The story concerns two escaped convicts and a female assistant locomotive driver who are stuck on a runaway train as it barrels through snowy desolate Alaska. Voight and Roberts were both nominated for Academy Awards. It received generally positive reviews from critics.
Kurosawa intended the original screenplay to be his first color film following Red Beard, but difficulties with the American financial backers led to its being shelved.[4]
Plot
Oscar "Manny" Manheim is a bank robber and hero to the convicts of Alaska's Stonehaven Maximum Security Prison. After two previous escape attempts, Manny is put in solitary confinement for three years. A court order compels Associate Warden Ranken to release him from solitary. Planning a third breakout, Manny is forced to advance his plan to mid-winter after he is stabbed in the hand. Manny recruits young prisoner Buck McGeehy to help in the plan. After escaping from the prison via a sewer tunnel that opens near a freezing river, and a cross-country hike, the two arrive at a switchyard. After stealing railroad clothing, they board a train, consisting only of four locomotives.
The elderly railroad engineer, Al, has a fatal heart attack after starting the train and falls off the lead locomotive. He applies the brakes, but the locomotives overpower them, resulting in the brake shoes burning off. As the unmanned train accelerates, dispatchers Dave Prince and Frank Barstow are alerted to the situation. Barstow allows the train to reach the mainline while trying to keep the tracks farther down the line clear. The runaway smashes the rear flatbed and caboose of another train pulling onto a siding. The collision damages the cab of the lead locomotive and jams the front door of the second engine, an old inoperable EMD F-unit, or "'A' Unit". Barstow's superior Eddie McDonald orders him to derail the train.
The train's horn then blows, alerting the authorities (and the two fugitives) that someone else is aboard the train. Barstow has the maintainer cancel the derailment. Ranken concludes his two escaped convicts are fleeing by rail. Meanwhile, the fugitives are discovered by Sara, a locomotive hostler who explains she sounded the horn and the train is out of control. As jumping off the train at its current speed would be suicide, the only possible way to stop it would be to climb forward onto the lead engine and press its kill switch, a difficult feat due to the 'A' Unit's jammed front door and its obsolete rounded streamlined designs having no outside catwalk, unlike the first, third, and fourth locomotives. They shut down the third and fourth locomotives by disconnecting the multi-unit cables.
Further ahead the train's present route is a tight curve near a chemical plant. Realising the fast-moving train would derail at the curve causing damage to the plant with a possibility of major environmental disaster, the dispatchers divert the runaway onto a dead-end branch line, thus condemning all three on board to death, rather than risking a chemical explosion. Ranken forces Barstow to help him reach the train via helicopter. Manny tries forcing Buck into a suicidal scramble around the second engine's frozen nose. Sara's intervention on Buck's behalf results in an armed face-off between the convicts. Emotionally broken, all three slump into depression. Ranken's accomplice is lowered from a helicopter to the lead engine, but falls through the second engine's windscreen, and then under the train.
Spurred on by the appearance of his archenemy with a resolve to not be returned to prison, Manny makes a perilous leap to the lead engine. He falls off the train but grabs onto the coupling to prevent himself from slipping off it. While attempting to reboard, the knuckle shifts, crushing his hand. Ranken boards the locomotive from the helicopter; Manny handcuffs him inside the lead engine after brutally beating him. Realizing what Manny intends to do, the frightened Ranken furiously demands Manny to stop the train before it crashes; but Manny has chosen to die (and take Ranken to his death with him) rather than be recaptured. When reminded of Buck and Sara in the second engine, Manny uncouples the lead engine from the rest of the train, which makes the latter shut down and come to a stop. He waves goodbye (ignoring Buck's screaming pleas to shut down the lead engine) and climbs onto the roof in the freezing snow, with his arms stretched out, accepting his inevitable fate. Buck and Manny's fellow inmates mourn in their cells as the lone engine vanishes into the storm. A quote from William Shakespeare's Richard III is then shown:
"No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity." "But I know none, and therefore am no beast."[5]
Akira Kurosawa read an article in a 1963 Life magazine by Warren Young about a runaway train. He thought it would make a good film and contacted Joseph E. Levine about doing an international co-production. In June 1966, Kurosawa announced he would make Runaway Train for Joseph E. Levine's Embassy Pictures. The budget was to be $5.6 million. The script was written by Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni and Ryuzo Kikushima, about two escaped convicts who hide on board a stationary train, only for it to roll away, gradually picking up tremendous speed. Sidney Carroll was hired to adapt Kurosawa's script into English. The film would be shot along tracks between Syracuse and Rochester in New York over 16 weeks in October 1966. Tetsuo Aoyagi would produce and the film would be shot in 70 mm.[6][7]
Plans to shoot were cancelled at the last minute, only to be scheduled and cancelled yet again.[8] In April 1967 the project had been "indefinitely postponed" and Kurosawa signed to make Tora! Tora! Tora!.[9][10]
Development
In 1982 the Nippon Herald company, which owned Kurosawa's script, asked Francis Ford Coppola to recommend a director. Coppola and his producer, Tom Luddy, suggested Andrei Konchalovsky. The director succeeded in raising finance from Cannon Films.
