Depictions of trains in movies

[DET63]

Hollywood often takes some liberties (as it does with everything else) when depicting trains, whether Amtrak, other passenger, subway, freight, you name it, in movies. I believe there was one movie (maybe more than one) that took place on an electric train. However, there was a fight scene or something that needed to take place on the roof, where the electrical wires supplying power to the train would get in the way. Suddenly, for that part of the film, the train was diesel-hauled.

Which movies would you judge have done the best job of depicting trains and rail travel? Which movies have been the worst at doing this? (I will hazard a guess that Atomic Train will not rank as one of the all-time realistic train movies. :lol: )

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Are you talking about that one Mission Impossible movie where Tom Cruise gets blown off a helicopter only to land on the back of a HSR train? If so I think it's already off the charts of any reality check. In other words, it's a total miss.

Here are some additional suggestions to help get the thread going...

1. Amazing Race - Several seasons have featured foreign train travel, especially India. They frequently fudge up their runway shots with unlikely aircraft that are either too large to fit the route density or are too small to make the long distance trips they supposedly depict. But what about the train shots? They seem to be a bit more realistic, at least at first glance. And if you're curious what the show is about they recently started the seventeenth season a week ago. Many on-demand episodes (this season and others) are featured for free viewing on CBS' website. Amazing Race Link...

2. Runaway Train - It may not be a passenger train, but the vast majority of the movie takes place on a train and the special effects took place before the computer enhancement revolution. It's been a while since I looked into it but seems like it would be an interesting discussion topic. Personally I always assumed the runaway locomotives would simply derail as they impacted the end of the other train. Having seen a few videos of actual impacts I think I'm probably right on that one, especially at the speed depicted.

3. The Fugitive - Although this movie took place after computers effects were already becoming common they actually used real locomotives in this one. I actually own this on HD media and although much of the movie is a little dull once you know the story the train scene itself is one of the best I've ever seen and even more impressive once you realize it's not computer generated.

4. Silver Streak - It's been a decade or more since I watched this, but it always held my interest when I was a little boy watching reruns on television. Maybe I'll have to check it out again before I comment further.

-Dax

 

[rrdude]

Wasn't a movie, think a short-lived tv series called "SuperTrain". I started flipping with the remote about 30 seconds into it. Really, really, really bad.....And that was the 1979 version, I guess the one done by NBC in 2006 was equally bad.

(Hmmmm, did I even have a remote in 1979? I think not)

 

[fredevad]

Was just watching Rain Man Saturday night. At the end Raymond and the doctor take an Amtrak train back to Cincinnati from LAUS. Although I've never been to LAUS, the station was convincing to me, but the train they took was not. They boarded Amfleet cars, but anything going to the midwest would have to be a Superliner. Also, as the train pulled out of the station they (coach passengers) were riding backwards which to my knowledge doesn't happen on LD trains (only regionals). But these are only things that we would notice, to most people it would be convincing.

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

Was just watching Rain Man Saturday night. At the end Raymond and the doctor take an Amtrak train back to Cincinnati from LAUS. Although I've never been to LAUS, the station was convincing to me, but the train they took was not. They boarded Amfleet cars, but anything going to the midwest would have to be a Superliner. Also, as the train pulled out of the station they (coach passengers) were riding backwards which to my knowledge doesn't happen on LD trains (only regionals). But these are only things that we would notice, to most people it would be convincing.

I do not remember how it depicted LAUS. But I think the equipment they rode in to come back east looked like commuter to me, or as I remember it.

On a much more positive note,realistic movies, "North by Northwest" by Alfred Hitchcock, hands down.

 

[MattW]

In the Cheaper by the Dozen (2003) movie, when the dad heads for the train station to find the kid who is heading back to his hometown from Chicago, he comes up to the platform from a tunnel set in the middle of the platform which Chicago does not have (to my knowledge). He boards a Superliner (riding backwards), but the next scene shows a METRA train in push mode.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

On a much more positive note,realistic movies, "North by Northwest" by Alfred Hitchcock, hands down.

And yet it bears almost no resemblance to anything I've ever seen in my lifetime.

 

[AlanB]

Spiderman II violated so many realities with their depiction of a NYC subway. There are no elevated tracks that end with a bumper post just inches from a river. One can't rip out the controller and yet still have the train continue moving, much less speed up. Emergency brakes that don't work. There were so many failures to observe reality in that scens.

