With an unmanned, half-mile-long freight train barreling toward a city, a veteran engineer and a young conductor race against the clock to prevent a catastrophe.With an unmanned, half-mile-long freight train barreling toward a city, a veteran engineer and a young conductor race against the clock to prevent a catastrophe.With an unmanned, half-mile-long freight train barreling toward a city, a veteran engineer and a young conductor race against the clock to prevent a catastrophe.
Dylan Bruce
- Michael Colson
- (as a different name)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe film is inspired by the "Crazy Eights" unmanned train incident in 2001. The train, led by CSX Transportation SD40-2 #8888, left its Walbridge, Ohio rail yard and began a 66-mile journey through northwest Ohio with no one at the controls, after the engineer got out of the originally slow-moving train to correctly line a switch, mistakenly believing he had properly set the train's dynamic braking system, just as his counterpart in the movie did. Two of the real train's tank cars also contained thousands of gallons of molten phenol, similar to the fictional train in the film.
- GoofsPortable derails are used and the description of the process by which they work is technically accurate but they were not installed correctly. The "lifting" mechanism should be on the inside of the rail (where the flange of the wheel is), not on the outside as shown in the movie.
- Quotes
Oscar Galvin: I am not jeopardizing more personnel and more property just because some engineer wants to play *hero*! End of discussion! That train is our property. It's our decision! Now you stop your pursuit or I will fire you!
Frank: [chuckles] Fire... You already did.
Oscar Galvin: Already did what?
Frank: You've already fired me. I received my 90-day notice in the mail... 72 days ago. Forced early retirement, half benefits.
Oscar Galvin: So you're gonna risk your life for us with three weeks left.
Frank: Not for you. I'm not doing it for you.
- ConnectionsEdited from Gone in 60 Seconds (2000)
- SoundtracksWork
Written by Missy Elliott (as Melissa Elliott), Ciara (as Ciara P. Harris), Marcella Araica and DanJa (as Nate "Danja" Hills)
Performed by Ciara (feat. Missy Elliott)
Courtesy of Atlantic Recording Corp.
By arrangement with Warner Music Group Film & TV Licensing
Review
Featured review
Solid as a rock.
So, here we are. Tony Scott and Denzel Washington's latest collaboration is pretty much the definition of high concept - a runaway freight train loaded with thousands of gallons of diesel fuel, eight carriages of a highly toxic chemical and a worryingly curvy track ahead of it, versus two train operatives armed with little in the way of stopping impending disaster bar a one-car locomotive and their vivid imaginations.
It's not without its faults, but Unstoppable is a brisk, solidly entertaining thriller from start to finish. Scott has little time for characterisation or back story, preferring instead to kick things off via a pair of laughably incompetent rail yard employees roughly five minutes in, and then letting his leads fill in the blanks as we go along for the ride.
Washington and Star Trek's Chris Pine play it straight for the most part - their characters are the reluctant Johnny Everymen found in most films that rely on extended peril for thrills, and they've both nailed the mixture of brooding intensity and occasional comic relief that typifies movies of the genre.
Enough about the acting though - when you're watching a film of this nature, you want the action sequences to impress rather than worry too much about the story, and on this front Unstoppable delivers. Scott's track record in the field puts him in the perfect place to deliver the goods, and there's very little of the distracting, overdone camera-work that has plagued his recent output.
There's perhaps a little too much ShakyCam for my tastes but for the most part everything is shot with enough scope to be extremely impressive. The near total lack of CGI means the film looks suitably gritty and the pace is utterly, utterly relentless - there's no time to breathe here, just set-piece after set-piece with only brief conversational respites to quickly set up the next danger faced by our blue-collar heroes.
This type of film never goes down too well with critics and you can predict the reviews already - yes Unstoppable IS cheesy, it IS forced, it IS derivative and has all the depth of a puddle, but if you want to switch your brain off for 100 minutes and sit back for a magnificently enjoyable slice of escapism, you couldn't do much better. Highly recommended.
It's not without its faults, but Unstoppable is a brisk, solidly entertaining thriller from start to finish. Scott has little time for characterisation or back story, preferring instead to kick things off via a pair of laughably incompetent rail yard employees roughly five minutes in, and then letting his leads fill in the blanks as we go along for the ride.
Washington and Star Trek's Chris Pine play it straight for the most part - their characters are the reluctant Johnny Everymen found in most films that rely on extended peril for thrills, and they've both nailed the mixture of brooding intensity and occasional comic relief that typifies movies of the genre.
Enough about the acting though - when you're watching a film of this nature, you want the action sequences to impress rather than worry too much about the story, and on this front Unstoppable delivers. Scott's track record in the field puts him in the perfect place to deliver the goods, and there's very little of the distracting, overdone camera-work that has plagued his recent output.
There's perhaps a little too much ShakyCam for my tastes but for the most part everything is shot with enough scope to be extremely impressive. The near total lack of CGI means the film looks suitably gritty and the pace is utterly, utterly relentless - there's no time to breathe here, just set-piece after set-piece with only brief conversational respites to quickly set up the next danger faced by our blue-collar heroes.
This type of film never goes down too well with critics and you can predict the reviews already - yes Unstoppable IS cheesy, it IS forced, it IS derivative and has all the depth of a puddle, but if you want to switch your brain off for 100 minutes and sit back for a magnificently enjoyable slice of escapism, you couldn't do much better. Highly recommended.
helpful•17867
- drapertron
- Nov 8, 2010
Details
Box office
- 1 hour 38 minutes
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