Runaway Train (1985)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Good concept, poorly executed.

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

The film "Runaway Train" is one of the greatest mysteries of the seventh art. No doubt this movie is a real case study. I would love to know a lot more about how everything happened in this movie, but unfortunately the DVD edition I have does not have any extras other than a trailer. That is, the "mystery" that constitutes this film remains to be unveiled. How does a masterpiece come about in a film by an unknown Russian in the West (he still had in the US the previous year's "Maria's Lovers"), working with American actors, based on an argument by Japanese master Akira Kurosawa, written to three, including Edward Bunker, an actor who takes part in the film as a prisoner and who in real life spent much of his life in prison and being produced by the duo Golan-Globus, producers who bet on purely commercial films with Chuck Norris and company, many of them B-series, without any tip of interest in investing in characters full of emotions, humanism (in good and bad sense) and existentialism? at one point in the movie Roberts asks "Why this train?" to which Voight replies "Because I want". It is in this instinctive and animalistic way that the destiny of the characters is traced. I also ask: why this so improbable combination of people so different, even in their own nationalities, have joined in this project? Was it also destiny? the duality between the blockbuster and the arthouse makes the film extremely innovative and captivating, a true work of art. I would say that this is a unique case of film, throughout the history of cinema, that manages to perfectly combine, in an inexplicably superb way, concepts of "super-commercial cinema" with "poetry-art cinema". I've been asking myself these questions for 30 years after I've seen the movie 30 times. Most likely, to my sadness, never see them answered and never see unveiled this "mystery." Jon Voight has the best interpretation of his career here. He has notable roles in other films such as "deliverance", "midnight cowboy" and others, has been nominated several times for the Oscar for Best Actor, even won one, but this is, for me, the "role of his life" ( and also in this movie he was nominated for Oscar but did not win). To tell you more, Voight's acting in this film is among the best interpretations I have ever seen in film history. But also Eric Roberts and Rebecca De Mornay have both in this movie the best interpretations of their careers. Rebecca De Mornay was not unfairly nominated for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. She was known to the public at this time because of the success of the risky business film, made 2 years earlier, which she stars alongside Tom Cruise. "Runaway Train" is perhaps the only film of her career in which she appears without any make-up, half "messed up", playing a role of this type that has nothing to do with her usual "femme fatale" characters. She is superb, brilliant and more beautiful than ever (even without makeup). Eric Roberts (the only nomination he had in his Oscar career) is also fantastic, lending credence to his naive character with a slight mental inhibition. Konchalovsky's achievement is brilliant. The train looks like a living character in the movie. The music of Trevor Jones is fabulous. The final one is anthology. The scene in which the three characters disintegrate and fight inside the train is to memory. The final sentence of the film is fabulous, anything like "Even the most ferocious animal feels some pity. But I am not a ferocious animal, I am a human being, and therefore I do not feel any pity, "although for me this phrase goes in contradiction (possibly purposeful) with the film. This is because even John Ryan, the prison's director and the most "inhuman" character in the film, has in the end a moment of "humanism." It is he who, realizing his fate, remembers Roberts and De Mornay and tells Voight "What about that punk and the girl?", "Saving" in this way these two characters because Voight responds to him "Oh no, it's just you and me ". In fact, there are many anthology dialogues throughout the film, those kind of dialogues that we never forget. Writing about them would give a book, so much is the beauty and ambiguity of them, so much they stimulate us to think about its meaning. It was a shame the film went quite unnoticed. But, after more than 30 years, I notice that, little by little, the film is gaining status as a "cult movie". I just wanted to see some of the actors in the movie talking about how it all came out, how it all happened. As I have already mentioned, a combination of these arises once in life, or rather, arises once in the history of cinema. And this (cinema) was born long before me and will have a life much longer than mine.

So this was on TV and I thought, why the heck not watch a movie with Eric Roberts in it. I needed a good laugh, right? But what I got was a solid adventure/escape thriller with poetic undertones. Honestly, I have no idea how to describe it. It is one of those films that will mean something different to different people. Wonder why this movie is so good? Then go check out the person who wrote the screenplay and trip out on that fact, you film school snobs! Just to summarize the flick, and I am summarizing it as basic as hell. It is about 2 convicts who escape from jail and find themselves on a runaway train. Just add in a bunch of hidden symbolism in the dialogue and set pieces, and you got yourself an entertaining movie. That's about as much as you should know about the movie because knowing too much could rob you of the most optimum filmgoing experience. After watching the movie, you will find yourself reflecting on it and pondering stuff about yourself, humanity and trains... and Eric Roberts.

