Manny and Bucky manage to escape from their maximum security prison. Their escape is very difficult and dangerous because they are in the middle of Alaska, a region with frosty climatic conditions. However, they reach the station and board the train. Unfortunately for them, the driver has a heart attack and the convoy’s brakes stop responding… The speed keeps increasing and no one seems to be able to turn it back…
It’s an absolute joy to see this raging 80s gem in the Amazon Prime Video catalog, which is, let’s not be afraid of words, simply one of the best action movies ever made: Runaway Train.
Inspired by news of an American film to be shot in New York in the early 1970s, starring Henry Fonda and Peter Falk, the project was abandoned by Akira Kurosawa, who was writing the screenplay.
About ten years later, the script landed on the desk of Cannon, the famous studio that produces the B-series action movies that fans of Chuck “Braddock” Norris know well. Partially written by the auteur Edward Bunker, who was familiar with the prison world as he served several sentences there, the film is directed by Andrei Konchalovsky, a Russian filmmaker who came to settle in the United States.
The result is a breathtaking tour; A prison film that spins fast behind closed doors at very high speeds, inevitably fatal. Shot in deathly cold landscapes and full of sometimes Dantesque sequences that repeatedly hit the nerves, the film is also held at arm’s length by the hallucinatory and animalistic Jon Voigt in Mann’s costume, who finds one here. The best roles of his career. Facing Eric Roberts in Unison, also trying to survive the ruthless Jon Voigt.
A converted trainTo watch (and re-watch!) on Prime Video.
Source: Allocine
Rose James is a Gossipify movie and series reviewer known for her in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the latest releases. With a background in film studies, she provides engaging and informative reviews, and keeps readers up to date with industry trends and emerging talents.
