Runaway! (1973)

A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

The acting in this movie is really good.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

So here's the story. Within the first 10 minutes of the picture, the train's engineer learns that he has no brakes AND they're going downhill through the mountains. Now you'd THINK this would mean the movie would be at most 15-20 minutes long...yet somehow they pad it out to full length for a made for TV film! So what do they do? Pad, pad and pad!You have to understand the context for this picture. The 1970s were HUGE for disaster pictures and this is one of about 19,000,000 such films that were made about impending doom during that time. Earthquakes, floods, fires, boats, airplanes, you name it...and so why NOT make a film about a train full of passengers waiting to die?! Well, common sense would indicate they shouldn't but it was the rage at the time.Ways they padded some films was make a few characters with some silly backstory...and the one they invested the most energy on was the divorcing couple who hate each other and you KNOW what is going to happen with them by the end of the movie!! Overall, a dumb premise and a film I can't see watching unless you are some sort of disaster movie groupie.

For railway enthusiasts like me, this made-for-television film looked to be quite promising. It was originally premiered over 40 years and its many years since I have last seen it on the living room box but I was able to recently download it. Its sometimes unauthentic and a bit silly about a doomed train running out of control due to technical brake failure (or other faults) and makes you hold your nerves as it is downhill all the way to disaster some miles away for 200 passengers and crew members on board and a rescue locomotive couples up from behind when there could have been an alternative option to avert the major crash. Also, there is no way a rescue locomotive could have it's air-hoses connected while the train is moving at speed and that's one of the biggest problem with this film. Overall, its not too bad-a-film for its time.

I'm an avid railroad fan, and for all of its inadequacies, I feel that this movie still rates as excellent. I first saw this as a child, and have been searching for it for over fifteen years. I was lucky enough to find someone on Ebay that has a 35mm copy of it and does sell videos of it, so for all the true fans of this movie, check out Ebay.As for the technical end of it, the plot is probably something that could not happen, at least in the magnitude depicted here. ALL diesel locomotives have something called a TRACTION BRAKE, which, like the reversal of an airliners engines to slow an aircraft, does essentially the same thing. The traction brake reverses electrical polarity to the motors, causing them to act AGAINST forward motion. This is comparable to downshifting an automobile transmission into first or low gear when descending steep hills. By itself, the traction brake could not have stopped the train, but the locomotive could have slowed the train down to a less than fatal speed. Also, a helper locomotive added to the rear of a train would probably not have the power to stop a train travelling 70+ mph by itself. It would need the assistance of the air brake throughout the train to accomplish that - which was useless in the movie plot, and even if it weren't, there's no way the air hoses could be connected on a moving train.Despite these flaws, the movie is very entertaining, and at 70 minutes, it is like a sweet and satisfying snack, compared to a 120 minute main course.

A passenger train is runaway (the brakes have frozen) on a winding, mountainous snow covered railway! Despite the fact that this is a made for TV movie, it movie was theatrically released overseas under the title "The Frozen Passage" and deservedly was a hit. It's unfortunate that it's not currently available on any format since it's an exciting suspenseful film that you can see with your family. the finale it also very satisfying. Come on Universal and release this one at least on VHS (DVD is ideal!).