Released at the beginning of August, David Leitch’s film Bullet Train is a feast of action and absurd humor, very influenced by Asian cinema, Hong Kong version à la Jackie Chan or more Japanese à la Takashi Miike. We also sometimes think of Guy Ritchie’s hypercut editing from the Snatch era. Bad Bunny and Sandra Bullock are a real treat. And the little twist that changes everything: all the action takes place on a high-speed train that connects Tokyo to Kyoto. A whole night of pitfalls, twists and spills of all kinds that make you want to see more movies on board a train. Luckily, here are our ten favorite movies that take place on trains. Unstoppable (2010) Great little-known and very underrated film from the late Tony Scott. The plot is simple, Denzel Washington plays a train driver nearing retirement, a little gruff, who must take under his wing an upstart and wanker Chris Pine. The two will find themselves in a race against time with a destructive train that refuses to stop. There, that’s all. But the epileptic science of action à la Tony Scott sublimates this simple story that could just have been an afternoon disaster TV movie on M6. There, none of that, the very fine description of all the organizations working on the switching and the management of train traffic make it all very precise and engaging. And a train filmed at high speed in an extreme turn, it’s very, very beautiful. Transamerica Express (1976) There, we are on an unclassifiable jewel. Part comedy, parody thriller and romantic drama, this film by Arthur Hiller (Love Story, The In-Laws) goes through all the emotions. The excellent Gene Wilder plays a young publisher who takes the Transamerica Express train from Chicago to Los Angeles. On board, he will fall in love, then witness the murder of the boss of his crush, before being framed for another murder that he did not commit. After getting off and then back on the train by another means, he tries to get his crush out of the mess with a sidekick of choice: Richard Pryor, caustic and creative thief. Everything is fun in this film (apart from a problematic scene that could be completely cut in 2022), until the explosive finale. The Train (1964) John Frankenheimer pays tribute to the railway workers and the French resistance at the end of the war . A Nazi officer passionate about art wants to steal the most beautiful works from Parisian museums to take them to Berlin. Burt Lancaster will do everything to prevent it. The production is extraordinary, silent, violent. The strategy is powerful. The ending is amazing. The madness of men and war is declined in a few subtle but horrifying touches. One of the last great black and white films. Indispensable.Last Train to Busan (2016)This very current Korean film is a headlong rush during a great zombie pandemic. Bullet Train-style, the protagonists take a high-speed train from Seoul to Busan on the coast. starting with Seoul. On the train, some are already contaminated. The whole movie is about survival, drastic choices and bloodshed. A lot of blood. It’s creepy, very well filmed and gore. Korea as we love. The Riddle of the Chicago Express (1952) A throwback to the 1950s for this film noir classic directed by legend Richard Fleischer (The Vikings, The Fantastic Journey). We are again in the Chicago – Los Angeles express, but twenty years before the film with Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor.Two detectives are supposed to protect the widow of a huge gangster that many other bandits try to assassinate during the travel. First problem: one of the two detectives is killed at the start of the film. And second problem: nobody knows what the widow looks like. Magnificent film noir revived in 1990 by Peter Hyams with Gene Hackman and Anne Archer. The plot remains very well put together, full of suspense and broken faces. Le Train (1973) Another film called Le Train, which takes place in France and in the same period: the 1939-1945 war. They didn’t get smashed. But there, nothing to see, it’s a French film, and we are not at the end but at the beginning of the war. Julien Maroyeur, played by Jean-Louis Trintignant, lives with his wife and child in the northeast of France. He learns that the Germans are coming. He decides to flee on the last train, he is separated from his wife and child from the start, and he meets Anna Küpfer, a German Jew played by Romy Schneider, who is also fleeing. They will make the whole train journey together, to the free zone. The rest is all finesse, with very few words, many looks, questions. And suspended moments, almost of joy, confronted with pure and implacable violence. A film from which we do not come out unscathed.Runaway Train (1985)Another train film that never stops. Two prisoners escape from a high security facility in Alaska. They slip into a train under the snow and the cold. Seeing the driver die of a heart attack, they try somehow to stop this train running at full speed. Incredible landscapes, endless action and a perfect Jon Voight, this film is a little hidden gem of the 1980s. ho in 2013.Galaxy Express 999 (1979) Little cheating for this one since it’s an OVA and the train is actually a spaceship that travels between planets. Whoops. We are in the same world as Albator and we follow Tetsurō who has just lost his mother murdered by Count Mechanic. He is then invited by the intriguing Maetel to leave Earth to join the planet La Métal aboard the Galaxy Express 999. A mixture of dreamlike western and mythological space war, this great manga drawn by Leiji Matsumoto is a little apart in the world d’Albator, an almost philosophical quest where each stop of the train offers its share of reflections on humanity. Still very topical. The Emperor of the North (1973) During the Great Depression of the 1930s, vagabonds roamed the United States in search of work or food. They very often take the train illegally, jumping into a freight car in a hurry. This film is about the overzealousness of a hyper-violent train driver, played by the always excellent Ernest Borgnine, who refuses tramps in his convoy. A great chase ensues with some of the most vindictive, including the character of Lee Marvin in the lead. Directed by Robert Aldrich (Vera Cruz, The Dirty Dozen), the film is like all of the director’s work, uncompromising, abrupt and visionary. Not to be put in all hands.Murder on the Orient Express (1974)THE classic train movie based on the classic train crime novel. When Agatha Christie meets Sidney Lumet, everything is academic and saucy at the same time. Albert Finney is an exceptional Hercule Poirot, the investigation is a pretext for a gallery of eccentric and brilliant characters. Kenneth Branagh’s remake was a little worse, but still very enjoyable. And the Orient-Express, what an incredible train!
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