Line #24 Film/RunawayTrain


1	[[quoteright:290:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ada680bbcbfa5654d61c407ec32bfa94_9056.jpg]]
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3	->'''Eddie:''' Hey, Barstow. Why don't you stop her? You put the system in. Cost the company 4.5 million.\
4	'''Barstow:''' Listen, Eddie. This system is designed for the efficient dispatching of trains when manned, ''not to stop'' them when they're unmanned. The brake shoes have burned off. The over-speed control must have gotten ''screwed up'' from the collision!
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6	''Runaway Train'' is a 1985 action thriller film directed by Creator/AndreiKonchalovsky.
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8	The film tells a tale of two convicts, Oscar "Manny" Manheim (Creator/JonVoight) and Buck [=McGeehy=] (Creator/EricRoberts), who escape from an Alaskan prison and stow themselves away on a train. Unfortunately, the engineer dies at the throttle and their ride to freedom becomes a brakeless [[TitleDrop runaway train]]. While the train races across the snow-covered landscape, they come across remaining railroad worker Sara (Creator/RebeccaDeMornay) who warns them that the track they're on leads to certain doom. The three of them now must work to either stop or slow the train. Complicating things are the railroad company looking to derail the train before it causes any casualties along the line, and ruthless prison warden Ranken (Creator/JohnPRyan), who holds a grudge against Manny and quickly figures out where his two escaped convicts have gone...
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10	This film was originally supposed to be directed by Creator/AkiraKurosawa as his English-language debut. It didn't happen (and Kurosawa never directed an English-language film), and over 20 years rolled by before it was made. Kurosawa got a story credit. As well, legendary crime author and ex-convict Creator/EdwardBunker wrote the final draft of the script, as well as playing a minor role as a prisoner.
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12	----
13	!!This film has the examples of:
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15	* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: Buck and Manny escape from prison through one.
16	* AffablyEvil: Buck. In contrast to Manny, Buck is a friendly, upbeat dimwit who doesn't seem to have a mean bone in his body and makes an effort to comfort Sara, which makes the reminders he's an unrepentant rapist all the more startling.
17	* BadBoss: Zigzagged with [=MacDonald=]. On the one hand he couldn't care less Al [[NoSympathy died of a heart attack]], but on the other dislikes anyone trying to be a ProfessionalButtKisser round him and has to repeatedly remind Frank the runaway's going to potentially kill many people if he can't or won't stop it. He's smart enough to know Ranken isn't someone [[TheDreaded to be messed with]], and tried to warn Barstow not to piss him off.
18	* BerserkButton: Relying on dreams and such seems to be one for Manny.
19	* BigBrotherInstinct: Jonah savagely stabs to death a convict whom Ranken coerced into attacking his younger brother Manny.
20	* BigWhat: When Dave, who's still reading his [[{{Filth}} porn mags]], realizes Yardmaster Pulasky is trying to warn Barstow they have a runaway.
21	* BlackAndNerdy: Dave's mannerisms, dress and intelligence have a little of this.
22	* BolivianArmyEnding: The audience doesn't see [[spoiler:Manny and Warden Ranken dying on the final engine]], which races into the snow-covered horizon as images of sullen-faced prisoners -- except for Manny's older brother, [[BittersweetEnding who smiles]] -- cross the fading screen.
23	* BrokenBridge: The front door of the streamlined second engine that gives easy access to the lead engine is jammed following the collision, the alternative is a near-suicidal OutsideRide.
24	* BrokenPedestal: The other prisoners and especially Buck saw Manny as a hero because of how easily he undermined their vicious tyrant of a warden. It's only when Buck decides to personally partner with Manny on his latest escape that he realizes just how vicious and brutal the man he idolized actually is. [[spoiler:Despite this, Buck is still devastated when Manny opts to sacrifice himself in the end to kill Ranken.]]
25	* TheChainsOfCommanding: Barstow and [=MacDonald=] feel a great deal of responsibility about choosing the option with the train that will endanger the fewest people.
26	* ChewingTheScenery: Manny in a [[AwardBait scenery-chewing speech]] telling Buck about the futility of dreams and how men like them will end up in nowhere jobs suffering indignities.
