On Saturday, November 20, 2010, my younger brother visited me and we saw the film Unstoppable at the Edwards theaters on Lake Ave. in West Covina. It had been raining hard earlier that day and we didn’t feel like driving out somewhere too far. I had seen previews for Unstoppable and started to read a synopsis online. But I stopped almost immediately because it seemed like something I would want to see. I did read that it got good reviews. What caught my interest was that it was about trains in which I have an interest because I commuted by train for several years.
My brother and I caught the 2 pm showing at the Edwards cinema located towards the end of Lake Avenue and east of the Westfield West Covina. The Best Buy used to be located off Lake Avenue but has since moved to the Westfield. Parking for the Edwards is further down on Lake in a structure and it was free. We then had to cross a small street into a plaza with several chain eateries. Unstoppable had been out for one week by then and the big movie out during the weekend of November 20 was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. There weren’t very many kids or adults at the theaters when we went, though, and no queue at the ticket window. Our tickets to Unstoppable cost $9 each, a bit expensive for Edwards but then the theater was very nice with colorful red carpeted floors and lights. One theater had a large neon sign above it that said Chinese and another had the name Egyptian, both named after famous old theaters in Hollywood.
We passed one theater near which someone was dressed as the character Megamind from the movie of the same name. He posed for photos with some kids and even waved at us. The halls to get to theater 11 got rather cavernous and we eventually found it right at 2 pm. There weren’t very many people there and, surprisingly, there were several children. I thought the film was rated PG-13 so I think it was OK that they were there. I guess I thought they would be seeing Megamind or the Harry Potter film. We found some seats towards the middle back. Also surprisingly, they weren’t showing any motion ads before the film. Perhaps we missed them. Soon after we arrived the screen went through this virtual coaster ride through the theater intro: get popcorn and snacks, don’t talk, turn off cell phones, etc.
There were at least five previews, mostly for films coming out next year and none of them seemed particularly interesting to me. The first was “The Next 3 Days” where Russell Crowe’s character tries to break his wife, played by Elizabeth Banks, out of prison. Then there were Sactum, a 3D film produced by James Cameron about some spelunkers or cavers who are trying to escape a flooding cave. Next was Suckerpunch that I didn’t even understand. Some young blond woman gets thrown in a mental health facility and plans an escape that turns into a video game fantasy? There was a preview for Battle L.A. that I heard was similar to a film just released called Skyline. The last trailer was the only one that wasn’t for an action film. “Love and Other Drugs” looked like a romantic comedy set around the release of the drug Viagra and starred Jake Gyllenhall and Anne Hathaway. The previews finished at 2:20 pm and it was finally time for the feature presentation.
The feature began like an ordinary day for railroad workers in Pennsylvania. Captions mentioned the names of the rail yards and towns and I’m now sure if they were real or made-up. Things quickly go from ordinary to out of control though that’s still almost predictable. We wouldn’t have a movie if it was just an ordinary day. I found all the references to trains and railroad terminology very interesting. They used terms such as “main”, “siding”, “rip track”, and “switches”. They’re fairly understandable but still interesting. I learned that a conductor for a freight train differs from one for a commuter train. On a freight train the conductor attaches the freight cars and directs the engineer where to go. I also enjoyed watching the train dispatchers at work getting trains out of the way of the runaway train and using a big electronic board to track the locations of every train. I wondered if they use something similar at Metrolink.
The actors do well despite slightly cookie-cutter roles. Denzel Washington plays the long-time railroad engineer and Chris Pine plays the upstart conductor. I think he’s best known for playing Captain James Kirk in the 2009 film Star Trek. Rosario Dawson plays the chief dispatcher with a moral conscious. There are many supporting characters such as the incompetent engineer played by Ethan Suplee, the railroad upper management, and a welder with a mustache, pony tail, and cowboy boots. I like that some of these characters, especially the latter, were still portrayed as more than they appeared on the surface. And then there were the trains that were like characters themselves. The runaway train seemed especially anthropomorphic like the villain of the film. It was train number 777 that I guess was a reference to the incident that inspired the film. In the early 2000’s there was a runaway train in Ohio that I think had 888 or 8888 in its name. The film also makes distinctions between the trains by making train 777 have a red engine and all the other trains have blue engines.
The setting is also featured very prominently in the film. Rural Pennsylvania is cloudy and green with industrial-looking towns. It’s very different from a sunny L.A. setting and so much more authentic to the story. I have some coworkers who work from home in rural Pennsylvania and I wonder if it looks the same as in the film. Maybe I’ll ask them sometime. The names of the towns seemed legit but they could also have been fictional: Brewster, Arklow, and Stanton.
The best parts of the film were the action and suspense. I kind of knew how things would end but had no idea how they would get there. The characters tried many different things to stop the train and in the process I learned more about railroad operations such as how every train car has its own brakes. A few things may have seemed a little unbelievable, but for the most part it was regular employees responding to an extraordinary situation. It wasn’t about highly skilled secret agents, superheroes, crime fighters or mercenaries. There really wasn’t any malicious violence though the runaway train could seem very vicious. The action literally had us holding our breaths and kept our full attention. It couldn’t have been much more gripping.
