Runaway Train

Runaway Train (1985) is Andrei Konchalovsky's brutal action drama you can watch online on iFILM. Across the frozen wilds of Alaska, a locomotive tears along with no driver at the controls and three people trapped aboard.

Manny has spent years welded shut in solitary, and he finally breaks out of a savage prison with a young boxer named Buck. The two leap onto a freight train just as the engineer drops dead of a heart attack. Now the brakes are burning, the throttle is stuck wide open, and there is nothing ahead but ice. A rail worker who slept through her shift is hiding on board too. Behind them comes the prison's security chief, hunting Manny like it's personal, because for him it is.

The screenplay grew out of an unrealized Akira Kurosawa project, which is why the chase keeps tipping into something close to a parable about freedom, pride and what a life is worth. Jon Voight and Eric Roberts were both up for Oscars for their work here, and Voight's final image atop the speeding train became one of cinema's great closing shots. Hard, filthy, philosophical, and free of fake heroes. Stream Runaway Train (1985) online on iFILM.