10 Best Train Movies
Since the very beginning of the art form, trains have always been an important part of cinema. One of the first film ever projected for a paying audience was a film by the Lumière Brothers in 1896, called L’Arrivée d’un Train en Gare de la Ciotat (more commonly known as Arrival of a Train at a Station). It was less than a minute long and would look pretty drab by today’s cinematic standards but it was the beginning of the eighth art. In 1903, what is considered the first narrative film ever made, The Great Train Robbery was made by Edwin S. Porter and released to an unsuspecting audience. Cinema, as they might say, was born.
After this, and throughout all of film history, the train has remained a constant in cinema. To name a few requisite runners-up, I list the following: Carol Reed’s Night Train to Munich, Von Ryan’s Express with Frank Sinatra, the original Inglorious Bastards, The Great Train Robbery (both the aforementioned and the 1979 feature film), Howard Hawks’ screwball classic Twentieth Century, the Czech film Closely Watched Trains, Scorsese’s underrated second film Boxcar Bertha, the pre-code Other Men’s Women, Fritz Lang’s Human Desire and the holiday animated feature The Polar Express (I love Christmas, can’t help it). Now, without further ado, I give you my choices for the 10 Best Train Movies.
Special Mention: Strangers on a Train/North by Northwest
Not only are these two of my favorite Hitchcock films, they are two of the best films that have integral parts involving trains. The reason they do not make the list proper is they are not really train movies. Sure, one of them has the word train in its title and the other showcases the classic days of train travel (the club car has waiters!!), but when all is said and done, they just aren’t train movies. In Strangers on a Train, once Farley Granger and Robert Walker get off the train that led to their ill-fated meeting, the story, except for a brief coda, never hops back on the tracks. As for North by Northwest, Cary and Eva Marie “meet” on a train, and there is a rather prominent scene at Grand Central Station, but if anything, this would be considered better on a list of the 10 Best Crop Duster Movies or the 10 Best Mt. Rushmore Movies. Still though, a special mention they do well deserve.
10. Source Code
This appropriately Hitchcockian sci-fi thriller stars Jake Gyllenhaal as army helicopter pilot Colter Stevens, a man who must keep going back in time in order to stop a terrorist attack. Using some sort of time/space continuum contraption to go back and forth (a contraption that may or may not make any scientific sense), Gyllenhaal’s reluctant hero keeps reliving the same eight minutes over and over again, in order to find a terrorist bomber aboard a Chicago bound commuter train. Directed by Duncan Jones (director of the brilliantly subtle Moon, and son of legend David Bowie), Source Code is easily one of the most interesting films of 2011 – and the newest film on this list.
9. Murder on the Orient Express
Based on the Agatha Christie novel and played out as a star-studded whodunit, this 1974 big budget motion picture experience was a triumph of classic cinema, made smack dab in the middle of a radical new wave of American movie-making. Starring such classic actors as Lauren Bacall, Richard Widmark, Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery, Wendy Hiller, George Colouris, Martin Balsam and Albert Finney as Christie’s favorite private eye, Hercule Poirot, as well as relative newcomers Vanessa Redgrave, Michael York and Jacqueline Bisset, this Sidney Lumet directed smash hit (six Oscar nods, including a win for Ingrid Bergman – her third such time honored) is a fun ride indeed.
8. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
Directed by TV director Joseph Sargent in 1974 (the director’s other “claim to fame” is directing the famously bad Jaws 4: The Revenge), this heist movie, set on a NYC subway train, with its intrusive camera and gloriously tense set pieces, has inspired many later action movies – most notably Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, for which the director would take both the set-up style of Sargent’s film and the character names of Mr. Blue, Mr. Green and so on. Starring Walter Matthau, Martin Balsam and a particularly fun Robert Shaw in one of his final films, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three is an exciting action movie made back when they still knew how to make exciting action movies. And speaking of them not knowing how to make exciting action movies anymore, the film was remade in 2009 with Ritalin-case director Tony Scott at the wheel, Denzel Washington in the Matthau part, John Travolta in the Shaw part, and a rather unique blend of the ridiculous and the lackluster.
