It’s actually the movie producers who are to blame for this. They only desire to replicate a proven formula that will draw out a certain demographic in order to assure a base return on investment. They are reluctant to try anything different because there is less guarantee that the investors will see a return on the millions they invest in these types of productions. In the end, it’s all about money.
I disagree with those who think that it would result in a boring movie if stories like this were told more closely to fact. Any screen writer worth his or her weight would be able to make it interesting. Instead we routinely see formulaic movies/TV which is really just lazy writing to appease nervous investors.
Independent movies tend to buck this trend, although with varying degrees of success.
I guess it all depends on the even. Some things had enoug tension for 5 movies without having to embellish a thing - think Apollo 13. The exact actual events of this runaway were an interesting read to me - a train buff. And probably to everyone posting here. We’d all go see it. But someone who knows little about trains, other than that they run on tracks and occasionally they have to stop their car and wait while one passes, if the even actually ever DO cross over tracks these days, would be bored to tears.There wasn’t much action, there was no town or tain full of kids in mortal danger, and it never got up to 70+ mph. They DID try to shoot the fuel cutoff, I guess that would be the highlight of a purely factual movie.
I think Unstoppable runs a pretty fine line between believable and “no way that’s completely impossible” and for the majority of people who are not rail buffs, barely if at all crosses is, and really doesn’t take a flying leap to the wrong side even for those of us who DO know what’s going on.
I’m more annoyed at movies today that take a perfectly good novel and totally destroy it int he name oif box office draw by casting actors who in no way resemble the characters in the novel, and greatly alter the plot line.
But really, I was looking for examples that most people would be familiar with. Since my parents (both of them) taught Theater Arts at Penn State for 30+ years, I could have thrown out many other examples, most of which would have made the rest of you say “Huh? I’ve never heard of that movie.”
And these classics are familiar enough that it would be nice if a screenwriter would say, “Gee, maybe I could get a character with deep emotional issues, like Hamlet had,” rather than just dashing off the same old tired cliches.
But really, most movie scripts aren’t written that way. Someone says, “Let’s make a movie based on this incident (or premise, or idea, or whatever)”. Then someone else will say “Hey, you need some conflict in there” (sometimes not recognizing the potential for other types of conflict). Everyone wants th
While you are right that the cliches do get old, they can also be something people relate to. The old vs new is not a new concept in real society. Less than Hollywood thinks? yes, but not uncommon. And then the old saying: “The poblem with Stereotypes is they are so ofte true.” And ask any railroader, there’s not much of a family tie. it’s not hard to believe a railroader will miss a Birthday or 19, leaving the older sibling to be the parent. It may be cliche, but it does have a place in Railroading movies. The divorce side story wasn;t admitted required, and I can grant you that.
Also, the internal conflict in Hamlet was with Hamlet. Unstoppable was about a train, with a goodly helping of (shallow though it may be) human conflict for the audience to relate to. Y
The nice thing about movie trailers is that it makes it so easy to blow off yet another totally inane and improbable “action-adventure” yarn even if it does star some fine talent. Then again, I must be in the wrong demographic as that whole genre of flick seems to me to be a monumental waste of time and money.
Now if they made a comedy out of it…
After all “Airplane” was actually based on a serious novel. As a matter of fact, a “serious” movie was made out of that novel prior to “Airplane”. It was kind of a flop.
Or, they could make a horror flick kinda like “Christine”, only instead if using a demonic 1958 Plymouth Belevedere, it could be the latest and greatest from General Electric that somehow gets possessed by evil spirits. I can see it now: “GEVO”.
Unfortunately, that’s exactly the kind of attitude that gets you cliched dialogue and stock characters.
Yes, the movie is inherently about a train. Unless you’re doing something like Thomas the Tank engine and giving personalities to inanimate objects, the train is going to be a plot vehicle, not a source of conflict… UNLESS you’re going to try to write a story where the train is a metaphor for, perhaps, corporate greed or a bureaucracy’s insensitivity to human emotions and needs (not recommending that, just throwing some options out).
The problem is, stories about things don’t usually appeal to people. They’re called documentaries, and we watch them on Discovery, or National Geographic, TLC, etc.
Movies need people to have broad appeal. So we stick humans into a story about a train. Sounds like there was an attempt at a “coming of age” story for the conductor character. OK, good start… but it sounds like they didn’t have any faith in that story and threw the “estranged wife” theme in there too, rather than fully developing the first. And maybe Denzel Washington’s character knows what the right thing to do is, but he’s afraid to do it, and has to overcome his inner demons to do it. Tony Scott tried that in an earlier action flick (Top Gun), but didn’t develop it well.
The point, though, is that it takes thought, creativity, and skill as a writer to develop these story lines, rather than just slapping them on the outside of an action premise. The few production teams who succeed at this turn “Good action flick but…” reactions into “Great movie!” reactions.
Not really the point. It could just as well have been a 1952 Hudson Hornet or a 1974 AMC Gremlin… naw, scratch the Gremlin, that would have made “Christine” a slapstick comedy.
I don’t mind watching the laws of physics being routinely violated either with or without CGI but Wile E. Coyote or his spiritual twin is usually involved.
That looks an awful lot like the car Johnny Cash built “One Piece At A Time”. [(-D]
Either that, or it’s that little-known concept car, the Plymouth “Medusa”. The only way you can make it to the steering wheel without turning to stone is to back into it using a mirror to guide you.
It’s actually a 1987 BMW 325e! It’s built for an art car race called the 24 hours of lemons - all cars have to be under $500 excluding safety equipment. Sort of the ultimate anyman’s racing. This team is run by some friends of mine, here’s their site: http://www.porcubimmer.com/ It was actually on display at the SEMA show a few weeks ago in Las Vegas - Popular Mechanics voted it 5th ugliest car there.
The below incident which happened some years ago was recently on a cable channel program. Six people died between two related accidents. Six locos with a loaded hopper car freight running at about a hundred miles and hour into about a forty mile an hour curve. Some of the loco wheels were beginning to liquify from the intense heat according to the TV program. Some dynamic brakes were not working and many other issues many train enthusiast are not aware of.
Gravity stopped the train.
Many links in the below link concerning this event.
The wreck in question took place on the morning of May 12, 1989 at the bottom of Cahon Pass. The train consisted of 6 locomotives and 69 hopper cars loaded with trona (Na3H(CO3)2**·**2H2O). Clerks at Mojave miscalculated the trains weight. The clerk entering the data had no ldea how much trona weighed but he knew what 100 tons of coal looked like and assumed the same would be true for trona. Nor did the engineer and crew at the head of the train realize that several of the locomotives had faulty dynamic brake systems. The train didn’t have enough braking power to slow it down the grade. When the engineer realized the dynamics weren’t slowing the train he threw the emergency brake. This cut out the dynamics and the train ran away. The brake shoes on the cars weren’t enough to slow it. At that point the train became an unstoppable projectile and there was nothing anybody could do about it.
