"You're an animal!""No, worse! Human. Human!"
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.
Where to watch
1Wednesday, 8 July
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6What people say
Runaway Train is a film that absolutely fascinates me even beyond its undoubted excellence. It was directed by Andrey Konchalovskiy, a filmmaker with a career so delightfully unpredictable in its quality and genres of choice. It received two acting Oscar nominations, despite being an action film, one of them for Eric Roberts of all people. It has a screenplay by Akira Kurosawa. Mr. Blue from Reservoir Dogs co-wrote it. And it was produced and distributed by Cannon Films. Cannon Films!How the hell did this film come together?! Furthermore, how on earth did it turn out to be so good? It really has to be regarded as one of the minor miracles of 1980s cinema that it managed to become as highly regarded a film as it has. I suspect the full story behind how it was made, funded and distributed would be almost as fascinating as the film itself if it was ever told - which would be quite some achievement.I do rather like films on trains as a rule. It's probably because I'm a fan of train travel, even if the 10:24 from Tonbridge to London Bridge rarely throws up hunts for missing old ladies, FBI agents protecting witnesses or a monster of some kind locked in a box. This is slightly different in that no innocent passengers (well, if you don't count train worker Rebecca DeMornay, who is very good here) get in the way, but the thrills and adventure come from the seemingly hopeless situation that escaped cons Roberts and Jon Voight find themselves in as the titular transport seemingly hurtles towards oblivion.The exceptional thing about the film is that there is actually very little incident in the film once they get on the train. The thrills are generated from very simple situations, as long as you take out the prison bits at the start, and it has the wherewithal to give you an ending that is completely satisfying if not entirely logical. Roberts is not as good as his Oscar nomination suggests and borders on irritating at times, but he is about as good as he ever got. Voight on the other hand (tee hee) is fantastic and completely compelling and also immense at portraying the fearsome unpredictability of his character.An almost completely fulfilling action adventure and, it seems, one of the more notable cinematic achievements of its decade.
So how come none of y’all told me a Cannon action movie written by Akira Kurosawa starring an Oscar worthy Eric Roberts and Oscar-and-Best-Stache-of-the-80s worthy Jon Voight is a thing that existed and is a straight up masterpiece lmao
Common questions
What is Runaway Train about?+
A hardened convict and a younger prisoner escape from a maximum-security prison in the middle of a brutal Alaskan winter, only to find themselves trapped on a locomotive that has lost its braking system.
Who directed Runaway Train?+
The film was directed by Russian filmmaker Andrei Konchalovsky, who was known for his early collaboration with Andrei Tarkovsky and for bringing a distinct arthouse sensibility to this intense 1985 action picture.
Is the film based on a true story?+
No, the film is an adaptation of an original screenplay written by the legendary Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, later adapted for the screen by Edward Bunker and others. Find similar thrillers on Mood.
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