# Great Train Movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 10, 2006, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-train-movies/360201 "2006-06-10T14:12:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-train-movies/360201/41 "2006-06-12T20:55:33Z")
> [@Spectre of Pithecanthopus](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > Quote: > > Originally Posted by mack > > What’s the one where there’s two hoods terrorizing a subway train? It was made in 60’s I think, in that gritty New York style. A couple of famous actors & a director early in their careers. > > It’s been mentioned. The Taking of Pelham 123. Found it. It’s **[The Incident](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061814/)** from 1967. I had to go through a bunch of actors (DeNiro, no, Pacino, no, Hackman, no, Caan, no) and I just remembered one of the hoods was Martin Sheen. Beau Bridges was in it, too. It’s basically a couple of toughs terrorizing the passengers and as I remember it it all takes place in a single car. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-train-movies/360201/42 "2006-06-12T21:40:03Z")
[Night Mail](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028030/) Not a feature film but a pioneering documentary made in 1936 . With words by W H Auden and music by Benjamin Britten. Contains the famous poem “This is the Night Mail crossing the border carrying the cheque and the postal order…” This was directed by the master of early documentaries John Grierson. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-train-movies/360201/43 "2006-06-12T23:20:22Z")
> [@Malienation](#): > > I agree with: > > _The Taking of Pelham 123_. May the great Walter Matthau rest in peace. > _Runaway Train_. Electrifying performances by all, especially Jon Voigt. "They’re all _ **GREEN!"** _ and “Gesundheit!” stick in my head from _Pelham_ ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-train-movies/360201/44 "2006-06-12T23:38:00Z")
[Quote] There’s also Atomic Train with Rob Lowe (complete with nuclear blast!) and the last part of Broken Arrow, with a nuke (but alas, no blast, although there was one earlier).[/Mack] Speaking as an ex-railroader, _Atomic Train_ has some of the most astonishingly stupid depictions of railroad operating practices I’ve ever seen. IIRC, one of the plot points hinges on the throttle of a diesel-electric locomotive becoming “stuck” (a complete impossibility), with no one apparently able to figure where the fuel cutoff switch is. Later on, there’s a scene where some of the characters are standing around on the platform of a caboose debating how to stop the train. Clearly visible in the shot is the handbrake wheel. Hi-larious. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2006, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-train-movies/360201/45 "2006-06-13T05:59:23Z")
• _Indiscretion of an American Wife_ (1954), starring Jennifer Jones and Montgomery Clift, takes places entirely at the Rome train station. • _Terror on a Train_ (1953), starring Glenn Ford, is a thriller that takes place entirely on a train. • The Buster Keaton comedy _The General_ (1927) and the Disney feature _The Great Locomotive Chase_ (1956) are both based on the same Civil War incident in which a band of Union raiders hijacked a Confederate train. • _The Palm Beach Story_ (1942) has a hilarious sequence on with an inebriated hunting club on a train with Claudette Colbert. • Who can forget Jack Lemmon in drag sharing a sleeping berth with Marilyn Monroe in _Some Like It Hot_ (1959)? ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2006, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-train-movies/360201/46 "2006-06-13T11:26:06Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > If you’re really lucky, TVLand might show an ep or two of the 1979 one-season wonder [Supertrain!](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078697/) > It occurs to me I’ve never seen a film or TV show set on a [high-speed train](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-speed_rail) – like they have now in Europe and Japan. Wonder why not? Hmm… could be a good premise. Tokyo-Osaka is about 2 hours 30 minutes, you could set a real-time thrilller in that frame. A few movies have used them for short scenes (Christopher Lambert’s _The Hunted_ has a long swordfight in one, while Kurosawa’s [_Heaven and Hell_](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0057565/) uses them as a plot point. And it’s only one scene and with a regular commuter train, but the opening to [_Jisatsu Saakuru (Suicide Club)_](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0312843/) is pretty unforgettable.) Actually, doing a search on the imdb for ‘train’ and ‘japan’ brought up a couple. [Shinkansen Daibakuha:](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0080479/) “Criminals plant a bomb on a high-speed train. It will explode when the train slows down, unless a ransom is paid.” Gee, that sounds familiar, but this one’s from 1975. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2006, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-train-movies/360201/47 "2006-06-13T12:19:10Z")
While it’s not a “train movie” per se, in one movie the trains did symbolize one side of a conflict’s power, resolve, and also served to provide them with a decided advantage and launched a dramatic entrance. That would be the payroll and subsequent posse trains in _Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid._ ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2006, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-train-movies/360201/48 "2006-06-13T12:52:57Z")
