Movie · 1985 · Action, Thriller, Drama, Adventure · 1h 51m · R · English
Curator score: 5.9/10 (61.4K ratings)
Desperate, and determined to survive.
Overview
A hardened convict and a younger prisoner escape from a brutal prison in the middle of winter only to find themselves on an out-of-control train with a female railway worker while being pursued by the vengeful head of security.
Ratings
Curator score: 5.9/10
IMDb: 7.2/10
Letterboxd: 3.66/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 83%
Metacritic: 67
TMDB: 7.0/10
Director
Andrei Konchalovsky
Production
Golan-Globus Productions, Northbrook Films, The Cannon Group
Cast
Jon Voight, Eric Roberts, Rebecca De Mornay, Kyle T. Heffner, John P. Ryan, T.K. Carter, Kenneth McMillan, Stacey Pickren, Walter Wyatt, Edward Bunker, Reid Cruickshanks, Dan Wray, Michael Lee Gogin, John Bloom, Hank Worden, Danny Trejo, Tommy Lister Jr., Dennis Franz, John Otrin, Norman Alexander Gibbs
Where to watch
Amazon Prime Video, History Vault, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Curator Review
Verdict
A grim, high-tension prison-break thriller that turns into a survival story with real physical danger and a strangely poetic streak. Its mix of brutal action, operatic performances, and bleak winter atmosphere makes it memorable even when it gets wild.
Best for
Viewers who like intense 1980s action dramas
Fans of bleak survival stories and prison-break movies
People interested in oddball prestige genre films
Anyone drawn to big, theatrical performances and harsh landscapes
Skip if
You want sleek, realistic action with a modern pace
You dislike heightened acting or melodramatic dialogue
You prefer lighter adventure films or clean-cut heroics
You need a tightly controlled, conventional thriller
Overview
Runaway Train is one of those mid-budget 1980s genre films that feels bigger and stranger than its premise suggests. It starts as a prison escape picture, then becomes a claustrophobic survival thriller, and finally something almost mythic as the train barrels through the frozen wilderness with no one truly in control.
Worth noting
What makes it stand out is the collision of tones: brutal physical action, operatic performances, and a severe winter setting that gives the whole movie a harsh, end-of-the-world texture. Jon Voight and Eric Roberts go fully feral, and the film never asks them to be subtle. That intensity can feel excessive, but it also gives the movie its force.
Bottom line
It’s not polished in a glossy Hollywood way, and that’s part of the appeal. The movie has the rough, unpredictable energy of a cult favorite that somehow also earned serious awards attention. If you like your action cinema grim, strange, and a little feverish, this is an easy recommendation.
Top Letterboxd reviews
matt lynch (3.5★) · 440 likes
"You're an animal!"
"No, worse! Human. Human!"
🇵🇱 Steve G 🐝 (4.5★) · 377 likes
Runaway Train is a film that absolutely fascinates me even beyond its undoubted excellence.
It was directed by Andrey Konchalovskiy, a filmmaker with a career so delightfully unpredictable in its quality and genres of choice. It received two acting Oscar nominations, despite being an action film, one of them for Eric Roberts of all people. It has a screenplay by Akira Kurosawa. Mr. Blue from Reservoir Dogs co-wrote it. And it was produced and distributed by Cannon Films. Cannon Films!… more
Tao A (4.5★) · 312 likes
So how come none of y’all told me a Cannon action movie written by Akira Kurosawa starring an Oscar worthy Eric Roberts and Oscar-and-Best-Stache-of-the-80s worthy Jon Voight is a thing that existed and is a straight up masterpiece lmao
Josh Lewis (4★) · 237 likes
A tough-as-nails Alaskan prison escape/train chase movie adapted from an Akira Kurosawa script (rewritten with some 70s crime grit by Ed Bunker) and directed by a Russian filmmaker who regularly collaborated with Tarkovsky... But also produced by Cannon Films and starring two gods of cinema Jon Voight and Eric Roberts in the goofy Method Acting zone as two oddball violent convicts who find themselves on the titular runaway train. (The voices! The screaming! CMON SUCKA!) Resulting in this strange concoction… more A tough-as-nails Alaskan prison escape/train chase movie adapted from an Akira Kurosawa script (rewritten with some 70s crime grit by Ed Bunker) and directed by a Russian filmmaker who regularly collaborated with Tarkovsky... But also produced by Cannon Films and starring two gods of cinema Jon Voight and Eric Roberts in the goofy Method Acting zone as two oddball violent convicts who find themselves on the titular runaway train. (The voices! The screaming! CMON SUCKA!) Resulting in this strange concoction… more
wersku (4★) · 234 likes
Human ruins in an inevitable end state.
One of the finest "spirit of the Sorcerer" in its genre, where men (one woman) scream at each other under the spell of pure frustration. A controlling god arrives to exact revenge, and the frozen hell is gifted its own kind of moving purgatory for good behavior (😏). Kurosawa’s project bears Konchalovsky’s cuckoo-like imprint, and his brutal depiction leaves no one cold, except the characters themselves.
Voight is an animal, an ANIMAL. But… more