Train Movies

Mike C May 6, 2001

  1. Lownen

    Lownen TrainBoard Member

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    I believe "Emperor of the North Pole" was a hobo term for "Head Honcho". That explains where the original title for the movie "Emperor of the North" came from. In "Polar Express" the hobo character refers to Santa as the Emperor of the North Pole, in which the phrase takes on two meanings. :) I love both those movies by the way. I need to get "Emperor of the North" on DVD.

    I also like "Harvey Girls" though its been years since I've seen it and I don't recall how much in the way of actual train footage there is. That's another one I need to find on DVD. It has Judy Garland singin' in the train instead of the rain. ;)
     
  2. Silverexpress

    Silverexpress TrainBoard Member

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    It's not a movie perse`but a series of documentaries boardering on a reality show type quality.

    Running a Steam Locomotive Vol 1
    Running a Steam Locomotive: Passenger Trains Vol 2
    Running a Steam Locomotive: Freight Trains Vol 3
    Running a Steam Locomotive: The Crew of the 2472 Vol 4

    These are not movies, nor are they railfanning type videos. They are geared more towards the "how-to".

    For their age, they are quite good. I have the first three, and just found out that there was a fourth one. I have all three ripped to play on my Treo PDA, and watch them over and over and over again.

    I highly recommend them for your steam train library if you can find them still on sale. If you've seen these, and can recommend better ones please...do!
     
  3. Scott Teague

    Scott Teague TrainBoard Member

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    My favorite movie was live action standing right beside the tracks and watching a NS train going up Saluda grade in NC.

    Scott
     
  4. Calzephyr

    Calzephyr TrainBoard Supporter

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    I got the Danger Lights movie a couple of years ago from an on-line dealer. I remembered seeing part of the movie when I was 9 or 10 and couldn't finish watching it because my parents turned off the TV and took me kicking and screaming out of the house to go visit some of their friends. Lets just say that I was not a happy camper visiting those 'friends' of theirs. To my knowledge, the movie had not been on TV again, though several said it had been.

    I got motivated several years ago to find out about the movie when a similar thread [to this one] was started on the Atlas board. The copy of the movie I got on-line was very grainy and difficult to hear... had to turn volume to maximum. The film (copied to VCR tape) was slipping/stuttering in several places and seemed as if it was made from a bad 'master film' which had to be spliced together several times. The movie... as noted... had a corny plot and probably would never make it to the box offices in this era. From the railroad enthusiast point of view... it was interesting to see the old steamers in action.

    After watching the movie... as it turns out... I probably had seen the majority of the film when I was a kid... because the 'locomotive tug-of-war' was near the end of the movie and that was when my parents shut off the TV.
     
  5. milw156

    milw156 TrainBoard Member

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    I was able to download Danger Lights from an online site that only had extremely classis movies no longer in distribution. There is a thread on the Milwaukee Yahoo group on the URL, as I don't remember. It downloads as an ISO and you could burn it onto DVD.

    My money is on Runaway Train with Voight. Note to self, don't stick your hands in between couplers on a moving train.
     
  6. Phil Olmsted

    Phil Olmsted TrainBoard Member

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    Runaway Train

    I've got to agree with this. This flick is a great story about one man's persistence to escape his horrible environment. The final scene is awesome; much better than Leonardo DiCaprio's "King of the World" shot in "Titanic". The viewer also gets a lot of info about trains that he/she probably never knew before.

    2 Thumbs Up!
     
  7. traingeekboy

    traingeekboy TrainBoard Member

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    Movie with trains in it

    I saw this movie tonight. The whole opening sequence has a steam engine on a trestle. Really nice shots of it. The movie itself is pretty cool too.

    Apple - Trailers - The Fall - Trailer
     
  8. jeffrey-wimberly

    jeffrey-wimberly TrainBoard Member

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    The link makes my browser crash.
     
  9. Ed M

    Ed M Passed away May 2012 In Memoriam

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    Link works fine for me. Took a while to load on my slow connection, but the trailer makes me want to see the film. Unfortunately the train doesn't appear in the trailer.

    Ed
    .
     
  10. Mr. SP

    Mr. SP Passed away August 5, 2016 In Memoriam

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    Which movie is it? There have been many over the years with trains in them.
    Emporer of the North, Denver&Rio Grande, Union Pacific, Silver Streak to name a few.
     
  11. Ed M

    Ed M Passed away May 2012 In Memoriam

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    It's a new movie called "The Fall". It's not about trains.
     
  12. traingeekboy

    traingeekboy TrainBoard Member

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    The Fall

    The trailer unfortunately does not show the train, If you go the the flash site and click the downloads button along the bottom, there is a still of the engine on the bridge you can download.

    The entire beginning of the movie takes place with the train and the bridge.

    The Fall

    It's interesting how they lay out the story. As the man tells the little girl the story he uses words for things that she doesn't know. For instance he says there is an Indian in the story, but the little girl doesn't know what an American Indian is, she only knows about east Indians, so the Indian in the story is an East Indian.

    Lots of heavy symbolism shows up in the story. Foreshadowing if you will. The little girl steals a piece of holy bread from the church to eat. She brings some to the man. He asks her if she is trying to save his soul.

    I really admire when a movie has more to the story than meets the eye.
     
  13. DrifterNL

    DrifterNL TrainBoard Member

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    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 12, 2009
  14. Charlie

    Charlie TrainBoard Member

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    ====================================================================

    Early TV carried a movie serial starring a very young John Wayne. "Hurricane Express" is the name of the serial. I have it on VHS, dunno if it's available on DVD, but it probably is.
    It's kinda hokey, but then again movie serials of that era generally were. In the early years of broadcast network TV, there just wasn't a lot of programming developed yet. This was an afternoon kids show as much of the TV was then.
    "The Greatest Show on Earth" had some great circus train scenes in it.

