Unstoppable is director Tony Scott's second straight train flick, but unlike last year's The Taking of Pelham 123, I guarantee you'll stay awake long enough to see how it all plays out. Scott reteams with his muse, Denzel Washington, in a flick that seems right up his alley, a frantic actioner featuring a runaway train filled with toxic goo, arrogant bureaucrats, and a pair of regular joes who are brave enough to risk their lives to put a stop to it. Unstoppable is pure formula, think Speed mixed with 1985's Runaway Train, but it's relentless pace and likable stars make it a ride worth jumping on.
The instant you see Denzel as veteran railroad engineer Frank Barnes, you know exactly who he is. Denzel does the common routine better than anybody, and has been ever since John Q
. Frank's history is quickly fleshed out in order to jump right into the action. He's a father to two twin daughters, struggling their way through college by waittressing at Hooters. Frank's wife is gone, and now all he really has to define him are his kids and his job. Nobody knows the rails better than him. He's like the Rain Main of the railways. Frank's biggest attributes are his modesty and his charm. He'll need both when he's paired up with fresh faced rookie, Will Colson(Chris Pine), for what should be an easy day of learning the ropes. To make sure we feel something for Will's character, we quickly learn that he's married and has a kid, but his wife took out a restraining order against him. Maybe Will isn't such a good, clean cut guy after all? Yeah right. This is a Tony Scott movie, where having layered characters is an obstacle.Thanks to a bumbling pair of buffoons(the perfectly cast TJ Miller and Ethan Suplee), a monstrous vessel of a train is set loose under it's own power. No conductor, nobody on board who can stop it. That might sound bad enough, having a half mile long train flying around the track with no regard for anything in it's path, but to make things even worse it's filled with tons of toxic and highly explosive chemicals. The concern isn't all that great until everybody figures out that it might derail somewhere around Scranton, where there's a chance Hilary Clinton might get covered in some acid wash or something.
The train company's attempts to minimize costs with half cocked attempts to slow it down are met with predictably destructive results, and so it's up to Frank and Will to stop it. The two represent an odd mix of qualities. Frank is a know-it-all who will always do the right thing no matter the cost. Will is the action guy, young and vigorous and a bit crazier. The two are aided by a a feisty dispatcher(Rosario Dawson), who isn't afraid to fly in the face of her corporate bosses and do whatever she can to bring the potential disaster to a peaceful resolution. Basically she's a minimized version of Denzel's character in Pelham 123, only much hotter.
Well, it's more real than Domino was. Take a few minutes to look up the "inspired by true events" tagline and you'll discover that Unstoppable is based on an event that actually took place back in 2001 in Ohio. It's been retrofitted into a pure adrenaline thriller, with a few unbelievable twists thrown in for added tension(such as a convenient train full of school kids). Expecting too much out of Unstoppable would be a mistake, but if you're expecting another reliably intense, kinetic experience then you're on the right track.