"The design is still Kurosawa's", said Andrei Konchalovsky. "The concentration of energy and passion, the existential point of view, and the image of the train as something – perhaps civilization – out of control.... Manny, the character played by Voight, feels, 'Win or lose, what's the difference?' That's not very familiar to the Western mind. We tend to love winners, and we don't like losers."[11]
Konchalovsky knew Jon Voight, who had helped get the director his visa to work in the US in 1979 (Voight wanted Konchalovsky to direct Rhinestone Heights which was ultimately never made.)[12]
Karen Allen was announced as the female lead.[13] The part ended up being played by Rebecca De Mornay, who said "It's my first real action-oriented picture. There are scenes where I'm walking across the top of a train – things like that. I really wanted to do something that called for a lot of physical acting, where I'm acting not as much with words as with my body."[14]
The Alaska Railroad decided that their name and logo would not be shown. Several scenes referred to the railroad as "A&E Northern." The filming took place near Portage Glacier, Whittier, and Grandview.
Shooting
Principal photography began spring of 1985, at the Butte, Anaconda, & Pacific Roundhouse in Anaconda, Montana. During filming, the crew realized they didn't have any real snow, due to warm temperatures (a false spring) in the area. They used Christmas tree flocks for fake snow, and they had to keep it from melting on the tracks at the west yard. Cannon Films had to cut short its stay in Anaconda, and they moved onto Deer Lodge, Montana, to film the prison scenes at the Old Montana State Prison. Approximately 200 extras were hired to play prisoners in the scenes. They spent a week filming several scenes at the prison. Finally, the second unit team went to Whittier, Alaska, to film on the Alaska Railroad tracks. The Bridge sequence was filmed on the Seneca Bridge on Placer Creek, about 5 miles (8 km) from Whittier. The scene where Jordan makes the switch on the tracks was filmed at Portage, Alaska. The cast and crew went to the Pan-Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles, to film the interior of the train scenes and the prisoners' escape scene.[15]
The runaway train's lineup in the movie consisted of four Alaska Railroad locomotives, all built by EMD: GP40-2 #3010, F7 #1500, and #1801 and #1810, both GP7s. The latter two locomotives had previously been rebuilt by ARR with low short hoods as opposed to a GP7's original high short hood but were fitted with mock-up high hoods made of plywood for the film, branded with fictional numbers 531 and 812, respectively. Because #1801's cab had been reconstructed prior to filming, the '531' prosthetic hood stood slightly higher than the normal hood height of a GP7 to fit over the locomotive's number board.[citation needed]
The locomotives used in the film have gone their separate ways:
ARR GP40-2 #3010 is still active on the Alaska Railroad, painted in the new corporate scheme.[16]
ARR F7 #1500 was retired from service in 1992, and is now at the Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry Museum in Wasilla, Alaska, as can be seen on the front page of their website MuseumOfAlaska.org.[17][18]
ARR GP7 #1810 was sold to the Oregon Pacific Railroad and operated as OP #1810. In 2008, the unit was sold to the Cimarron Valley Railroad and is now permanently coupled to former OP Slug #1010.[19]
ARR GP7 #1801 was sold to a locomotive leasing company in Kansas City, Missouri, then sold to the Missouri Central Railroad and operated as MOC #1800. The locomotive subsequently appeared in another motion picture, Under Siege 2: Dark Territory, in 1995.[citation needed] MOC became the Central Midland Railroad in 2002. As Central Midland had its own leased power, MOC 1800 was returned to Midwest Locomotive In Kansas City. Shortly after, it was then sold to the Respondek Rail Corp of Granite City, Illinois, and is now used on Respondek's Port Harbor Railroad subsidiary. The unit's identification is RRC #1800. As of 2015, the locomotive has been stored, is out of service, needing wheelwork. A return to service on the Port Harbor Railroad is unlikely, as there is talk about sending the unit to another Respondek Operation.[20]
