"Unstoppable," a (potential) disaster movie about a runaway train, surprised me.
Movie poster found here.
I rented it specifically because stepson likes action movies, and all I knew about it was that there was action, in the form of a train smashing into vehicles unfortunately placed at railway crossings.
I was very primed to watch a lot of large things being smashed.
There's not all that much destruction in "Unstoppable." In fact, the flick is something like a quiet character drama, although lots of things happen besides talking.
And it is exciting. You know it's exciting when stepson puts up a constant stream of commentary during the movie.
But it's not about explosions.
If you haven't seen this one, I recommend it. And if you do want to see it, I recommend you stop reading this post now. All others, on we go.
(Spoilers below)
"Unstoppable" is a smaller picture than I thought it would be, and much simpler. A newbie railroad employee (Ethan Suplee) is asked to park a freight train and through a string of errors sends it hurtling down a mainline track at 70 MPH.
It has some tank cars with nasty explosive stuff inside it, and it has to be stopped.
Despite all the potential for mayhem, there is only spectacular crash at a railway crossing, and one train derailment and death. Everyone else gets out alive, including the 150 school kids in a train on a collision course with the runaway.
What makes it so engaging?
It's classic American myth. In this post I talked about the 4 main plot points of American myth, first outlined by Professor Robert Reich. Someone else has summarized these here in more detail, if you're interested.
"Unstoppable" has 3 of Reich's 4 main plot points: the "Rot at the Top," the "Benevolent Community," and the "Triumph of the Individual." Oddly enough, the fourth plot point, the "Mob at the Gates," is lacking. There is no terrorism angle in "Unstoppable," which was very refreshing to me.
The "Rot at the Top" is not developed, a good thing in my opinion. There's no psychopathic corporate mastermind, only some greedy executives of the train company and a short-sighted middle manager. Just enough to get the audience's populist outrage going.
The suits at the central office are, in fact, upended by the efforts of the triumphant individuals-- Connie Hooper (Rosario Dawson), the super-efficient dispatcher who, like a mom, holds it all together for everyone; Frank Barnes (Denzel Washington), the veteran engineer with a plan to stop the runaway; and Will Colson (Chris Pine), the hunky young conductor who bonds with the engineer.
Washington and Pine do the actual heroic actions, but not without the help of a pretty large benevolent community all working together to make sure of the happy ending. In addition to Dawson's efforts, there is a government inspector played by Kevin Corrigan who has a crucial piece of advice; a calvary-over-the-hill pickup truck driver played by Lew Temple, as well as the collected manpower of the Pennsylvania State Police, local law enforcement, and local firefighters.
In this day and age, when action movies seem always to be about aliens destroying the world in a catclysm of blowing up the Golden Gate Bridge because the world depends on the actions of one superhero who just can't seem to win the love of another blockbuster romantic woman with long, windblown hair, "Unstoppable" is unexpected fun.
Movie still found here.
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