On the Rails: My Favorite Train Movies
by psychotronicbeatnik | created - 2 months ago | updated - 1 month ago | Public#1-20 in ranked order beginning with my favorite; #21-end in no particular order. Most of these are set primarily on or around rail transportation while a few just feature extremely memorable scenes involving trains.
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1. Emperor of the North (1973)
PG | 118 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
In 1933, during the Depression, Shack the brutal conductor of the number 19 train has a personal vendetta against the best train hopping hobo tramp in the Northwest, A No. 1.
Director: Robert Aldrich | Stars: Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Keith Carradine, Charles Tyner
Votes: 7,074 | Gross: $0.09M
2. The General (1926)
Passed | 78 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
After being rejected by the Confederate military, not realizing it was due to his crucial civilian role, an engineer must single-handedly recapture his beloved locomotive after it is seized by Union spies and return it through enemy lines.
Directors: Clyde Bruckman, Buster Keaton | Stars: Buster Keaton, Marion Mack, Glen Cavender, Jim Farley
Votes: 98,187 | Gross: $1.03M
3. The Train (1964)
Not Rated | 133 min | Action, Thriller, War
In 1944, a German colonel loads a train with French art treasures to send to Germany. The Resistance must stop it without damaging the cargo.
Directors: John Frankenheimer, Arthur Penn | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Paul Scofield, Jeanne Moreau, Suzanne Flon
Votes: 18,902 | Gross: $7.41M
4. Shanghai Express (1932)
Approved | 82 min | Adventure, Drama, Film-Noir
A notorious woman rides a train through a dangerous situation with a British captain she loved.
Director: Josef von Sternberg | Stars: Marlene Dietrich, Clive Brook, Anna May Wong, Warner Oland
Votes: 10,337
5. Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
PG | 128 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
In December 1935, when his transcontinental luxury train is stranded by deep snow, detective Hercule Poirot is called on to solve a murder that occurred in his car the night before, with a multitude of suspects.
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery
Votes: 69,174 | Gross: $0.07M
6. The Lady Vanishes (1938)
Not Rated | 96 min | Mystery, Thriller
While travelling in continental Europe, a rich young playgirl realizes that an elderly lady seems to have disappeared from the train.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave, Paul Lukas, May Whitty
Votes: 57,186
7. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)
R | 104 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
Four armed men hijack a New York City subway car and demand a ransom for the passengers. The city's police are faced with a conundrum: Even if it's paid, how could they get away?
Director: Joseph Sargent | Stars: Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Martin Balsam, Hector Elizondo
Votes: 35,843 | Gross: $2.49M
8. The Wild Bunch (1969)
R | 135 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
An aging group of outlaws look for one last big score as the "traditional" American West is disappearing around them.
Director: Sam Peckinpah | Stars: William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Edmond O'Brien
Votes: 90,405 | Gross: $12.06M
9. The Tall Target (1951)
Approved | 78 min | Adventure, Crime, Drama
A New York City detective, traveling by train between New York and Baltimore, tries to foil an on-board plot to assassinate President-elect Abraham Lincoln before he reaches Baltimore to give a major pre-Inauguration speech in 1861.
Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: Dick Powell, Paula Raymond, Adolphe Menjou, Marshall Thompson
Votes: 2,339
10. The Narrow Margin (1952)
Approved | 71 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A woman planning to testify against the mob must be protected against potential assassins on the train trip from Chicago to Los Angeles.
Directors: Richard Fleischer, William Cameron Menzies | Stars: Charles McGraw, Marie Windsor, Jacqueline White, Gordon Gebert
Votes: 8,659
11. The Palm Beach Story (1942)
Passed | 88 min | Comedy, Romance
A New York inventor needs cash to develop his big idea, so his adoring wife decides to raise it by divorcing him and marrying an eccentric Florida millionaire with a capricious high-society sister.
Director: Preston Sturges | Stars: Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor, Rudy Vallee
Votes: 12,881 | Gross: $0.44M
12. Twentieth Century (1934)
91 min | Comedy, Romance
A flamboyant Broadway impresario who has fallen on hard times tries to get his former lover, now a Hollywood diva, to return and resurrect his failing career.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: John Barrymore, Carole Lombard, Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns
Votes: 7,252
13. Runaway Train (I) (1985)
R | 111 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Two escaped convicts and a female railway worker find themselves trapped on a speeding train with no brakes and nobody driving.
