20 great movies from the past 20 years: Unstoppable

I’m counting down to the 2025 best-of-the-year season by recommending 20 of my favorite movies from the past 20 years. Here are the previous entries, if you want to catch up:

2005: Caché
2006: Undisputed II: Last Man Standing
2007: Sunshine
2008: Speed Racer
2009: Vengeance

I'm going to be real with you all: my first instinct for this week was Oliver Assayas’ masterful miniseries/movie Carlos, about the life of the infamous Carlos the Jackal. I love the movie and have been meaning to revisit it for a few years anyway, but couldn't make the time this week (look, it’s over five-and-a-half hours long). It is streaming on The Criterion Channel, for those interested.

Instead, today I'm going to talk about another 2010 favorite of mine: the train thriller Unstoppable, the last of five excellent collaborations between star Denzel Washington and director Tony Scott. I genuinely love them all: Crimson Tide, Man on Fire, Déjà Vu, The Taking of Pelham 123, but Unstoppable is my favorite. It’s a down-to-earth blue collar drama based on a true story, but dramatized just enough to make it captivating on a big screen.

Unstoppable adapts the 2001 true story of a runaway train with hazardous chemicals, and the incredible lengths taken to stop it from causing a disaster in Ohio. Denzel is veteran engineer Frank Barnes, joined by rookie train conductor Will Colson (Chris Pine, the standout of his generation of Hollywood Chrises) on what quickly turns into a nightmare work day.

The tension between the two of them builds early, and their relationship (and depth of character) is a major reason why the movie works. Frank, who is being forced into an early retirement, sees Will as yet another young new hire being given a senior position in order to avoid paying higher wages to the more tenured employees. Will is distracted by problems with his personal life and is still getting his bearings with his new position. These two men figure each other out in real time, especially when they’re in crisis mode. But despite the tension between them, Unstoppable doesn’t fall into normal action movie territory: There is no conventional violence, and there are no conventional bad guys. Instead, it’s about normal people doing their jobs well, and banding together to save the day.

Unstoppable also promises train thrills, and, boy, does it deliver. Filled with adrenaline and positively electric, the train sequences are filmed using trains borrowed from three different railroads. These trains are real and their presence is augmented by Scott’s unique visual approach. As an early adopter of digital filmmaking techniques, Scott uses the new technology to create vivid colors and a general feeling of freneticism. There’s a genuine sense of propulsiveness behind his style, and there are few settings it fits better than in a runaway train movie – the tension feels palpable and gripping.

Unstoppable is a unique Hollywood action movie that lacks the genre's central pillars of violence and villains, but it still manages to deliver on the thrills. It’s marvelously crafted, and held together by two strong performances at its center. Oh, and trains. This one’s for the fellow train enthusiasts out there. (And if you want more trains, check out Bullet Train Explosion on Netflix, from the director of Shin Godzilla.)

Unstoppable is available for digital rental or purchase on VOD platforms.