History Film / Unstoppable

* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Note that the runaway train is colored a hellish red while the trains that attempt to stop it are colored a heroic blue.

* CoolestClubEver: This movie manages to turn a Hooters into this!

* {{Cool Train}}: The film turns a freight train into a angry behemoth.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Downplayed with Galvin. He isn't so much corrupt as he is somewhat incompetent and more concerned with the company's financial standing than the actual threat the train poses. When Connie suggests derailing the train before it hits a populated area, he shoots down the plan on the spot because they've made almost no other attempts to stop it and it would be a massive expense. He refuses to keep her in the loop and cooks up his own plan to airlift someone onto the train while a second engine tries to slow it from the front. When that fails, he goes with Connie's derailer plan, only now it'll happen in a town and be much more destructive. When Frank and Will suggest a much less destructive plan that would risk their lives, he vetoes it and threatens to fire them. [[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.]]

* DuctTapeForEverything: Bloody foot? Duct tape it! Justified because they are in no position to get Will off the train and taking off the boot could have made things much worse. Frank settled for the "patch it and deal with it later" approach.

'''Frank:''' (''in an explanatory tone'') A train that size going that speed (''smacks his hands together'') its going to vaporize anything that gets in its way.\\

'''Connie:''' ''That,'' was ten million pounds of train, Mr. Galvin! And this is the sound of me saving your ass! Frank, do you copy? Frank?\\

* HellIsThatNoise: Every time the camera focuses on train 777, it ''roars like an angry elephant.'' [[MakesSenseInContext Makes sense]] since the director wanted 777 to sound like a beast. Therefore, he combines real locomotive sounds with real animal roars to give 777 its beastly roar.

** Galvin's strategy of attempting to slow 777 by having another train bash it from the front while ''simultaneously'' trying to land a marine on it. Predictably, the poor bastard is flung like a rag doll the second the two trains hit each other, at the worst possible moment. It would have made much more sense to simply put the marine on the rescue locomotive and have it couple to the front.

* MadeOfExplodium: Justified: The train itself, thanks to the content of some of its railcars. Somewhat less justified: [[spoiler:The first attempt to slow the runaway put two engines in front of it, to try and force the whole megillah onto a siding. The runaway jumped the switch, the uncoupled rescue engines didn't; the resulting impact derailed the rescue engines, which '''exploded''', killing the engineer aboard. While the tanks are filled with volatile diesel fuel and rupturing them can cause fires and explosions, locomotives normally don't go up like Roman Candles when they heel over.]]
* MissionControl: Connie and the FRA guy back at the master yard tower wind up being this for Barnes and Colson.
* MrFanservice: Chris Pine and Denzel Washington sharing a screen? Yes, please.

* NoAntagonist: There is no bad guy in the movie, just a boneheaded mistake that puts the train on a potentially disastrous course.

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

* PrecisionFStrike: 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.
** Heavily averted, as if one listens closely to Will and Frank's in one scene, Will actually drops F-bombs which are concealed by their back and fourth arguments.
** From the looks of it, Ned was holding his in while arguing with Dewey and Gilleece while being asked where the train is. This is practically when Ned realizes the train was going faster than Connie had told him after throwing the switch in an attempt to lead it off the mainline.
** Only God knows what Galvin was thinking, and saying to himself. Whatever it is, he managed to keep his ugliest thoughts in his head as the movie progressed.
** Averted again if one looks at Dewey's lips as he witnesses his train leaving the yard. In fact, he actually says it, but it is made inaudible in all versions and copies of the film mostly to keep the PG-13 rating and also to mainly make it clear that he screwed up '''BIG TIME'''
** Practically everyone during the entire situation. It's definite that everyone wanted to drop at least one F-bomb to express their frustration with how ridiculous this entire event is.
** Ned again when telling Will to hop aboard 777 before they run out of road. He refers to Will as a '''pussy''' which is obviously a disguised F-bomb.

* {{Retirony}}: Frank [[spoiler:was being forced into early retirement by the train company; he'd received his 90-day warning notice 72 days ago]]. [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope He lives, though.]]]]