    Charlie
     
  15. Kurt Moose

    Kurt Moose TrainBoard Member

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    On a side note, anyone seen the MLB commercil with the two trains heading towards each other? One is an SD40-2 led train, the other looks like Little Joe led train! Just caught the ending. Weird, huh?
     
  16. bnsf971

    bnsf971 TrainBoard Member

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    Some trivia about this movie:
    If you have a copy of the movie, take a good, close, hard look at the two dispatchers. You know who they are. You've seen them in hundreds of movies or television shows, just not together....One in a sitcom, the other an action movie actor...





    One dispatcher is Jason Alexander, you may know him better as George Costanza of Seinfeld fame.





    The second dispatcher? Laurence Fishburne.


    I haven't seen this movie nominated yet--Tycoon, with John Wayne. The movie is about a man (Wayne) that is in charge of building a railroad. Lots of work trains and equipment. Of course, almost any John Wayne movie is a good one, just some better than others.
     
  17. Mr. SP

    Mr. SP Passed away August 5, 2016 In Memoriam

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    Petticoat Junction

    While it wasn't a movie the TV show "Petticoat Junction" had lots of scenes of the train in it. The train still exists at Jamestown California.
    As a teenage kid wo liked trains and girls it was the perfect show.
     
  18. Triplex

    Triplex TrainBoard Member

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    I happen to have the DVD. Never got around to watching it...
     
  19. Charlie

    Charlie TrainBoard Member

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    Two of the railfans favorite eye-candy, trains and lovely young ladies!


    Charlie
     
  20. EMD trainman

    EMD trainman TrainBoard Member

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    Train related Movies That I own & like

    1) Von Ryan's Express filmed in 1965 and features Frank Sinatra is about British and American POW prisoners who escape a Italian prison camp only to be caught by the Germans again. They all get loaded up on a train to get sent further into Germany to a German POW camp, only they take over the train. They sucessfully fool the Germans along the way to Switzerland for freedom. I give this movie 5 stars.

    2) Emperor of the North filmed in 1973 and features Ernerst Borgnine is about the depression era of America and hobos hopping trains was common except for train #19 where Ernest Borgnin plays the role of a conductor who pushes off every hobo who jumps on his train which causes them to get run over and killed until he meets his match from a hobo called A-No1. This movie has been re-released in limited numbers, so get yours now. I give this one 4 stars.

    3) The Train filmed in 1964 which is black and white and features Burt Lancaster is about German occupied Frande during world war 2. France is near liberation, but there is one German high ranking officer who doesn't want to leave without his favorite French paintings from a museum that he over sees. He orders a train just to transport these precious paintings and the French people have to try and stop the train without blowing it up. I give this a 5 star rating.

    4) Run Away Train made in 1985 featuring Jon Voighht and Eric Roberts is about 2 prisoners in a Alasakan jail who escape and find a train to hide on. The engineer moves the train ahead then dies of a heart attack which forces the train to go full speed ahead and now the prisoners have to find a way to stop it for it crashes. I give this movie a 3 star rating due the the ending which I though was dumb.

    5) Money Train made in 1995 featuring Wesley Snipes, Woody Harrison and Jenifer Lopez is about a subway type train that goes and collects the money from all of the subway stations which they have to gaurd. Woody Harison who plays the loser type wants to rob the train after losing his job as a cop. Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrison play the role as adopted brothers also, so Wesley has to keep Woody from robbing the train or at least from getting caught. I give this movie 5 stars.

    5) The Polar Express made in 2005 is a 3D cartoon type movie featuring Tom Hanks voice in some characters is based on the novel "The Polar Express" and is about a kid who looses faith in Santa Claus but then there is this magical train that shows up on his doorstep to take him to the North Pole. There is plenty of adventure on the way there. I found this movie adult entertaining as well as for the kids so I give it a 5 star rating, especially for the crisp type of 3d catoon images used.

    6) Silver Streak made in 1976 features Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder. This one is about how Gene Wilder gets caught up in a conspiracy between a professor who can prove a big collectors art work is fake, but the big collector has the professor killed and only Gene knows about the fale professor and gets thrown off of the train. Richard Pryor who plays a criminal helps Gen to get back to the train and save his new found girlfriend, only the collector fights back with fire power with the cops and orders the engineer full foward with the train. The collector shots the engineer, puts a tool box on the dead mans pedal to keep the train going andf then gets shot himself, now there is a runaway which no one in the train company's dispatch office will believe, then it crashes right into the the station. I give this one 5 stars also

    7) The Fugitive made in 1993 featuring Harison Ford. Although this whol;e movie is not based around a train like the others, it has the best train wreck I think ever filmed. Harison Ford is wrongly accused of killing his wife and is on his way to prison in a bus, only the other prisoners have different plans. They take over the bus, but not before the driver flips and crushes the bus onto railroad tracks, then everyone is trying to get out while the train is coming. I have this movie and there is a part on the DVD which you can play and they show how they did this train crash. I was real impressed, it was a real train crash and not some model train mock up crash. The movie studios went out and bought 2 locomotives that didn't run anymore for $20,000 a piece which they placed out front and then the long train was pushed from behind with a running locomotive making this awesome train crash scene, the best I believe to date.

    8) Under Seige 2 made in 1995 featuring Steve Seagal as a Navy Seal who was reduced to a cook is on vacation with his daughter aboard a train which is take over by a mad man who believes the goverment betrayed him after designing a new space weapon which he takes back control of on this moving train so he can't be tracked. Watch as Steve try to stop this mad man which ends in a fiery crash in the end with another train, but you can tell it's either a HO model train or some kind of train crash mock up, so I only give this one 4 stars.
     

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