Runaway Train (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Runaway Train | |
|---|---|
 Promotional movie poster for the film |
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| Directed by | Andrei Konchalovsky |
| Produced by | Richard Garcia Yoram Globus Menahem Golan Robert A. Goldston Mati Raz Henry T. Weinstein Robert Whitmore |
| Written by | Ryuzo Kikushima (story) Hideo Oguni (story) Djordje Milicevic (screenplay) Edward Bunker (screenplay) Paul Zindel (screenplay) based on a screenplay by Akira Kurosawa |
| Starring | Jon Voight Eric Roberts Rebecca De Mornay Kyle T. Heffner John P. Ryan |
| Music by | Trevor Jones Alan Howarth (uncredited) |
| Cinematography | Alan Hume |
| Editing by | Henry Richardson |
| Distributed by | The Cannon Group Inc. |
| Release date(s) | 6 December 1985 (limited)
17 January 1986 (wide) |
| Country | USA/Israel |
| Language | English |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Runaway Train is a 1985, Oscar-nominated film which tells the story of two escaped convicts and a female train worker who are stuck on a runaway train as it barrels through snowy desolate Alaska. The movie has a gritty, uninviting atmosphere. It stars Jon Voight as Oscar "Manny" Manheim, Eric Roberts as Buck, John P. Ryan as Associate Warden Ranken and Rebecca De Mornay as Sara.
The movie was written by Edward Bunker, Ryuzo Kikushima, Akira Kurosawa, Djordje Milicevic, Hideo Oguni and Paul Zindel. It was directed by Andrei Konchalovsky.
It was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor (Jon Voight), Best Supporting Actor (Eric Roberts) and Editing.
[edit] Plot
The film follows the escape of two prisoners, the efforts of a train dispatching office to safely stop the out of control train they are on and the efforts of their warden to capture them.
Jon Voight plays Oscar Manheim, aka Manny, a convict in an Alaska prison who was considered so dangerous that the doors to his cell were welded shut. After a court order compels Manny's nemesis, the vindictive Associate Warden Ranken (played by John P. Ryan), to release him back into the general prison population, he plans his escape. Buck (played by Eric Roberts) is another convict who works in the prison's laundry room and conspires to smuggle Manny out. Buck decides to escape with Manny (who reluctantly allows Buck to join him) and the two hop on board a freight train at a remote Alaska railyard just as the engineer suffers a heart attack and collapses. Neither the two convicts nor the railroad dispatchers are aware that the train is now a runaway. The only railroad worker left on the train is Sara, a locomotive hostler, played by Rebecca De Mornay.
The train barrels through the remote, snowy Alaska wilderness at high speed. Once the dispatchers discover it is a runaway and that they cannot stop it as the automated brakes are not working, they attempt to keep the tracks clear for the runaway and plan on derailing it, assuming nobody is left on the train. The dispatchers soon learn that the train is not unmanned when a railroad worker who they have just instructed to switch the train to a dead-end reports that someone on the train (Sara) is blowing the whistle. Warden Ranken believes his two escaped convicts are aboard the train after the state police discover prison clothes at the railyard Manny and Buck departed from. Meanwhile, the two fugitives have discovered that Sara is also on board and the three attempt to stop the train. They slow the train by disabling two of the four locomotives, but they cannot stop the train without reaching the lead engine - which they cannot do because the second locomotive is a streamliner type, with no forward catwalk to provide access between the first and second engines.
Eventually the dispatchers discover that the train is approaching a curve in the track which would derail the train because it is travelling too rapidly. The curve is adjacent to a chemical plant and the dispatchers decide they must switch the runaway onto a dead-end siding and send the three people on the train to almost certain death rather than risk a catastrophic chemical spill.
Manny shows a violent streak throughout the film and repeatedly asserts his dominance over Buck, while Buck is portrayed more as a victim of circumstances and not very intelligent. Manny is resolved not to return to prison, even if it means his own death; this leads to the film's conclusion as Manny makes a perilous leap to the lead engine, and in a struggle with Warden Ranken (who has successfully boarded the first engine by helicopter), handcuffs him in the cab. Manny then uncouples the first engine from the rest of the train (leaving Buck and Sara behind), but doesn't jump off the lead engine despite Buck's pleas. With Ranken unable to escape, Manny climbs onto the roof of the lone engine in the freezing cold and blowing snow, with his arms stretched out like a crucifix, ready to meet his end. The film fades out with the train presumably taking Manny and Ranken to their deaths.
The film closes with an on screen quote from William Shakespeare's Richard III:-
"No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity. But I know none, and therefore I am no beast."
[edit] Production
The Alaska Railroad Corporation (ARRC) decided that their name and logo would not be shown. The filming took place near Portage Glacier, Whittier and Grandview.
The prison scenes at the beginning of the movie were filmed in Deer Lodge, Montana, and some railroad yard scenes were filmed in Anaconda, Montana.
The runaway's locomotive lineup in the movie was Alaska Railroad #3010 (an EMD GP40), #1500 (an EMD F9) and two EMD GP7s, 1801 and 1810. During their Alaska Railroad service the GP7s had had their short hoods chopped but for the film were fitted with mock-up high-noses.
Sequences set at the railyard, shot on the Butte, Anaconda & Pacific Railroad in Montana, used local locomotives from the BA&P fleet along with an F9 rented from the Mount Rainer Scenic Railroad.
GP7 #1810 subsequently appeared in another motion picture, Under Siege 2 alongside human co-star Steven Segal.
