I caught an episode of the CBS show ‘The Unit’ last night that featured a train in the climax. A terrorist parked a truck bomb under a remote underpass to blow up a train carrying radioactive material. When the train appeared, it was headed by low nose GP unit in a fake road name (that I didn’t catch - but it was a nice color scheme) and pulled a two or three car consist. It was laughable because the freight car was marked with large radioactive signs like it was a big target.
Anyhow, besides all the plot holes too numerous to count leading up to the climax (like not calling into the conductor to have the train stopped long before the bridge - DUH), the train was forced to make an emergency stop before the bomb went off. They might as well have used a skidding tire sound effect because it stopped like a car (probably within 50 feet).
You’d figure a major network show like that could afford a advisor for those things, since they already went through the trouble and expense of painting up a loco! Or maybe it was a brain-dead director that ingnored the advice because it would not be ‘dramatic’ enough?
Didn’t see the show, but while channel surfing I saw that scene. If they would have called the conductor, they wouldn’t have gotten to blow up a perfectly good bridge. (Actually there was just a lot of fire and smoke with the geep sitting about 15 feet away. The bridge could still be there for all I know.) Anyway , what suspense is there if you reroute the train? We need to see that our Homeland Security is a force to be reckoned with–if not brightest bulbs on the used car lot.
The issue may not be that it is not believible to a person that understands trains, but that is IS believible to those who do not. The last point about drama, I assume, trumps all other considerations.
I was flippin’ channels between innings and caught that very segment. Had to laugh at how quick that locomotive stopped. No screeching wheels, no banging and crashing of couplers being compressed together. Hmmm. Must have been covered up by the explosion…
Tom
P.S. Did anyone catch the road name on the side of the locomotive? It appeared to be a BNSF scheme but I thought it said something else.
Using a fake road name was probably a necessity in this case. The TV studios probably run into the same problems as model railroaders and the copyrights of the real railroads. Plus, having a real railroad’s name on the side of the locomotive that’s potentially going to be wrecked isn’t good for their public image.
The plot line of the show tried to explain away the other holes you mentioned. Don’t know how these relate to reality. The train couldn’t be stopped with a simple call since it was hauling radioactive material. The theory being a moving target is harder to hit. The terrorist plot was to blow up the train as it passed over the small bridge creating a “dirty bomb” with the waste. Supposedly, the belly of the car wasn’t as well protected as the rest of it. By blowing it up ahead of the train, they’d be able to contain the radioactive material even if the train went into the opening.
Most of the points were reasonable except for that extremely quick stop.
Also to note it would not have worked, the container they ship that stuff in could be hit broadside with a fast moving freight and only dent the container. Force of the explosion would have shot the container up after going though the bridge, you’d have to talk to an explosives expert to find out if it would have even dented the container given the circumstances.
I’ve not seen the episode in question, although I know that the Discovery Channel or the History Channel has done segments on how sturdy the radioactive-waste containers are. I remember one of the tests was along the lines of we’ll put the flatcar right over the center of a crossover, and then ram an engine into it at 60MPH.
the flatcar was destroyed (looked pretty cool in slowmo), although the most damage sustained by the waste container was that the paint was scuffed/chipped off in some places, and a few minor dents. Nothing that would have constituted a radioactive hazard had the container been filled with the radioactive glass that it’s meant to carry…
With four disc brakes, I don’t think my car could stop as fast as that train!
I once saw on the Dicovery Science Channel the specal nuclear waste containers being demonstrated/tested. They are tank-like and built like bank vaults but with even stronger materials and are shielded with lead inside. They ride on specially designed cars. The program showed these containers being dropped a hundred feet, being hit head on by a locomotive, and being blown up, all with nary a scratch. I imagine these trains are also shadowed by some undercover military detachments in addition to those travelling with the train. I don’t think we have too much to worry about.
I noted that too, and I thought it totally absurd and don’t think it relates at all to reality. They had solid Intel of a fixed point of attack, so the least they could have done was to stop the train and call in all available assets to escort it back so it could take another route. Instead they had to race to the bridge in their beat-up GTO (with the terrorist in cuffs the back seat) and then call in an order to stop the train after they determined they could not disarm the bomb.
