An Engineer's perspective of the movie 'unstoppable'
First, I must say that this was a very enjoyable movie well worth the time spent viewing. It does everything a movie should do, intrigue, engage, thrill, and hold your attention. I will dissect a few points but the reader should not take it as me just being critical. I have discussed with several with my co-workers who have seen this movie and we agree that this movie, at the very least increases the mystique and romance of trains and their crews. This movie is truly a "foamer's delight"!
I noticed on other threads the mention of forced early retirement of "Old Heads" like Denzel. The fictitious railroad they are working for was non-union. But the new guys are union and Chris Pine's character was a local chairman for the UTU - United Transportation Union, which I myself am a member of. When there is a renegotation of a work contract where union vs company vs old timers the old timers often do get forced out. The yellow jacket jokes in the movie are tongue in cheek of how newer employees of most major railroads must wear vests for the first 1-5 years.
I have in front of me the incident report of the runaway train the movie was loosely based on. Runaway CSX train May 15, 2001. Location - Stanley Yard in Toledo, Ohio. 3 man crew. CSX 8888 - 22 loads, 25 empties. Engineer failed to control movement to permit stopping in time to line switch, made the decision to dismount and run to line the switch. Engineer tried to remount the engine and his hands slipped off the grad irons and he fell to the ground. He was dragged approx 50 yards taking injuries to his legs and forehead. It travelled 71 miles before being stopped. In that time the train was shot at to try to trigger the fuel shutoff switch like in the movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apsKBo8-zak and a manager eventually boarded the train to bring it to a stop. I watched the interview of this manager the next day on Good Morning America and he said he was "In my comfort zone" when he made the decision to attempt to board the train just like the welder in the movie did. They did attempt to derail it pretty much like they showed in the movie with a series of portable derailers which the train dissentigrated. There was no crew trying to slow it from the front or year. But hell, it makes a helluva good movie!
On to some discrepancies. It was obvious they shot several different endings for the movie, wonder why they made a big deal of the welder on TV at the end - the one who said he was in his comfort zone? Based on the "comfort zone" comment that was made by the RL hero of that day I would bet an alternate ending had Denzel and Chris Pine slowing the train down enough for the welder to jump on board and stop the train.
The scene where the engineer had two locomotives tag the front end to try to steady the speed while some unknown guy tries to rapelle to the locomotive was truly the hardest thing to swallow. If I had tagged my engines to the front of a runaway train, I'd put on some dynamic brakes to keep my locomotives flush against the lead of the runaway, then I'd casually saunter back thru the units and cross over to the cab of the runaway and stop it. We move between moving units over the road all of the time. It did make good suspense though. I thought it was a bit tacky that they have an engineer hero get killed off doing this move and not one thing mentioned in the later script about it at the end.
The politics of the yard master lady, the corporate manager, the CEO was all pretty much spot on, I hate to admit that. Too many times I have seen the big wigs override decisions of their working managers and employees for less than honorable reasons, the results are all too often worse than if they stayed out of it.
Great movie, it'll join my dvd collection that includes Silverstreak, Underseige 2 - Dark territory, and other rail movies I own.