Unstoppable

[Joey Bowman]

I apologize if there is already a thread, looked around but couldn't find one.

Any body go see it yesterday besides me? If so what did you think? I try my best not to scrutinize movies and try to over look small inaccuracies. With that being said I thought it was great. Probably my favorite new movie of this year, at least my favorite action movie of this year.

[coborn35]

No attention was paid to the railroad part. Complete joke.

[Train-a-Mania]

No attention was paid to the railroad part. Complete joke.

What do you make of the fictional AWVR reporting mark? The cab number spray-painted on the inside of the cab? The fact that the film centers on railroading? No attention paid to railroading? I beg to differ.

I saw the film yesterday and adored it. I'll try to create a longer review in the future, but for the time being, I'd say that if you ignore certain incorrect terminology, you'll have a great time!

[Joey Bowman]

What do you make of the fictional AWVR reporting mark? The cab number spray-painted on the inside of the cab? The fact that the film centers on railroading? No attention paid to railroading? I beg to differ.

I saw the film yesterday and adored it. I'll try to create a longer review in the future, but for the time being, I'd say that if you ignore certain incorrect terminology, you'll have a great time!

I was really impressed with some of the details, such as the engine info painted on the inside, I was halfway expecting it to say CP #### or where ever the engine came from. I thought the locomotives looked great and loved how there were several different paint styles much like you would find on any railroad.


The only things I could truly find nit pick worthy were some of the filming locations, the train went through a location one way then half an hour came through it the other way, of course they only have so many locations they can shoot at so I understand. One or two clips showed the incorrect consist, like when Denzel was walking on the cars briefly you could see the whole train, except 1206 was missing on the end. Other than that I thought it was great. Really thinking about going again, or at least again when it gets to the dollar theatre.

Going to drag my girlfriend to it again as well, i've seen all those god forsaken twilight movies 2 or 3 times in the theatre!

[PLEzero]

No attention was paid to the railroad part. Complete joke.

It's not a documentary. It's not a railfan movie. It's a movie for the general public and like every single movie out there has technical flaws. With that being said, all of my friends who have seen it seemed to like it. I'll throw my two cents in on Monday after I have seen the film.

[N. Herring]

I have yet to watch it, but plan on doing so

[Joe the Photog]

I'm seeing it with my wife and kids on Monday. Can't wait.

[Chris Kilroy]

Going tonight with the girlfriend. I went to see that idiotic talking dog movie a couple years ago with her, so this is payback. Hope it's as good as the trailer makes it look!

[Ween]

My wife and I both enjoyed it. Very good action and acting (as expected from Denzel; Chis Pine held his own); the direction was pretty tight. Of course there were technical flaws (SD40-2s aren't 5000hp as stated) and some continuity errors, but those are easily overlooked in the context of the entire film.

Some of the helipcopter choreography with the trains was really superb!

Put away the technicals (like I do everytime I watch a movie with airplanes and/or the military) and you'll have a good time!

[IHapsias]

It was a nice movie. Better than I thought it would be. Though I noticed some fictional facts pretty fast.. When they start the units up, why do they sound like EMD's? They also rated a SD40-2 at 5,000 horsepower.

[TAMR159]

There were a very large number of errors I noticed throughout it, but that's to be expected in such a movie - besides, they're marketing the movie to the general public, not us hardcore train buffs. For someone who doesn't know what an SD40-2 is (or cares for that matter), it was a pretty good movie...somewhat predictable plot, but still good. I'll probably buy the DVD when it comes out - hell, I might even go see it again in the theater.

[EMTRailfan]

The inaccuracies have already been covered as far as not watching the movie as a railfan or "rail". I thought the movie itself was awesome, and may even see it again. But then came the song for the closing credits...WTF is that???!!! They couldn't get a RR themed song? AC/DC, Ozzy, 3 Doors Down, or even one of Johnny Cash's train songs would have been a helluva lot better than that crap.

[Christopher Muller]

I'm with Ween. It is a good movie, not an accurate depiction of what really happened (which I'm sure no one expected it to). My sister who could care less about trains loved the movie. My nephew also loved it. Not exactly a show for a 7 year old, but he loved it.

There were some flaws that the director overlooked. Including the 777 having damage before any impact. Then in the next shot there was no damage. After the initial collision one of the ditch lights goes out. In the next shot the other ditch light was out, but the original one was back on.

Overall, the excellent footage of a fictional railroad was worth it for me. I would love to railfan in the heli's they were using.

