Runaway Train is a 1985 American action thriller film directed by Andrei Konchalovsky and starring Jon Voight, Eric Roberts, Rebecca De Mornay and John P. Ryan.

The film was also the feature debut of both Danny Trejo and Tommy "Tiny" Lister,[3] who both proceeded to successful careers as "tough guy" character actors.

The story concerns two escaped convicts and an assistant locomotive driver who are stuck on a runaway train as it barrels through snowy desolate Alaska.

Kurosawa intended the original screenplay to be his first color film following Red Beard, but difficulties with the American financial backers led to its being shelved.

[4] Oscar "Manny" Manheim is a bank robber and hero to the convicts of Alaska's Stonehaven Maximum Security Prison.

After escaping from the prison via a sewer tunnel that opens near a freezing river, and a cross-country hike, the two arrive at a switchyard.

The elderly railroad engineer, Al, has a fatal heart attack after starting the train and falls off the lead locomotive.

The collision damages the cab of the lead locomotive and jams the front door of the second engine, an old inoperable EMD F-unit, or "'A' Unit".

As jumping off the train at its current speed would be suicide, the only possible way to stop it would be to climb forward onto the lead engine and press its kill switch, a difficult feat due to the 'A' Unit's jammed front door and its obsolete rounded streamlined designs having no outside catwalk, unlike the first, third, and fourth locomotives.

Realising the fast-moving train would derail at the curve causing damage to the plant with a possibility of major environmental disaster, the dispatchers divert the runaway onto a dead-end branch line, thus condemning all three on board to death, rather than risking a chemical explosion.

Spurred on by the appearance of his archenemy with a resolve to not be returned to prison, Manny makes a perilous leap to the lead engine.

Ranken boards the locomotive from the helicopter; Manny handcuffs him inside the lead engine after brutally beating him.

He waves goodbye (ignoring Buck's screaming pleas to shut down the lead engine) and climbs onto the roof in the freezing snow, with his arms stretched out, accepting his inevitable fate.

The script was written by Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni and Ryuzo Kikushima, about two escaped convicts who hide on board a stationary train, only for it to roll away, gradually picking up tremendous speed.

[9][10] In 1982 the Nippon Herald company, which owned Kurosawa's script, asked Francis Ford Coppola to recommend a director.

"The concentration of energy and passion, the existential point of view, and the image of the train as something – perhaps civilization – out of control.... Manny, the character played by Voight, feels, 'Win or lose, what's the difference?'

During filming, the crew realized they didn't have any real snow, due to warm temperatures (a false spring) in the area.

[citation needed] The locomotives used in the film have gone their separate ways: Richard (Rick) Holley was killed prior to the start of principal photography when the helicopter he was piloting hit power lines while scouting for shoot locations in Alaska.

Invitations for the premiere were sent to people from the Department of Commerce, Rarus Railroad, and Cannon Films personnel, as well as Jon Voight, Eric Roberts, and Rebecca De Mornay.

The website's critical consensus states, "Charging forward with the momentum of a locomotive, Runaway Train makes great use of its adrenaline-fueled premise and star presences of Jon Voight and Eric Roberts".

[21] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 67 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

[24] Ebert wrote the opening prison scenes were well-made but routine, while the film's genius showed in the train sequences with "stunning" action scenes and the contrast between Roberts' "wild man" persona and Voight's "intelligent" convict; DeMornay's "role as an outsider gives them an audience and a mirror.