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Runaway Train follows Manny (Jon Voight), a dangerous convict at a secluded maximum security prison in Alaska. Set to be transferred, he plans to escape with the help of Buck (Eric Roberts), a young, impressionable prisoner who idolizes him. After getting out, they hop on a nearby train, not realizing that the engineer has died, leaving the locomotive on the loose. Meanwhile, the ruthless prison warden (John P. Ryan) sets out to find Manny no matter what.
This is a film that is packaged and marketed as an action thriller – and it is – but still, there is something a bit more complex under the surface. There are themes of obsession, loyalty, humanity, and freedom lurking underneath the roaring of the locomotive. Voight is a complicated character to root for since he seems to be "at war with the world and everybody in it"; a man in search of his freedom and humanity, perhaps, and the film does seem to focus on his psyche as much as it does on the action setpieces.
Speaking of the action setpieces, they are pretty good and Konchalovsky does a great job on shooting them. Considering this was pre-CGI, the exterior and aerial shots of the train are really impressive, especially in the last act. The extents that Warden Rankin goes to catch Manny, though, seems ludicrous and excessive, but after all is said and done, it's a movie that has to find a way to put the villain with the "hero" somehow.
Voight, Roberts, and Ryan ham it up significantly, but for the most part, it works. Roberts' performance is spotty, though. There's also the inclusion of Rebecca De Mornay, who plays a locomotive employee that's also stranded in the runaway train. However, her character seems more like a forced avatar for the audience, considering that we have a ruthless criminal and a rapist on one side (Manny and Buck) and the sadistic warden on the other.
The scenes and characters at the train dispatch trying to stop the train seem like throwaways and hinder the pace a bit, even if I understand the need for them. But whenever the film goes back to the train, and the dynamics between Manny and Buck, much like the popular idiom says, it is hard to look away.
Grade:
RUNAWAY TRAIN
(1985, Konchalovsky)
A film mostly set on a train
(1985, Konchalovsky)
A film mostly set on a train
"I'm at war with the world and everybody in it."
Runaway Train follows Manny (Jon Voight), a dangerous convict at a secluded maximum security prison in Alaska. Set to be transferred, he plans to escape with the help of Buck (Eric Roberts), a young, impressionable prisoner who idolizes him. After getting out, they hop on a nearby train, not realizing that the engineer has died, leaving the locomotive on the loose. Meanwhile, the ruthless prison warden (John P. Ryan) sets out to find Manny no matter what.
This is a film that is packaged and marketed as an action thriller – and it is – but still, there is something a bit more complex under the surface. There are themes of obsession, loyalty, humanity, and freedom lurking underneath the roaring of the locomotive. Voight is a complicated character to root for since he seems to be "at war with the world and everybody in it"; a man in search of his freedom and humanity, perhaps, and the film does seem to focus on his psyche as much as it does on the action setpieces.
Speaking of the action setpieces, they are pretty good and Konchalovsky does a great job on shooting them. Considering this was pre-CGI, the exterior and aerial shots of the train are really impressive, especially in the last act. The extents that Warden Rankin goes to catch Manny, though, seems ludicrous and excessive, but after all is said and done, it's a movie that has to find a way to put the villain with the "hero" somehow.
Voight, Roberts, and Ryan ham it up significantly, but for the most part, it works. Roberts' performance is spotty, though. There's also the inclusion of Rebecca De Mornay, who plays a locomotive employee that's also stranded in the runaway train. However, her character seems more like a forced avatar for the audience, considering that we have a ruthless criminal and a rapist on one side (Manny and Buck) and the sadistic warden on the other.
The scenes and characters at the train dispatch trying to stop the train seem like throwaways and hinder the pace a bit, even if I understand the need for them. But whenever the film goes back to the train, and the dynamics between Manny and Buck, much like the popular idiom says, it is hard to look away.
Grade: