History Film / TheTakingOfPelhamOneTwoThree

The 2009 version of ''The Taking of Pelham 123'' splits the Walther Matthau character of Walter Garber into two persons (Denzel Washington as MTA Dispatcher Walter Garber, and John Turturro as NYPD Hostage Negotiator Detective Camonetti). Both have an ordinary day thrown into chaos by an audacious crime: the hijacking of a NewYorkSubway train that is in Garber's charge.

* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Lt. Garber sees the hippy cop lying wounded on the ground.
-->"We'll have an ambulance hear soon, miss."

The 2009 version of ''The Taking of Pelham 123'' splits the Walther Matthau character of Walter Garber into two persons (Denzel Washington as MTA Dispatcher Walter Garber, and John Turturro as NYPD Hostage Negotiator Detective Camonetti). Both have an ordinary day thrown into chaos by an audacious crime: the hijacking of a subway train that is in Garber's charge.

* YoureInsane: "I hope you take this in the right spirit but when all this is over you should seek psychiatric help."

* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Gruber sees the hippy cop lying wounded on the ground.

* NotSoStoic: Gruber finally gets tired of the transit supervisor's crap.

* {{Squick}}: Gruber's InUniverse reaction to Blue electrocuting himself.

* BilingualBackfire: The protagonist cop in the 1974 film version is showing a group of Japanese transit officers around the control room, and making numerous [[NobleBigotWithABadge racist comments]] because he thinks they can't understand a word he's saying, culminating in "Okay, get these yellow monkeys out of here!" They all shake his hand and thank him politely in fluent English as they leave, to his evident chagrin.

* FunWithForeignLanguages: Garber in the original is told to look after a group of Tokyo subway executives who follow him around obediently without speaking. He quickly gets sick of playing tour guide and, assuming they don't speak any English, begins insulting them at random points in his descriptions of things. When the hostage situation occurs, they say goodbye in flawless English and leave.

* OhCrap: [[spoiler: Mr. Green, twice in the final scene.]]

** The passengers realise that ''every'' hijacker left the train, [[RunawayTrain so there's no-one driving it.]] The Old Man tries to assure them that the safety system will trip when there's a red light. Someone shouts that all the lights are green, and ''then'' everyone starts to panic.

* ChekhovsGun: The sneeze.

* DrivenToSuicide: On finding that New York has no death penalty, Blue electrocutes himself rather than endure life in prison.

* MadeOfIron: Averted; the plainclothes cop lies stunned for a few mintues after jumping off the train.
* MoreDakka: More obvious in the 1974 film, made before every movie hood started toting an automatic weapon.

* NotSoStoic: "YOU DON'T LISTEN TO ME YOU'LL BE HAVING DINNER WITH CAZ DOLOWITZ!"

* RedHerring: The criminals order all lights set to green and the police cleared off all the stations to South Ferry, to make it look like they're planning to escape via water. Actually the train has been rigged to move by itself while the criminals slip out an emergency exit.

* TemptingFate: For years after the movie came out, Transit Authority dispatchers sort to avoid dispatching any train from Pelham at 1.23.

* MoreDakka: More obvious in the 1974 film with the criminals use of submachine guns.

* InfoDump: Several explanations of how subways work. It's handled fairly well.

* RunawayTrain: Panic ensues on the train when they realise no-one's driving it and all the lights are green, so the safety system won't trip. However the train eventually enters a line where the lights are red, tripping the system and stopping the train without casualties.