Unstoppable (2010)

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Remember how good Speed was so long Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock stayed on the bus? And how the whole thing grinded to a halt once that bus stopped?

Tony Scott must have learned a lesson from Jan de Bont's thriller, because Unstoppable never stops its bus (which, in this case, happens to be a train). How could he stop it? That would betray the title. The result is an exhilarating popcorn blockbuster consciously held out of the superficial summer season to deliver Thanksgiving thrills.

Will (Chris Pine) hates his life. His wife has filed a restraining order against him because she's afraid of his temper. Now he's forbidden from visiting their daughter. The veteran engineers at work despise Will because he's part of the "new breed," the wet-behind-the-ears generation of jerks who prefer cutting corners and are prone to make massive mistakes.

Before Will is given the chance to defend his younger colleagues, two of them royally screw up. Hoping to manually flip a traffic switch before their train leaves the depot, they hop off a locomotive carrying large amounts of toxic chemicals and allow it to get away from them.

Now the vehicle -- which is described at one point by a beautiful traffic controller (Rosario Dawson) as a "missile the size of the Chrysler Building" -- barrels through several blue-collar Pennsylvania towns without a driver and gains speed as it targets a heavily populated mill town. Though they are ordered by the sleazy corporate suit (Kevin Dunn) not to interfere, Will and long-time train engineer Frank (Denzel Washington) decide to stop the train before thousands of lives are lost.

There's not a lot you can say about Scott's cast, because there isn't a lot that they are asked to do. Dawson looks fantastic fretting over digital boards that show where the train might crash next. Washington is noble and steadfast barking orders into a walkie talkie. And while he gets to do some late-game train hopping (courtesy of a stunt double, of course), it's his younger co-star who steals some the limelight. After Unstoppable, Pine automatically should receive the action comedy roles that somehow go to James McAvoy, Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal and the rest of the rail-thin, pint-sized, less-than-intimidating Abercrombie acting school graduates. The dude can throw punches, verbal and physical, with Washington. That's saying something.

Scott, meanwhile, has more fun vilifying the train, turning it into a beast of a character. He uses menacing camera angles and splices in the sounds of rampaging creatures (rhino, elephants) when the locomotive is near. He also uses actual trains in his numerous crash sequences, as there's very little noticeable CGI on screen in Unstoppable.

Is Scott's picture flawless? Not exactly. Even at 96 minutes, screenwriter Mark Bomback (Live Free or Die Hard) could trim some of his exposition. Characters insist on repeating that there is a "Train" (capital T) barreling at "High Speeds" (capital H and S) carrying "Lethal Toxins" (capital L and T), in case you've dozed off or somehow forgotten the minuscule plot.

But we're already overthinking it. Unstoppable claims to be inspired by true events. That may or may not be true. Whether or not you believe that is inconsequential, however, for as long as you can accept the fact that trains occasionally get away from their drivers, you are the right mental height to board this thrilling ride.