Who can forget ‘Ostre sledované vlaky’?! > **[Closely Watched Trains (1966) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060802/)** > > Closely Watched Trains: Directed by Jirí Menzel. With Václav Neckár, Josef Somr, Vlastimil Brodský, Vladimír Valenta. An apprentice train dispatcher at a village station seeks his first sexual encounter and becomes despondent when he is unable to... ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2006, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-train-movies/360201/49 "2006-06-13T13:12:56Z")
The first _Mission: Impossible_ movie has a completely unrealistic but exciting sequence involving a helicopter and one of the superfast French trains. _Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid_ rob numerous trains, but use a bit too much dynamite on the bank car of one. The exuberantly silly and unhistorical _Wild Wild West_ movie with Will Smith prominently features a train with all sorts of cool features, and a good train chase. The disappointing second _Zorro_ movie with Antonio Banderas nevertheless has an exciting train sequence near the end. And who could forget the Hogwarts Express, featured in several _Harry Potter_ movies? ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2006, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-train-movies/360201/50 "2006-06-13T13:14:47Z")
> [@Rayne Man](#): > > [Night Mail](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028030/) Not a feature film but a pioneering documentary made in 1936 . With words by W H Auden and music by Benjamin Britten. Contains the famous poem > “This is the Night Mail crossing the border > carrying the cheque and the postal order…” > > This was directed by the master of early documentaries John Grierson. I’ve seen that; I got it from one of those little tiny fly-by-night video outfits. It was wonderful. Only about twenty or thirty minutes, as I recall. ---
**Author:** ![Scoundrel\_Swanswater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dfb087/32.png) [@Scoundrel\_Swanswater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scoundrel_Swanswater)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2006, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-train-movies/360201/51 "2006-06-13T14:42:54Z")
> [@Gangster Octopus](#): > > What better cast? All three actors were fantastic. Roberts and Voigt got Oscar nods. Any remake would pale, no matter who the cast was. I actually at first didn’t believe it was Eric Roberts. I didn’t know this guy could act at all, but in that part he is totally convincing. And Jon Voight plays one of the creepiest badasses ever. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2006, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-train-movies/360201/52 "2006-06-13T15:54:54Z")
> [@Rocketeer](#): > > I’ve seen that; I got it from one of those little tiny fly-by-night video outfits. It was wonderful. Only about twenty or thirty minutes, as I recall. This is the full text of the [poem](http://www.newearth.demon.co.uk/poems/lyric206.htm) To fully appreciate it you should the imagine the different tempos of the train as it speeds towards its destination. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2006, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-train-movies/360201/53 "2006-06-13T16:18:48Z")
> [@Rodgers01](#): > > I watched [Silver Streak](http://imdb.com/title/tt0075223/) last night, and was pretty disappointed. The setup was great – a Hitchcockian thriller/comedy set aboard the express train from L.A. to Chicago – but things quickly went downhill. Most annoyingly… [spoiler]I can hold my tongue no longer. _Silver Streak_ rocks. And if George hadn’t gotten thrown off the train (“Son of a bitch!”) he never would have met Grover T. Muldoon. It has some flaws. Hard to believe the FBI would bring a book editor to a shootout, for example. But Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder worked together a few more times and it was never as good as the first.[/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2006, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-train-movies/360201/54 "2006-06-13T16:26:58Z")
Trains give Yurii time to reflect, show the plight of the Russian peasants, introduce us to dissident Amourski and, later, leader Strelnikov in _Dr. Zhivago_. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2006, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-train-movies/360201/55 "2006-06-13T16:28:02Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > A lot of **North by Northwest** is set on a train, though I suppose it doesn’t count. Nevertheless, it was great fun to see the 20th Century Limited along the famous Water Level Route (now the Metro-North Hudson Line, which I ride several times a week). I actually recognized a red brick factory or two. > [@Wikipedia](#): > > The 20th Century Limited (and specifically, car #10006) was used in the filming of Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest, released in 1959. The car was built by Pullman-Standard in 1939, and was scrapped in 1968. It carried the name Imperial State and featured 4 double bedrooms, 4 single compartments, and 2 drawing rooms (a “4-4-2”). The interior of the car as seen in the film is actually set built by MGM Studios. ---
**Author:** ![tremorviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2006, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-train-movies/360201/56 "2006-06-13T17:05:31Z")
The [Greatest Show on Earth](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044672/) is an entertaining circus movie and a lot of it takes place on the circus train. And at the end, there’s a fantastic circus train crash! It’s worth watching for the end alone. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-train-movies/360201.md?page=2)