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Runaway Train (1985)

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Critic Reviews: 4
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 1

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Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 7,084

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Movie Info

Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky's second American film may well be the only existential adventure flick in Hollywood history. Two prisoners, Manny (Jon Voight) and Buck (Eric Roberts), escape from a desolate Alaskan maximum-security facility. They hop aboard a speeding train, making a clean escape. But the engineer has suffered a heart attack, and the train goes out of control. To prevent a disastrous head-on collision, the railroad heads decide to derail the runaway train, killing its

R, 1 hr. 50 min.

Drama, Action & Adventure

May 15, 2001

MGM Home Entertainment

Cast

All Critics (28) | Top Critics (4) | Fresh (24) | Rotten (4) | DVD (2)

Wrenchingly intense and brutally powerful, Andrei Konchalovsky's film rates as a most exciting action epic and is fundamentally serious enough to work strongly on numerous levels.

March 26, 2009 Full Review Source: Variety | Comment
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The nihilism and the vicious intensity of Mr. Voight's performance here are entirely different from anything else he has done on screen; it's a shame those qualities emerge in such a vigorous but disjointed film.

May 20, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times | Comment
New York Times
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Runaway Train belongs to a rare genre: the intelligent thriller.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: ReelViews | Comment
ReelViews
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Runaway Train is a reminder that the great adventures are great because they happen to people we care about.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | Comment
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A gripping action thriller that's also extremely well acted by Jon Voight and Eric Roberts in Oscar-nominated performances.

June 23, 2011 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | Comment

While RUNAWAY TRAIN does balance action and philosophy quite neatly it's still intriguing to wonder how differently Kurosawa would have handled it

September 1, 2009 Full Review | Comment
rec.arts.movies.reviews

Highly unusual drama with single premise: survive the runaway train. A metaphor for us all.

March 2, 2008 Comment
Video-Reviewmaster.com

Somehow one leaves aside the blatant implausibilities, the coincidences, even Eric Roberts, and takes great pleasure in a breakneck ride to the end of the line.

February 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

You'll be on the edge of your seat....until it stops

May 12, 2005 Comment
Moviehole

Gets derailed by a mediocre screenplay.

August 21, 2004 Full Review | Comment
Spirituality and Practice

A real horror: heavy-handed, stupidly gruesome, as claustrophobic as its train cars and prison cells.

July 4, 2004 Comment

O vilão é caricato demais, mas Eric Roberts e Jon Voight têm boas atuações. Alguns momentos são eletrizantes, mas outros, apenas bobos.

July 25, 2003 Comment
Cinema em Cena

Dominated by a massive performance from Voight, this is a cracking action movie that stays on track to the end of the line, en route turning its monstrous protagonist into a brutal anti-hero.

May 24, 2003 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Runaway Train

What an entertaining ride. The dialogue is laughable at times, but what works is the raw storytelling. Loaded with "What's that actor's name?" type actors, it works because the actors want it to work. The plot isn't anything deep other than two convicts on the run on a train without brakes. That's all we

April 27, 2008
DrBenway
El Hombre Invisible

Super Reviewer

Jon Voight is a dangerous convict who escapes from an Alaskan prison and hijacks a train. It's quite suspenseful and tragic.

July 26, 2007
YosemiteSamFan

Super Reviewer

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Foreign Titles

  • Runaway Train (1985) (DE)
  • Runaway Train (1985) (UK)
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