-->'''Frank:''' [chuckles] Fire... You already did.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: what happen to Oscar Galvin? we don't know because his fate isn't mentioned in the WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: 5 will get you 10 he was fired for being an self-righteous jerk.
* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: [[spoiler:Frank is able to retire with full benefits and pension, Will reunites with his estranged wife and has a second kid on the way, Connie gets promoted to Galvin's old position, the Marine dangling from the helicopter who got injured went on to make a full recovery, and Dewey got fired for [[IdiotBall his blunder]] and is now working in [[BurgerFool fast food]]. So, they all lived HappilyEverAfter (except Dewey and Galvin).]]

''Unstoppable'' is a 2010 action film starring Creator/DenzelWashington, Creator/ChrisPine and Creator/RosarioDawson, and directed by Creator/TonyScott. It's got a fairly simple plot — a train loaded with hazardous chemicals loses its driver and [[RunawayTrain runs unmanned]] across rural Pennsylvania, and train engineers Frank Barnes (Washington) and Will Colson (Pine) have to stop it before it reaches a tight curve and derails in the middle of the large town of Stanton — which just so happens to be Will's hometown.

%%* BaldOfAwesome: Frank.

%%* TheCavalry: Ned to the rescue!

-->"Frank:" There's a good chance the Derailer won't work.\\
"Will:" It's called a Derailer for Christ sake, that's what they do!

** "Frank:" ''in an explanatory tone'' A train that size going that speed ''smacks his hands together'' its going to vaporize anything that gets in its way.

'Later after Triple 7 blew the derailer apart'

** "Galvin:" What? What in the hell was 'that'?!

** "Connie:" ''That,'' was ten million pounds of train Mr. Galvin and this is the sound of me saving your ass. Frank do you copy? Frank?

** "Frank:" This is 1206, over?

** "Connie:" You were right, barely bumped.

** "Frank:" Ha ha ha.

** "Will:" ''shocked'' Jesus Christ.]]

-->'''Frank:''' There's a good chance the Derailer won't work.\\
'''Will:''' It's called a Derailer for Christ sake, that's what they do!
[[Spoiler:'''Frank:''' ''in an explanatory tone'' A train that size going that speed ''smacks his hands together'' its going to vaporize anything that gets in its way.]]
[[Spoiler:'Later after Triple 7 blew the derailer apart'
'''Galvin:''' What? What in the hell was 'that'?!
'''Connie:''' ''That,'' was ten million pounds of train Mr. Galvin and this is the sound of me saving your ass. Frank do you copy? Frank?
'''Frank:''' This is 1206, over?
'''Connie:''' You were right, barely bumped.
'''Frank:''' Ha ha ha.
'''Will:''' ''shocked'' Jesus Christ.]]

* ChekhovsGun: Frank realizes that Will has accidentally cut in some extra rail cars (at least five, according to Frank) for their train. Later he insists that because of that, they're too long for a RIP track, which control verifies. When they eventually 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.

* WritersCantDoMath: The film's tagline mentioning "1,000,000 tons". Even the largest freight trains top out at about 15,000 tons; for comparison, even a ''Nimitz''-class aircraft carrier is only a bit over 100,000 tons. Thinking that they meant "1,000,000 pounds" also doesn't make much sense, as that's only five-hundred tons, less than the weight of two large locomotives.

** The plan to use dynamic braking to stop the train by coupling to it from behind only ''sounds'' mad. But the movie explains the physics behind it perfectly, so it makes total sense to anyone with even a passing familiarity with physics.

''Unstoppable'' is a 2010 action film starring Creator/DenzelWashington, Creator/ChrisPine and Creator/RosarioDawson, and directed by Creator/TonyScott. It's got a fairly simple plot -- a train loaded with hazardous chemicals loses its driver and [[RunawayTrain runs unmanned]] across rural Pennsylvania, and train engineers Frank Barnes (Washington) and Will Colson (Pine) have to stop it before it reaches a tight curve and derails in the middle of the large town of Stanton -- which just so happens to be Will's hometown.

* ChekhovsGun: Frank realizes that Will has accidentally cut in some extra rail cars (at least five, according to Frank) for their train. Later he insists that because of that, they're too long for a RIP track, which control verifies. When they eventually 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.

