History Main / ThrillerOnTheExpress

* ''MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode ''MMMystery on the Friendship Express'' is about an investigation into who ate the cake Pinkie Pie was guarding. Much spoofing of mystery tropes ensues.

* ''DangerMouse On The Orient Express'' takes place on said train, where DM and Penfold must retrieve a document that would allow Baron Greenback to raze all of Europe's tourist attractions and lure toruists to his (''shudder!'') Museum of Barry Manilow record sleeves.

* The BugsBunny cartoon ''Wild And Wolly Hare'' climaxes with Sam and Bugs playing chicken with trains.

* The Gene Wilder- Richard Pryor film ''SilverStreak'' has Wilder's character see a man thrown from a train. The film doesn't stay on the train, in fact he meets Pryor's character off the train, but in that first stretch he gets set up for the crime which means that he gets isolated from society and has to get back onto the train to solve the issue himself.

* ''TheGoodies'' parodied this trope in "Daylight Robbery on the Orient Express''.

Train journeys provide a number of advantages for plotting a thriller. They are an enclosed space with a sense of claustrophobia, uncomfortable proximity to strangers with several good justifications for why people can't leave. Long distance train journeys take several days during which the train is locked into a course going through wild terrain with no reception. This may or may not be the best time to commit a murder but it's a damn good time to write about one.

* Hitchcock's spy thriller ''TheLadyVanishes''. A old lady who had befriend a young woman on a train vanishes. This added a psychological element because everybody else denies seeing the old woman and there's no apparent way they are all in a conspiracy. One them's a nun and two of them are English toffs who don't want to be held up [[QuintessentialBritishGentleman and miss the cricket.]]
** The plane based ''{{Flightplan}}'' shares that psychological element in common. The main character's daughter disappears and she can't get anyone to confirm she existed and starts to doubt she existed herself...

* ''The Napoli Express'' is Literature/LordDarcy's version of ''MurderOnTheOrientExpress''.

* ''The Napoli Express'' is LordDarcy's version of ''MurderOnTheOrientExpress''.

* Chapter 6 of ''PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' is a BreatherLevel that largely takes place on the luxuriant Excess Express. You get roped into solving a mystery that follows this formula during the three-day trip, and is almost totally devoid of actual fighting until the [[TraintopBattle Traintop Boss Battle]] on the last day.

* ''CallOfCthulhu'' supplements ''Fearful Passages'' ("The Iron Ghost" adventure) and ''Horror on the Orient Express''.
* TSR's ''Top Secret'', adventure [=TS005=] ''Operation: Orient Express''.

* ''MurderOnTheOrientExpress''. Murder = thriller. The Orient Express = train. Bear in mind it comes from the same author who mastered the NastyParty and uses it in much the same way for the purpose of subverting one of the big conventions of that trope.

[[folder: Western Animation]]
* The ''RubyGloom'' 2-parter "Last Train to Gloomsville" parodies just about every train-thriller cliche to the max.
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[[folder: Literature]]
* ''MurderOnTheOrientExpress''. Murder = thriller. The Orient Express = train. Bear in mind it comes from the same author who mastered the NastyParty and uses it in much the same way for the purpose of subverting one of the big conventions of that trope.

[[folder: Live Action Film]]

[[folder: Manga & Anime]]
* ''FullMetalAlchemist'' anime episode "The Man with the Mechanical Arm" had a terrorist attack inside a train.
* ''{{Baccano}}'''s "Pussyfoot Express" plotline.
* ''SoulEater'': episode 30 of the anime, "The Red Hot Runaway Express". Kid, Patty and Liz have to board the speeding train and fight an enemy on board for possession of a magical artifact, while a third party outside is fighting both sides.
[[/folder]]