-screen near the end. The film ends with an on-screen quote from William Shakespeare's Richard III:
""No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity."
"But I know none, and therefore am no beast.""— William Shakespeare
Why It Rocks
- The idea of an action independent film about two prisoners stealing a train in the snow but finding out that the driver had died of a heart attack and struggling to find their way to stop the train is very memorable.
- It is one of several Cannon Group films that are not awful and it manages to be one the best and memorable Cannon films of all time.
- Amazing cinematography even by independent film standards.
- Jon Voight, Eric Roberts, and Rebecca De Mornay give amazing performances.
- The crashes are very epic, and are absolutely fun to watch, especially the scene where am GP40, along with three different types of diesel crashes into the end of a freight train with a caboose in it.
- Amazing directing by Andrei Konchalovsky.
- Memorable main characters like Oscar "Manny" Manheim, Buck McGeehy, and Sara.
- Excellent soundtrack that was composed by Trevor Jones, especially the ending theme composed by Russian composer Antonio Vivaldi.
- Memorable quotes like Buck yelling "MANNY!!! SHUT IT DOWN!!! THAT'S ALL YOU GOT TO DO!!!"
- The ending scene where Oscar uncouples the lead train with Ranken inside and prepares for their deaths as the train disappears into the dead end is very emotional.
Reception
Runaway Train received generally positive reviews, and has an 86% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 35 reviews, and an average rating of 7.34/10. It is widely considered to be the best reviewed Cannon Group film on Rotten Tomatoes and the website's critical consensus states, "Charging forward with the momentum of a locomotive, Runaway Train makes great use of its adrenaline-fueled premise and star presences of Jon Voight and Eric Roberts". On Metacritic, it has a 67/100, based on 11 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Roger Ebert awarded the film four out of four stars.
Throughout the years, Runaway Train has gained a cult following, along with the train fans.
Videos
Trivia
- During filming, the crew realized they didn't have any real snow, due to warm temperatures (a false spring) in the area.
- The locomotives used in the film have gone their separate ways:
- ARR GP40-2 #3010 is still active on the Alaska Railroad, painted in the new corporate scheme.
- ARR F7 #1500 was retired from service in 1992, and is now at the Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry Museum in Wasilla, Alaska, as can be seen on the front page of their website MuseumOfAlaska.org.
- ARR GP7 #1810 was sold to the Oregon Pacific Railroad and operated as OP #1810. In 2008, the unit was sold to the Cimarron Valley Railroad and is now permanently coupled to former OP Slug #1010.
- ARR GP7 #1801 was sold to a locomotive leasing company in Kansas City, Missouri, then sold to the Missouri Central Railroad and operated as MOC #1800. The locomotive subsequently appeared in another motion picture, Under Siege 2: Dark Territory, in 1995.[citation needed] MOC became the Central Midland Railroad in 2002. As Central Midland had their own leased power, MOC 1800 was returned to Midwest Locomotive In Kansas City. Shortly after, it was then sold the Respondek Rail Corp of Granite City, Illinois, and is now used on Respondek's Port Harbor Railroad subsidiary. The unit's identification is RRC #1800. As of 2015, the locomotive has been stored, out of service, needing wheel work. A return to service on the Port Harbor Railroad is unlikely, as there is talk about sending the unit to another Respondek Operation.
- The train that was hit by the runaway was led by MRS-1 #1605. This unit had been retired in 1984, one year before filming started. The unit has since been cut up for scrap.
- Sequences set at the rail yard, shot on the Butte, Anaconda and Pacific Railway in Anaconda, Montana, used local locomotives from the BA&P fleet along with former Northern Pacific EMD F9 #7012A, leased from the Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad. The two GP7s and the F9 were fitted with plywood boxes to duplicate the distinctive 'winterization hatches' carried on their Alaskan counterparts.
- BA&P EMD GP38-2 #109, the BA&P locomotive used in the yard scenes as the lead-engine in place of ARR #3010, was subsequently sold to the Alaska Railroad and remains in service there as #2002, along with sister unit #2001 (ex-BA&P #108).
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