27	-->'''Manny''': I'll tell you what you gonna do. You gonna get a job. That's what you gonna do. You're gonna get a little job. Some job a convict can get, like scraping off trays in a cafeteria. Or cleaning out toilets. And you're gonna hold onto that job like gold. Because it is gold. Let me tell you, Jack, that is gold. ''You listenin' to me?'' And when that Man walks in at the end of the day. And he comes to see how you done, you ain't gonna look in his eyes. You gonna look at the floor. Because you don't want to see that fear in his eyes when you jump up and grab his face, and slam him to the floor, and make him scream and cry for his life. So you look right at the floor, Jack. ''Pay attention to what I'm sayin', motherfucker''!
28	* ContrivedCoincidence: What gets most of the plot rolling. The engineer of the train Manny and Buck have stowed away on just so happens to get a heart attack moments after starting the train.
29	* CoolTrain: Clearly goes without saying, but the train is absolutely menacing in its full movie makeup. Thankfully, the entire train (or the locomotives that made up its consist) all survive in various degrees of preservation.
30	* {{Determinator}}: Manny does not plan on going back to prison for a third time, and he'll make sure his escape sticks even if it kills him. [[spoiler:It most assuredly does by the end.]]
31	** The train itself refuses to be slowed by any means, slamming through obstacles as though possessed.
32	** Ranken is a villainous version, pursuing the prisoners over terrain his fellow pursuers doubt they could have reached and even trying to board a train that's going to crash with them on it anyway in order to kill them.
33	* DisposablePilot: Al the train's engineer, has a sudden cardiac arrest moments after he started it up in [[{{Overdrive}} notch 8]], disembarks the still-moving train. The foreman's on scene, but he's already dead.
34	* DontTouchItYouIdiot: Yardmaster Pulasky picks up fragments of the glowing hot brake shoes that burned off the runaway and also melted a ''steaming hole'' in the snowbank where they landed. He regrets it pretty quickly.
35	* DyingMomentOfAwesome: [[spoiler: Manny. Pulled off the stunt that the whole film had been building up to, saving two lives and giving the biggest "fuck you" to the Warden that he can, [[DefiantToTheEnd he goes into the great unknown with a big smile on his face]].]]
36	* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Manny's an AntiHero at best and a violent thug at worst, but he cares about his brother Jonah who [[RefusalOfTheCall refused to escape]] with him as he's too old.
37	* ExactTimeToFailure: Barstow tells [=MacDonald=] if they save the chemical plant by sending the runaway onto the Elkins disused spur, they would run out of track in 15 minutes. Sure enough, that's [[RealTime how long they have]] before the [[BolivianArmyEnding movie ends]].
38	* ExtremelyShortTimespan: The sequences inside the jail take place over several days. Once Manny and Buck break out of jail, the rest of the film takes place over, at most, twelve hours. Once they board the train, the action takes place nearly in RealTime.
39	* FanBoy: Buck worships the ground Manny walks on. Gets a little [[BrokenPedestal disillusioned]] when Manny's viciousness becomes apparent as they work on stopping the train.
40	* FailedASpotCheck: Dave has to warn Frank the speeding train is heading towards the Seneca trestle, and it can't take the runaway going that fast.
41	* FailsafeFailure: Al, the train's engineer suffers from a heart attack. In attempting to stop the train and get off, he does not set the throttle to Idle, instead [[DeadFootLeadfoot engaging the brakes]], before collapsing off the still-moving train. [[DeadMansSwitch This overrides the engine's automatic train stop]]. And consequently, although the brakes apply, the locomotives ''overpower them'', and the brake shoes burn off.
42	** Manny tries to shut down the train by pressing the [[CutTheJuice emergency cut-off fuel switch]] on the last engine, [[ItWontTurnOff it doesn't work]]. Sara explains she already tried that from the second engine, because of multiple-unit control everything operates from the inaccessible lead engine.
43	* FauxAffablyEvil: Ranken's unwarranted brutality is only matched by the bare minimum he devotes to appearing professional.
44	* {{Filth}}: Porn mags provide distractions on two points.
45	* {{Fingore}}: Manny gets half of his left hand crushed by the train's Buckeye coupler.
46	* FourIsDeath: The runaway is a consist of four [[CoolTrain forbidding locomotives]], even Buck is confused why Manny would choose them to escape on.
