Talk:Runaway Train (film)

Untitled

This article does not explain the concept of a runaway train, just the movie. 213.51.209.230 20:22, 9 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Technical errors are false in the movie the break shoes brook off so no matter how much air you dump the train will keep moveing because there are no braks shoes to engage the wheels —Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.203.182.114 (talk) 20:02, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

I don't think semi-literate buffoons should be advising anyone of "technical errors" of any kind. 71.245.193.158 (talk) 20:58, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

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I am pretty sure that Rebecca DeMornay's character is not a train conductor but just some sort of generic railroad worker. I am going to check to find out for sure. I also think that this should probably be retitled Runaway Train (movie) and Runaway Train should be reserved for th actual concept of an unmanned train.

The Character "Jonah" was NOT Manny's brother. Nowhere does it state his name was "Jonah Manheim". Don't assume they were related just because they called each other "brother". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2606:A000:B281:1200:BC0D:1A7A:59C7:D60C (talk) 15:24, 6 July 2014 (UTC)

Are the lyrics to "Runaway Train" actually about missing children? Looking at them, they don't seem to be. It was just the video that was about missing children. I'm going to change it. john k 02:50, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

I agree that Rebeca DeMornay's character is a railroad worker. Buck only remarks "are you collecting tickets or something?" after she askes what he and Manny are doing on the train. Gnorn 19:53, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

"Runaway Train" has an errie, tragic coincidence in it. The film was released in December 1985. The chief dispatcher who asks; "how could this tragedy have happened?" is also watching tv showing a space shuttle making a safe landing. The idea was that the space shuttle was a symbol of almost perfect technology. On Jan. 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger blew up shortly after liftoff, because of a defective O-ring seal that NASA was warned about and choose to ignore. Sometimes when the film is shown on tv, the scene with the space shuttle is deleated.24.195.242.116 23:10, 24 July 2006 (UTC)Bennett Turk

Fair use rationale for Image:Runaway trainposter.jpg

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BetacommandBot 02:29, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

Theme

I have removed this Theme section as it looks like complete original research and also looks to be lifted from IMBD. If I am wrong and it has come from a source connected to the film's production team, then it can go back in, properly cited.

The primary theme of the film is that no individual or society can understand and control everything. The powerlessness that the train dispatchers experience in their attempts to bring the train to a controlled stop is the same powerlessness that Manny feels about his own inability to become a normal member of society.

This theme is brought into sharp focus in an intense speech in which Manny tells Buck that he should get a job and earn a paycheck after his escape instead of pursuing a life of crime. Buck replies that he would rather be in prison than do menial labor, and when he asks Manny if he would do that kind of work for a living, Manny replies quietly, "I wish I could."

Later in the film, after giving the order to derail the train, the chief dispatcher asks himself, "How did this happen? Why couldn't we stop it...?" As the events of the film unfold, Manny has the power to stop the train, but chooses not to. By the end of the film his goal in reaching the lead engine is no longer to stop the train, but simply to be the one who decides whether or not the train stops. Since he knows that if he stops the train he will never be able to control his own life, he concludes that the last choice he can make about his own fate and the only way he can be free is to let the train continue on to its destruction.

The film also features lesser thematic threads, including cruelty (Ranken), innocence (Sara) and most notably redemption, as shown when Manny uncouples the lead engine from the rest of the train, saving the lives of Buck and Sara as his final act before climbing on top of the engine in the freezing cold with his arms stretched out like a crucifix, ready to meet his end.

—Preceding unsigned comment added by MickMacNee (talk • contribs) 22:58, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

Box Office

I have removed the section claiming this film was a box office hit. Elsewhere on the page it's noted the film cost $9 million and grossed $8 million in the U.S. That does not sound like a hit. Furthermore, the citation that allegedly showed the film was a hit referenced a Los Angeles Times article discussing some of the movies of 1985. Here's how Runaway Train is mentioned:

'Cannon may have the sleeper of the year in "Runaway Train," which improved more than 50% last weekend and appears to be profiting from excellent word-of-mouth.'

All the sentence claims is the film might be a hit, not that it is a hit.

Soviet movie - coincidences?

Konchalosvki fled from USSR in 1980, before filming this movie. He is also coming from a rather elite family (Sergey Mikhalkov was the author of USSR anthem, no less). In the same 1985 year in USSR released is another movie "Train that is not in the Schedule" which does not contain "ideologically incorrect" things like sympathetic anti-hero prisoner, but shares the main plot device of "deceased driver turning train on" and "sudden people in the tale of the train prohibit crashing it and try to get into the loco". https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9F%D0%BE%D0%B5%D0%B7%D0%B4_%D0%B2%D0%BD%D0%B5_%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%81%D0%BF%D0%B8%D1%81%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%8F Looks like the same idea was brewing at the same time both in USA/Japan and USSR cinema circles, perhaps exchanging ideas and tunes via Konchalovsky/Mikhalkov family. 85.90.120.180 (talk) 12:53, 27 December 2017 (UTC)

Real life counterpart of this film

the 1962 new york central runaway train - Search (bing.com) 110.174.50.85 (talk) 08:18, 11 October 2023 (UTC)