Movie: 500 Days of Summer

[sportbiker]

The movie is set in L.A. Halfway through, the lead characters go to Santa Barbara. We see them going up a ramp from the station tunnel, boarding the train, then the movie continues with a few scenes inside a Surfliner coach and a snack car. After the events in Santa Barbara, there are some scenes of the return trip in another Surfliner.

Aside from good publicity for Amtrak, one of the best things is that the characters don't make a fuss about taking the train-- it's treated as simply the way that Angelenos escape to Santa Barbara. I bet it will surprise a lot of the Great Unwashed Masses who would never have even known that here there be trains!

 

[jackal]

Aside from good publicity for Amtrak, one of the best things is that the characters don't make a fuss about taking the train-- it's treated as simply the way that Angelenos escape to Santa Barbara. I bet it will surprise a lot of the Great Unwashed Masses who would never have even known that here there be trains!

If only I wish those Great Unwashed Masses were intelligent enough to pick up on that.

Having worked for over 6 years in the customer service industry, I am of the firm opinion that the average IQ of the GUM is about 30.

The whole taking-the-train-to-Santa-Barbara thing will likely not even register in their feeble minds--that is, they'll be in such a la-la-land watching the movie that they won't even realize that a train was even taken. (Quiz them after the movie and they probably won't even remember anything about a train.) The mildly more intelligent of the bunch (those with an IQ of 40) may remember something about a train, but they'll think the whole movie was completely fictional and the thought that it's any parallel to real life will simply escape them. The GUM geniuses (IQs of 50) will actively challenge the movie, thinking "Yes, it takes place in Southern California, and yes, they rode a train, but there's no such thing as a train to Santa Barbara!"

Alas, Amtrak will be reserved for those of us with the intelligence to understand that rail travel exists and appreciate its benefits. Perhaps that's why other passengers on Amtrak are so civilized compared to those on airplanes!

 

[sechs]

I think that if you rode the Pacific Surfliner in coach more often, you'd find more of the GUM ride, and they ain't civilised.

 

[BlueJeanGirl]

Ah! I knew that was you on my Del Mar train last weekend! :lol:

Travel light!

~BJG

I think that if you rode the Pacific Surfliner in coach more often, you'd find more of the GUM ride, and they ain't civilised.