Runaway Train

So brutish a prisoner that the Warden (Ryan) had him welded into his cell for three years, Voight goes on the run through the Alaskan winter with only Eric Roberts to keep him warm. They sneak into the back of a four-engine work train, but the engineer has a heart attack, the brakes burn out, the track controller's computers can't cope, and the engineer's sleeping assistant turns out to be - a woman. So sit tight and watch four matt black shunters, looking like beasts from the pit of hell, go charging through the tundra, while Voight and Roberts slug it out over the girl, life, fate, and who's going to have to go outside. Then there is the problem of the Warden being winched down by chopper for one last showdown. The surprise is that Konchalovsky has taken such an obviously pat formula (from an original screenplay by Kurosawa) and made it work remarkably well. Somehow one leaves aside the blatant implausibilities, the coincidences, even Eric Roberts, and takes great pleasure in a breakneck ride to the end of the line. And Voight has finally found his niche, abandoning all those wet-eyed liberal roles and playing to the hilt a hideous, raving beast, with scars. Great ending, too.