A train wreck is often a horrendous sight in movies. In reality it’s not much better considering that the force needed to knock one railroad car off the tracks is going to be possibly enough to derail an entire line of cars as they keep following one another into a broken line of screeching metal and tumbling destruction. In movies these scenes are usually accompanied by massive explosions that may or may not be realistic and extreme collateral damage that could be entirely realistic. Train wrecks are actually worse in some cases than plane crashes considering that the devastation can spread for miles on end and there is no guarantee that what’s being hauled won’t add to the damage by spreading something incredibly toxic and harmful to the environment. A plane crash is devastating to be certain, but the loss of life and property seems as though it would be exponential in the event of a train wreck.
Here are some of the greatest derailment scenes in movie history.
5. Broken Arrow
It’s not just the danger of a train wreck that’s looming, it’s the possibility of a nuclear warhead going off if it’s not stopped in time. Thankfully Christian Slater hits the button at the last possible instant before flinging himself off the train, thereby avoiding being caught in the sudden and very violent collision that occurs only a moment later. Thanks to movie magic though he’s incredibly lucky enough to avoid being caught by any debris that’s flying all over the place.
4. Unstoppable
You’ve got a mile-long train on the tracks pulling a full load of chemical cargo and it’s speeding up as it goes. Add to that the fact that it also has 5000 gallons of fuel on board and what do you have? Yep, a speeding bomb that’s set to go off as soon as it encounters a turn it can’t navigate without a conductor. Even the derailers that are set into place can’t stop 777 once it’s up to speed, and all other attempts to slow it down fail as another diesel engine attempting to slow it down is forced off the tracks, killing the ill-fated engineer that made the attempt.
3. The Polar Express
You would think that a train that runs on a yearly basis would have a checklist to go over when they were making their run. “Clear ice off of tracks” seems like it would be a pretty big priority. But then I guess it’s possible at that temperature that ice could form over the tracks pretty easily given their proximity to the water. In any case this was more of a slip slide derailment than a disaster thankfully, and through some skillful manipulation the engineer was able to get the train back on the tracks just in time.
2. Knowing
What’s worse, knowing about the crash, or being in it when it’s happening? I get the feeling that a lot of people would say the latter considering that you really don’t know what’s going to happen in a train crash. This one is absolutely devastating as the cars jump the tracks and go screaming into the station where they proceed to run through and over anyone caught in their way until finally they’re stopped as they meet a surface that they can’t simply plow through. And somehow, some way, Nicolas Cage is unharmed.
1. The Fugitive
Not really sure how to feel about this one. It almost seems like the train would cut the bus in half and keep going, but then you’ve got to remember that the conductor is hitting the brakes, which means the speed is decreasing but not enough enough in that short amount of time. Instead of plowing through the bus the train hits and is eventually derailed as the cars go caroming off of one another to roll and grind along the dirt in all direction as Kimball escapes the worst of it.
Train wrecks in movies are definitely loud and horrible, but somehow the main characters always escape injury by being as close to them as possible.
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