7. La Bete Humaine
Jean Renoir. You would be hard pressed to find a greater director. I can only think of about six or seven in all of film history, but let’s not worry about naming them right now. La Bete Humaine, based on the Zola novel, and coming right between the great auteur’s two greatest masterpieces, La Grand Illusion and La Règle du Je, and being a near-masterpiece itself, is the story of a gruff yet sensitive train engineer, with a pretty serious mental illness, the femme fatale that lures him into an affair, and the woman’s murderous husband. The film stars Jean Gabin, one of the finest actors in French cinematic history in one of his finest roles. With Renoir’s near-perfect blend of streamlined visual beauty and audacious storytelling (and the very sexy, feline actress Simone Simon as the aforementioned alluring femme fatale), La Bete Humaine is, pardon the (intentional) pun, a cinematic beast. The film would later be remade by Fritz Lang, and retitled Human Desire.
6. Brief Encounter
I have never been a big David Lean fan. Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago – beautiful to look at but kinda boring if you ask me. The only Lean film I truly love is Brief Encounter, the story of a married woman who goes off to meet her lover at their railway station rendezvous. These encounters always begin and end at the railway station, with a friend’s empty apartment as a mid-time dalliance. Deeper down (deeper than Lean is prone to get) the film is about the conventions of British suburban life, centering on a housewife for whom real love, as opposed to the polite arrangement of her marriage, brings unexpectedly violent emotions. Starring Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard, Brief Encounter may not be about trains per se (more on a love affair happening around them) but it is a beautiful thing. Incidentally, this was one of Billy Wilder’s favorite movies and the writer/director had always wondered what the story was with the unseen friend who lent out his flat for sexual dalliances. He wrote and directed The Apartment as his own answer to that nagging question.
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38 Comments
What about Under Siege 2: Dark Territory?
Seriously, this is a strong list. My first thought was Strangers on a Train, but you’re right that the actual time spent on the train is pretty limited. Again, I’m not sure that it’s a train movie, but I love the sequences on the train in From Russia with Love. The Taking of Pelham 1,2,3 and Brief Encounter are great choices, and The General is a classic. I actually haven’t seen your 2 through 5 picks, but I will be catching up with the new release of The Lady Vanishes pretty soon.
Actually, my number 4, The Train, I watched for the first time just this past weekend.
My first thought seeing this title was Night Train to Munich, solely because I saw it for the first time last month and loved it. Glad to see it in your introduction, even though I’m not sure it’s really a train movie as much as some of these others, either. A chunk of it’s on a train, but not the majority, and not the most memorable parts.
Great list, I think I love you for putting ‘Source Code’ on it… I was really impressed by that film when I saw it, great in the cinema… and a top class score.
Source Code will probably end up on my Top 10 list for 2011.
How the hell have I never seen or even heard of “The Train?!” That one sounds fantastic. Thank you for bringing it to my attention! To the Netflix queue!
I’m following Nick Prigge on this one, can’t believe I haven’t heard of it before.
I can’t say I enjoyed Shanghai Express, which I reviewed on my site pretty recently. Brief Encounter is a fantastic pick, though. I’d have moved it further up the chain.
I can’t say I enjoyed Shanghai Express, which I reviewed on my site pretty recently. Brief Encounter is a fantastic pick, though. I’d have moved it further up the chain.
And what about Von Ryan’s Express?
And where is Kai to complain about Unstoppable?
Why, o why is “Runaway Train” not on your list?? The most gut busting train movie of all time??
But really, fine list….I’m glad to see “The Train” make it, I think that’s one of the more underrated films of all time…also, great nod to “The General”….but I would definitely replace “Source Code” with “Runaway Train”.
Runaway Train was one of the ones that just missed the cut. Looking back, I forgot to add it to my intro paragraph though.
The work of Ozu must be mentioned in passing here as well. Most of his movies have a train in them.
Yes, Ozu (and Japanese cinema as a whole, considering the importance of the railroad in Japan) should be mentioned. Sorry I did not do that.
Gotta love a good train movie. Transsiberian, Narrow Margin (both versions), Runaway Train, and Unstoppable are good suspensers on trains. The silent classic Beggars of Life follows a group of hobos who ride the rails and has a thrilling train climax. Speaking of silents, Helen of the The Hazards of Helen was a railroad super-employee and saved the train, the yard and/or the company every week. If Brief Encounter counts as a train movie (good movie, but I question the classification), then I’ll put The Warriors on the list too.
You can open up the category further with movies about building or serving the railroad: The Iron Horse, The Harvey Girls, The Bridge Over the River Kwai, Union Pacific. Then of course, there’s the list of non-train movies with great scenes on trains, which pulls in titles from a wide range of genres like The Music Man, How the West Was Won, Strangers on a Train, and Dil Se.
