People haven’t really cared about trains since the 1980s. Except Tony Scott and Denzel Washington.

    This is their second movie on the subject, and luckily, it’s the best. “Unstoppable” is about a runaway train loaded with deadly* chemicals which will kill thousands when it derails*. This premise* should seem dated, but it hasn’t really been done lately and trains in general have been gone so long from theaters, that even though we’ve seen this before, it’s almost fresh.

    Frank (Denzel Washington) is an experienced engineer working with a new conductor named Will (Chris Pine). “Unstoppable” draws a clear line between their roles in the locomotive*. Scott’s direction takes joy in all the little details of running trains, and uses those seemingly small things not only to tell his story, but to build tension*.

    Frank drives the train but Will, as the conductor, is the boss. Frank never leaves the locomotive, but Will hops out to make sure all the cars are attached and everything’s hooked up* properly, before telling Frank to go. Will, being new and somewhat distracted by personal drama, makes a mistake. Frank, who already resents* Will as some young whippersnapper* stealing jobs from experienced train men, lets him have it. But Will’s mistake is minor, and not nearly on the scale of the mistake happening at another train depot* down the track.

    Two idiots* in the rail yard miles away accidentally lose control of a locomotive, sending it speeding down the tracks unmanned. This may seem ridiculous*, but the movie goes so far out of its way to explain all the fail-safes* involved and just exactly how two idiots could screw them up*, that it feels believable.

    The train is loaded with something so deadly that it’ll kill everyone if it derails. Not long after, Frank and Will decide it’s their job to chase the runaway down and stop it, before it flies off the tracks and wipes out the city.

    While it’s great fun watching Washington jump from one train car to the next, or Pine hanging from a coupling* by his toes, the real reason “Unstoppable” works so well is in the way it takes so many small details and builds something bigger out of it.

    If it had been made in 1986 this film would be one big cliché*. Instead, “Unstoppable” is an entertaining train thriller which takes some of those old ideas and breathes modern life into them. (SD-Agencies)