* ChekhovsSkill: While talking with the waitress in the diner at the beginning, Ned mentions that welding always requires precision. At the press conference at the end, when talking about [[spoiler:driving Will to the front of 777]], he says it required precision, so he felt like he was right at home.

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Downplayed with Galvin. He isn't so much corrupt as he is somewhat incompetent and more concerned with the company's financial standing than the actual threat the train poses. When Connie suggests derailing the train before it hits a populated area, he shoots down the plan on the spot because they've made almost no other attempts to stop it and it would be a massive expense. He refuses to keep her in the loop and cooks up his own plan to airlift someone onto the train while a second engine tries to slow it from the front. When that fails, he goes with Connie's derailer plan, only now it'll happen in a town and be much more destructive. When Frank and Will suggest a much less destructive plan that would risk their lives, he vetoes it and threatens to fire them. [[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.]]

** The plan to use dynamic braking to stop the train by coupling to it from behind only 'sounds' mad. But the movie explains the physics behind it perfectly, so it makes total sense to anyone with even a passing familiarity with physics.

* EpicFail: The portable derailers, they are ''supposed'' to be able to derail a train but the train in question is going so fast that it destroys the derailers and keeps going without slowing down at all.

* EverybodyLives: Almost. Only one person in the movie dies: [[spoiler: Judd, when his engine blows up after failing to slow down Triple 7.]]

* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: TruthInTelevision -- short of putting on the brakes or derailing, ''nothing'' stops a train.

** In the first five minutes we are treated to Chris Pine lying on a couch in his undies.

** The producers apply a little ArtisticLicense and alter locomotive road names, cab numbers and some reporting marks on the freight cars. Other than that, it's refreshingly absent. Most everything you see is a ''real'' locomotive on ''real'' active track moving a ''real'' train. The producers also bought several real (albeit retired and partially-scrapped) engines to use for filming.
** Weirdly, the only real example of it wasn't one of the trains, it was a ''signal'', which was ringing loudly and flashing right before [[spoiler:Dewey's Hi-Rail truck clips it and knocks off its door.]] Position-light signals don't flash between aspects (though sometimes they DO blink), and no trackside signal actually has a bell -- engineers wouldn't hear it anyway.

* NeverTrustATrailer: Advertised as a "kids in peril" film where a runaway train is going to run into another train with young students onboard and Washington and Pines characters were going to make a HeroicSacrifice and be BigDamnHeroes. The kids are ''PutOnABus'' 15 minutes into the film and were never in any real danger.

* NoRespectGuy: Averted in the film but the real life people were given T-shirts and gift vouchers.
* NotNowKiddo: Connie brushes off a call from Ned; later on he returns the favor.

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

* RaceLift: Frank's real-life counterpart, Jess Knowlton, was white but is portrayed by Denzel Washington.

* {{Retirony}}: Frank [[spoiler:was being forced into early retirement by the train company; he'd received his 90-day warning notice 72 days ago. [[SubvertedTrope He lives, though.]]]]

* ShoutOut: To ''Film/SilverStreak'' - an AWVR official named Gene Devereaux is interviewed at one point. Creator/GeneWilder starred in ''Silver Streak'', and the villain was named Roger Devereaux.

* StealthPun: Breaking News! [[spoiler:Frank climbing from car to car to activate their brakes]].

* ThrowawayCountry: The town of Arklow [[spoiler:was where Galvin wanted to setup the portable derailer.]]

** Zigzagged with the portable derailers, they are ''supposed'' to be able to derail a train but the train in question is going so fast that it destroys the derailers and keeps going without slowing down at all. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Will
--> '''Frank:''' There's a good chance the Derailer won't work.
--> '''Will:''' It's called a Derailer for Christ sake, that's what they do!

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: In the actual CSX 8888 incident, it was the railway company who ordered the eventually successful attempt to stop the train, rather than the attempt being done 'against orders' by the train crew. The company has also never released the name of the engineer portrayed as Dewey.

*** In fact, why didn't either of them climb the other cars to get to the lead train? Even if they got past the curve, they'd still be on a runaway train.

