Cars, boats, planes, when you think of the most common modes of transportation portrayed on the silver screen, your mind would most likely turn straight to any of aforementioned forms of travel (or some kind of space-ship, but that doesn’t count because nobody wants to think about Jason X).
Really; there are a thousand movies set in cars. In at least one case, there’s a whole series based on the animated lives of anthropomorphic cars. Snakes on a Plane has the skies covered, Speed 2 keeps us in the water (we’ll keep the original’s inclusion for another list elsewhere), the choices are almost endless.
But when it comes to movies set on the rails? It can sometimes get a little bit more limited. Sure, you can look to Strangers on a Train or… Thomas and the Magic Railroad, but when you’re looking for a pure train-based adventure, it can take more work to weed out some classics.
Well, look no further, we here at Railway-News have decided to flex our movie-muscles and provide you with some track-based entertainment for this coming weekend.
Snowpiercer (2013)
Based on the French graphic novel Le Transperceneige and directed by Bong Joon Ho (Parasite, Mickey 17), Snowpiercer concerns the journey of a luxury 60 car cruise liner (the titular Snowpiercer) making its way across the globe following the beginning of a new ice age which has, somewhat predictably, wiped out the vast majority of all life on earth.
Starring Chris Evans, Tilda Swinton, Song Kang-ho and Ed Harris amongst a host of other recognisable faces, the movie offers a view at a universe in which a train manages to maintain momentum in impossible conditions and requires zero maintenance, so maybe suspend your belief a little more than usual with this.
Train to Busan (2016)
Taking place almost entirely on a KTX from Seoul to Busan; the movie sees Seok-woo (Gong Yoo) and his daughter, Su-an (Kim Su-an), attempt a peaceful journey across South Korea to visit her mother, Na-young (Lee Joo-shil), only to be interrupted by, to put it mildly, a lot of horrible zombies.
What ensues is a nail-biting, intense thrill-ride across the country as passengers are sealed inside the train whilst it hurtles toward its end destination. It’s exciting, thought-provoking and features one of the most unpleasant characters to ever grace a screen, but we won’t spoil any of that for you.
Murder on the Orient Express (2017)
Look, we promise there’s at least one movie on this list that’s not about murder and/or isn’t ultimately very depressing, but we’d be remiss not to mention director Kenneth Branagh’s initial foray into his take on one of Hercule Poirot’s greatest mysteries, Murder on the Orient Express.
Starring Branagh himself as the world famous moustachioed detective, Hercule Poirot boards the Orient Express and quickly finds himself playing key investigator following a grizzly murder on-board the train, and with thirteen suspects, things only manage to roll downhill from there. Look out for a genuinely fantastic moustache and performances from a genuinely star-studded cast including Willem Dafoe, Judi Dench, Daisy Ridley and more.
The Darjeeling Limited (2007)
See, we promised! This one’s nice! Directed by Wes Anderson, The Darjeeling Limited sees three brothers (played by Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman) set out on a train journey across India in an attempt to rekindle a familial bond once thought lost.
One of Anderson’s finest efforts, the journey through India on the titular Darjeeling Limited is as thought-provoking as it is humorous, making it a pretty great chaser after Train to Busan in case you needed something a little lighter to soothe those nerves.
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)
No, don’t worry, we’re not talking about the… less than good 2009 remake. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three follows a group of criminals who hijack a New York City Subway car and hold the passengers for ransom, with the title smartly taking its name from the train’s radio call sign, which is based on where and when the train began its run.
The movie was produced, initially, without the blessing of the New York City Transit Authority (TA), which considered the movie’s detailed concepts, as its original novelist would describe it, as ‘a handbook on subway hijacking’, though the TA did eventually relent following a series of agreed changes to the script.
Changes included making sure that the script could not be ‘too plausible’, a 20 million USD insurance policy be taken out to ensure copycat attacks could not be carried out, and that there would be no graffiti shown on screen, as it had become a big issue for the TA shortly before the movie’s production began.
So, there we have it. Five movies set on trains to enjoy this coming weekend. Pick your preferred streaming service, grab one of those bags of fancy crisps the train carts always seem to sell and enjoy!
What are your favourite transport-based movies? Let us know, we’d love to publish some of your suggestions!
