Runaway Train *** (1985, Jon Voight, Eric Roberts, Rebecca De Mornay) – Classic Movie Review 9481

Director Andrei Konchalovsky’s 1985 Cannon Group adventure movie Runaway Train is a solid but over-blown mythical action thriller, with outsize performances by Jon Voight and Eric Roberts as escaping prisoners on an out-of-control train speeding through the snowy wastes of Alaska with no brakes and nobody driving.

To add to their troubles, it is the middle of winter and they are also being pursued by the brutal prison’s vengeful head of security.

Runaway Train is tense, robust and gripping and has a kind of foolish grandeur, but it would have been far more entertaining taken as a straight action thriller rather than as a serious-minded parable about life and death. It is kept on the rails by sheer enthusiasm and by the intense action sequences filmed on location in Montana and Alaska in evidently difficult conditions.

Rebecca De Mornay does well to make an impression as the token female, improbably cast as the railroad worker the two men take aboard as hostage.

Runaway Train is based on an original screenplay co-written by Akira Kurosawa, but any allegorical or philosophical meaning he had intended seems largely to have been lost. Surprisingly, the male stars were nominated for Oscars, Voight as Best Actor in a Leading Role, Roberts as Best Actor in a Supporting Role. Henry Richardson was also nominated for Best Film Editing. Voight won the 1986 Golden Globe for the Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama.

Runaway Train is a tough-toned thriller with strong language and violence, particularly at the start. That includes a shot of a cop being pulled under the wheels of the train, missing from some versions.

Also in the cast are Kyle T Heffner, John P Ryan, T K Carter, Kenneth McMillan, Stacey Pickren, Walter Wyatt, Hank Worden, Reid Cruickshanks and Edward Bunker.

Despite the hard work and awards buzz, it disappointed at the box office, costing $9,000,000 and grossing $7,683,620 in the US, adding further to the Cannon Group’s problems.

The screenplay is by Djordje Milicevic, Paul Zindel and Edward Bunker, based on a screenplay by Akira Kurosawa and a story by Ryûzô Kikushima and Hideo Oguni.

There is notable work on photography by Alan Hume, score by Trevor Jones, and production design by Joseph T Garrity and Stephen Marsh. It is a lovingly crafted movie. It is produced by Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, who took a bold and brave risk with financing the movie.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9481

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