* JustTrainWrong: The producers apply a little ArtisticLicense and alter locomotive road names, cab numbers and some reporting marks on the freight cars. Other than that, it's refreshingly absent. Most everything you see is a ''real'' locomotive on ''real'' active track moving a ''real'' train. The producers also bought several real (albeit retired and partially-scrapped) engines to use for filming.
** Weirdly, the only real example of it wasn't one of the trains, it was a ''signal'', which was ringing loudly and flashing right before [[spoiler: Dewey's Hi-Rail truck clips it and knocks off its door.]] Position-light signals don't flash between aspects (though sometimes they DO blink), and no trackside signal actually has a bell - engineers wouldn't hear it anyway.

* MadeOfExplodium: Justified: The train itself, thanks to the content of some of its railcars. Somewhat less justified: [[spoiler: The first attempt to slow the runaway put two engines in front of it, to try and force the whole megillah onto a siding. The runaway jumped the switch, the uncoupled rescue engines didn't; the resulting impact derailed the rescue engines, which '''exploded''', killing the engineer aboard. While the tanks are filled with volatile diesel fuel and rupturing them can cause fires and explosions, locomotives normally don't go up like Roman Candles when they heel over.]]

--> '''Judd:''' Here, they're shit-canning guys every day, but if you got the right last name and a rookie's pay grade, you got a job.

* NoRespectGuy: Averted in the film but the real life people were given t-shirts and gift vouchers.

--> '''Connie:''' OH MY GOD! GALVIN, YOU ASSHOLE!!!

* RealityIsUnrealistic: The "Crazy Eights" runaway train incident that the movie is based on had an even '''more''' improbable set of circumstances then the movie's runaway train. Sometimes, reality is its own plot hole. It's pretty funny to first look up the real story, then browse the internet for commentary based just on the previews, with people making fun of how ridiculous and obviously contrived the idea was. It's even funnier to see threads people critcizing particular aspects of the movie after they got to see the entire thing, and thus had no excuse for not being able to figure out that the stuff they were criticizing really happened.

* [[RightManInTheWrongPlace Right Men In The Wrong Place]]: Will and Frank end up chasing 777 by pure circumstance.

* StealthPun: Breaking News! [[spoiler: Frank climbing from car to car to activate their brakes]].
* StockSoundEffects: the instantly-recognisable sound of a locomotive horn is heard at several points for effect, even at times when it makes no sense for any locomotive to be sounding its horn.

* [[TokenRomance Token Conflict]]: Will's relationship with Darcy could be excised from the film with little to no impact on the rest of it.

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: The trailers hype the connection to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSX_8888_incident a 2001 runaway train]]; the actual runaway train went through northwest Ohio, and there were no casualties. And the actual train went no where near 70 mph, more like 45 at the most. Two of the film's failed attempts to stop it were also tried in real life (using derailers, and shooting the exterior stop button). The ultimate solution was similar, albeit not effected so dramatically close to a populated area. The train that did the job was driven by an engineer with 31 years' experience (28 in the film) and a conductor with a year's worth (in the movie, it's his first day). The guy who actually got in and stopped it [[spoiler:was not the young conductor, and he]] only had to catch up with a train slowed down (by the coupled engine) to 11 MPH. So yeah, real life ignores the RuleOfDrama repeatedly.

* HellIsThatNoise: Every time the camera focuses on train 777, it ''roars like an angry elephant.'' [[MakesSenseInContext Makes sense]] since the director wanted 777 to sound like a beast. Therefore, he combines real locomotive sounds with real animal roars to give 777 it's beastly roar. The only problem is, it makes that noise, ''[[MostAnnoyingSound every single time the camera focuses on the loco]]''.

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 6.8 on Website/IMDb, $81 million in box office, and an 86% on Website/RottenTomatoes.

* BaldOfAwesome: Frank.

* TheCavalry: Ned to the rescue!

* CoolOldGuy: Frank.

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Galvin, 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.
** 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.]]
* CrazyEnoughToWork: The plan to use dynamic braking to stop the train by coupling to it from behind only 'sounds' mad. But the movie explains the physics behind it perfectly, so it makes total sense to anyone with even a passing familiarity with physics.

* DramaticDeadpan: "1206, go faster."
* DuctTapeForEverything: Bloody foot? Duct tape it!

* TheEveryman: Frank and Will.

* FatalFamilyPhoto: [[spoiler:Subverted!]]