47	* GiveMeLibertyOrGiveMeDeath: Manny's character in a nutshell.
48	* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: A corrections officer falls beneath the train and is ripped in half by the train's wheels.
49	* HeelRealization: Manny reaches this upon seeing Buck's disgust and sadness at his own savageness in trying to kill the young man who idolzed him. Buck informs him he's ''worse'' than Ranken, who is at least forthcoming with his brutality as warden, but Manny was adored by the inmates and seen as their hero. Manny [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone collapses on the floor in a fatalistic slump]].
50	* HellholePrison: Stonehaven pulls double duty as this and as TheAlcatraz. In Buck's description "it's a shithole", the maximum security prison is run-down and in the middle of nowhere. With temperatures below 30, even if you somehow escape, the cold climate will end you. Only two other men managed to break out once (three including Buck), but Manny as of the film ''beat Ranken three times''. Needless to say, the warden is pissed [[OnlyICanKillHim and wants the bank robber dead]].
51	* HeroAntagonist: Averted by Warden Ranken. While his goal of pursuing Buck and Manny is righteous in theory, Ranken is a cruel KnightTemplar more concerned about settling his petty rivalry with Manny than anything else and steps way outside the bounds of the law so he can kill them both out of spite.
52	* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Manny makes the jump onto the lead engine, at the cost of half his hand. He defeats Ranken and traps him on the engine, and then goes back out and decouples the engine from the rest of the train, sparing Buck and Sara's lives before climbing onto the engine's roof and [[FaceDeathWithDignity finishing the ride]] somewhere off the horizon. It's left to the viewer to determine if Manny was doing it to spare Buck and Sara or defy the warden's expectations.]]
53	* HighDiveEscape: The conductor of the eastbound 12 train jumps clear of his caboose scarce moments before the runaway collides into it.
54	* HumansAreBastards: Manny sees things this way, as evident from this exchange:
55	-->'''Sara''': You're an animal!
56	-->'''Manny''': No, worse! Human. '''Human!'''
57	** Punctuated by the quote from ''Theatre/RichardIII''.
58	* IDieFree: [[spoiler:With Ranken his prisoner now, Manny in the end, is in control of the runaway engine. The locomotives are approaching the end of the abandoned spur, crashing through a disused tunnel. Ranken orders Manny to shut down the engine, which he refuses for he'd rather achieve freedom in death.]]
59	* ImprovisedWeapon: Manny beats up Ranken with a fire extinguisher.
60	* ImNotAHeroIm: Ranken accuses Manny of believing he's a hero about to [[HeroicSacrifice die as a martyr]] just to liberate his fellow convicts from the warden's sadism. Ranken calls him "scum", to which Manny replies [[EvilVersusEvil they're both scum]].
61	* InsufferableGenius: Frank Barstow, at first.
62	--> '''Frank:''' The system's foolproof.\
63	'''Dave:''' Why, because you designed it.
64	* {{Irony}}: Ranken's threat to 'send you out of here in plastic' Guess what's used to help them survive the cold...
65	* ItHasBeenAnHonor: [[spoiler: Manny uncouples the lead engine, and waves goodbye to Buck, over the man's screaming pleas. Its especially [[TearJerker tearjerking]] as all this happens to the music of the second movement of Antonio Vivaldi's "Gloria" in D.]]
66	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Barstow is a [[InsufferableGenius condescending tech-savvy]] sexist prick, but he's quick to remind Eddie that [[spoiler: they're going to lose the three lives abroad the runaway, and despairing at their failure by the ending.]]
67	* JustTrainWrong: Though not as bad as your average action movie.
68	* KnightTemplar: How Ranken sees himself in front of civilians as a ReasonableAuthorityFigure whose holding back wild animals away from society, but really he's [[WardensAreEvil fooling no one]].
69	* MagicBrakes: Realistically averted. As Al is dying, he engages his train's brakes while the throttle is fully open. While [[BrakeAngrily the screeching of them]] alerts foreman Cassidy that something is seriously wrong, they start to burn off as the engines leave the yard, and the train subsequently picks up speed.
