The Commuter (2018)

An action-thriller in which an insurance salesman/ex-cop is caught up in a life-threatening conspiracy during his daily commute home.

Director:

Jaume Collet-Serra

Writers:

Byron Willinger (story by), Philip de Blasi (story by)

Stars:

Liam Neeson, Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Liam Neeson	...	Michael MacCauley
Vera Farmiga	...	Joanna
Patrick Wilson	...	Alex Murphy
Jonathan Banks	...	Walt
Sam Neill	...	Captain Hawthorne
Elizabeth McGovern	...	Karen MacCauley
Killian Scott	...	Dylan
Shazad Latif	...	Vince
Andy Nyman	...	Tony
Clara Lago	...	Eva
Roland Møller	...	Jackson
Florence Pugh	...	Gwen
Dean-Charles Chapman	...	Danny MacCauley
Ella-Rae Smith	...	Sofia
Nila Aalia	...	Sherri

Storyline

Michael MacCauley, a former police officer and now a hard-working life-insurance salesman and a caring family man, has been taking the commuter rail to New York for the past ten years. But, things will take an unexpected turn when, on one of his daily journeys, the cryptic passenger, Joanna, makes Michael a generous and tempting offer to locate a single commuter or face grave consequences. Is this a sick joke, or is this, indeed, a dangerous situation? Now, as Michael races against the clock to solve this wicked conundrum, everyone aboard is a suspect, in a deal that there is more than meets the eye. Can he decide in time who is the one?

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Plot Keywords:

passenger train | conspiracy | money | hostage | train | 

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Taglines:

His Life Is On The Line.

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Genres:

Action | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some intense action/violence, and language.

Did You Know?

Trivia

The second film to feature Vera Farmiga and an incident on a commuter train, following Source Code (2011).

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Goofs

When the emergency brake on a train is pulled, it does not require any action from the engineer to stop the train. The system will force the train to stop (quite quickly, in fact) and will require human intervention only to reset the system to get the train moving again.

However, it did appear that there was an explosion when the emergency brake was pulled indicating it may have been sabotaged. If the emergency brakes had indeed failed to activate, the engineer would be needed to stop the train.

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Quotes

Joanna: [on the phone to Michael] You had your chance... now EVERYONE dies!

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Crazy Credits

The end credits are done in the style of a train map.

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Connections

References The Scarlet Letter (1995)

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Soundtracks

Un-Named
Performed by Cosima
Written by Cosima Ehni and Joel Potts
Courtesy of Island Records and Chrysalis Music, a BMG company
Issued under licence from Universal Music Publishing Ltd/Universal Music Operations Ltd

User Reviews

Decent Thriller Derailed by Ridiculous Third Act

SPOILER: The Commuter delivers what it promises, a Liam Neeson action movie that relies on tension and a little bit of mystery to fill out its runtime. It begins very well with minimal exposition for the set up, using images or short conversations to explain what most movies would carve out five minutes of dialogue for. From there it evolves more like a mystery with an ordinary man in an extraordinary situation searching for someone on the train. As it enters the third act, it goes full action movie with explosions, fight scenes, and massive stakes. While this was to be expected from Jaume Collet-Serra, it undermines what had been a more contained thriller up to that point.

It is shot well enough and uses an ensemble cast well, but no one besides Liam Neeson really has too much to do. Vera Farmiga and Jonathan Banks are both talented actors that are really underutilized. All in all, The Commuter is another Liam Neeson action movie that could be best described as "Nonstop on a train."

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook (UK) Official Instagram

Country:

USA UK France China Canada Spain

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

12 January 2018 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Commuter

Filming Locations:

Sacramento, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$30,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$13,701,452, 14 January 2018

Gross USA:

$36,343,858

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$119,942,387

Company Credits

Production Co:

StudioCanal, TF1 Films Production, The Picture Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

104 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Atmos

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1