Runaway Train

Denzel Washington…an out-of-control speeding train…and director Tony Scott.

That combination just screams of a some summer blockbuster, right, but each of those elements actually is a key ingredient of one of the fall season’s most excting offerings, Unstoppable.

Making everything even better: the movie co-stars Chris Pine (Star Trek). Hello!

The conceit of the inspired-by-true-events Unstoppable is fairly easy: Everything that could go wrong with a train has gone wrong, and now it’s up to a couple of regular Joes to save the day.

Washington plays Frank Barnes, a veteran engineer who on the fateful day of the edge-of-your-seat action is partnered with Pine’s Will Colson, a young conductor that all the oldtimers aren’t too welcoming of out on the yard (there’s some behind-the-scenes drama about people getting fired and whatnot).

Frank’s a good guy, though, so he decides to make lemonade and teach Will the ropes, making sure he understands that, “This ain’t training...out here you get killed.”

It’s an important lesson since pretty soon that train I mentioned earlier...it’s gonna be coming straight at them.

This is an unmanned choo-choo, traveling at high velocity, lugging several cars – including eight freight cars of hazardous chemicals – headed through town after town for Stanton, Pa.

“We’re talking about a missile,” Rosario Dawson’s yard master tells us, “the size of the Chrysler Building.”

Together, though, Frank and Will are going to attempt an unprecedented heroic and “run this bitch down.”

OK – what they do is way more technical than that, but the fun of Unstoppable isn’t in me telling you how they do it, but in you seeing them pull it off. Yes, you’ll know they’ll make it – the movie is loosely based on a similar incident that took place in Ohio in 2001 – and you know that Denzel, well...he’s the man.

Plus, Scott sure knows how to deliver the thrills, and his trademark brand of filmmaking is well-suited for this one.

Hang on tight (the way you would to, say, one of Pine’s guns) and enjoy.

My Rating ***

Photo: 20th Century Fox.