70	* ManChild: Buck behaves more like a hyperactive child than an adult. He's impulsive, overly excitable, and he has an idealistic devotion to Manny that seems more natural to a toddler than a hardened convict. He's possibly a PsychopathicManchild if you believe the act of rape on his rap sheet was more than just statutory.
71	* MeaningfulName: Manny.
72	* MeleeATrois: Manny, Buck and Sara tend to be at each other throats with the balance of power shifting between the three. This is even while they're working together to stop the train.
73	* MortonsFork: Barstow is ultimately presented with this. The runaway is approaching a tight curve adjacent to a chemical plant. Even at its reduced speed it's more than likely to derail and crash into the plant causing a catastrophe spill. His hand forced by Eddie, he has choose the option with the least collateral damage, by sending the train onto a disused spur, condemning all on-board to certain death.
74	* MotorMouth: Unless he's told to keep his mouth shut, Buck will run his mouth off like there's no tomorrow if he thinks there's dead air.
75	* MySignificanceSenseIsTingling: Manny suspects something is wrong despite being in the toilet of the fourth locomotive and oblivious to [[DisposablePilot events]] [[RunawayTrain transpiring]] [[BrakeAngrily outside]]. Buck [[WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong dissuades him]] however.
76	** Later on, Manny [[JustifiedTrope realizes what it was that alerted him that there was a problem:]] the train never hooked up to any freight cars or moved around in the yard; it just started to accelerate. After the crash into the caboose, Manny realizes another thing he noticed: the whistle never blew, even when two trains were on a collision course.
77	* TheNeedsOfTheMany: [=MacDonald=] has an OhCrap moment when he realizes Barstow has run out of options and sent the runaway towards Elkins chemical plant. Arguing if the train derails into it, there would be a catastrophic spill that could endanger lives across the state and beyond. [[TheChainsOfCommanding Eventually everyone concedes]] to send it onto a disused mine spur instead.
78	* NeverGoingBackToPrison: Manny is resolved to never end up back in Stonehaven.
79	* NiceJobFixingItVillain: [[spoiler: Manny, Buck, and Sara were basically ready to FaceDeathWithDignity, and Ranken would have seen his most troublesome prisoner finally disposed of. However, because Ranken believes he's TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou, he flies the police chopper to the train's location to personally capture Manny. The corrections officer sent down first ends up falling to his death and breaking the front window of the car the convicts and Sara were holed up in, spurring Manny on to make a suicidal jump to lead engine.]]
80	* NightmareFace: Well, from a technological viewpoint, rather than a biological one. The four old locomotives look rather sad, rusting and neglected for the first portion of the film, especially the lead engine. As they run out of control, colliding with obstacles in their path, they become more damaged and twisted, until eventually the 1st locomotive's front looks ''evil''. It starts to resemble a vicious wild animal, and the debris its tusks.
81	* NoodleIncident: Buck mentions that "only two other guys ever got out once" while gushing about Manny (and his) third escape, but details about those other two escapees (how they made it out, and whether they got away clean) aren't mentioned.
82	* OhCrap: The signal maintainer at Jordan is frantic trying to abort the order to derail the train, and it's practically on top of him.
83	* OnlySaneMan: Sara. Between the cruel and amoral Manny and the moronic Buck, she's the only one on the train who has a good head screwed on her shoulders.
84	* OutsideRide: Buck tries and fails to climb around outside the streamlined F-unit to reach the lead engine as there's nothing to hold onto. Manny tries this perilous crossing later, albeit on the nose of the engine, at the cost of his [[{{Fingore}} left hand]].
85	* OverworkedSleep: Sara fell asleep in the second engine and so was unaware of events that transpired earlier, until they crash into another train that is.
86	* PrettyFreeloaders: Ruby the train offie's secretary cares a lot more about doing her makeup then actually answering the phone and taking her time going to walk over and get Frank. She does get better once the crisis is really underway (albeit without much to actually do at that point).
87	* PrisonRiot: The film opens with prison holding the convicted main character in a state of riot.
88	* RailCarSeparation: [[spoiler:Manny's final act is to uncouple the lead engine from the rest of the train, leaving Ranken and him to die as its minutes away from crashing.]]
89	* RuleOfSymbolism: The train is simply the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow_of_time "Arrow of Time"]] and measure of a man's life from beginning to end. There is nothing anyone can do to stop it. The engines, a cruel society that [[WardensAreEvil refuses to rehabilitate]], and a convict that [[TragicMonster cannot be rehabilitated]], are all going down a dead-end road together.