[lost bouy]

I thought the movie was good but what "True Story" did they base this off of?
The closest thing I could think of was that runaway CSX train a couple years ago. Also, I don’t think a 39 car train is the size of the Chrysler building. 50 or 75 car train maybe but 39?

[Joey Bowman]

I thought the movie was good but what "True Story" did they base this off of?
The closest thing I could think of was that runaway CSX train a couple years ago. Also, I don’t think a 39 car train is the size of the Chrysler building. 50 or 75 car train maybe but 39?

36 cars at 50feet per car would be just under 2,000 feet. Im sure that some cars are longer or shorter, dont know much about rail car length either. The Chrysler Building is around a 1,000 feet tall I believe.

And yes thats the story the movie was "inspired" by

[PLEzero]

Here is a good article written by a railfan.

http://www.toledoblade.com/article/20101112/ART09/101119863/-1/ART

[Joe the Photog]

I took my wife and kids to see it. My wife was grabbing my arm the whole time on the figurative edge of her seat. My daughter was transfixed by the movie. My son, who is ten, couldn't get past the idea that they "blew up" two engines. I'm not sure, but I think he's mourning the actual engines because he seemed fine with the death of the man in the engine.

As a TV news photographer, I had more problems with their unrealistic breaking news coverage than anything. But it wasn't anything I couldn't look past.

Great movie. Can't wait for the DVD,

[troy12n]

Spoiler: Captain Kirk stops the bad guy, but the train still wrecks at the end.

[PLEzero]

I thought it was going to be terrible last year when I first heard about the movie but it turned out to be really good. I noticed a few technical flaws but nothing that every single movie doesn't have. I think coborn35 is being far too critical or hasn't even seen the movie as he listed no evidence supporting why he thought it was a "complete joke". There were some inaccuracies but no one in the general audience would ever know (5,000 HP SD40-2 for example, magical switches). I personally thought the climax was a bit far fetched to ever happen in reality (physics) but it is a fictional movie so whatever works. No one else that has seen the movie seemed to complain about it.

I'll give it a B+

Since I live in the area the movie was shot in I found it particularly interesting. Many of the names of real railroad places were kept (Brewster, Olean). There was also plenty of nice train shots and a lot of Wheeling & Lake Erie locomotives floating around if you were paying close attention. Overall, the movie was well shot, well acted, and worth watching if you're looking for an action packed suspenseful movie with trains. Basically, the complete opposite of "Atomic Train".

Here are some photos of equipment in the movie

[photoid=304070]

[photoid=266507]

[photoid=203326]

[photoid=309004]

Other photos of the equipment can be seen with the search term "Allegheny and West Virginia (AWVR)"

[Soo 6060]

Even with the brake pipe disconected here's what should've happened: After 60 seconds, the aleter should've gone off, and put the train in emergency. Whenever a train is put in emergency, no matter what the cause, the PCS (Power cutout switch) is opened, shutting off the throttle.

[PLEzero]

Even with the brake pipe disconected here's what should've happened: After 60 seconds, the aleter should've gone off, and put the train in emergency. Whenever a train is put in emergency, no matter what the cause, the PCS (Power cutout switch) is opened, shutting off the throttle.

From the Toledo Blade article above.

..."But in so doing, the report said, he failed to place his engine's brake-throttle selector in the braking position, and when he then shifted a control handle into full-power position, it was in full-throttle instead of full-brake. While he changed the switch, the train slowly pulled away before he could climb back aboard.

Locomotives have mechanical brakes as well as engine brakes, and the engineer had set the mechanical brake properly. Because that brake was set, a “dead-man” feature designed to stop the train if its engineer became incapacitated was disabled.

Movie dialogue soon brings up the “dead-man” feature, and a trainmaster played by actress Rosario Dawson explains that because the train's air brakes are not connected, it wouldn't work. Th at isn't exactly true, as the dead-man feature should also activate the locomotives' own brakes, but for the sake of simplicity one could assume that the movie engineer also applied the locomotive brakes."

[Jesse]

I have yet to see it.
Been working to much and not a big fan of movie theaters.
Hopefully this weekend i can catch an early show.

This pic my buddy in upstate New York snapped a little over a year ago during filming.

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g246/jmarouchoc/b_140514.jpg

not to highjack the thread, but i watched an older movie last night called Runaway Train.

