Didja ever notice – “train wreck” in film?

Posted by highhurdler on January 3, 2007

Trains necessitated the establishment of time zones and were a primary form of transportation as well as the coast-to-coast link for our nation’s commerce & its citizens long before air travel become the dominant form. Hence, there are countless classic movies, and not just Westerns, which feature trains in their stories. The thought of transcontinental Asian, European or North American train travel still evokes a sense of adventure, vivid imagery, and even wanderlust for many people today. But even though filmmakers have given us dozens of movies featuring airplane disasters of various kinds, there appear to be scant few which include train crashes.

Here are four, and I had to cheat by including an intentional (wartime caused) train wreck and another from outside the classic film era. Perhaps I’m just suffering from a post New Year’s Day football overdose-hangover brain freeze or something … and maybe you can think of some I’ve forgotten?

Saratoga Trunk (1945) – a harrowing game of chicken is played between the conductors of two different trains, heading directly towards one another on the same tracks, both of which are filled with opposing factions in a railroad dispute between Gary Cooper’s character and the movie’s Raymond Soule. Since neither heeds the other’s whistle warnings, a tremendous head-on crash occurs that’s followed by an all-out climactic (Sam Wood-directed) brawl.

The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) – Cecil B. DeMille’s apt-named Oscar winning Best Picture about Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey-like circus life contains a spectacular scene of a train crashing into an automobile on the tracks which surely everyone who watches TCM has seen, since it’s featured in Chuck Workman’s frequently aired short 100 Years at the Movies (1994).

Lawrence of Arabia (1962) – who can forget the sequence in this Academy Award Best Picture winner, which contributed to cinematographer Freddie Young earning the first of his three Oscars (all while working for director David Lean): beneath the blue sky and across the desert sand comes the mechanized object that the crudely armed Arabs want to stop; led by Peter O’Toole’s title character, they do (by blowing up the tracks just in front of the train).

The Fugitive (1993) – only nominated for Best Picture, this Harrison Ford (in the title role) thriller picked up Oscar nominations for its Editing, Cinematography, Sound, and Sound Effects Editing in part because of its frighteningly realistic, computer generated train wreck.

What other (classic) movies can YOU think of which depict a “train wreck”?

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31 Responses Didja ever notice – “train wreck” in film?

Posted By Tom : January 3, 2007 6:57 pm

These come immediately to mind: Dark of the Sun, Buster Keaton's The General, Canyon Passage (the latter two are spectacularly staged but real train wrecks), Horror Express, The Invisible Man (I think the miniature train wreck scene may have been repeated in Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror).

Posted By RHS : January 3, 2007 8:42 pm

The all-star Euro-Cult confection The Cassandra Crossing (1977) features a doozy of a trainwreck in its vertiginous denoument. There's a good train wreck also in the opening frames of the Columbia serial The Green Archer (1940), based on the novel by Edgar Wallace.

Posted By JS : January 3, 2007 9:41 pm

Two of the best train wrecks in film that I can think of are in 1) The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), and 2) The Fugative (1993). In the case of Greatest Show, it's a model, done with high speed camera, but excellent in detail and effect – lots of car pileups, etc. Not to mention that collision with the automobile on the tracks that causes the derailment! Great stuff! For the Fugative, I don't know how they did this one. It certainly looks like it was done with a real engine.

Posted By Bob : January 3, 2007 10:49 pm

The train wreck in THE FUGATIVE was not CG. It was filmed with a real engine. It was filmed on The Great Smoky Mountain Railroad just outside on Dillard, NC. If you ride that railroad today you can still see parts of the engine that was wrecked laying alng the track

Posted By MDR : January 4, 2007 7:05 am

Thank you so much for the additions to this list, Tom & RHS, and for the correction Bob!

Posted By MDR : January 4, 2007 7:06 am

Thank you so much for the additions to this list, Tom & RHS, for your comments JS, and for the correction Bob!

Posted By Julie : January 4, 2007 11:05 am

What about the Pat O'Brien Claire Trevor noir Crack Up where he is lead to believe he has been in a train wreck when he gets too close to an art forgery ring?

Posted By Ken : January 4, 2007 12:30 pm

The late John Frankeheimer's "The Train" (1964) (http://imdb.com/title/tt0059825) featured several real-life train wrecks. Mr. Frankenheimer's commentary on the film's DVD is fascinating to hear, as he remarks on how he and his crew managed to create some truly jaw-dropping practical-effects scenes.Ah, those were the days when movies took creatvity and sweat.

Posted By Brockmeyer’s Girl : January 4, 2007 12:31 pm

My favorite is the multi-train wreck in "The Train" with Burt Lancaster. Real trains piling up and derailing – amazing footage.

Posted By MDR : January 4, 2007 5:27 pm

Julie, I actually had Crack-Up (1946) on my original list, but I couldn't remember (like Pat O'Brien's character) an actual train wreck scene;-)Ken (and Brockmeyer's Girl, one minute later, lol), thanks for reminding me of the Frankenheimer film … how could I have forgotten that one? For those who haven't seen it yet, The Train (1964) will air on TCM later this month (1/17) and again in February during "31 Days of Oscar".

Posted By Richard : January 5, 2007 3:32 pm

I'd like to add the climax of Arthur Hiller's Silver Streak (1976), with the runway train crashing into Chicago's Northwestern Station.