The next time I criticise an action movie for being brainless, only to be met by the response of "well, it is an action movie!", I'll refer them to Runaway Train, a breathless, thoroughly exciting action movie that manages to portray two fully three-dimensional characters amidst underlying sociological messages about imprisonment and reform. Developed from an un-filmed Akira Kurosawa script by Djordje Milicevic, Paul Zindel, and former hardened inmate Eddie Bunker, Runaway Train proves that action movies can do a hell of a lot more than blow s**t up and offer amusing one-liners.Notorious convict Manny (Jon Voight) is released from three years in confinement by hateful warden Ranken (John P. Ryan) not just because of media pressure, but in the hope that he will try and escape so Barstow may kill him. After he is attacked and wounded, Manny makes the quick decision to escape his Alaskan confines, and does so with the help of the young and rather dumb Buck (Eric Roberts). They board a train, but unbeknown to them the engineer on board has died from a heart attack and the train is heading at high speed towards various obstacles. Ground-staff are alerted to the situation and quickly set about clearing the tracks, but Ranken has soon joined them with revenge in mind.Many Hollywood movies offer moments of spectacular visual effects and sound design that should be applauded, but normally these scenes don't tend to generate any excitement in me. Runaway Train offers similar scenes, but there's two key aspects that make the film work so well. The first is emotional investment. As despicable as these characters often are, Manny and Buck are real, helped considerably by the career-best performances of Voight and Roberts. The former, in an empowering speech that may just be the best work he's ever done, informs Buck of the futility of their situation. They may just rule the world if they could hold down a job, but they can't, they're criminals, and cannot escape their societal role.The appearance of Rebecca De Mornay's character Sara, a young engineer still aboard and who is unable to stop the train, highlights this. Manny and Buck squabble and fight for the first time in front of her, showing that when put into a situation where the laws of society come into play, they reject it and turn into animals. These exchanges occur between some nail-biting scenes, which brings me onto the next aspect that makes the film work so well - real action. There's no wide-shots of gigantic explosions, just two battered men clawing and slipping their way along the snow-drenched train. In one scene, after a daring attempt to jump carriages, Manny's wind and cold-battered face craws towards the camera, ragged bandages hang off his bloodied hand, and his crooked, brown teeth are bared. The camera is so intrusive that you really feel every move he makes, to the point where I felt exhausted.Though it does occasionally slip in prison movie cliché, this is perhaps one of the most underrated films ever made. It was recognised at the Oscars with nominations for Voight, Roberts and for Best Editing, but it doesn't seem to have left the legacy it certainly deserves. I wouldn't exactly call the film obscure, but your average film-goer probably won't have heard of it, especially when compared to, say, Die Hard (1988). This is riveting stuff, tightly directed by Russian Andrei Konchalovsky (who went on to make the crappy Tango & Cash (1989)), and the film leaves you with an beautiful and slightly eerie final image that could say more than words could have.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

This classic film rates as one of the finest train-themed features, action spectacles, and character studies ever committed to celluloid. It manages that special combination of being stimulating on both an existential and visceral level, making it fine viewing indeed. The acting is top notch, with Jon Voight in one of the most interesting roles of his career. Andrei Konchalovsky directs with style and intelligence, making the train in this story a character in its own right and using the time spent on it as a period of reflection and self-examination. Certainly "Runaway Train" is an extremely prestigious production for Menahem Golan, Yoram Globus, and the Cannon Group, which for the most part was cranking out pure entertainment during the 1980s.Voight plays Oscar "Manny" Manheim, hardened veteran convict who breaks out of an isolated maximum security prison located in Alaska. His tag along is an annoying young chatterbox, Buck McGeehy (Eric Roberts) who idolizes Manny, as do many of the other prisoners. They hop a train only for the engineer to have a heart attack and fall off, leaving the train barrelling nonstop through the Alaskan countryside. Tailing them is associate warden Ranken (the great, under-rated character actor John P. Ryan ("It's Alive")), who's hellbent on recapturing them.It's always a treat to see the old school thrill rides like this which were done practically, without resorting to digital enhancement. The film is unrelentingly tense and gripping every step of the way, running an hour and 52 minutes but very much flying along, just like its title vehicle. It's based on an unused screenplay by the legendary Akira Kurosawa, which got adapted for American audiences by author / playwright Paul Zindel and Djordje Milicevic and then polished by ex-con turned author, screenwriter, and actor Edward Bunker (who appears in the film as Jonah). Voight is a force of nature as the intimidating Manny, and he and Roberts do play off each other very well. Rebecca De Mornay, severely deglamorized here, adds another touch of humanity playing a railroad employee who shares their precarious situation. Ryan is lots of fun as the antagonist, and offering additional solid support are Kyle T. Heffner ("Flashdance"), T.K. Carter ("The Thing"), and Kenneth McMillan ("Dune"). And recognize that boxer and prison guard? They're played by Danny Trejo and Tommy 'Tiny' Lister, then relative newcomers to film.This one truly deserves peoples' attention. It's too good to pass up. And it ends in the best possible way, with one hell of a final image.10 out of 10.