Runaway Train (1985)
January 27, 2025 7:56 PM - Subscribe

Two escaped convicts and a female railway worker find themselves trapped on a speeding train with no brakes and nobody driving.

Hell of an ending.
posted by Lemkin (8 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
We just watched this recently, as it was on a Best Action Movie List. Neither of us had heard of it before. It's legitimately thrilling! Jon Voigt, Eric Roberts, Rebecca DeMornay!
posted by mrphancy at 8:30 PM on January 27 [1 favorite]


This is a tough one,
posted by vrakatar at 8:44 PM on January 27


I just rewatched it about two weeks ago and was thinking it should be posted -- thanks, Lemkin!

As I said to my partner, this is one of the ur-Boy Movies; great speeches delivered through gritted teeth, hard men pursuing harder men in the hardest environment, rough nobility and all that jazz.

But hot damn if it isn't great. Despite itself in a lot of ways; the camerawork is haphazard, the "men with undone ties argue about train speeds" scenes are far too frequent and a bit silly, and the gritty grit on top of the grit with two scoops of grit thrown in edges up to self-parody. It always pulls itself back from that edge, though. Voight may be an asshole IRL but he delivers the goods as Manny; I don't think Eric Roberts has ever been better-used. Not-Stacy-Keach as the warden is also impeccably haywire.

It's a movie a lot of people won't like, but it hits me in the Man Feels like few other films do -- The Man Who Would be King is in that canon, for sure, and Miller's Crossing, oddly enough.
posted by Shepherd at 3:20 AM on January 28 [4 favorites]


Original story by Akira Kurosawa!
posted by phooky at 4:52 AM on January 28 [3 favorites]


We saw this in 1985 and saw it on cable several times since. It is truly great though it's hard to watch Voight these days.

I just did the addition. For roughly forty years my wife and I have said while getting dressed, "Ah need socks, Manny. Ah need socks."
posted by Ber at 6:29 AM on January 28 [2 favorites]


And from the director of Tango & Cash and collaborator of Andrei Tartovsky, Andrei Konchalovsky.
posted by Ashwagandha at 6:32 AM on January 28 [1 favorite]


The thing that sticks with me from this film was something mentioned near the beginning, which was that Jon Voight's character had the door of his cell welded shut. That's pretty hardcore.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:15 AM on January 28 [1 favorite]


This was also Danny Trejo's first real film role.

Trejo had been working with sober living houses and their residents since getting out of prison, while gigging on the side as a film extra. He went to the Runaway Train set to answer a call from a teenaged patient with cocaine problems. The screenwriter (who had been inside himself) recognized Trejo from prison and got him a gig as Eric Roberts' personal trainer and boxing advisor. Later, he was also offered a small speaking role.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 12:04 PM on January 28 [6 favorites]


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