Was wondering if Unstoppable was along the same lines....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IsWL-9kRis


and for those wondering, here are the filming locations:
Beech Creek, Pennsylvania, USA

Bellaire, Ohio, USA

Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, USA

Benwood, West Virginia, USA

Brewster, Ohio, USA

Bridgeport, Ohio, USA

Eldred, Pennsylvania, USA

Emporium, Pennsylvania, USA

Follansbee, West Virginia, USA

Julian, Pennsylvania, USA

Martins Ferry, Ohio, USA

Milesburg, Pennsylvania, USA

Mingo Junction, Ohio, USA

Monaca, Pennsylvania, USA

Monroeville, Pennsylvania, USA

Navarre, Ohio, USA

Olean, New York, USA

Pacific Harbor Line, Wilmington, Los Angeles, California, USA

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

Port Allegany, Pennsylvania, USA

Port Matilda, Pennsylvania, USA

Portville, New York, USA

State College, Pennsylvania, USA

Steubenville, Ohio, USA

Turtlepoint, Pennsylvania, USA

Tyrone, Pennsylvania, USA

Unionville, Pennsylvania, USA

Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA
(studio)

Wheeling, West Virginia, USA

[Jesse]

...............Going to drag my girlfriend to it again as well, i've seen all those god forsaken twilight movies 2 or 3 times in the theatre!

oh do i feel your pain:-x

[troy12n]

oh do i feel your pain:-x

Taking her to it more than once = he wont be getting any for a while... :grin:

[Joey Bowman]

\
not to highjack the thread, but i watched an older movie last night called Runaway Train.

Was wondering if Unstoppable was along the same lines....
\


Its along the same lines in that there is a run away train that plows through the end of another train at one point in the movie. Other then that (in my opinion) there are no real similarities.

[Joey Bowman]

Taking her to it more than once = he wont be getting any for a while... :grin:


Starting Sunday I will be lucky if im home more than once a week, not worried :-D

[jdirelan87]

I know this thread is teetering on the edge of being dead, but I was finally able to get a chance to see the movie tonight. Ya, the story line was full of holes and the acting was pretty cheesy (Denzel plays the same character is every movie), but I was extremely impressed with the attention to detail in respects to both the railroad and Western PA.

The terminology was right ('in the hole,' 'lash-up,' 'notch 8,' 'long hood forward'), everybody was dressed the part and they even added railroady things beyond the obvious (highrailers, dispatching centers, crew vans, slow orders). They obviously did their homework. How easy would it have been to just rent out a tourist railroad and do a cheap repaint (like most movies do if they need a railroad)?

The first 20 minutes of the movie where they set the mood and introduced the characters was also extremely well done. The weather, the clothing, houses, rolling hills, blue collar workers - the whole thing screamed Pittsburgh (and made me miss that great place even more than I already do). They even used a lot of Western PA names.

Overall I enjoyed. Like I said earlier, it was filled with obvious plot holes and wasn't very realistic... but its one of those movies that you check your mind out at the door. The acting was pretty forced and the themes pretty simple (in case you didn't pick up on it, corporate is evil and only cares about money), not to mention I was getting dizzy - I don't think the there was a single stationary scene in the entire movie. I have a hard time accepting trying to make some thing as not exciting of trains really really exciting, but overall great effort.

[troy12n]

I finally got around to watching it, and by and large, I thought it was very good. Definitely action and fast paced. Before you knew it, it was over.

Some thoughts:
1. Is it that damn hard to use the proper terminology? Why go out of your way to use the wrong term.
2. If they REALLY Wanted to derail it, they would not have used a derail, they would have removed a section of track
3. The part where the 2 locomotives got in front of the runnaway, why did a crewmember not stand on the rear of the trailing unit, then climb across to the runnaway, open the door and set the brakes?
4. The part where the 2 SD40's derailed and exploded into flames. LoL, yea right.
5. At the end when the runnaway rounded the curve in "Stanton" and the lead engines where leaning up on only the outside set of wheels? Come on man...
6. The seeming ignorance of the conductor was astounding. Cutting in too many cars, not knowing the rules, whatever he did on the turntable, etc
7. Signal aspects: Anyone catch a few odd ones like the blinking red X on the CPL?
8. City names. Why use some real ones and some fake ones? Be consistent, this made no sense.
9. I checked google earth to make sure, but it seemed pretty incredibly unrealistic that they would put several HUGE Petroleum storage tanks immediately next to an elevated viaduct on a curve.

All in all I was pleased, it just bugs me sometimes when they use bogus terms or do something no real railroader would EVER do.

You can really tell the fake railroad AVWR was modeled after CSX because they had like 4 different paint schemes, lol

[Watain]

Where is this super SD40 that has more horsepower than a Dash-9?

Since when do engineers jump out of the cab of a moving train?

Wheres my 3-step protection?

Why use engine numbers instead of train ID's? Instead of ''train 1206'', why not Train 12A or something like that?

