Runaway Train
![Watch film Runaway Train — Runaway Train (1985) ORIGINAL TRAILER [HD 1080p]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/nOgYzEV-XFQ/sddefault.jpg)
Short description
Two convicts break out of a maximum-security prison in Alaska and board a freight train, only to find themselves trapped aboard a runaway locomotive. The driver dies of a heart attack shortly after departure, leaving the train racing through the winter landscape with no one able to stop it. The older escapee, a hardened lifer, and his younger companion soon discover a female railway worker is also on board, and the three must survive a machine that no longer answers to anyone.
Andrei Konchalovsky directed the film, which followed his 1984 release Maria's Lovers in a career that later included Tango & Cash and Dear Comrades! The screenplay was written by Edward Bunker, Djordje Milicevic and Paul Zindel, and the cast is led by Jon Voight as Manny Manheim, Eric Roberts as Buck, Rebecca De Mornay as Sara, John P. Ryan as the prison director Ranken and Kyle T. Heffner as Frank Barstow. Produced by Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus for Cannon Group, the film had a budget of 9 million dollars and a worldwide gross of roughly 8 million.
On IMDb it holds 7.2 out of 10 from about 36,000 votes, and on TMDB 7 out of 10 from a much smaller electorate. A critics' rating of 7.3 out of 10 from 35 reviews places professional opinion slightly above the audience score on IMDb, though all three measures sit in the same moderately favourable range.
What's left behind the scenes
- Kurosawa's script was based on a real incident involving a locomotive that was left without an engineer and continued running until it could be diverted onto a dead-end spur.
- Despite the significant assistance provided to the film crew by the municipal company 'Alaska Railroad,' they insisted that their logo not appear on screen at any time.
- For the film, Eric Roberts trained in boxing and gained over 10 kilograms of muscle mass.
- To prepare for the role of Manny, Jon Voight spent considerable time with inmates at San Quentin prison. He remained friends with some of them even years later.
- Helicopter pilot Richard Holley died during filming. The film is dedicated to his memory.
- Some prison scenes were filmed at Deer Lodge (Montana), and the railway scenes (station) in the town of Anaconda (Montana).
- The film used locomotives from the Alaska Railroad: EMD GP40 No. 3010, EMD F7 No. 1500, and two EMD GP7s (Nos. 1801 and 1810). While in service with the Alaska Railroad, the GP7 locomotives received a short, reduced-height hood (to improve forward visibility from the cab), but for the film, they were fitted with a simulation of the original full-height hood.
- Kurosawa’s screenplay is based on a real-life incident. A locomotive was left without an engineer and continued traveling until it was diverted onto a dead-end track.
- Akira Kurosawa wrote the screenplay intending to film it in America, but when he arrived in New York and began scouting locations, he found that the winter blizzards were so severe that his crew couldn’t work. He eventually gave the screenplay to Menachem Golan and Yoram Globus, who passed it on to Edward Bunker for revision, and appointed Konchalovsky as the director.
Similar movies
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
