Welcome back to Movie Recaps.
Today I will show you an action, thriller film from 2010, titled Unstoppable.
Spoilers ahead!
Watch out and take care.
Young conductor Will Colson is starting a new job at the Brewster Yard in Southern Pennsylvania,
but before heading there, he stops near his old house to watch from afar his ex-wife Darcy
send their son to school.
He cannot come closer because he's under a restraining order since an incident two weeks
ago when he threw a jealous tantrum over his wife texting someone without telling him and,
thinking the messages were from a man they knew, he visited and threatened him with his
gun.
Said man turned out to be a cop, and actually, Darcy had only been chatting with her sister.
He tries to call her before leaving, but she ignores the call when she sees it's from him.
When he arrives at the yard, he meets the man he'll be working with, veteran railroad
engineer Frank Barnes.
Frank's friends tease him for being so young, and Will in return mocks them for being rather
old.
After agreeing with Fank to meet by the trains later, the other men comment on the fact Will
only got his job because he has family working in the union.
Meanwhile, at Fuller Yard in Northern Pennsylvania, yard hostlers Dewey and Gilleece are moving
the lead locomotive #777 to clear a track that needs to be ready for another train that
will be carrying a group of students on a class trip about railway safety.
Gilleece points out Dewey has forgotten to tie the air in from the point, which means
he doesn't have any air breaks, but Dewey says he doesn't need them to just move the
train to another track inside the yard and he'll fix it afterward, otherwise their boss
will get mad at them.
As the locomotive starts advancing, Dewey notices a trailing-point switch is not correctly
aligned, so he leaves the cab after setting the throttle to idle.
Dewey manages to move the switch, but at the same time, the throttle pops out of idle into
full throttle notch 8, which causes the train to gain speed and leave Dewey behind, unable
to get back.
Now the #777 has officially become a runaway.
Frank's and Will's job of the day is to pick twenty-five cars past Stanton.
While they're getting ready, Will gets a call from his brother saying his lawyer has gotten
a hearing to nullify the restraining order and not to worry because he doesn't need to
be there for it, he can stay at work for now.
A few moments later, while Will moves the locomotive onto the right track, Frank calls
one of his daughters after he realizes he forgot her birthday, but she hangs up on him
when he tries to come up with some excuse.
Then Frank realizes Will has located the locomotive on the track backward, so he scolds him for
not paying attention and comments on the fact the company is sending young, barely trained
people like him to take the veterans' jobs.
After a few hours of driving together though, they bond over the stories of their families
- Will tells him about the restraining order, and Frank about having lost his wife to cancer.
Back at Fuller Yard, yardmaster Connie Hooper is arriving at the office and after she is
informed of what's happened, she immediately begins to work on finding a solution.
First, they call the conductor that is carrying the school kids and tell him to divert to
a siding in Portville, which he successfully does, passing next to the empty runaway train
on the way.
Next, they call lead welder Ned Oldham and order him to get ahead of the train in his
truck and switch it off the main track.
However, when Ned makes it to the switch, it's too late: the train has already passed,
which means it is running on full power.
Connie sends Ned, Dewey, and Gilleece to follow the train in their cars while she calls the
police so they send officers to every mainline crossing.
Dewey and Gilleece get close to the train and Gilleece even manages to grab the railing,
but he finds himself obliged to let go when a sign gets in the way between them and the
train, making them lose it.
When Frank and Will make it to the yard, Will gets distracted by another call from this
brother telling him the judge didn't like him not being there and has extended the restraining
order for another thirty days.
Now in a bad mood, Will accidentally cuts in too many cars, gaining him the angry scolding
from Frank again.
While they're arguing, they receive a call warning them about the runaway and asking
them to clear their train at the next siding, which is still ten miles away.
The accident is starting to make it to the news, and now Connie receives an angry call
from Oscar Galvin, VP of Train Operations.
When he asks about the cargo the runaway is carrying, she mentions something called molten
phenol, but she doesn't know what it is exactly.
The one who does know is Federal Railroad Administration inspector Scott Werner, who
had gone to the yard to give a talk to the kids that has obviously been canceled.
Werner explains molten phenol is highly toxic and flammable and basically transforms the
train into a potential missile the size of a building.
Connie suggests they should derail the train while it's still going through the farmlands,
otherwise, it'll reach populated areas soon and it will be too late.
However, Galvin turns down the idea, saying it would cost the company too much money to
lose an entire train and its special cargo while there's still a chance to stop it.
At one of the mainline crossings, the cops fail to stop a truck before it comes too close,
and it ends up crashing against another truck carrying horses, pushing it over the rails
as the runaway train comes closer.
The owners rush to take the horses out of the truck, which proves to be difficult because
the animals are scared, but thankfully they manage to move them out of the way right before
the train arrives and destroys what is left of the truck.
In the meantime, Frank calls the main office to report a problem: they can't take the next
siding because they're pulling extra cars and the train won't fit.
Will thinks they should pull the break, but Frank refuses to do so because it would cause
the train to side up, so he stays on the main track, which means sooner or later they'll
encounter the runaway train.
After a meeting with the president of AWVR and other directors, Galvin informs Connie
of the plan they'll be following: they'll send two locomotives helmed by engineer Judd
Stewart to slow down the train so that former U.S. Marine Ryan Scott can descend via helicopter
to the control cab.