* FirstDayFromHell: Will.
* FlashedBadgeHijack: Parodied. Ned waves his railroad ID to some police officers and asks for an escort. They point out it identifies him as a welder. It does work, though, since Ned knows Connie and the officer has spoken to her. About a dozen cars provide escort.
** ''[[InsistentTerminology Lead welder.]]''
* {{Foreshadowing}}: When 1206 attaches to its train at the beginning, Will brings the engine in a bit too fast and it bangs hard against the cars. [[spoiler:When hooking 1206 to the back of 777's train, Will misjudges the speed again and 1206 hits the back car too hard, breaking it open a little and sending grain flying everywhere. The poor visibility eventually leads to Will getting his foot crushed and almost falling off the train.]]

* HateSink: Galvin

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: In the actuall CSX 8888 incident, it was the railway company who ordered the eventually successful attempt to stop the train, rather than the attempt being done 'against orders' by the train crew. The company has also never released the name of the engineer portrayed as Dewey.

* JerkassHasAPoint: Though Galvin makes a lot of mistakes down the line, his refusal of Connie's derailment plan is perfectly reasonable. Defaulting to causing a disaster, even in open county, is a bit of an overreaction when there hasn't been a single attempt to stop the train safely.
** ''However,'' given that as Connie mentioned, the stretch of open country in the beginning was the ''only'' stretch before it became town after town all the way up to the Stanton curve, the time they used up on a plan would make a later derailment a disaster if the initial plan fails. So what do you do, when you HAVE to get something right the first time or else the disaster scenario becomes many times worse?

* MadeOfExplodium: Justified: The train itself, thanks to the content of some of its railcars. Somewhat less justified:[[spoiler: The first attempt to slow the runaway put two engines in front of it, to try and force the whole megillah onto a siding. The runaway jumped the switch, the uncoupled rescue engines didn't; the resulting impact derailed the rescue engines, which '''exploded''', killing the engineer aboard. While the tanks are filled with volatile diesel fuel and rupturing them can cause fires and explosions, locomotives normally don't go up like Roman Candles when they heel over.]]

* RealityIsUnrealistic: The "Crazy Eights" runaway train incident that the movie is based on had an even '''more''' improbable set of circumstances then the movie's runaway train. Sometimes, reality is its own plot hole.
** It's pretty funny to first look up the real story, then browse the internet for commentary based just on the previews, with people making fun of how ridiculous and obviously contrived the idea was. It's even funnier to see threads people critcizing particular aspects of the movie after they got to see the entire thing, and thus had no excuse for not being able to figure out that the stuff they were criticizing really happened.

* VoiceWithAnInternetConnection: Connie.

** No wonder at the end of the film that Connie is promoted to Galvin's position while he's presumably fired for his actions.

* RaceLife: Frank's real-life counterpart, Jess Knowlton, was white but is portrayed by Denzel Washington.

''Unstoppable'' is a 2010 action film starring Creator/DenzelWashington, Creator/ChrisPine and Creator/RosarioDawson, and directed by Tony Scott. It's got a fairly simple plot -- a train loaded with hazardous chemicals loses its driver and [[RunawayTrain runs unmanned]] across rural Pennsylvania, and train engineers Frank Barnes (Washington) and Will Colson (Pine) have to stop it before it reaches a tight curve and derails in the middle of the large town of Stanton -- which just so happens to be Will's hometown.

* CallBack: While talking with the waitress in the diner at the beginning, Ned mentions that welding always requires precision. At the press conference at the end, when talking about [[spoiler:driving Will to the front of 777]], he says it required precision, so he felt like he was right at home.
** Frank realizes that Will has accidentally cut in some extra rail cars (at least five, according to Frank) for their train. Later he insists that because of that, they're too long for a RIP track, which control verifies. When they eventually 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.

* ConspicuousCGI: Averted due to the minimum usage of CGI. In fact, the oil farm in Stanton is done well enough that you won't notice it isn't real unless you know it doesn't exist in RealLife.

* CaliforniaDoubling: Averted and played straight. The movie is set in Pennsylvania and filmed there as well as eastern Ohio and West Virginia.
** And some of it was filmed in upstate New York, too. Various place names they filmed in are used in the movie's graphics.