Unstoppable
starring Denzel Washington, Chris Pine, Rosario Dawson, Kevin Dunn, Ethan Suplee, Kevin Corrigan, Lew Templeand Kevin Chapman
written by Mark Bomback
directed by Ridley Scott
Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
Reviving memories of the exciting 1985 Jon Voight movie, Runaway Train (but a different story entirely), Unstoppable was an exciting movie about a runaway freight train going through populated areas of Pennsylvania carrying a toxic cargo, and the successful attempt by two freight train employees - an engineer and a conductor - to stop it. Despite a couple problems with the film I was on the seat of my pants watching it. I like trains. Although they are kind of tedious they are big, heavy and strong. They clank and jerk around, with loads of fantastic inertia. With affordable air and road travel many people in North America have forgotten the place of train travel in our history and the important place it still holds in the economy. I have traveled the cross country train from Vancouver-to-Toronto several times, which has given me some closer familiarity with these big beasts and a passing familiarity with the even larger freight trains that pass us on the tracks. In Unstoppable one can begin to understand the mechanics of their operation.
It’s a very blue collar kind of story. Locomotive engineers are very highly trained people, but they come across in the movies very working class.