Eastern Railroad Discussion > Unstoppable Movie question

In the scene where they attempt to put the SD40's in front of the train to slow it to allow the man to land via helicopter: When the two SD's derail, flip then explode, did they actually destroy those units? Were they real? And if so, what happened to them now? i thought it was all computer generated until I saw this..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM4WrlFm0d4&feature=related

The units that rolled and exploded were fake mock-ups built by the movie people for that scene.


Chris Toth
NSDash9.com

NSDash9 Wrote:
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> The units that rolled and exploded were fake
> mock-ups built by the movie people for that
> scene.
>
>
> Chris Toth
> NSDash9.com

While this is true, they could easily have purchased two hulks from some rebuilder for the filming...at the time of the filming, used SD40's were very plentiful and they could have gotten them at scrap value.

I read in some newspaper where they considered using "scrap hulks" but there way a issue on "controlling" the crash in addition that if another take would be needed they would of needed additional "hulks" ready to try again after repairing and track damage. That's why models were used.

The whole movie was stupid!

Normanroger Wrote:
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> The whole movie was stupid!


I have to disagree... I think the movie was good as a movie. However I will say that there are many things in it that are very unrealistic and are almost hilarious given some knowledge of FRA rules!

Hollywood rarely (if ever) remains true to reality, even on "fact-based plots"...


I happened to catch the last hour of Unstoppable on TV last week. I think it was FX, but don't remember. At any rate, I saw the part where they coupled the two SD40's to the front of the train. I wondered to myself why it was that the engineer couldn't have simply centered the reverser, release the independents, effectively turning his engines into boxcars. Then, scurry his ass back to the big ole GE's and shut them down.

Hell, even if the SD40's had come uncoupled afterwards, they'd have only rolled so far before slowing to a stop, and they STILL wouldn't have had all the sodium killmeide cars with them...

Again, it's Hollywood, makes the movie profitable when you do things the harder, unbelievable way.

hoydie17 Wrote:
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> Hollywood rarely (if ever) remains true to
> reality, even on "fact-based plots"...
>
>
> I happened to catch the last hour of Unstoppable
> on TV last week. I think it was FX, but don't
> remember. At any rate, I saw the part where they
> coupled the two SD40's to the front of the train.
> I wondered to myself why it was that the engineer
> couldn't have simply centered the reverser,
> release the independents, effectively turning his
> engines into boxcars. Then, scurry his ass back
> to the big ole GE's and shut them down.

I mentioned this in my published critique of the film. Of course, if the engineer does it this way, the story ends rather abruptly and without all the ensuing drama. So yeah, it's Hollywood. Despite all of its flaws -- some necessary to make the story work, others just plain silly (flashing, dinging signals, anyone?) -- it was an engaging yarn and the railroading was more accurate than you see in most movies.

But yet the windows on today's locomotive will withstand a brick being thrown through them, but the attempt to land the conductor from the helicopter resulted in him smashing through the front window. And at the end of the movie it was noted that he survived.

In reality.....no.

Ron

I saw this movie with csxfan1 on here, and I know I liked it, being a railfan I am. To me this movie was really good for an action movie. Put the hollywood theatricts aside, and its pretty accurate to railroading today, given its loose basis off the CSX 8888 (more based off that than anything).

NSDash9 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The units that rolled and exploded were fake
> mock-ups built by the movie people for that
> scene.
>
>
> Chris Toth
> NSDash9.com

I have the same information that Chris related and have been led to understand the mock-ups were actually built out on the west coast and trucked to Pennsylvania for the scene. It might also be interesting to note that the scene where Denzil Washington and Chris Pine pick up their train was shot in the Pittsburgh area. To expedite, the engine was trucked there from the NS Conway Yard instead of being sent to the scene by rail.

Dale



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/06/12 13:28 by dbrcnw.