You'll need a strong stomach for some of the early sequences in prison which includes a very violent fight after a boxing match and the scene where John Voight and Eric Roberts prepare to escape. The preparations they make and the journey they take just to get out of the sewer below the prison might have you holding your nose. Then there's their journey through the frozen Alaskan tundra where Roberts complains about being without shoes (he has them, but they're full of holes), then what happens when they finally get on the train. They don't realize quite a while that there's no engineer with the audience earlier having seen him fall dead just before the train departed the station.
It takes a while for both Voight and Roberts (not the brightest of prison inmates) to realize that there's something wrong, and that's only because they collide with another train on the track that totally destroys the other one, culminating with their discovery of someone climbing on the side to get to the back engine. It's Rebecca DeMornay, revealing to them that she was sleeping in another part of the four engines connected together. Now they must journey at 90 miles an hour through the Alaskan wilderness, barely making it over a rickety bridge, while the officials aware of the situation try to stop the train from crashing at the end of the line.
A very intense then thriller, this was successful enough to get both Voight and Roberts Oscar nominations, with Roberts getting a special nod for playing the dumbest character to ever be nominated. Voight, playing a very violent prisoner who just got out of solitary, has survived a murder attempt on his life in prison, and certainly is commanding even if his character is rather amoral.
The great photography, editing and sound are also noteworthy, but there's little point to DeMornay's character. Still one of the artsy cult films of the 80's that strikes a cord for originality although it's not the first film to deal with a speeding train on the verge of crashing. The 1972 TV movie "Runaway" would make a great double bill with this film. I enjoyed the train sequences much more than the disturbing prison sequence, complete with idiot warden and very violent inmates who nearly burn themselves down while rioting.
It takes a while for both Voight and Roberts (not the brightest of prison inmates) to realize that there's something wrong, and that's only because they collide with another train on the track that totally destroys the other one, culminating with their discovery of someone climbing on the side to get to the back engine. It's Rebecca DeMornay, revealing to them that she was sleeping in another part of the four engines connected together. Now they must journey at 90 miles an hour through the Alaskan wilderness, barely making it over a rickety bridge, while the officials aware of the situation try to stop the train from crashing at the end of the line.
A very intense then thriller, this was successful enough to get both Voight and Roberts Oscar nominations, with Roberts getting a special nod for playing the dumbest character to ever be nominated. Voight, playing a very violent prisoner who just got out of solitary, has survived a murder attempt on his life in prison, and certainly is commanding even if his character is rather amoral.
The great photography, editing and sound are also noteworthy, but there's little point to DeMornay's character. Still one of the artsy cult films of the 80's that strikes a cord for originality although it's not the first film to deal with a speeding train on the verge of crashing. The 1972 TV movie "Runaway" would make a great double bill with this film. I enjoyed the train sequences much more than the disturbing prison sequence, complete with idiot warden and very violent inmates who nearly burn themselves down while rioting.