 

[amtrakwolverine]

In the movie are we there yet They are supposed to take a train from Portland Oregon to Vancouver Canada. However The train they board in Portland is a Via rail train.

 

[jimhudson]

In the Classic "Some Like It Hot!", the female band (plus Tony curtis and Jack Lemon in drag!)is shown in a Heavyweight Pullman with the old Sections.(Uppers and lowers) At the end of one scene, about ten people are shown occupying an upper birth at once, not even the RailRoad Barons had rooms this big back in the day but the car and the curtains did look authentic! :wub:

 

[GG-1]

In the movie are we there yet They are supposed to take a train from Portland Oregon to Vancouver Canada. However The train they board in Portland is a Via rail train.

Aloha

I haven't seen this movie. But Vancouver BC is a major film city so it is not surprising VIA was used.

 

[PerRock]

Spiderman II violated so many realities with their depiction of a NYC subway. There are no elevated tracks that end with a bumper post just inches from a river. One can't rip out the controller and yet still have the train continue moving, much less speed up. Emergency brakes that don't work. There were so many failures to observe reality in that scens.

I believe Spiderman was filmed in Chicago anyways; so what NYCTA cars you did see were actually CTA cars...

Ah here we go; yes it was Spiderman; they used CTA 2200 series cars. Here are some pics:

http://chicago-l.org...an2-2200s01.jpg

http://chicago-l.org...an2-2200s02.jpg

http://chicago-l.org...an2-2200s03.jpg

I always thought that the James Bonds tended to be fairly accurate with their train shots; albeit some continuity errors (I believe the Orient Express in FRWL, changes color a couple times) But overall they've never bothered me. Oh and I'm not counting the "trains" in the villain's lairs.

peter

-------------------------------

For another forum I made up a list of every 007 which has a train in it; thought I'd repost it here.

There has been more than one official* 007 that has a train in it.

From Russia With Love (Orient Express),

Octopussy (Octopussy's circus train, a couple others),

Goldeneye (Janus's ICBM train),

Casino Royale (Eurostar/TGV),

OHMSS (Swiss regional train),

The Spy Who Loved Me (Monorail in tanker)

Die Another Day ("flatbed" subway car w/ Aston Martin on it)

Goldfinger (no train but Train Tracks behind 007 when he destroys Tilly's Car)

You Only Live Twice (Monorail in liar, Tiger's private subway train)

Live and Let Die (end scene with Baron Samedi; also monorail in liar -

)For Your Eyes Only (might not actually seen; but 007 takes Melina to the train station)

A View To A Kill (May Day rides out of the mine on a flat car with a bomb on it; Scenes shot in SF may have included a cable car, I cannot recall)

That should be all of the 007s with trains in them. A couple notes:

-in Casino Royal; they take a Eurostar train to Montenegro; The Eurostar doesn't run to Montenegro, so it can be assumed that they take some other EC & IC trains as well.

-Dalton era Bonds; I don't have quite an extensive knowledge on them so I might be missing a train in them. There is no mention of one in my reference books.

-Cable cars (gondola): I didn't count these as trains for this purpose

-"James Bond Movie": I have only taken account of the "Official" James Bond Movies, the ones produced by EON Productions & Danjaq LLC. The Majority of these are MGM/UA with the exception of the Casino Royale (which I reference the 2006 movie) & Quantum of Solace which are by Sony Pictures.

peter

 

[AlanB]

I believe Spiderman was filmed in Chicago anyways; so what NYCTA cars you did see were actually CTA cars...

Actually it seems from reading the info page from the site where you got the pictures that they only filmed the El for the exterior shots of the cars. I knew that those cars didn't look like any NYC subway cars.

However, the bulk of the second and third movies were shot here in NYC. I'm not sure about the first.

I know this in part because one day I was driving through Sunnyside Queens and was quite startled to see a subway entrance in a place where I knew there was no subway. The nearest subway was the elevated #7 a block away. The nearest underground subway was at least a 1/2 mile away at that point. They actually did a very good job recreating how the entrance would look, except for the fact that there were no stairs going down to the subway. The railings and signs just sat on top of the normal sidewalk.

