Runaway Train (1985)

Two escaped convicts and a female railway worker find themselves trapped on a train with no brakes and nobody driving.

Director:

Andrey Konchalovskiy (as Andrei Konchalovsky)

Writers:

Djordje Milicevic (screenplay), Paul Zindel (screenplay)

Stars:

Jon Voight, Eric Roberts, Rebecca De Mornay

Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 2 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jon Voight	...	Manny
Eric Roberts	...	Buck
Rebecca De Mornay	...	Sara
Kyle T. Heffner	...	Frank Barstow
John P. Ryan	...	Ranken
T.K. Carter	...	Dave Prince
Kenneth McMillan	...	Eddie MacDonald
Stacey Pickren	...	Ruby
Walter Wyatt	...	Conlan
Edward Bunker	...	Jonah
Reid Cruickshanks	...	Al Turner (as Reid Cruikshanks)
Dan Wray	...	Fat Con
Michael Lee Gogin	...	Short Con
John Bloom	...	Tall Con
Hank Worden	...	Old Con (as Norton E. 'Hank' Warden)

Storyline

A hardened convict and a younger prisoner escape from a brutal prison in the middle of winter only to find themselves on an out-of-control train with a female railway worker while being pursued by the vengeful head of security.

---

Plot Keywords:

alaska | train | prisoner | freight train | fugitive | 

---

Taglines:

Once it starts, nothing can stop it!

---

Genres:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Thriller

---

Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 January 1986 (USA)

Also Known As:

Pakojuna

Filming Locations:

Anaconda, Montana, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$9,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$2,601,480, 6 December 1985, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$7,936,012

Company Credits

Production Co:

Golan-Globus Productions, Northbrook Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

111 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Stereo

Color:

Color (Rankcolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Replicas of all four locomotives were constructed in Hollywood's Pan Pacific Auditorium to film some scenes, which were superimposed onto second unit footage from Alaska. The replicas were complete right down to all interior details and rivets. The couplings could be coupled and uncoupled, and even the speedometers worked.

---

Goofs

The close-up shot of the engineer as he falls off the locomotive is flipped, creating a false impression that the engineer falls off the walkway opposite to the one he is actually seen falling off.

---

Quotes

Sara: Hold me. I don't want to die alone.
Buck: We gonna be all right.
Sara: Yeah.
Buck: We gonna be fine.
Manny: Ha,ha. We all die alone.

---

Alternate Versions

The DVD mysteriously edits out the shot of the first helicopter policeman being run over by the wheels of the train. You see him crash into the train windshield and see him fall off, but then you see just a plain shot of the wheels. In all other versions of the film on video and laserdisc have a shot of this man's face coming right at the camera as his body is run over by the wheels of the train. Even the US TV version has a brief shot of this. This shot is present in the UK Arrow Films DVD release.

---

Connections

Referenced in Tsukuru to iu koto wa subarashii! Kurosawa Akira: Shikisai wo te ni ireta Kurosawa Akira (2003)

---

Soundtracks

Gloria in D Major
by Antonio Vivaldi (as Vivaldi)
Performed by The USSR Academic Russian Chorus and the Moscow Conservatoire Students Orchestra

User Reviews

Win, lose, what's the difference?

Based around a screenplay written by the legendary Akira Kurosawa, Runaway Train simultaneously follows three threads. The escape of two prisoners, Manny & Buck, who jump on a train only to find that the driver has a heart attack, thus it speeds out of control. Then there is the efforts of the train dispatching office to try and safely stop the out-of-control train. And also there's the hunt by the sadistic prison warden who is hellbent on recapturing the fleeing convicts.

Relentless and engrossing action film from start to finish, Runaway Train boasts two Oscar nominated performances from John Voight {Manny} and Eric Roberts {Buck} and no little intelligence with its well scripted characters. The opening quarter is pretty stock routine prison fare, these guys are tough, the warden is a bastard and we just know they are going to escape. But once the guys board the train the whole film shifts in gear and tone. The dynamic that exists between Manny & Buck, partners but very different in life approach, is riveting stuff courtesy of the nifty dialogue exchanges. Things are further enhanced by the appearance of Rebecca DeMornay's also stranded railway worker, Sara, who far from being a shoe-horned token female character, is the crucial piece of the emotional jigsaw. He presence gives the guys room to exorcise their demons and pour out their feelings of anger, bravado and mistrust.

The action scenes are very well handled by director Andrei Konchalovsky and his crew. As the train hurtles thru the snowy Alaskan wilderness we are treated to a number of crash bang wallops involving the train itself; derring-do from our boys on the icy outside of the locomotive, and a helicopter pursuit chartered by the obsessed John P. Ryan as Warden Ranken particularly stand out. Bona fide action sequences that are executed skilfully. Then we get to the finale, a finale pumped up for emotional impact, both visually and orally it closes the film justly. We even get time for a bit of Will Shakespeare as we go about reflecting on what we have just witnessed. A fine movie it be. 7.5/10