Runaway Train (1985) Revisited: Action Movie Review

If you’re a fan of eighties action movies, you know The Cannon Group. Run by Israeli cousins Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, in the eighties they cranked out a slew of low-budget action movies, most of which were hated by critics. Yet, every once in awhile they made a legitimately great movie that would even make the critics sit up and take notice, such as 1986’s Runaway Train. Directed by Andrei Konchalovsky (Tango & Cash) and based on a script by Akira Kurosawa, the movie stars Jon Voight and Eric Roberts as two cons who escape prison in Alaska by hopping a train that just so happens to be out of control, spiralling through Alaska after its engineer dies. The film offers Jon Voight one of the greatest roles of his career as the hardcore convict Manny, with Eric Roberts as his younger accomplice, Buck. Both actors would earn Academy Award nominations, and were joined by Rebecca DeMornay as the lone other passenger on this out of control train.

The movie wasn’t a big financial hit, but it earned Cannon some respectability, with Hollywood forced to reconsider the stereotypical view of them as schlock merchants. Indeed, after this movie, many Hollywood stars would sign rich deals with them, only for the studio to crumble under the weight of its new ambitions within 18 months. In the end, they were probably better off with low budget action, but whatever the case, Runaway Train stands up as a classic as Reel Action host Travis Hopson explains in his review, edited by E.J. Tangonan!