Director: Andrey Konchalovskiy | Stars: Jon Voight, Eric Roberts, Rebecca De Mornay, Kyle T. Heffner
Votes: 33,025 | Gross: $7.94M
14. Dodes'ka-den (1970)
Not Rated | 140 min | Drama
Various tales in the lives of Tokyo slum dwellers, including a mentally deficient young man obsessed with driving his own commuter trolley.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Yoshitaka Zushi, Kin Sugai, Toshiyuki Tonomura, Shinsuke Minami
Votes: 7,626
15. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
PG-13 | 166 min | Western
A mysterious stranger with a harmonica joins forces with a notorious desperado to protect a beautiful widow from a ruthless assassin working for the railroad.
Director: Sergio Leone | Stars: Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale, Jason Robards
Votes: 349,218 | Gross: $5.32M
16. Brief Encounter (1945)
Not Rated | 86 min | Drama, Romance
Meeting a stranger in a railway station, a woman is tempted to cheat on her husband.
Director: David Lean | Stars: Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway, Joyce Carey
Votes: 44,259
17. The Titfield Thunderbolt (1953)
Not Rated | 84 min | Comedy
Volunteers take over their local passenger train service (against bus company resistance) when the government announces its closure.
Director: Charles Crichton | Stars: Stanley Holloway, George Relph, Naunton Wayne, John Gregson
Votes: 3,314
18. Silver Streak (1976)
PG | 114 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
On a long-distance train trip, a man finds romance but also finds himself in danger of being killed, or at least pushed off the train.
Director: Arthur Hiller | Stars: Gene Wilder, Richard Pryor, Jill Clayburgh, Patrick McGoohan
Votes: 21,727
19. Horror Express (1972)
R | 88 min | Adventure, Horror, Sci-Fi
While on the Trans-Siberian Express, an anthropologist and his rival must contain the threat posed by the former's cargo: a prehistoric ape which is the host for a parasitic life-form.
Director: Eugenio Martín | Stars: Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Alberto de Mendoza, Telly Savalas
Votes: 12,771
20. The Great Train Robbery (1978)
PG | 110 min | Adventure, Crime, Drama
England, 1850s. A master criminal aims to rob a train of a large sum of gold. Security is incredibly tight and the task seems an impossible one. However, he has a plan and just the right people to carry it out.
Director: Michael Crichton | Stars: Sean Connery, Donald Sutherland, Lesley-Anne Down, Alan Webb
Votes: 19,564 | Gross: $13.03M
21. Supercop (1992)
R | 91 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
A Hong Kong detective teams up with his female Red Chinese counterpart to stop a Chinese drug czar.
Director: Stanley Tong | Stars: Jackie Chan, Michelle Yeoh, Maggie Cheung, Kenneth Tsang
Votes: 24,288 | Gross: $16.27M
22. Train to Busan (2016)
Not Rated | 118 min | Action, Horror, Thriller
While a zombie virus breaks out in South Korea, passengers struggle to survive on the train from Seoul to Busan.
Director: Yeon Sang-ho | Stars: Gong Yoo, Jung Yu-mi, Ma Dong-seok, Kim Su-an
Votes: 258,983 | Gross: $2.13M
23. Unstoppable (2010)
PG-13 | 98 min | Action, Thriller
With an unmanned, half-mile-long freight train barreling toward a city, a veteran engineer and a young conductor race against the clock to prevent a catastrophe.
Director: Tony Scott | Stars: Denzel Washington, Chris Pine, Rosario Dawson, Ethan Suplee
Votes: 207,814 | Gross: $81.56M
24. The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009)
R | 106 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
Armed men hijack a New York City subway train, holding the passengers hostage in return for a ransom, and turning an ordinary day's work for dispatcher Walter Garber into a face-off with the mastermind behind the crime.
Director: Tony Scott | Stars: Denzel Washington, John Travolta, Luis Guzmán, Victor Gojcaj
Votes: 208,109 | Gross: $65.45M
25. Breakheart Pass (1975)
PG | 95 min | Drama, Mystery, Western
John Deakin is being transported, as a prisoner, on a train with supplies and medicine to Fort Humboldt, Nevada.
