THE RUNAWAY TRAIN

US, 1985, 111 minutes, Colour.
Jon Voight, Eric Roberts, Rebecca de Mornay, John P. Ryan.
Directed by Andrei Konchalovsky.

The Runaway Train is grim entertainment. It received a number of Oscar nominations, including Best Actor for Jon Voight and Best Supporting Actor for Eric Roberts. Voight won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of the escaped convict.

This is a prison film, some opening sequences in a remote strong security Alaskan prison. It is also a prison escape film, through the blizzards of Alaska. It is also a disaster film because the escapees are aboard a runaway train. The centralised computer and its operators have to deal with averting an accident. It is all presented with toughness, fast pace and a sense of suspense. It is also highly charged melodrama, the performances going almost over the top. This is particularly true of Voight and Roberts. There is support from Rebecca de Mornay who finds herself aboard the train and Kenneth Mc Millan as the officer responsible for stopping the accident.

The film is strikingly photographed in Alaskan settings by Alan Hume. Direction is by Russian expatriate Andre Koncholavski (director of Siberiade and Maria's Lovers).

1. The impact of the film as entertainment, character study? Themes? The nominations and awards?

2. The Alaskan location photography? The high security prison? Snow and mountains? The rail line? Grin interiors? Action, pace? Effects and stunts?

3. A serious prison and escape film? Serious disaster?

4. The significance of the quotation from, Richard III at the end - 'Beasts and humans'? The musical score?

5. How well did the screenplay blend prison themes, disaster themes? (The original screenplay being by Akira Kurosawa, a Japanese setting?)

6. The portrait of prison: remote, ugly, isolated men, the cell blocks, the demonstrations, solidarity, the isolated cell, the boxing matches, the knife attacks, the infirmary? The sketch of prisoners and prison behaviour? The superimpositions of the various characters at the end? The attitudes towards prisoners by authorities? The comment on society and the way that it treats prisoners?

7. The tension of the escape: Mannie's plan, the device with the laundry basket, the black guard and the sneakers, Buck's decision to go with Mannie, the men greasing themselves, lowering through the sewer, the rats, the fall-out of the pipes, the river, the snow, the walking through the snow, Buck's lack of shoes? Pace and tension? The railway station the empty room, warming themselves, clothes? The decision about which train to go on? Mannie's ingenuity in escaping three times from the prison?

8. The focus on the train? The railway station, the shunting yards? The ordinariness of the train but the engineer and his heart attack? The audience knowing that it was a runaway train and the two prisoners not knowing? The ride, the growing pace, the dangers, passing red signals, the crashing into the end of the good train, the disconnecting of the links between the engines, slowing down before the bridge, the attempts to cross the engine to the controls, going on the side track and the dead end, the final unlinking of the engines? The credibility of this train ride? Audience emotional involvement?

9. Jon Voight's characterisation of Mannie: the information given on the television interview, his being in his cell for three years, bolted and cemented in? His keeping fit in his cell? The confrontation with Ranken? His being let loose, going into the yard, his friends and their admiration, Buck having him as an idol? His background and bank robberies? Tough and ruthless? His manner of talking? Watching the boxing? The knife attack and the wounding of his shoulder and his hand, the pierced hand? The fight? The engineering of the escape? His shrewdness? The decision to take Buck? His determination, walking through the snow, using his wits? Keeping Buck to the mark? The choice of the train - and the irony that the choice was his? His assertion of freedom? His not believing in God, believing only in himself? The secular and self-determined hero? His ruthlessness of character~ manner, appearance, speech? Conscience? Ranken referring to the prisoners as animals? The beast in Mannie? His interaction with Buck? Tough, using him? The clashes and fight? The final confrontation and his collapse before Buck? The encounter with Sarah, hostility towards her? Her wanting his death? His final willingness to face death? His crossing the engine, his wounded hand? His tricking and defying Ranken? His options? Choice? The final defiance as he stood an the roof of the train moving towards crashing? The Shakespeare quotation in reference to him?

10. The comparison with Ranken: the similarities of appearance of the two men? The television interview, his reference to Mannie and the prisoners as animals? A sadist? His walking straight through the rioting cell blocks? His inciting the attack after the boxing match? His looking down from on high?, His sardonic amusement at the clash with Mannie? The escape, his decision to pursue? His admiration for Mannie? Barstow making him wait, putting his head down the toilet and intimidating him? The helicopter chase? His going down the ladder, landing on the train? His being outwitted by Mannie? His being handcuffed? His having to face death? The similarities between the two men? Obsessions and motivations? The Shakespearian quotation in reference to him?

11. Buck as a young criminal, his excited and extrovert manner? The background of his imprisonment, rape, statutory rape? His following Mannie as a hero? His strength in the boxing match? His doing the laundry, his banter with the black man? His decision to go, leaving the laundry basket? Buck's being accepted by Mannie? Greasing himself and his fastidiousness, the smell in the sewers? His wanting shoes in the snow? His spontaneity? Joy, lack of intelligence?, His puzzle on the train? Trying to work out what had happened? The encounter with Sarah and his brutal approach to her? His being forced to go out to cross the engine, his failure, Mannie's clash with him and their fight? His winning over Mannie? His decision to face death with Sarah? Mannie giving his life for them?

12. Sarah and the unexpected presence on board the train? The credibility of her going to sleep? Her pulling the cord? Her ideas about disconnecting the links? Her fall? The puzzles of the train, the convicts? Her not being intimidated by them? Her prayer and wanting a miracle? Her siding with Buck? Her hostility towards Mannie? Wanting Buck to kill him? Her final silence, not wanting to die alone? Being saved?

13. The picture of the central computer room? The slob attitudes there? The girl and her being on the phone, the attendant and his looking at the sex magazines? The mounting tension? Barstow and his knowledge of the computer, reliance on technological skill, using his wits? His keeping calm? Mc Donald's arrival and his responsibility, his threats? Barstow and his defiance of Ranken, his head put down the lavatory? His final musings about technology and its failure? Mc Donald and his inability to handle the situation, growing anxiety? The group of those watching?

14. The train engineers and their attitudes towards the runaway train, the goods train, the signalman and his changing the lines, hearing the signal and giving communications?

15. The prison guards, the helicopters, the guard landing on the train and his death through the window?

16. The picture of prison as real as symbolic? Themes of life and death? The train as real, as symbol?