Strangers and a Train

Unstoppable

*** out of ****

Directed by: Tony Scott

Starring: Denzel Washington, Chris Pine, Rosario Dawson and Kevin Dunn

Running time: 98 minutes

It rockets forward, careening at 80 miles per hour. The brakes are disconnected, the conductor is absent, the materials inside can be deadly if exposed near certain chemicals. If it veers off track for a split second, the impact could be catastrophic.

That’s the set-up for Unstoppable, a sleekly paced and solidly acted adrenaline rush from director Tony Scott. While Scott’s reliance on hyperkinetic editing and swooping camera movement have become overwhelming in his later films, he wisely decided on a project featuring a centerpiece that also cannot stop moving.

The film marks Scott’s fifth collaboration with Denzel Washington (and his second in a row featuring a dangerous train, after last year's Pelham 1 2 3 remake). Washington is Frank Barnes, a blue-collar engineer on a Southern Pennsylvania railroad who is partnered up with a young conductor, Will Colson (Chris Pine).

But with a runaway train chugging along nearby, and a young yardmaster, Connie Hooper (Rosario Dawson, appealing as ever), responsible for fixing the potentially deadly situation, she calls on the twosome to stop it manually. As the locomotive careens toward urban Pennsylvania, there’s a high chance it could derail on a sharp, curvy turn that would send it crashing into a fuel oil tank farm.

Unstoppable is loosely inspired by an incident in 2001, when an unmanned train spiraled through the tracks of a Northwestern Ohio railway for 66 miles. The speed was lower (under 50 m.p.h.) and the consequences far less perilous, but that wouldn’t have made for a very exciting film.

Here, you got two likable and virile actors, Washington and Pine, playing characters who are easy to root for, even when Mark Bomback's script introduces some disarray within their lives. This was likely done to ensure that these characters can reconcile these flaws by saving the day.

As swift the pacing and as high as the stakes are raised, it might have been wise had Bomback packed in more time with the two central characters. The film’s reliance on news outlets spelling out the situations and emphasizing the danger are overused. We need to care more about the "who" than the "what," even in an intense life-or-death situation.

Regardless, it's a minor flaw for an otherwise formidable achievement in action filmmaking. With Scott as the film's superconductor, toning down the CGI and amping up the swerving tracking shots, the action sequences – with real trains at really high speeds with really crazy close calls – are masterfully shot and edited.

Although the characters may be a tad too ordinary, the heroics within Unstoppable are extraordinary. It delivers as an aggressive, taut thrill ride that lives up to its title, meaning it would be wise to upsize that popcorn.