started off as cool monster movie but the film derails when the captain shows up.
Seriously what was the point of his character? he acts all crazy and its never really explained how he ot on the train to begin with. He does not really know whats going on and just takes charge. Also they derail the train?
The monster happens to be on the right car that falls to the ground and the heroes are fine'/?
Yep, was a mess. I'm sure there was an explanation but unfortunately it was probably in the director's and scriptwriter's head. In an action film we would have been treated to a daring scene of the hero uncoupling the cars. I possibly watched a cut version so i'm open to the fact that i'm wrong.
shareKazan's men were dispatched to stop the train so they can board after the engineer sent a message that there was trouble on the train. Kazan assumes that trouble is political insurrection. After monster kills the engineer it assumes command of the train. The passengers retreat the the rear car to escape the corpses that have been reanimated by the creature.
shareruntimes listed are 84min Spain version and 88/91min for US versions. I just watched an 88 min version on TCM (although, they listed the runtime as 81 mins which matches up with absolutely nothing).
In this version, we see the train stopping briefly for Kojak and his men to hop on board before it quickly takes off again. We also see Cushing with all the passengers in the last car attempting to uncouple it when Lee and the Countess arrive. He waits for them to get in the last car. Then both Cushing and Lee are shown attempting to uncouple that last car. The station master is shown receiving a message from Moscow informing him to stop the train by switching the track (killing all on board). He assumes they've gone to war.
He does not really know whats going on and just takes charge.Russia, 1905: pretty much sums it up.
So far, all the explanations make sense except how does Moscow know what's going on with the train and why would they care?
Jamie Lee Curtis survived Halloween, the Fog, Prom Night and a Terror Train & now she can't poop!
Spoiler warning, though I assume everyone reading this has already seen the film.
For me, the silliest bit was the idea of a railway junction, one branch of which leads directly off a cliff. Did the railway company think "better put that there in case one of our trains gets taken over by zombies", or what?"
I see I'm not the only one who noticed the drop in quality in the last 25 minutes.
The first hour is great, as far as early 70's Gothic horror goes, but the film seems to lose it's mojo in the last act. It's like the director & writers didn't know how to finish what they so effectively set up.