Unstoppable

In Unstoppable Denzel Washington is saddled with handsome rookie Chris Pine and the two of them must stop a runaway train before it comes off the tracks and destroys a small town. 

Each scene builds new complications — a train full of school children might get hit, the runaway train is carrying chemical agents that will kill everybody if it comes off the tracks, the people in charge are more concerned with money than they are with people’s lives. Etc. etc.

At every step of the way experts come up with plans to stop this train and and at every moment the experts are wrong. Accidents and explosions and high speed hijinks ensue. 

It’s just one of those movies. Nonsense, but fun nonsense. And Director Tony Scott is so very good at this type of thing. Just watch those fast moving shots of the helicopter perilously close to the train. Scott is a master at inserting tension and movement in everything. 

I dismissed it when it came out and only watched it now because Quentin Tarantino had it on his list of top 20 movies of this century. 

And while I liked it a bunch I don’t think it would make my list. It helps that I think these lists are fun but pointless. 

I guess what I’m trying to say is that a runaway train movie probably shouldn’t be this good. But it absolutely is the real deal.