Actors make compelling team in fast-paced ‘Unstoppable’

All aboard -- or clear the tracks.

Those are your options when it comes to "Unstoppable."

The latest from the apparently unstoppable team of star Denzel Washington and director Tony Scott -- it's their fifth movie together -- "Unstoppable" ranks as a no-nonsense, full-steam-ahead action thriller.

In that sense, and many others, it's a definite improvement over last year's collaboration, the overheated "Taking of Pelham 123" remake.

Just as great big freight trains are a big upgrade over "Pelham's" subway trains, "Unstoppable" is a major improvement over "Pelham's" semiludicrous lunacy, as embodied by John Travolta's off-his-rocker hijacker.

But there's no moustache-twirling villain in "Unstoppable" -- just a runaway train without an engineer, filled with highly explosive, highly toxic chemicals, rumbling toward a stretch of track that's guaranteed to trigger a disastrous derailment.

That is, unless "Unstoppable's" dauntless blue-collar heroes can figure out a way to avert disaster.

It's already a bad day when Frank Barnes (Washington) and Will Colson (Chris Pine, alias "Star Trek's" Capt. Kirk) report for work on the railroad, somewhere in Pennsylvania.

Frank's a veteran engineer -- and more than a little worried about being pink-slipped in favor of younger, cheaper employees by the railroad's corporate owners. After all, he's got two daughters in college to support.

Thanks to family connections, Will's job is safe. But there's trouble on the home front; his wife's just taken out a restraining order against him, preventing him from seeing her, or their toddler.

Truth be told, Frank's not exactly thrilled to be sharing the day's freight run with a rookie conductor. But Frank's a pro, and he'll do his job -- even if that means risking his life to save others. The question is, can he count on Will to do the same?

Never fear; it's a rhetorical question. "Unstoppable's" not the kind of movie where characters agonize over what action to take. Except when the corporate suits (embodied by bellicose bean-counter Kevin Dunn) try to figure out what will cost the company the least money.

Meanwhile, back at the train yard, take-charge dispatcher Connie (a glammed-down Rosario Dawson) tries to keep tabs on things while a savvy railway inspector (Kevin Corrigan) delivers somber warnings about the impending catastrophe.

Inevitably, TV news is all over the story, with minute-by-minute coverage of the desperate attempts to halt the train as it rolls through the Rust Belt, cameras chronicling its inexorable acceleration -- and the panicked reactions of government officials and residents in its path.

Screenwriter Mark Bomback ("Live Free or Die Hard," "Race to Witch Mountain") throws in a few shameless contrivances, including a trainload of schoolkids on a field trip sharing the same track as the unmanned freight train headed straight for (you guessed it) Will's hometown.

Yet Bomback wisely resists the temptation to overload "Unstoppable" (inspired by a real-life 2001 Ohio incident) with heavy-duty, melodramatic plot complications. A timely blue-collar-blues theme underscores the action, but the movie doesn't spin its wheels dwelling on the bigger picture.

Not with director Scott at the throttle.

The legendary Orson Welles once likened moviemaking to "the biggest electric train set a boy ever had," and in "Unstoppable," Scott embraces that assessment with undisguised glee.

For a (welcome) change, the director dials down the flash, substituting some of his trademark jump cuts and shaky-cam moves to take a less hyperactive, more streamlined approach.

Even so, Scott still gets to play with plenty of toys, considering the speeding trains, speeding trucks and zooming helicopters in constant action as he orchestrates the movie's numerous high-tension sequences.

Throughout, Scott keeps the accent on the action, refusing to inflate "Unstoppable" into something more profound or pretentious. (If you want an existential runaway train movie, catch "Runaway Train" -- see today's accompanying Deja View for details.)

For all "Unstoppable's" adrenaline-charged moments, however, the movie never overlooks its human dimension, from the double doofuses ("My Name Is Earl's" Ethan Suplee, "Cloverfield's" T.J. Miller) whose lazy screw-up triggers the crisis to a gung-ho crew member ("Waitress' " wry Lew Temple, a veteran of Scott's made-in-Vegas "Domino") determined to do something about the situation, whatever it takes.

Washington and Pine, not surprisingly, make a low-key but compelling team, their characters moving from wary tension to mutual support to eventual respect as they go about the perilous business of saving the day.

As the good guys in the old Westerns used to say, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. And for "Unstoppable's" unflappable heroes, it's all in a day's work.

Contact movie critic Carol Cling at ccling@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272.