Editorial
Front Page - Friday, December 3, 2010
The Critic's Corner
“Unstoppable”
David Laprad
Everyone has had his or her share of “oops” moments on the job. On occasion, I’ve re-read something I’ve written after it’s been printed and noticed a typo or misspelled word. While that’s annoying, it’s not earth shattering. But when a train engineer in “Unstoppable” exits his train to correctly line a switch, mistakenly believing he’s properly set the train’s dynamic braking system, he essentially launches a missile at an oncoming locomotive packed with school kids.
Oops.
Inspired by a real life incident in 2001, “Unstoppable” stars Denzel Washington as engineer Frank Barnes and Chris Pine as train conductor Will Colson. Assigned to work together for the first time, both men begin what they assume will be a routine day of moving a train from point A to point B. However, before long, their skills and courage are tested as they try to avoid a head-on collision with the unmanned train and then attempt to stop it.
Director Tony Scott takes a few minutes to develop his characters and establish the situation before he sends the train careening down Pennsylvanian tracks. Barnes is levelheaded guy who knows his job well; Colson is green as the day he was born and carrying a chip on his shoulder.
When Barnes points out that Colson mistakenly added too many cars to his train, Colson lashes back out of pride. It’s an effective, well-acted moment that shows what both men are made of.
Thanks to Scott and writer Mark Bomback, the events leading up to the train slipping away are wholly believable. Indeed, it’s easy to see how several tiny blunders could add up to a big mistake. If there’s a point to “Unstoppable,” it’s that we trust our machines too much, and that we should rely more on human ability.
While the opening moments of “Unstoppable” tick by slowly, once the train is barreling down the track at 70 mph, the movie never slows down. At one end of the line is the town of Stanton; at the other end is the train Barnes and Colson are controlling, and in the middle is the missile, which is carrying several tons of explosive chemicals.
If Barnes and Colson can’t stop the runaway train before it hits a curve in Stanton, it’ll derail and decimate the small town.
Thrown into the mix is a corporate buffoon who’s more concerned the company’s bottom line than anything else. Although his attempts to stop the runaway train end disastrously, he actually threatens to fire Barnes and Colson if they proceed with their own plan. I’m not sure if people like that exist in real life, but they make good, if predictable, movie villains.
One of the reasons “Un-stoppable” works so well is Scott’s capable direction. He frequently shows the train up close, to give the audience a sense of its raw power, and then switches to a long shot of it cutting across the landscape.
He also shoots the action in such a way that audiences should be able to understand what’s taking place at any moment.
Moreover, he keeps the dialogue under control, telling viewers what they need to know and then cutting back to the action.
My only complaint is the nauseating way he tends to quickly circle around characters that are speaking, probably in an effort to maintain the sense of urgency.
When Scott is centered on the speeding train, he’s like a kid smashing his toys together and making crashing noises with his mouth, and it’s fun to watch. There’s a visually impressive action scene in which the runaway train plows through a small truck that accidentally ended up on the track, and a gripping scene on the curve in Stanton.
I also enjoyed the shots of Barnes running across the top of the runaway train. Between “The Book of Eli” and “Unstoppable,” Washington has more than proven himself to be “the man”
in 2010.
Certain moments strain credibility, though. To keep the audience up to speed, Scott interjects media reports, none of which are plausible. There’s no way the anchor could know the information he provides his viewers, including the names of Barnes and Colson. I also question the scenes in which police and onlookers line the tracks to see the train speed by, in spite of the obvious peril. And could a news organization really create a 3D computer animation of a potential train crash in a matter of minutes?
Scott lets a few continuity errors slip by, too. He repeatedly shows a close-up of the runaway train moving at a high rate of speed and then cuts to a long shot of it lumbering down the rails.
Minor issues aside, “Unstop-pable” is an exciting, suspenseful and well-executed action picture. While more and more people are choosing to see movies at home, and are only coming out for event films like “Harry Potter,” I recommend you try to see this one on a big screen.
Email David Laprad at dlaprad@hamiltoncountyherald.com.
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