Chris Pine and Denzel Washington in Unstoppable.Image via 20th Century
By
Rob London
Published 51 minutes ago
A cinematic obsessive with the filmic palate of a starving raccoon, Rob London will watch pretty much anything once. With a mind like a steel trap, he's an endless fount of movie and TV trivia, borne from a misspent youth of watching monster movies on TV, perusing the sun-faded goods at the local video rental shop, and staining his fingers with ink from the Video Movie Guide. Areas of interest include science fiction, film noir, horror flicks, '70s disaster pictures, Bond movies, '90s action, giant robots, dinosaurs, super heroes, and the exuberantly schlocky output of Cannon Films. He also enjoys both Star Trek and Star Wars when they're good, and maybe even more when they're bad. As a Canadian, he also has a vested interest in Canadian movies and TV shows, especially the cheesier ones dubbed "Canuxploitation."
An expert on Marvel Comics, he has also written for the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, and is a member of the Marvel Research Team. He can frequently be found pontificating on comic-book continuity or bemoaning the misfortunes of the Toronto Maple Leafs on his Twitter account.
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Quentin Tarantino has released his list of his favorite twenty movies of the 21st century, and you may be surprised to see what his top monster movie was...or that he considers it a monster movie at all. 2010's Unstoppable, which pitted Denzel Washington and Chris Pine against a train full of volatile chemicals, landed at #7 on Tarantino's list. If you feel like having yourself a Marvin Schwarz-style film festival, you can stream Unstoppable on Disney+ or Hulu in the US.
Tarantino, who is still weighing the options for what will be his tenth and allegedly final film, has "last movies" on his mind, and Unstoppable, which was action maestro Tony Scott's final film before his death in 2012. Tarantino calls it "one of my favorite last movies of a director." Unusually, he also refers to it as a "monster movie": "It’s one of the best monster movies of the 21st century. The train is a monster. The train becomes a monster. And it becomes one of the greatest monsters of our time. Stronger than Godzilla, stronger than those King Kong movies." Tarantino's list deemed Black Hawk Down (which was directed by Tony Scott's brother, Ridley Scott) his top movie of the century so far; he revealed his rankings on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast.
What Is 'Unstoppable' About?
A pair of hapless hostlers (Ethan Suplee and T.J. Miller) inadvertently trigger a disaster when they inadvertently send an unmanned freight train out of the railyard at top speed. Yardmaster Connie Hooper (Rosario Dawson) is on the case, and suggests that railway executive Oscar Galvin (Kevin Dunn) allow them to derail the train. But the cost-cutting Galvin won't hear it, even after government inspector Scott Werner (Kevin Corrigan) warns them that the train is loaded with molten phenol, which could turn the train into "a missile the size of the Chrysler Building." A desperate mission to stop the train ends in calamity, prompting rookie conductor Will Colson (Pine) and grizzled veteran engineer Frank Barnes (Washington) to formulate a desperate plan to slow the runaway down with their own train.
Loosely based on real events, Unstoppable was written by Mark Bomback (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes). Although it was only a modest success at the box office upon its release, it has gained traction as one of Scott's crowning achievements. In a 2023 review, Collider's Nick Laskin deemed the film "as breathtakingly put-together and gleefully unpretentious as anything Scott ever put his name on."
Unstoppable is now streaming on Disney+ and Hulu. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.
Unstoppable
Like Follow Followed PG-13 Action Thriller Release Date November 4, 2010 Runtime 98 minutes Director Tony Scott Writers Mark Bomback Producers Alex Young, Eric McLeod, Julie Yorn, Mimi Rogers, Tony Scott, Adam Somner, Diane L. Sabatini, Lee Trink, Skip ChaissonCast
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Denzel Washington
Frank Barnes
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Chris Pine
Will Colson
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Rosario Dawson
Connie Hooper
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Kevin Dunn
Oscar Galvin, VP of Operations
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Unstoppable
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Quentin Tarantino
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