Judd manages to keep his locomotives in front of the train long enough to slow it down,
but when Ryan tries to get on it, the runaway train suddenly lunges and causes him to hit
a windshield, knocking him unconscious.
Their next idea is to get Judd to guide the runaway into the siding, but the runaway train
is too heavy and is going too fast, so it pushes the locomotives off the track without
effort, making them explode and killing Judd.
Frank and Will are coming too close to the runaway train, so Frank calls his daughters
to tell them he loves them before they can learn about this on tv.
There's a siding under repairs nearby, so they will attempt to get on that track right
before the runaway reaches them.
Frank manages to turn his train just in time and gets off the main track at the same time
the runaway passes next to them, but they're still carrying too many cars, so the runaway
train destroys Frank's last boxcar.
One of Frank's friends at headquarters informs him they're evacuating the next town, which
means they'll be derailing the train like they should've done earlier.
Frank doesn't believe it will work however, because portable derailers aren't strong enough
to resist the high-speed and rather heavy weight of the runaway train.
He has another idea though: he's noticed the last car of the runaway has an open coupler,
so they could travel in reverse and attempt to couple their engine to the runaway, then
use their own brakes to slow it down before it reaches the Stanton Curve.
At first, Will thinks the idea is too dangerous but accepts to go with Frank when he realizes
his wife and kid are in danger.
The duo disconnects the cars from their locomotive and starts driving it in reverse while informing
Connie of their plan, surprising her with the news of the incoming derailing since Galvin
didn't tell her anything and he wasn't picking up her calls.
When hearing about what Frank is trying to do however, Gavin accepts talking to them,
threatening Frank with firing him if he doesn't stop right now.
The thing is, Frank has already been fired with forced early retirement and half-benefits,
he received the ninety-day notice seventy-two days ago.
This makes Will understand Frank's complaint about the young trainees stealing the seniors'
jobs, so when Galvin tries to threaten him with firing him as well, Will ignores him
and shows support for Frank's plan.
After they hang up on Galvin, he orders Connie to stop them before he hangs up as well, but
Connie likes what the duo is doing and only pretends to follow Galvin's orders when she
actually is keeping them updated with the location and speed of the runaway train.
As the train approaches the derailers, the police attempt to stop it before it comes
down to that by shooting the engine's fuel cutoff button, but the runaway is going too
fast for their aim to be exact and they fail.
Just as Frank predicted, the derailers aren't strong enough to stop the train, and the runaway
passes over them as if they hadn't even been there in the first place.
Now the safety of the town is in Frank's and Will's hands, a fact that is quickly picked
on by the news, allowing Darcy, her son, and Frank's daughters to follow what's happening
with their loved ones.
While Ned takes the cops with him to try to catch up with the train, Connie lets Werner
talk to Frank.
He's done the math and advises them that instead of gunning the train in the opposite direction,
they should alternate full throttle and dynamic braking.
It may lose them some counterthrust, but they'll compensate for it in tractive voice.
Frank is a bit skeptical of the idea but accepts to try it since the guy seems to know what
he's talking about and Connie supports him.
As they get closer to the runaway train, Will decides to go outside and guide Frank through
a combination of hand signs and messages through the walkie-talkie.
When the trains finally come in contact with each other, Frank's locomotive accidentally
blows the runaway’s car seal, causing it to spray grain all over them.
Frank pushes the locomotive again, this time managing to get the locking pins touch, but
they still won't engage.
Will decides to jump in the middle of both trains and push the pin with his own foot,
solving the problem but also slipping and almost falling off.
He manages to hold on to the railings and climb back up, but his foot is now hurt.
When he returns to the cab, Frank gives him some tape to bandage it temporarily.
They're about to reach the Straton curve, so Frank concentrates on starting a game of
tug-of-war using the tactic Werner told him earlier.
They manage to slow down things a little bit, but the runaway train overpowers them with
its speed and weight and is still dragging them with it.
Will gets an idea then: they should try to engage the handbrakes on each car.
Since his foot is hurt, Frank leaves him in charge of the dynamic brakes and throttle
while he climbs on top of the roof and jumps from car to car, activating the handbrakes.
The locomotive eventually loses its brakes to the traction motors being overworked, and
the train starts gaining speed again.
They decide to try the independent air brake to save them from the incoming curve, so Frank
guides Will through the walkie-talkie and tells him when to hit the independent to achieve
perfect maneuvers.
Their combined effort is successful and the runaway manages to follow the curve with little
damage caused to their surroundings.
Now they're out of the dangerous curve, Frank goes back to jump from car to car to try to
reach the runaway's cab, but the last gap is too wide for him to jump over.
When they are starting to think there's no hope left, Ned shows up in his truck, making
its way next to the train after causing two police cars to crash against each other.
After checking with Connie that this is safe, Will jumps on the back of the truck and Ned
proceeds to drive him to the front of the train, where after some effort, Will manages
to jump aboard the runaway's cab and finally apply the breaks to make it stop.
When he gets off the train, the paramedics immediately take care of his foot, and he
gets to reunite with Darcy and their son again.
Some hours later, they all get to assist a press conference, Frank gets to reunite with
his daughters, and Connie comes to congratulate them in person as well.
After it's all over, their futures become very certain.
Frank gets his job back with a promotion and later retires with full benefits.
Will gets married to Darcy and they are waiting for their second child.
Connie gets promoted to Galvin's VP position, which he lost over his awful decisions.
Ryan is recovering very well from his injuries, and Dewey is now a fast-food worker.