Suspenseful Movies Set On a Train
Plus: Fill up your watchlist with the best of what's new to streaming this month!
For well over one hundred years (the famous silent film The Great Train Robbery debuted in 1903), movies have utilized trains for cinematic gold. A train’s perpetual motion and confined spaces have made for an ideal setting for action and suspense. Out in theaters this weekend, Bullet Train, starring Brad Pitt, continues that legacy.
In addition to the awesome train movies we recommend below, you can find more in the “From the DYLA Archive” section. Also, we’ve collected the best of what’s new to streaming this month, so dive in and add to that watchlist!
Drew recommends…
Transsiberian
Traveling by train in an unfamiliar foreign land is a smart setup for a suspense thriller like Transsiberian. This Hitchcock-indebted 2008 gem follows Roy (Woody Harrelson) and Jessie (Emily Mortimer), missionaries taking a train from China to Moscow before heading back to the U.S. Uncertain in their environment, they meet a couple on board that gets them into unforeseen trouble. It’s a classic Hitchcock setup (Billy wrote about a film by the Master of Suspense this week) – an average man or woman unknowingly steps into a sticky situation – but Transsiberian sidesteps allegations of a direct ripoff by making its own way.
As the train barrels through frozen, barren Siberia, our unease for Roy and Jessie grows as they stumble into an underground of drug smuggling and violence. And when a nosy narcotics officer (Ben Kingsley) gets involved, things start to unravel quickly for our characters. This punishing setting, the tight confines of the train juxtaposed against the empty tundra outside, raises the temperature on this effective little thriller. No one could do a train movie like Hitch, but Transsiberian carves out a place for itself as an underrated entry in the subgenre.
Streaming on Peacock
Billy recommends…
Strangers on a Train
Alfred Hitchcock spent all of his life nervous around cops. Suspicious that one day he may be suspected of a crime he never committed. So what is his response to this fear? Creating masterful thrillers where a character is suspected of a crime they didn’t commit. Stranger on a Train follows two men conspiracizing two perfect murders. They would murder the other persons target and create the perfect alibi so that neither person would get caught. Problem is… one person doesn’t go through with it.
Guy Haines is a famous tennis player who is instantly noticed in the confinements of the train by Bruno Anthony. Bruno is a stalkerish figure upon the initial conversation. Not just a super fan, but completely invested in Guy’s personal life. Guy admits to wanting to divorce his wife and marry another woman, the daughter of a famous senator. Bruno “coincidentally” wants his father killed and spends the next very flirtatious scenes trying to convince Guy to join in on this foolproof plan.
Bruno ends up killing Guy’s wife and corners Guy into holding up his end of the bargain. The rest of the movie is a wonderful cat and mouse where one character, Bruno, clearly traps our well-known figure and Guy is just sly enough to give himself enough time to figure out how to escape this trap. Hitchcock is truly the master of suspense. Strangers on a Train being one with some of the most iconic set pieces. An eerie tennis match with one figure not following the rest of the crowd and the classic runaway carousel. The latter had actual danger on set where one stuntman could have died with one wrong move. While the whole movie is not on the train our main setup and precipice for our relationship starts here. The clearly designated amount of time on this vessel allows for all types of mischief. Hitchcock utilizes this setting beautifully like everything he touches.
Available to rent on demand
From the DYLA Archive
New To Streaming In August 2022
Netflix
8 Mile
Bridget Jones’s Diary
Eyes Wide Shut
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Love & Basketball
Men in Black
Miss Congeniality
Space Jam
Spider-Man
Skyfall
The Nice Guys (August 9)
Amazon Prime
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Escape From Alcatraz
Face/Off
Once Upon a Time in the West
Thief
Under the Tuscan Sun
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Licorice Pizza
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (August 10)
The Lost City (August 10)
A League of Their Own (August 12)
Hulu
Black Swan
The Blair Witch Project
Cast Away
Despicable Me
The Devil Wears Prada
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Ghostbusters
Groundhog Day
Man on Fire
Pretty Woman
Source Code
The Wedding Singer
You’ve Got Mail
HBO and HBO Max
A Most Violent Year
Amy
Blow Out
Blue Velvet
Charlie’s Angels
Ex Machina
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
The Fault in Our Stars
The Notebook
The Spectacular Now
Under the Skin
Whiplash
Belfast
American Sniper (August 21)