Posted By Mitchell : January 6, 2007 12:16 am

I'm not entirely sure if this one counts but the train "explosion" in Lawrence of Arabia. When the train is blown from off it's tracks and crashing into the vast desert.

Posted By Mitchell : January 6, 2007 12:18 am

My mistake, that one was already posted.

Posted By Dee : January 7, 2007 1:01 pm

Which of the great western "gang" movies had a train wrecking in it? Was it "Magnificent Seven" or was it one of the Eastwood spaghetti westerns…I can't remember…

Posted By Dennis : January 7, 2007 2:35 pm

Thw western "How the West was Won" had a train wreck at the end of the movie. One of the stunt men lost a leg filming the gun fight on the train. I saw this movie when it was shown in Cinerama when I was a teen.

Posted By Haywood : January 8, 2007 1:34 am

How about everytime Rock Hudson and Paula Prentiss kiss in "Man's Favorite Sport" and two old timey trains collide?

Posted By MDR : January 8, 2007 4:19 pm

All good additions to the list, and I've thought of another one: Alfred Hitchcock's Secret Agent (1936), which ends with a climactic crash.

Posted By BKing : January 9, 2007 10:54 am

I echo How The West Was Won and The Train as great train and train wreck scenes. No one mentioned The Bridge On The River Kwai? And how about Runaway Train? Plus the best comic train wreck in Silver Streak.

Posted By Rhett Bartlett : January 10, 2007 1:11 am

HighHurdler- your reference to 'The Fugitive' only nominated for Best Picture is incorrect. As you rightly listed further, it received further nominations- including some you have missed- Tommy Lee Jones (winner of Best Supp. Actor) and Best Music, Original Score (nomination)

Posted By Slivver : January 10, 2007 4:12 pm

The train wreck in THE FUGATIVE was NOT a real locomotive. In the "special features" extras of the DVD they show how it was done. They made a huge model (about 6 feet long) and filmed it with high-speed cameras; the extra details (like correct-sized fire and smoke) were added later with CG.

Posted By Mrs. Rutledge : January 10, 2007 5:11 pm

A train wreck was pivotal in the early '30s film "The Clairvoyant." When in the presence of a certain mysterious woman, fake psychic Claude Raines becomes a real psychic. He dramatically stops a train he's on and predicts it will crash. He and a group of followers gets off…and the train crashes just a few stops later! I saw this movie just recently on TCM – it's really bizarre and wonderful.

Posted By Tim Smith : January 12, 2007 11:02 pm

Don't forget "Tough Guys" which featured the fabulous Southern Pacific 4449, both in real footage and models. Another old film with a great train wreck was "Crack in the World". Come to think of it, any old monster film usually involves the giant whatever smashing up a train.

Posted By MDR : January 13, 2007 9:52 am

BKing, thanks for The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), yet another Oscar winner featuring a train wreck!Rhett, I didn't mean to slight The Fugitive (1993); I was trying to point out that the two listed prior to it had won the Best Picture Academy Award whereas this one was merely nominated in that category.Mrs. Rutledge, I've been meaning to see The Clairvoyant (1934) for some time now (and have it on tape), particularly since Claude Rains is in it!Thanks for the additions, Tim Smith; I wasn't familiar with either of those films.

Posted By MDR : January 20, 2007 1:01 pm

Found another one – The Good Guys and the Bad Guys (1969), which is part of the Robert Mitchum Signature Collection (to be released Tuesday), features a climactic train wreck (due to a bridge being out).

Posted By Garland : August 5, 2007 2:00 pm

Let's see… King Kong wrecks an elevated train early on during his NYC rampage.Godzilla steps on the tracks in front of a speeding train during his Tokyo rampage.Superman (Christopher Reeve) prevented a train wreck by becoming a rail in one of his early movies The Indians wreck a train by pulling down a water tank in front of it in "Union Pacific"There is a nice wreck in the move "Other Men's Women". Engineer and fireman are fighting (over a woman, of course) in the cab of their locomotive and get by a stop signal and clip the caboose of a train moving in the opposite direction moving into a siding. Looks real to me!Without a doubt, the neatest railroad movie I have ever seen is "Danger Lights". Close calls, but no wrecks.

Posted By MDR : November 29, 2007 11:12 am

The comedy The Wrong Box (1966), which aired last night on TCM, features a train wreck!

Posted By CSO : November 29, 2007 3:35 pm

Okay . . so not a full on train wreck, but I have to give kudos to "Emporer of the North" for several convincing harrowing moments of shear near missage. Lee Marvin was never better!

Posted By Luman : December 3, 2007 5:32 am

1938's "The Young In Heart" has a good trian wreck. Unexpected too.

Posted By Candy : December 10, 2007 5:55 pm

If I remember correctly "Darling Lili" has a train wreck near the end….

Posted By Candy : December 10, 2007 5:55 pm

If I remember correctly "Darling Lili" has a train wreck near the end….

Posted By addie : December 10, 2007 9:40 pm

Tim Smith–I came over to this list just to add "Tough Guys", I didn't think it would be here, but it was a fun wreck wasn't it?Speaking of Kirk Douglas, "The Big Trees" has a train wreck.

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