The train that was hit by the runaway was led by MRS-1 #1605. This unit had been retired in 1984, one year before filming started. The unit has since been cut up for scrap.[citation needed]
Sequences set at the rail yard, shot on the Butte, Anaconda and Pacific Railway in Anaconda, Montana, used local locomotives from the BA&P fleet along with former Northern Pacific EMD F9 #7012A, leased from the Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad. The two GP7s and the F9 were fitted with plywood boxes to duplicate the distinctive 'winterization hatches' carried on their Alaskan counterparts.[citation needed]
BA&P EMD GP38-2 #109, the BA&P locomotive used in the yard scenes as the lead engine in place of ARR #3010, was subsequently sold to the Alaska Railroad and remains in service there as #2002, along with sister unit #2001 (ex-BA&P #108).[citation needed]
Richard (Rick) Holley was killed prior to the start of principal photography when the helicopter he was piloting hit power lines while scouting for shoot locations in Alaska. The film is dedicated to him during the closing credits.
Music
USSR Academic Russian Chorus is credited for Antonio Vivaldi's "Gloria". The film was scored by composer Trevor Jones.
Release
Box office
Runaway Train had its premiere in New York City on November 15, 1985, followed by its limited release in 965 theatres on December 6, 1985. It made $2,601,480 on that weekend. It was released nationwide on January 17, 1986, and was well received by critics, but failed to find an audience. It opened in 8th place on its premiere weekend and failed to make back its production cost. The film also had a premiere in Anaconda, Montana at the Washoe Theater on March 20, 1986. Invitations for the premiere were sent to people from the Department of Commerce, Rarus Railroad, and Cannon Films personnel, as well as Jon Voight, Eric Roberts, and Rebecca De Mornay. However, none of the actors could attend. The film made $7,936,012 worldwide.
Critical reception
Runaway Train received generally positive reviews, and has an 83% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 36 reviews, and an average rating of 7.3/10. The website's critical consensus states, "Charging forward with the momentum of a locomotive, Runaway Train makes great use of its adrenaline-fueled premise and star presences of Jon Voight and Eric Roberts".[21] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 67 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[22] Janet Maslin, writing for The New York Times, felt that much of the film was absurd but that Jon Voight's performance was excellent, and she credits the film for "crude energy and bravado".[23] In 2010, movie critic Michael Phillips said on his show At the Movies that it was the most under-rated movie of the 1980s. Roger Ebert awarded the film four out of four stars.[24] Ebert wrote the opening prison scenes were well-made but routine, while the film's genius showed in the train sequences with "stunning" action scenes and the contrast between Roberts' "wild man" persona and Voight's "intelligent" convict; DeMornay's "role as an outsider gives them an audience and a mirror."[25]
In 2014, Time Out polled several film critics, directors, actors, and stunt actors to list their top action films.[26]Runaway Train was listed at 64th place out of 100 on this list.[27]
Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing – Foreign Feature
Won
Stuntman Awards
Best Vehicular Stunt (Feature Film)
Terry Jackson
Nominated
Influence
Speed, a 1994 Hollywood film with a runaway bus, was inspired by Runaway Train. Screenwriter Graham Yost was told by his father, Canadian television host Elwy Yost, about Runaway Train, and that it was about a train that speeds out of control. Elwy mistakenly believed that the train's situation was due to a bomb on board. Such a theme had in fact been used in The Bullet Train. After seeing the Voight film, Graham decided that it would have been better if there had been a bomb on board a bus with the bus being forced to travel at 20 mph to prevent an actual explosion. A friend suggested that this be increased to 50 mph.[29]
^ abAndrew Yule, Hollywood a Go-Go: The True Story of the Cannon Film Empire, Sphere Books, 1987 p 189
^Boone, Keyaira (December 11, 2020). "Tommy 'Tiny' Lister Jr. Dead At 62". Essence. Lister's appearances as Deebo in "Friday" and "Next Friday" had a lasting effect on black film cannon.