Other than that, and what has already been mentioned, I have to say it was an extremely entertaining and suspenseful movie, that was really filmed well.

[Joe the Photog]

You can really tell the fake railroad AVWR was modeled after CSX because they had like 4 different paint schemes, lol
Except all of the AVWR paint schemes are much better than anyof the CSX paint schemes.

[Soo 6060]

I finally got around to watching it, and by and large, I thought it was very good. Definitely action and fast paced. Before you knew it, it was over.

Some thoughts:
1. Is it that damn hard to use the proper terminology? Why go out of your way to use the wrong term.
2. If they REALLY Wanted to derail it, they would not have used a derail, they would have removed a section of track
3. The part where the 2 locomotives got in front of the runnaway, why did a crewmember not stand on the rear of the trailing unit, then climb across to the runnaway, open the door and set the brakes?
4. The part where the 2 SD40's derailed and exploded into flames. LoL, yea right.
5. At the end when the runnaway rounded the curve in "Stanton" and the lead engines where leaning up on only the outside set of wheels? Come on man...
6. The seeming ignorance of the conductor was astounding. Cutting in too many cars, not knowing the rules, whatever he did on the turntable, etc
7. Signal aspects: Anyone catch a few odd ones like the blinking red X on the CPL?
8. City names. Why use some real ones and some fake ones? Be consistent, this made no sense.
9. I checked google earth to make sure, but it seemed pretty incredibly unrealistic that they would put several HUGE Petroleum storage tanks immediately next to an elevated viaduct on a curve.

All in all I was pleased, it just bugs me sometimes when they use bogus terms or do something no real railroader would EVER do.

You can really tell the fake railroad AVWR was modeled after CSX because they had like 4 different paint schemes, lol

And they put the recording of an SD40-2 starting up, while the GEs were firing up..LOL. (Probably because it takes longer for the GE start up cycle [Note: GE lovers, I'm not bashing GE by saying that..])

[Watain]

And they put the recording of an SD40-2 starting up, while the GEs were firing up..LOL. (Probably because it takes longer for the GE start up cycle [Note: GE lovers, I'm not bashing GE by saying that..])

I noticed that too, kind of made me laugh..

[milwman]

I noticed that too, kind of made me laugh..

I still haven't seen it? The editor didn't know a EMD from a GE as most non fan rails don't care and just know the numbers they don't like. That is true! They know them by Loud, Ride bad, or wont load.

[Joe the Photog]

I'm a railfan and I couldn't tell you the difference in how a GE and an SD40-2 sounds starting up. I do believe that's called taking a movie critique to a wild extreme.

[troy12n]

I'm a railfan and I couldn't tell you the difference in how a GE and an SD40-2 sounds starting up. I do believe that's called taking a movie critique to a wild extreme.


Yea, of all the things to critique, that is pretty picky. I noticed it too, the entire movie the GE's sounded like EMD's, but it was so minimal its not worth mentioning to me. It was the fake terminology that really pissed me off the most.

[Watain]

I guess I am a nerd.. -_-

[JimThias]

I'm a railfan and I couldn't tell you the difference in how a GE and an SD40-2 sounds starting up. I do believe that's called taking a movie critique to a wild extreme.

Same here. And I had to resist the urge to reply to that with a smart ass comment when I first read it. :lol:

[milwman]

EMD http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zen6JvBI1r0&feature=related

GE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQOl3Nlj6RI&feature=related

ALCO http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iD5PmLTMbB8&feature=related

[Soo 6060]

Sounds the best.


EMD http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zen6JvBI1r0&feature=related

[mark woody]

EMD http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zen6JvBI1r0&feature=related

GE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQOl3Nlj6RI&feature=related

ALCO http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iD5PmLTMbB8&feature=related

The first two at night with the torch give the impression of trespassers. First they didn't check oil and water levels or call out that the unit would be starting, no cab lights on and only revved the EMD then shut it down. My 0.02.

[troy12n]

The first two at night with the torch give the impression of trespassers. First they didn't check oil and water levels or call out that the unit would be starting, no cab lights on and only revved the EMD then shut it down. My 0.02.

Doubtful. Especially the second one where you could hear the guy had a radio on. I also have not seen too many times where they actually yell that they are going to start it. Some units when you prime the fuel pump there is an audible bell/buzzer that rings. One thing I was kind of surprised they didnt do is open the cylinder cocks to vent the cylinders first. If a unit has been sitting for a while, they are supposed to do that to vent any water which may have entered the cylinder to prevent hydro lock. A bent crankrod on one of those would be a costly replacement, not to mention the other damage it could cause.