If I were the CO, this unit would not be a unit anymore. I’d also make a lousy TV show writer. [;)]
I also believe that at least one level of security is that the general public doesn’t know what weak spots (if any) there are in the radioactive waste shipping chain. You don’t needs facts to entertain the majority of the people.
I didn’t catch the show, but I’ll take your word for it.
I wish for just once Hollywood would listen to us (the viewers that know) and make a movie or TV show the way it should actually be made…
I finally recorded The General with Buster Keaten early this morning off of TCM, and though it’s silent and black and white, it’s a really cool old movie. When the engine falls through the burning bridge into the river below, it was an actual engine… Now that’s what I’m talking about!. Also, Keaten did his own very dangerous stunts as well.
It wasn’t a documentary. I have known folks to get all worked up about things they saw in movies such as The Matrix, screaming that certain things aren’t realistic or possible.
Of course, I suppose, there is some entertainment in picking these types of movies apart.
Living where I do (southern Nevada) I suspect that somebody is trying to influence the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage site debate by frightening the technologically challenged 99+% of TV viewers about moving radioactive waste by rail. Bear in mind, these are the same people who ran in circles, screamed and shouted when a government flack suggested that a planned conventional explosive blast might generate a mushroom cloud!
I will not belabor the point that the container is all but indestructable. I WILL climb aboard the bandwagon that such a movement would be in constant communication with railroad and security authorities. Even a momentary break would set off an immediate stop and a security response to a train being monitored by GPS and telemetry as well as voice radio. It wouldn’t be left to the abilities of a couple of underequipped and undertrained clowns who make the Keystone Kops look like Interpol.
My 12 year old and 6 year old boys were watching that show with me, and while I thought most of the plot was plausable, even blowing up the bridge, but, the short stopping distance was not. My 12 year old loved the whole sequence, even though he knew the short stop was bogas.
I don’t think that show is marketed to folks 40+, so those small details we pick up on don’t really matter to them.
I am in aviation, and I see show after show do very unrealistic things with airplanes. My pet peve is when they show one model take off, say a 737, and then show a 747 landing. Oh ya, they landed that 747 at short field for private aircraft.
Ok, in slo-mo, the laws of gravity are clearly NOT obeyed, but at normal viewing speed, the train wreck at the end of Under Seige 2, is one of the most spectacular on film.
Two locos and a passenger car, versus a military consist, ordinance and fuel, on a high bridge, what more do you need?
In my line of work, I’m intamitly familiar with the so called (white trains) that transport R.A.M. (radio active material) and the D.O.E. will not stop the trains unless there is proof that it is in danger. Having watched the show last night, the memebers of the unit did not provide the proof neccessary to stop the train. The D.O.E. will not simply take someones word for it. And D.O.T. regulations state that those Rad. signs be placed on the railcars. Jason
ummm this is TV… aimed at the uneducated (me included) masses who watch commercials… and things being blown up…
I’m sure we could all watch something that was enthralling,and enjoyable… until we realised the truth behind it wasnt really ‘reality’… TV isnt real life, its entertainment, its not supposed to be accurate (unless "educational or documentary) its supposed to appeal to as many viewers as possible (for financial reasons… “gasp”)… not the few who know that a loco cant stop in 50ft and makes a sound like a Honda Civic stopping at a red light.
The sad thing about that is (in my opinion) that telling a story that is within the confines of reality can often be more compelling than deifying reality. For instance, they could have spiced up the tension in that final scene by playing into the fact that the train was incapable of stopping in such a short distance. It could have been a major factor that played into suspense of the situation. But instead the writers got lazy and relied on a big explosion for their drama (which must have been a dud because it should have taken out far more than it did).
Someday I hope a writer/director will wise up and see that there is much about the way trains actually operate that could make a plot interesting. I’ll try to do it if I ever get there someday, but I really hope someone else will beat me to it.
I’ve seeen that same video on the History Channel before. If I’m not mistaken, I think they used an older high-nose Geep in that test. Here’s the thing, they used rockets (yep, you heard me, rockets!) to get the loco up to speed before hitting the flat. Kinda like those old “rocket sleds on rails” they used to test the impact of an aircraft on a concrete wall. It was pretty impressive, but it wasn’t prototypical. [;)]