Runaway Train

Oscar “Manny” Manheim (Jon Voight (Heat, Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2)) has been locked away in solitary confinement for three years.  He’s a safecracker not convicted of any violent crimes, but after multiple escape attempts and many other prisoners looking up to him like a god he’s deemed too dangerous to be treated like a normal inmate.  The warden (John P. Ryan (Best of the Best, Class of 1999)) would be more than happy to leave him in there forever but the state of Alaska rules Manny can’t be treated like that anymore.  As soon as he’s let out someone tries to shank him, a desperate move coordinated by the warden, so Manny decides to escape once more.  Buck (Eric Roberts (Best of the Best II, Final Analysis)) tags along for the ride and the two board a train.  Unfortunately they have some shitty luck because the conductor dies of a heart attack and the brakes fail leading to the train careening down the rails picking up more and more speed and facing more and more obstacles.  We got ourselves a runaway train my friends.

The idea of an out of control unmanned train is really cool.  The filmmakers exploit all the dangers very well like having a collision with another locomotive, high speed turns that threaten to tip the cars over, an unstable bridge, our characters moving from car to car while avoiding falling in between them and all that kinda great shit.  There’s also the excellent addition of a panicked group of folks in a control room tearing their hair out over how to switch tracks and other trains around to evade total catastrophe.

All of that is wonderful but what makes this a top tier picture are the characters and performances.  Eric Roberts is so good as a slimy motor mouth punk full of energy.  He’s in prison for raping a fifteen year old girl which adds a grotesque layer to his young-dumb-full-of-cum demeanor.  And this character is essential because we need a contrast to Manny’s wisdom as well as his cruelty.

Manny truly isn’t afraid of anything.  He takes his three year solitary in stride, confronts his assassin head on, breaks out of jail into snowy below freezing conditions and doesn’t give up trying to solve his runaway train problem.  And if you cross him or get on his bad side he’ll cut you down to size both physically and verbally.  We witness this abuse when Buck is unable to climb to the lead engine which could potentially save their lives.  Manny beats Buck within an inch of his life.

Voight is perfect in the role and gives one of the most incredible badass performances of all time.  He’s confident, driven and always has a wild look in his eye.  One of my favorite parts is when Manny delivers a speech to Buck about how he shouldn’t be a petty criminal anymore and get some shitty job and hang on to it like it’s the best thing in the world.  Voight’s passion in the scene jumps right into your heart and you wouldn’t dream of being on that crazy train with anyone else.

There’s one aspect of the film I don’t care for though and it’s how the warden is handled.  He’s a terrible person who doesn’t seem to give a fuck about his prisoners.  Hell, it’s implied that he even tries to murder them if he thinks they’re too much trouble.  And the movie validates his behavior several times throughout.  For example, he doesn’t want to let Manny out of solitary because he thinks he might escape again and then that’s exactly what happens.  He thinks Manny is an animal who will hurt people and that ends up happening too.  At one point he shoves the chief control room guy’s face in a toilet because that dude was curt to him for being preoccupied with finding ways to save people’s lives and dodge further destruction caused by the train.  Of course the control room guy apologies and I think it’s meant to be sort of a comic relief moment.  I wish they either hadn’t made the warden such a mean bastard or show that his brute tactics weren’t all that effective.

You could also argue that Rebecca de Mornay (The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Risky Business) being on board the train isn’t necessary.  It’s true that if she were removed nothing would really change.   However, she’s there to convey information to Manny and Buck (and the audience) and helps to move the story forward.  Including this character actually comes off kinda lazy but the rest of the picture is so strong it’s inconsequential.

This was originally written by Akira Kurosawa (yes, that Akira Kurosawa) who couldn’t get it off the ground and eventually gave up.  I don’t know how much of the story remains from his version but that baseline kernel plot is gold.  And I’m sure I’m not the only one that would’ve been interested to see Kurosawa’s take on the material.

But I don’t want to shortchange what we have.  This was directed by Andrey Konchalovskiy (Tango & Cash) and he did a fantastic job.  The plot moves well, the acting is superb and all the gimmicks with the train are a lot of fun and keep you short of breath.

I love this movie for not only taking us on an awesome adventure but also for introducing and letting us spend time with enduring badass characters.  If you haven’t jumped on board this mother then what are you waiting for?