Review: Unstoppable Charges Onward
- Jul 15, 2018
- 2 min read
Tony Scott and Denzel Washington go together as well as Quentin Tarantino and Samuel L. Jackson or Steven Spielberg and John Williams. The duo have become synonymous in modern thriller cinema, with such classics as Man On Fire and The Taking Of Pelham 123. Together, you could say they’re...unstoppable.
Will (Chris Pine), a young conductor with four months on the job is working alongside Frank (Washington), an engineer with nearly three decades of experience behind him, when a half-mile long train with a load of toxic chemicals is sent racing along the tracks with no one at the wheel. In their lone locomotive they must stop the runaway before several thousand tonnes of train wreak havoc.
Tony Scott is not what one would call a conventional director. His work is frantic, rapid, always moving, making even boardroom meetings seem as exciting as the runaway trains they’re discussing. The camera is almost never still, zooming, tracking, making its way through a scene, following the action at a cracking pace. Scott doesn’t necessarily build momentum through raising the stakes, although there’s plenty of that, he instead increases the rapidity of cuts, albeit in an easy to follow manner. Two objects moving toward each other are shown in vivid detail, every element building on the last, the speed of the editing ensuring the viewer gets all the information they need, without ever slowing down.
It is Washington however, who brings it all together. As an actor he’s almost always calm, a counterpoint to Scott’s unrelenting pace. Washington brings a cool logic to the piece, perfectly balancing the excessive video with his in-control demeanour. His interactions with Pine only reinforce this. Frank knows what he’s doing, and knows it well, but Will is in charge. It creates an uneasy on again, off again rivalry, ensuring that even when Washington is calm, things are always on the verge of falling apart. I, for one, doubt anyone else could have pulled of such a performance.
Unstoppable is a pretty simple concept elevated by some of cinema’s best. Pine and Washington are on their A-game, and Tony Scott brings his usual dash of frenzied direction. Together they create a film that’s incredibly easy to watch, and endlessly exciting to boot.
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