The buzz on Unstoppable has been decidedly low-key over the last couple of weeks, but that will all probably change over the weekend. After all, when hordes of moviegoers head to their local theaters, what are they going to decide to see: Morning Glory or a movie that features a runaway train? People love trains! Especially speeding and unhinged ones. Ahead, Movieline offers up a list of five speeding trains to get your juices flowing for Unstoppable.
Mission: Impossible
I'll just go ahead and say it: Brian De Palma's Mission: Impossible is a great movie. Tom Cruise is great, the script is great, the action is great...hell, even Jon Voight is great. Naturally, it all culminates in a set piece aboard the bullet train, one that includes a helicopter, exploding bubblegum and Jean Reno. Ditch that tie, Tom!
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
Not the Tony Scott-directed remake (what is it with this guy and trains?), but the dusty old original, co-starring Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw and a cast of real local-looking New Yorkers. There is something both corny and legitimate in the way the straphangers are presented during the finale's runaway train montage: They're full-on panicking, but still New Yorkers. It might seem forced, but the gallows humor and shrug-it-off mentality is probably closer to reality than anything else. (Things get really fun at around 3:10.)
Spider-Man 2
Speaking of New Yorkers: You have to love Sam Raimi and Spider-Man 2 for making New York look so much like Chicago during this elevated subway near-disaster. At least this is a thrilling reminder of how super-strong teenagers can always save the day.
Money Train
This exists. I hadn't given Money Train a second thought since seeing it, but watching the clip below made me realize not just what a bad movie it was, but how the special effects involved were really not terrible. I'll believe that a subway train could somersault like that; I won't believe that Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson could jump from said subway train, however.
Super 8
OK, it hasn't even come out yet, but the train wreck in the trailer for Super 8 is completely bad ass. And it involves aliens. Or monsters. Or monster aliens. As Aubrey Plaza once said, "What's in dat box, J.J.?"