The Warriors!!! Absolutely!! Warriors, come out & plaaaaaay!
Helen. that was excellent…and I just rewatched The Warriors last week! Weel done!
I love The Warriors.
Ooh, The Narrow Margin is a great choice! The 1950s version is the only one I’ve seen. But some friends and I popped that in expecting a fair-to-middling B-movie noir, and it was MUCH better than we expected.
Wow, I don’t believe I forgot all about Beggars of Life, The Iron Horse and Narrow Margin. They would all still be runners-up though.
Yeah, and I probably was stretching it for Brief Encounter, but the railway station is so integral.
As a matter of fact, our top 5 is the same except I haven’t seen Cairo Station, so I’d round out my list with Murder on the Orient Express.
The only one of this list I’ve seen is the Hercule Poirot one.
Interesting list, are we going to get a Best Airplane Movies one?
I was contemplating an airplane version.
Not the greatest movie ever made, but I’m kind of partial to Transsiberian. A movie that has Hitchcock written all over it.
Great list, but there should be a special mention of Under Siege 2
Great list although I’ve not seen most of the films on it. But I’d have to have Von Ryan’s Express and North by Northwest on my list. Funnily enough North by Northwest would also be on any list of greatest plane scenes as well.
There was an old saying that if a movie started with a train it was gonna be a great film. And most of the time this old saying is true.
I also totally agree with the number one pick, The General. There is no better Train movie than this one!
Wow…so many black and white movies I never see.
Well time to get watching!
I also recommend Transsiberian, such a suspenseful movie.
A few I enjoyed that didn’t make the cut:
2046
Before Sunrise
The Station agent
I liked Transsiberian okay, but not enough to add it to my list.
Interesting list, Kevyn. I haven’t seen some of the classic movies on the list but I did see ‘North by Northwest’ so I’m glad it got a mention. Source Code is indeed a very good movie, and the fact that it took place on a train the entire time, it definitely deserves a spot on your list.
Brief Encounter and The Lady Vanishes are two of my all-time favorites.
Years ago I went to a screening of North by Northwest and Eva Marie Saint and Ernest Lehmann (RIP) were there. If memory serves they talked about that train scene and the dialogue and choreography involved. Fascinating stuff.
Also putting a punt in for The Narrow Margin. Marie Windsor!
Unstoppable is a great train movie!!!
The only Unstoppable train movie I can think of is the Tony Scott-directed Denzel Washington film from last year, but you say it is a great train movie, so that cannot be the right movie. Which movie are you talking about?
Even I forgot about this movie when I posted earlier, but what about “Mystery Train”?? Screamin’ Jay Hawkins rules!! Though, maybe it’s not really a train movie….
This has highlighted quite the black spot for me! Have yet to see about half of these but great list :] The Lady Vanishes is my number 1 personally, but I’m not a huge Keaton fan.
My goodness, I finally find a list I LOVE (right on with your #1 and I would have a hard time deciding between The Lady Vanishes and The Train for #2), and I have to go and find something to nitpick about…
Chaplin was NOT a better director than Keaton! Good lord no… Yes, Chaplin’s films were more concerned with pathos, but Keaton didn’t care for or even attempt such things (though he did parody Chaplin’s sentimentality in Go West). I thought it was pretty clear and pretty widely agreed upon that regardless of which man one prefers as a performer, Keaton was the more talented man behind the camera.
Danger Lights, with Jean Arthur and Robert Armstrong. Good action and plenty of Steam
working the rails.
Overlooked in this discussion is the authenticity of the train equipment. Spencer Tracy’s arrival aboard a Southern Pacific Daylight train in Bad Day at Black Rock is in keeping with the Southwest desert setting, but the Canadian Pacific equipment masquerading as the Silver Streak (1976 version) reminds the viewer that this is just a movie, not real life. Two movies that follow the same trains from the opening credits through the final scenes, 1975′s Breakheart Pass (Charles Bronson), and 1973′s Emperor of the North (Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine), both strived for authentic appearing locomotives, freight and passenger cars. But another Bronson favorite, and my choice for the best 19th Century Western expansion train movie, Once upon a Time in the West, substitutes European trains for American with railroad scenes filmed in Spain. Although many train movies repaint the locomotive and cars for a fictitious railroad, and California’s Sierra Railroad has been the site for more than 200 movies and television episodes, the much-awaited midday train in 1952′s High Noon (Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly) actually arrives lettered for the Sierra Railroad.
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