History Film / Unstoppable

!!This 2010 film has examples of:

* AgonyOfTheFeet: Will gets his right foot crushed while coupling up engine 1206 to the runaway 777's end.

What makes the film is the chemistry between Denzel's grizzled veteran Frank and Chris Pine's young rookie Will, as well as Tony Scott's eye for action and his adherence to the use of practical effects and stunts as opposed to [[ConspicuousCG CGI]] for the action sequences. Critics and viewers generally liked it, with a 6.9 on Website/IMDb, $81 million in box office, and an 86% on Website/RottenTomatoes.

** Galvin isn't really corrupt, and indeed does everything he can to contain the situation before people get hurt. He's just ''bad'' at it. He's under a lot of stress and starts taking a "my way or the highway" approach, getting more and more irrational as things develop. [[spoiler: he gets his comeuppance when Frank and Will metaphorically give him the finger and refuse to listen to him, causing everyone else on the ground to follow suit and effectively lock him out of the situation. He apparently got fired after the whole mess.]]

** When the train takes the curve at Stanton, the wheels of the locomotive and many of the cars lift off the rails, only to have ''every single wheel" fall back into place without unlucky 777 derailing. A car can recover from lifting off the ground, but not a runaway train the size of the Chrysler Building. It's simply a case of RuleOfCool.

* PrecisionF-Strike: After Connie watches Galvin's attempt to stop Triple 7 with Judd and Scott backfire and result in Judd being killed when his lash-up diesels explode following their derailment, Connie is furious at what her superior has done.

* {{Badass}}: Frank, Will, and Ned.

Well, those math problems just got a lot more exciting, in this case: Train A leaves Railyard A at 70 mph, with no one at the controls and carrying enough explosives to level a small town. How long will it take for the heroes to stop it before disaster strikes?

* MisplacedWildlife: Averted. In a distance shot of 777, there's a very distinct Midwest woodchuck crossing the tracks.
** Surely that was a badger?

* [[DoomyDoomsOfDoom Oil Storage Tanks of Doom]]: If a train goes through the elevated tracks of the Stanton Curve at too high of a speed, then train will derail and crash into the industrial oil storage tanks below. Given some of the cars of 777 are carrying [[MadeOfExplodium molten phenol]], this would be ''bad''.
** The "Stanton Curve" is actually a real stretch of track in Bellaire, Ohio. Thankfully, there are no oil tanks there in real life.

* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: Averted.

What makes the film is the chemistry between Denzel's grizzled veteran Frank and Chris Pine's young rookie Will, as well as Tony Scott's eye for action and his adherence to the use of practical effects and stunts as opposed to [[ConspicuousCG CGI]] for the action sequences. Critics and viewers generally liked it, with a 6.9 on {{IMDb}}, $81 million in box office, and an 86% on RottenTomatoes.

Well, those math problems just got a lot more exciting, in this case: Train A leaves Railyard A at 60+ mph, with no one at the controls. How long will it take for the heroes to stop it before disaster strikes?

Well, those math problems just got a lot more exciting.

* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Played straight with Galvin but averted with Kevin Corrigan's character, Inspector Werner, who realizes he can do more good trying to help the situation than rattle off safety code violations.

* AnthropomorphicPersonification: Subverted a little; the train "Triple 7" has an on-going diesel engine roaring sound, amplified and distorted a little bit, which makes it sound like a real living demonic force. But in the end it isn't more then a mindless machine merely performing basic mechanical actions.

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Gavin, who refuses to do anything about the train while it's running through unoccupied terrain and then implements plans to derail (or that could potentially derail or make explode) the 777 right in the middle of towns (which would then expose them to molten phenol, among other hazardous materials), and tells everybody to do as he says or they will be fired, ignoring their (relatively more sensible) ideas. He cares more about the company than civilian (or even employee) lives.

** Dewey and Gilleece report that the runaway train is only travelling at 10 mph, even though it very clearly accelerated after Dewey left it (which is precisely why his stupid plan above didn't work). It even audibly spooled up to full power while Dewey was right next to it.

* NoOSHACompliance: Who thought it would be a good idea for a dangerous railway curve to go right through an oil storage facilty?

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Gavin, who refuses to do anything about the train while it's running through unoccupied terrain and then implements plans to derail (or that could potentially derail or make explode) the 777 right in the middle of towns (which would then expose them to molten phenol, among other hazardous materials), and tells everybody to do as he says or they will be fired, ignoring their (relatively more sensible) ideas.

* OhCrap: The look on Connie's face when Dewey informs him the throttle on 777 was set to notch 8 (full throttle) just before he lost it. The look on the engineer's face on the schoolkids' train just screams this, when he 'sees 777 round a curve in front of him.''

** Frank realizes that Will has accidentally cut off an extra rail car for their train. When they get the train onto a siding before the oncoming 777 collides with them, they get all of the cars to safety...except for the last one, which 777 obliterates.

* ActorAllusion: DenzelWashington's character is named Frank Barnes; in ''AmericanGangster'', a prior film of his (which just so happens to have been made by Tony Scott's brother Creator/{{Ridley|Scott}}), there is a character named Nicky Barnes, and Denzel played Frank Lucas.