Even in Hollywood, directors can have a favorite coworker. Director Tim Burton has Johnny Depp, Martin Scorsese has Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio, and “Top Gun” director Tony Scott had none other than Denzel Washington. The two-time Academy Award winner worked with Scott on a number of films, and one of them is worth viewing if you’re into high-stakes action movies featuring speeding vehicles.
Available now on streaming, Tony Scott’s “Unstoppable” takes influence from a real-life event as it follows the story of a train with a destiny toward calamity. If you think it sounds like the 1994 Keanu Reeves movie “Speed,” don’t worry, you’re not alone. Along with receiving some rather positive critics and audience reviews, it’s also the last project between Scott and Washington before the director’s untimely passing.
Washington reflected on his time with Scott in a 2024 interview for Yahoo UK, stating, “He’ll always have a special place in my heart as a human being, and I just get sad when I think about him and the energy that he had and the trust that he had in me.” Even if Washington allegedly turned down a massive role in a “Fantastic Four” movie, his work with Scott is sure to satiate the appetite for fans of action flicks, including the five films that helped secure Scott’s legacy as a director — alongside “Top Gun,” of course.
Denzel Washington takes on a train in Unstoppable
“Unstoppable” (2010) was loosely based on a 2001 incident involving an unmanned CSX locomotive that traveled for over two hours across 60 miles at 50 mph in a northwest part of OhioThe movie is also the last film from director Tony Scott before he died by suicide in 2012. Along with “Unstoppable,” Denzel Washington and Scott had worked together on four other projects, including 1995’s “Crimson Tide,” 2004’s “Man on Fire” (which you may not know is a remake), 2006’s ” Deja Vu,” and 2009’s “The Taking of Pelham 123.”
“Unstoppable” follows a half-mile-long locomotive that’s veering uncontrollably towards a city. Transporting harmful chemicals, the fears of absolute catastrophe grow palpable as a veteran engineer, Frank (Denzel Washington), pairs with train conductor Will (Chris Pine), who’s still green, to stop the train on its path towards destruction. Along with Denzel Washington and Chris Pine, “Unstoppable” stars Rosario Dawson, Ethan Suplee, and Kevin Dunn, among others.
The film maintains an 87% Tomatometer score and a 73% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. In a 2012 IGN review, critic R.L. Shaffer states that “while the film is surprisingly character-driven and some of the dramatic elements work rather well, ‘Unstoppable’ works best when it’s focused on the marvelous action set pieces and nail-biting thrills.” The film is currently available to stream on Hulu alongside one of the most underrated sci-fi horror movies ever made.
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