UNSTOPPABLE is a formula thriller, to be sure, but one in which everyone is at the top of his or her game. The premise is that of a runaway train with explosive cargo barreling into a major population center, and is played against a nice sub-plot of corporate weenies in their skyscrapers second-guessing and undercutting the people on the ground who know what they are doing. Its executed with a piquant juxtaposition that, during economic times when the rich get richer and the dedicated get laid-off, make it all the more satisfying.
An unfortunate series of human errors centering around the slack-jawed Dewey (Ethan Suplee) finds train 777, the one that is a half-mile long and packing highly flammable and toxic material, careening out unmanned from its train yard in southern Pennsylvania. For technical reasons, there is nothing to stop it or to slow it down, and its going too fast to allow anyone to hop into the engineers cab put the brakes to it. Fortunately, this happens on a day when a gaggle of schoolchildren are en route, by rail of course, to the train yard for a field trip on rail safety. Fortunate because this allows for the de rigeur children in peril interlude, and because it puts a Federal rail-safety expert (Kevin Corrigan) in the command center where the yard master, Connie (Rosario Dawson), is scrambling to get on top of the situation.
Meanwhile, coming from the opposite direction in train 1206 are Frank (Denzel Washington) and Will (Chris Pine) and their issues that are bubbling up around them. Frank, an engineer with, as he keeps reminding Will, 28 years of experience, doesnt like playing babysitter to a conductor trainee. Will resents the resentment, and being held personally responsible for managements decision to phase out the old-timers with newer faces that are less expensive. Naturally, there are also domestic problems. Frank forgot his daughters birthday. Will is dealing with the restraining order his wife swore out on him. All in all, every element necessary for a good, old-fashioned melodrama are in place.
Director Tony Scott does a superb job and then some of milking every bit of tension and suspense from the shopworn story, moving the camera with the same reckless abandon that train 777 is experiencing. So much so that when a few minor plot holes have the temerity to rear their ugly heads, the action is surging along relentlessly enough to make them unimportant from a purely entertainment perspective. He gives equal respect to the dramas unfolding on the train and among the company folk trying to save the day. Well, most of them anyway. A glib shot of the company president taking a call on the golf course about the situation, and fretting as much about the potential stock drop a disaster would precipitate as the loss of life, is nicely underplayed and perfectly brief. Leaving the meaty part of that story, the know-nothing manager (Kevin Dunn) locking horns with the gutsy station master, who tells him off, and with Frank, who all but laughs into the phone at his orders, to resonate with anyone who has ever worked for a boss who was out of touch.
As for the train, it zooms along, leaving mayhem, fire, and tossed cars in its wake. As for Frank and Will, each gets a shot at derring-do as they bond, the way all buddy films have had men in such situations bond since the dawn of cinema. Cliché, you betcha, but Washington and Pine both have the necessary star quality to pull it off. These are not roles that stretch them greatly, but ones that do show them off to great advantage.
UNSTOPPABLE, though inspired by a true story, zooms recklessly through the plot of a barely credible, but boldly effervescent, popcorn flick. Once the breakneck pace begins, it never makes the mistake of pausing to let the audience catch its breath. And it is also never stops being completely fun.
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