The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1998 film)

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The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1998)
Directed by Félix Enríquez Alcalá
Produced by Edgar J. Scherick
Written by John Godey(novel)Peter Stone(earlier screenplay)
April Smith (teleplay)
Starring Edward James Olmos
Vincent D'Onofrio
Donnie Wahlberg
Richard Schiff
Music by Stewart Copeland
Cinematography Félix Enríquez Alcalá
Editing by Robert A. Ferretti
Distributed by Trilogy Entertainment Group
Release date(s) 1 February , 1998 (USA)
Running time 100 min
Language English
IMDb profile

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three is a remake of the 1974 film of the same title starring Edward James Olmos.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Edward James Olmos plays Detective Anthony Piscotti, a New York City police officer. He is trying to crack the hijacking of a subway train where the bad guys are holding the passengers for ramsom.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Remake

The film is a remake, with Edward James Olmos in the Matthau role and Vincent D'Onofrio replacing Shaw as the senior hijacker. Although not particularly well received by critics or viewers, this version was reportedly more faithful to the book. It was also devoid of the quirky humor that made the original so memorable.

Since the film was produced much later than the original, there are also additions to the movie that did not exist in the original. For example, one of the characters sets up an IBM ThinkPad laptop computer, connected wirelessly to a motion detector that he places on the track. Later in the film another character views the screen to see an approaching person, whom he confronts in the tunnel.

Many fans of the New York City Subway (locally termed railfans) despise the newer version, often calling it "The Taking of Bloor-Danforth One Two Three" after the Toronto subway line it was filmed on.[citation needed]

[edit] Miscellanea

  • Shot in Toronto's TTC subway system, mainly using the system's only abandoned station platform Bay (TTC), St. Andrew (TTC) satation and Museum (TTC) station, and two of a class of older cars being retired by the TTC. The two cars were shipped by road to the scrapyard the day after filming ended, still disguised as New York cars.
  • The Toronto subway cars used for filming cannot operate singly, so a two-car set was used. A phoney cab was built on the other end of H-1 H-series (Toronto subway car) car 5482 to simulate single car operation. The single car supposedly detached from the front of the train can be seen on several occasions to be part of a train of at least two cars. The most obvious cases are when rounding curves: once when first moving forward after being detached, and later when Anthony has just figured out the hijackers' plan.


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