90	* RunawayTrain: ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.
91	* SceneryPorn: The cinematography here, is just ''fantastic''. The [[EstablishingShot runaway barreling through the Alaskan frozen wasteland]] during the middle of winter is amazing to watch unfold.
92	* SeenItAll: [=MacDonald=] when Frank numbly asks how so much could have gone wrong, [=MacDonald=] simply replies "Some things can't be explained."
93	* SentimentalShabbiness: As the railroad [[TechnologyMarchesOn modernized]], Al the runaway's engineer, didn't want to see the [[OlderIsBetter old engines]] getting scrapped. [=MacDonald=] remarked he drove everyone in the company "bananas" to keep them in service. Needless to say that the whole plot is happening because it's coming back to bite everybody in the ass.
94	** The old signal maintainer seemed to share the same sentiment, [[YouHaveGOTToBeKiddingMe cursing and swearing]] when [=MacDonald=] initially orders him to derail the train at Jordan.
95	* ShoutOutToShakespeare: The closing quote. "[[Theatre/RichardIII No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity]]. [[MeaningfulEcho But I know none, and therefore am no beast.]]"
96	* StayWithMeUntilIDie: Sara begs Buck to hold her as the runaway is soon to crash, he obliges. Manny scoffs that everyone [[DyingAlone dies alone]].
97	* StrawNihilist: What Manny has become at his core over his lifetime as a criminal and prisoner. He gives his fair share of [[DespairSpeech Despair Speeches]] ridiculing anyone's [[CrapsackWorld beliefs in hope, miracles, faith]] or living any [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism unrealistic dream incompatible with reality]]. Ranken taunts him aboard the runaway approaching the end of line, that he'll burn in Hell for this. All Manny does is ''smile'' and scoff at the statement as if to say [[CessationOfExistence just how absurd he thinks any belief in the afterlife is]]. The ultimate icing-on-the-cake he delivers that cements his nihilism is his line "Win, lose, what's the difference?" at their current situation as the train's about to crash.
98	* TakingYouWithMe: [[spoiler:In the end, Manny traps Ranken with him on the final engine as it careens towards its final destination, preferring to die with Ranken as his prisoner than to be captured again.]]
99	* TattooedCrook: Buck has some notable tats.
100	* ThreatBackfire: Barstow quickly [[{{Swirlie}} regrets]] threatening to throw Ranken out of central railroad headquarters, and the warden promises to kick his teeth in if he doesn't disclose the runaway's location.
101	* TragicMonster: Manny genuinely wished he could do demeaning jobs like cleaning toilets for a living, instead of his dead-end road in violent crime and robbing banks.
102	* UnsafeHaven: Manny and Buck are skeptical of Sara coming back to the last engine until she explains she only did so because its the safest place should they crash again.
103	* VehicularSabotage: Sara convinces the convicts jumping off the train is ''suicide'' and their best hope if they can't completely stop it is to slow it down. They disconnect the MU cables, disabling the rear two engines. While the train's still going dangerously fast, its enough to allow them to cross an elderly trestle without collapse.
104	* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler:Ranken's previously unflappable composure breaks when Manny refuses to activate the emergency break on the final engine, intending to pull a TakingYouWithMe with the warden. Ranken is left begging and shouting obscenities before grimly accepting his fate after Manny decouples the final engine from the other cars.]]
105	* VillainProtagonist: Manny and Buck are unrepentant convicts, though [[EvenEvilHasStandards they do have some standards]].
106	* WardensAreEvil: Ranken. Granted, Manny is mentioned (and then shown) to be an escape artist and a violent thug, but Ranken himself is a RabidCop that welded Manny's solitary confinement cell shut (and felt content to have managed to keep him inside for three years before the court forced him to cut it open), arranged for other prisoners to try (unsuccessfully) to kill Manny, and violently strong-arms a train technician to tell him where the runaway train is so he can give it chase personally.
107	* WhoIsDriving: After the runaway smashes through the end of another train without even slowing down, all Manny's suspicions are confirmed, and decides to investigate what's going on.

Context Film / RunawayTrain