 

[DET63]

In the Classic "Some Like It Hot!", the female band (plus Tony curtis and Jack Lemon in drag!)is shown in a Heavyweight Pullman with the old Sections.(Uppers and lowers) At the end of one scene, about ten people are shown occupying an upper birth at once, not even the RailRoad Barons had rooms this big back in the day but the car and the curtains did look authentic! :wub:

Sounds like one of the_traveler's trips . . .

 

[Pastor Dave]

I thought the train scene from the great movie "Holiday Inn" with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope was kind of cool.

 

[lthanlon]

--> "Under Siege 2: Dark Territory" has some nice opening scenes shot in Denver Union Station, but for some odd reason the director decided to use special effects to add pylons and poles in the waiting room. There also are some notable action scenes later in the film, but I'm not enough of an expert on rail equipment and rolling stock to know if these were depicted accurately.

--> "How the West Was Won" has some great vintage steam train scenes in the final segment of the film. Best moment is when a bad guy is knocked off the train during an extended fight scene and plows into a cactus.

--> "Breakheart Pass" with Charles Bronson has lots of locomotive action, including a derailment.

--> "The Silver Streak" (1934) features the Pioneer Zephyr in a desperate run to get iron lungs to the Boulder Dam worksite, where a polio outbreak has occurred. Cheap production values, but fun.

 

[Shawn Ryu]

Big Bang Theory has an episode where it takes place in Coast Starlight.

 

[DET63]

How about South by Southwest, a "Murder, She Wrote" movie in which much of the action takes place on a train (I guess it's supposed to be the Sunset Limited, but it might also be the Southwest Chief or some amalgamation of the two)?

 

[Julie]

In Cheaper By the Dozen what is the name of the song that's playing when Tom (the dad) is running through the train station to find his son Mark?

 

[trainman74]

Big Bang Theory has an episode where it takes place in Coast Starlight.

That's the one episode of "Big Bang Theory" I've ever seen -- the coach interior used on the show looked nothing like a Superliner; it had facing "bench-style" seats.

And part of the plot involved actress Summer Glau taking the Coast Starlight to Santa Barbara in coach -- that's even somewhat unrealistic for a non-celebrity. (I have seen celebrities in Pacific Surfliner business class, though.)

However, everything else about the episode was pretty accurate; it's obvious that the writers/producers on that show do their research reasonably well. (I'm just not a fan of laugh tracks.)

 

[Anderson]

In 500 Days of Summer, the movie featured some folks taking the Surfliner to San Diego from LA. IIRC, they screwed up and used Superliner cars for the exterior shots...but that was the biggest error I can recall.

 

[trainman74]

In 500 Days of Summer, the movie featured some folks taking the Surfliner to San Diego from LA. IIRC, they screwed up and used Superliner cars for the exterior shots...but that was the biggest error I can recall.

L.A. to Santa Barbara, actually. I don't remember any mistaken exterior shots myself. (Also, many of the Surfliner trainsets actually do contain one Superliner.)

 

[Guest]

Super 8 - Somehow a half ton pickup truck can make a train turn into hell on earth and after it is all done the train only slices the pickup in half and the driver survives. I am not the kind of person who has a fit about unrealistic parts of movies, but this movie is supposed to be an homage to ET and this particular scene reminded me more of the car crash from Blues Brothers 2000.

 

[Anderson]

Super 8 - Somehow a half ton pickup truck can make a train turn into hell on earth and after it is all done the train only slices the pickup in half and the driver survives. I am not the kind of person who has a fit about unrealistic parts of movies, but this movie is supposed to be an homage to ET and this particular scene reminded me more of the car crash from Blues Brothers 2000.

I discussed this elsewhere (and I'm the guy who raised it on TVTropes) , but as near as I can tell...that was Conrail track in southern Ohio (amusingly enough, the routing the train had was quite valid, and in fact possibly the most logical...WP [or SP, possibly] to UP to Conrail)...but damnit, that was ex-Penn Central track in 1979. I don't think they'd really started fixing things up by then. How the military expected that they could get around slow orders on those tracks (some of you can remember how bad things got under the PC; I've only read about it) and not risk a derailment is beyond me. Not only that, but I swear I'm going to borrow a copy of the movie and time that train...because I'd bet $10 they were breaking the Class 5 speed limit to boot (that was my first instinct on seeing the crash..."Ok, who decided to break the speed limit?").

And of course, now I'm thinking "If they'd put that on Santa Fe or UP track, I could buy the speed limit violation"...