I mentioned to one of my coworkers in Pennsylvania that I had seen the film Unstoppable that was set there. She hadn’t seen it. I later read that the film was based on a real even that took place in Ohio in 2001. The movie was filmed in both Ohio and Pennsylvania. They had a train actually derail unplanned that delayed filming for one day. Because of all the work and despite the challenges, the actors and filmmakers put together an excellent movie.
My brother and I caught the 2 pm showing at the Edwards cinema located towards the end of Lake Avenue and east of the Westfield West Covina. The Best Buy used to be located off Lake Avenue but has since moved to the Westfield. Parking for the Edwards is further down on Lake in a structure and it was free. We then had to cross a small street into a plaza with several chain eateries. Unstoppable had been out for one week by then and the big movie out during the weekend of November 20 was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. There weren’t very many kids or adults at the theaters when we went, though, and no queue at the ticket window. Our tickets to Unstoppable cost $9 each, a bit expensive for Edwards but then the theater was very nice with colorful red carpeted floors and lights. One theater had a large neon sign above it that said Chinese and another had the name Egyptian, both named after famous old theaters in Hollywood.
We passed one theater near which someone was dressed as the character Megamind from the movie of the same name. He posed for photos with some kids and even waved at us. The halls to get to theater 11 got rather cavernous and we eventually found it right at 2 pm. There weren’t very many people there and, surprisingly, there were several children. I thought the film was rated PG-13 so I think it was OK that they were there. I guess I thought they would be seeing Megamind or the Harry Potter film. We found some seats towards the middle back. Also surprisingly, they weren’t showing any motion ads before the film. Perhaps we missed them. Soon after we arrived the screen went through this virtual coaster ride through the theater intro: get popcorn and snacks, don’t talk, turn off cell phones, etc.
There were at least five previews, mostly for films coming out next year and none of them seemed particularly interesting to me. The first was “The Next 3 Days” where Russell Crowe’s character tries to break his wife, played by Elizabeth Banks, out of prison. Then there were Sactum, a 3D film produced by James Cameron about some spelunkers or cavers who are trying to escape a flooding cave. Next was Suckerpunch that I didn’t even understand. Some young blond woman gets thrown in a mental health facility and plans an escape that turns into a video game fantasy? There was a preview for Battle L.A. that I heard was similar to a film just released called Skyline. The last trailer was the only one that wasn’t for an action film. “Love and Other Drugs” looked like a romantic comedy set around the release of the drug Viagra and starred Jake Gyllenhall and Anne Hathaway. The previews finished at 2:20 pm and it was finally time for the feature presentation.
The feature began like an ordinary day for railroad workers in Pennsylvania. Captions mentioned the names of the rail yards and towns and I’m now sure if they were real or made-up. Things quickly go from ordinary to out of control though that’s still almost predictable. We wouldn’t have a movie if it was just an ordinary day. I found all the references to trains and railroad terminology very interesting. They used terms such as “main”, “siding”, “rip track”, and “switches”. They’re fairly understandable but still interesting. I learned that a conductor for a freight train differs from one for a commuter train. On a freight train the conductor attaches the freight cars and directs the engineer where to go. I also enjoyed watching the train dispatchers at work getting trains out of the way of the runaway train and using a big electronic board to track the locations of every train. I wondered if they use something similar at Metrolink.
The actors do well despite slightly cookie-cutter roles. Denzel Washington plays the long-time railroad engineer and Chris Pine plays the upstart conductor. I think he’s best known for playing Captain James Kirk in the 2009 film Star Trek. Rosario Dawson plays the chief dispatcher with a moral conscious. There are many supporting characters such as the incompetent engineer played by Ethan Suplee, the railroad upper management, and a welder with a mustache, pony tail, and cowboy boots. I like that some of these characters, especially the latter, were still portrayed as more than they appeared on the surface. And then there were the trains that were like characters themselves. The runaway train seemed especially anthropomorphic like the villain of the film. It was train number 777 that I guess was a reference to the incident that inspired the film. In the early 2000’s there was a runaway train in Ohio that I think had 888 or 8888 in its name. The film also makes distinctions between the trains by making train 777 have a red engine and all the other trains have blue engines.
The setting is also featured very prominently in the film. Rural Pennsylvania is cloudy and green with industrial-looking towns. It’s very different from a sunny L.A. setting and so much more authentic to the story. I have some coworkers who work from home in rural Pennsylvania and I wonder if it looks the same as in the film. Maybe I’ll ask them sometime. The names of the towns seemed legit but they could also have been fictional: Brewster, Arklow, and Stanton.
The best parts of the film were the action and suspense. I kind of knew how things would end but had no idea how they would get there. The characters tried many different things to stop the train and in the process I learned more about railroad operations such as how every train car has its own brakes. A few things may have seemed a little unbelievable, but for the most part it was regular employees responding to an extraordinary situation. It wasn’t about highly skilled secret agents, superheroes, crime fighters or mercenaries. There really wasn’t any malicious violence though the runaway train could seem very vicious. The action literally had us holding our breaths and kept our full attention. It couldn’t have been much more gripping.
I mentioned to one of my coworkers in Pennsylvania that I had seen the film Unstoppable that was set there. She hadn’t seen it. I later read that the film was based on a real even that took place in Ohio in 2001. The movie was filmed in both Ohio and Pennsylvania. They had a train actually derail unplanned that delayed filming for one day. Because of all the work and despite the challenges, the actors and filmmakers put together an excellent movie.
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