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In real life, they did have an engine ready to do this if needed (I think sans helicopter), but because of the danger of trying to slow down to couple from the front, it was a ‘last-resort’ only option that luckily wasn’t ever used. One of the first things they attempt in the movie, is to couple an engine to the front of the train, and get an engineer to come onboard (by helicopter!) in an attempt to stop the train. Another idea of trying to stop the train, also shown in the movie, was a derail placed on the track to try to dislodge the train – something that in both instances thankfully didn’t work (due to the train’s speed), since it would have caused a hazmat disaster to clean up. Not the brightest idea – that small a rapidly moving target? Ridiculous. Two of the train cars really were carrying toxic molten phenol through populated areas, which would have caused needed evacuations had the train derailed, and in a surprising fact, State Troopers really did try to shoot at the small emergency fuel cutoff switch on the train’s engine beside the fuel tanks.
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#Unstoppable movie poster 2010 full
Also, train fans have commented on how can someone who’s worked on trains that long get off a train under full power? It’s not that easy to mix up the brake and the throttle… (That of course, is all more opinion.) Then, one stays on board, while the other throws the switch. Some people say that the whole thing wouldn’t have happened if budget cuts hadn’t prevented putting two people in each engine, rather than having people work alone. (Note this wouldn’t happen with a boarded passenger train – passengers can’t board without the airbreaks on, and someone has to stay in the engine…)īut what’s the difference from the film to real life? In the film version, we see who looks like an inept young engineer, while in real life, I believe the guy had been on staff for over 30 years. He’d probably done this before, and it had probably worked – except this time, the train was in notch 8 – under full power – and the train accelerated too fast for him to catch it as it took off down the line – with several cars of hazardous materials being towed unmanned behind it… The engineer had caught up to and grabbed hold of the engine at one point – it was going about 12 m/h then, but since the handles were slippery he couldn’t pull himself up, and after being dragged for about 80 feet, he was forced to let go. He didn’t have enough stopping distance, so decided to jump out of the engine, throw the switch manually, and run beside the train and jump back on. The engineer was shunting cars in the yard, had the airbreaks off and had powered up the engine when he noticed a switch that wasn’t thrown a little ways down the line. How it initially happened is roughly the same. In the true story, it was engine 8888, or ‘crazy 8’s,’ that was pulling the cars – in the film version, it’s 777, aptly nicknamed ‘triple 7.’ This is a minor change, and a smart one, alluding to the fact that this is inspired by, and creative licence has definitely been taken.
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The first change those who are already familiar with the actual train will notice, is the name change of the engine. Again, stop reading if you don’t want to be spoiled. I will be comparing to the film, thus going through what happens in it. Still, if you don’t want to know anything before going into this one, I’d suggest to stop reading know, bookmark this page and finish reading later… While it would annoy some to go about it in this order, I still enjoyed the film and found knowing what actually happened possibly even added some interest for me. Interestingly, I actually researched the story after seeing the trailer, and watched the film after knowing the true story. What is that true story, and how close is it to the movie adaptation? Of course we all know that presumably things are going to be amped up at least a little bit for a big screen adaptation – and often rightfully so – but I was curious, so I took the time to do a little bit of research and find out. It is the story of a runaway train, and as the poster for the movie boasts, it’s ‘inspired by a true story.’ On November 12th, the film Unstoppable was released by 20th Century Fox (my review here), starring Denzel Washington and Chris Pine.