Director: Tom Gries | Stars: Charles Bronson, Ben Johnson, Richard Crenna, Jill Ireland
Votes: 8,814
26. The Grey Fox (1982)
PG | 92 min | Biography, Drama, History
When an aging, but gentlemanly stagecoach robber is released from prison, he decides to go to Canada to become a train robber.
Director: Phillip Borsos | Stars: Richard Farnsworth, Jackie Burroughs, Ken Pogue, Wayne Robson
Votes: 2,496
27. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
PG | 110 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
In 1890s Wyoming, Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid lead a band of outlaws. When a train robbery goes wrong, they find themselves on the run with a posse hard on their heels. After considering their options, they escape to South America.
Director: George Roy Hill | Stars: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross, Strother Martin
Votes: 226,788 | Gross: $102.31M
28. Ripley's Game (2002)
R | 110 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A dying family man in need of money is persuaded to assassinate a European crime boss.
Director: Liliana Cavani | Stars: John Malkovich, Dougray Scott, Lena Headey, Ray Winstone
Votes: 19,483
29. The American Friend (1977)
Not Rated | 128 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Tom Ripley, who deals in forged art, suggests a picture framer he knows would make a good hit man.
Director: Wim Wenders | Stars: Dennis Hopper, Bruno Ganz, Lisa Kreuzer, Gérard Blain
Votes: 18,613
30. North by Northwest (1959)
Approved | 136 min | Action, Adventure, Mystery
A New York City advertising executive goes on the run after being mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies, and falls for a woman whose loyalties he begins to doubt.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Jessie Royce Landis
Votes: 346,312 | Gross: $13.28M
31. From Russia with Love (1963)
PG | 115 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
James Bond willingly falls into an assassination plot involving a naive Russian beauty in order to retrieve a Soviet encryption device that was stolen by S.P.E.C.T.R.E.
Director: Terence Young | Stars: Sean Connery, Robert Shaw, Lotte Lenya, Daniela Bianchi
Votes: 145,414 | Gross: $24.80M
32. Night Train to Munich (1940)
Not Rated | 90 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
After Germany invades Czechoslovakia, the German and the British intelligence services try to capture Czech scientist Dr. Axel Bomasch (James Harcourt), inventor of a new type of armor-plating.
Director: Carol Reed | Stars: Margaret Lockwood, Rex Harrison, Paul Henreid, Basil Radford
Votes: 5,583
33. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
PG | 118 min | Action, Adventure
In 1935, Indiana Jones is tasked by Indian villagers with reclaiming a rock stolen from them by a secret cult beneath the catacombs of an ancient palace.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Harrison Ford, Kate Capshaw, Ke Huy Quan, Amrish Puri
Votes: 535,462 | Gross: $179.87M
34. The Journey of Natty Gann (1985)
PG | 101 min | Adventure, Drama, Family
In the 1930s, a tomboy runs away from her guardian to join her single father who is 2,000 miles away, where he has found work.
Director: Jeremy Kagan | Stars: Meredith Salenger, John Cusack, Jed, Ray Wise
Votes: 6,890 | Gross: $2.14M
35. The Great Locomotive Chase (1956)
Approved | 85 min | Action, Adventure, Family
During the Civil War Union spy Andrews and his men volunteer to steal a Confederate train and drive it to Union territory while destroying the Confederate railway system along the way.
Director: Francis D. Lyon | Stars: Fess Parker, Jeffrey Hunter, Jeff York, John Lupton
Votes: 1,374
36. Wild Boys of the Road (1933)
Passed | 68 min | Adventure, Drama
In the depths of the Depression, two teenage boys strike out on their own in order to help their struggling parents and find life on the road tougher than expected.
Director: William A. Wellman | Stars: Frankie Darro, Rochelle Hudson, Edwin Phillips, Dorothy Coonan Wellman
Votes: 2,336
37. Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers (1993)
TV-PG | 29 min | Animation, Short, Comedy
Gromit butts heads with a mysterious penguin lodger, who hatches a sinister scheme involving the ex-NASA Techno Trousers that have been modified by Wallace for walkies.
Director: Nick Park | Stars: Peter Sallis, Peter Hawkins
Votes: 57,419
38. Bullet Train (1975)
Not Rated | 152 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Criminals plant a bomb on a high-speed train. It will explode when the train slows down, unless a ransom is paid.
Director: Jun'ya Satô | Stars: Ken Takakura, Shin'ichi Chiba, Kei Yamamoto, Eiji Gô
Votes: 1,734
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