Plot
Two escaped convicts and a female railway worker find themselves trapped on a train with no brakes and nobody driving.
Release Year: 1985
Rating: 7.3/10 (11,930 voted)
Director:
Andrey Konchalovskiy
Stars: Jon Voight, Eric Roberts, Rebecca De Mornay
Storyline A hardened convict and a younger prisoner escape from a brutal prison in the middle of winter only to find themselves on an out-of-control train with a female railway worker while being pursued by the vengeful head of security.
Writers: Djordje Milicevic, Paul Zindel
Cast: Jon Voight
-
Oscar 'Manny' Manheim
Eric Roberts
-
Buck McGeehy
Rebecca De Mornay
-
Sara
Kyle T. Heffner
-
Frank Barstow
John P. Ryan
-
Warden Ranken
T.K. Carter
-
Dave Prince
Kenneth McMillan
-
Eddie MacDonald
Stacey Pickren
-
Ruby
Walter Wyatt
-
Conlan
Edward Bunker
-
Jonah
Reid Cruickshanks
-
Al Turner
(as Reid Cruikshanks)
Dan Wray
-
Fat Con
Michael Lee Gogin
-
Short Con
John Bloom
-
Tall Con
Hank Worden
-
Old Con
(as Norton E. 'Hank' Warden)
Taglines:
Desperate, And Determined To Survive.
Release Date: 6 December 1985
Filming Locations: Montana, USA
Box Office Details
Budget: $9,000,000
(estimated)
Opening Weekend: $2,601,480
(USA)
(6 December 1985)
(965 Screens)
Gross: $7,936,012
(USA)
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Did You Know?
Trivia: Obie Weeks was an employee of the Alaska Railroad at the time of filming. He got a part in the film because he was also an aspiring actor and already a member of Actors' Equity.
Goofs:
Continuity:
In the subsequent shots before the train slams into the caboose, the caboose is seen right before the collision as passing the runaway train onto the siding before it is hit.
Quotes: Sara:
Boy, I guess you guys picked the wrong train.
User Review
A modest masterpiece
Rating: 9/10
The stock title promises action and suspense, and we get that, but with
a story by Akira Kurosawa, expert direction by Russian émigré Andrei
Konchalovsky and superior lensing by Alan Hume, we get a study of what
defines a man.
John Voight and the vastly underrated Eric Roberts play two cons who
escape from a hellish gulag and board a train with no driver. Their
struggle to stop the train and battle their own inner demons is the
movie.
Konchalovsky creates a cold, alien, ethereal world inside the train
that, in the oddest way, provides a haven for self-examination for the
two leads. Rebecca de Mournay is layered into the mix, as is the
indefatigable John P. Ryan as a prison warden who risks death to return
his charges to custody, but the movie belongs to Voight and Roberts who
both bring tremendous humanity to their finely sketched characters.
The final image is as powerful as cinema gets and marks RUNAWAY TRAIN
as a modest masterpiece.
Though often criticized for producing cheap rubbish, the Cannon Group,
in fact, also produced many fine films including this, 52 PICK-UP and
MARIA'S LOVERS (also Konchalovsky).
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