Unstoppable (Denzel Washington, Chris Pine, Rosario Dawson) – Producer/
Director Tony Scott and multiple Oscar winner Denzel Washington have done five movies together. What a pairing. From one of my favorites, Crimson Tide, to the under-rated Man on Fire, Scott and Washington make compelling, character-driven, thrill-a-minute films. That is the perfect description of Unstoppable, a buddy film that puts you on the edge of your seat. If you have seen the trailer, you know that the plot involves a runaway train that threatens populated areas unless it can be stopped.
Washington plays Frank, the 28-year veteran engineer who’s been given his walking papers. The fact that he’s being given early retirement at half pay is supposed to play as his motivation, but it doesn’t work. It’s a cheap ploy that is unnecessary as is the fact that he’s a widower with two beautiful teenage daughters who work at Hooters. I suppose that’s designed to give his character depth but why?
The film opens with Frank meeting his new partner for the day, Will (played by Chris Pine of Star Trek and Bottle Shock), a young, connected conductor who doesn’t appear to Frank to be a serious trainman. Pine is engaging as Will, who has personal troubles of his own. The two take their train where it needs to go only to find out that there is a runaway train on the same track they are on. Dodging a bullet, they decide to go after the train in order to try to stop it before it either decimates a fictional 750,000 person town in southern Pennsylvania (obviously, no one involved in the movie realizes that rural Pennsylvania has no cities of this size (heck, Pittsburgh, where the film was shot, only has about 500,000 in the city itself).
Anyway, we all know the ending about here, but the fun of the movie is in the journey. It isn’t whether Frank and Will will stop the train; it’s how. This is where the estimated $100 million cost of the movie comes in. Scott likes to use “real” action; almost no computer-generated stuff for him. So both actors do a fair amount of their own stunts while the train speeds toward Armageddon. Unlike so many movies when I either almost nod off or actually fall asleep, there isn’t a single moment of boredom for the audience. Scott’s film is expertly directed, well-acted, and exquisitely photographed. The music and pacing are perfect, too. This is one of those films that, when it hits TV, I will watch it over and over. So should you.