Two escaped convicts and a female railway worker find themselves trapped on a speeding train with no brakes and nobody driving.Two escaped convicts and a female railway worker find themselves trapped on a speeding train with no brakes and nobody driving.Two escaped convicts and a female railway worker find themselves trapped on a speeding train with no brakes and nobody driving.
- Nominated for 3 Oscars
- 2 wins & 8 nominations total
- Al Turner
- (as Reid Cruikshanks)
- Old Con
- (as Norton E. 'Hank' Warden)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaDanny Trejo was visiting a friend who was working as a production assistant on the set when he was offered a job as an extra. Edward Bunker recognized Trejo because they served time in San Quentin State Prison together. Bunker helped Trejo get hired as Eric Roberts' boxing coach. Director Andrey Konchalovskiy was so impressed with Trejo that he gave him a small role. Trejo later stated that he was staggered to find out that the coaching job earned him $320 per day, which was more than he had ever gotten from a robbery.
- GoofsThe dead end branch to which the train is sent to derail is supposed to be unused. However, look ahead shots show fresh tracks in the snow, so there must have been another train shortly before.
- Quotes
Manny: [after listening to Buck's dream] That's bullshit. You're not gonna do nothin' like that. 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 & grab his face, and slam him to the floor, and make him scream & cry for his life. So you look right at the floor, Jack. Pay attention to what I'm sayin', motherfucker! And then he's gonna look around the room - see how you done. And he's gonna say "Oh, you missed a little spot over there. Jeez, you didn't get this one here. What about this little bitty spot?" And you're gonna suck all that pain inside you, and you're gonna clean that spot. And you're gonna clean that spot. Until you get that shiny clean. And on Friday, you pick up your paycheck. And if you could do that, if you could do that, you could be president of Chase Manhattan... corporations! If you could do that.
Buck: Not me, man! I wouldn't do that kind of shit. I'd rather be in fuckin' jail.
Manny: More's the pity, youngster. More's the pity.
Buck: Could you do that kind of shit?
Manny: I wish I could.
- Crazy credits"No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity." "But I know none, and therefore am no beast." Richard III - William Shakespeare
- Alternate versionsThe DVD mysteriously edits out the shot of the first helicopter policeman being run over by the wheels of the train. You see him crash into the train windshield and see him fall off, but then you see just a plain shot of the wheels. In all other versions of the film on video and laserdisc have a shot of this man's face coming right at the camera as his body is run over by the wheels of the train. Even the US TV version has a brief shot of this. This shot is present in the UK Arrow Films DVD release.
- ConnectionsEdited into Con Express (2002)
- SoundtracksGloria in D Major
by Antonio Vivaldi (as Vivaldi)
Performed by The USSR Academic Russian Chorus and the Moscow Conservatoire Students Orchestra
I find it interesting that a film written by a Japanese (Akira Kurosawa!) and directed by a Russian (Andrej Konchalowsky) which features American actors can be such a coherent masterpiece. Although the story is very simple there are deeper layers of meaning which have a lot to say about the human condition and which are so universal that everyone can read the metaphors. Truly an existential action-film!
RUNAWAY TRAIN is not only one of my favorite action-movies of all times but one of the greatest films ever in my opinion. And the famous "gold"-monologue by Manny is just so true!
- ChWasser
- Sep 12, 1999
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $9,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $7,683,620
- Gross worldwide
- $7,683,620
- Runtime1 hour 51 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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