The Train (1964) / Non-Stop (2014)

[00:01:43] ["Let's Get Together!" plays in the background as the music plays in the background as the music continues to play in the background as the music continues to play in the background as the music continues to Scheider ever started. That's right. Finger on the pulse, hot new actor, Roy Scheider. Actually, genuinely can't wait though. I think it'll be a lot of fun.

[00:01:44] I think so too.

[00:01:45] Yeah, and of course that, Mike D is the one who has his finger on the pulse. It's not me anymore. I, I was thinking about this and wondering like, if we had done the poll for season two, you know, cause we, uh, for that season when we ended up with Jeff Goldblum, we kind of just did our, like we did our finalists. We brought in like five candidates each and we each like kind of eliminated each other's like we kind of did for this season. And then we had a producer Colin make the call between Jeff Goldblum and Eddie

[00:03:03] Murphy. Jeff Goldblum was mine. I do wonder if we had done the poll,

[00:03:07] would Jeff Goldblum have won?

[00:04:02] make Mike watch something that he's never seen before. And he makes me watch something that I've never seen before.

[00:04:04] And the plan for this episode actually changed a little bit.

[00:04:07] We had talked about doing an episode where

[00:04:09] you made me watch The Baxter, the Michael Showalter movie.

[00:04:12] It's sort of a parody of rom coms.

[00:04:14] Perfect for the month of February, all that stuff.

[00:04:17] And then last week, you were like,

[00:04:19] turns out The Baxter is not really easily available

[00:04:22] anywhere.

[00:04:23] Yeah, it doesn't exist, which is bananas.

[00:04:26] I think it is available on AMC+. Back when they showed movies? And they had movies that they didn't produce. So it's been around. And I guess maybe there's just zero demand, which is crazy. But usually there is some insane nut job that just, out of an archival impulse, will put up a torrent of it. And I guess that nobody has for the Baxter.

[00:05:41] So I couldn't find it for us, unfortunately.

[00:05:43] Which is oddly very fitting for the Baxter.

[00:05:45] That's true, yeah. show altar and David Wayne wrote. Fantastic. Love that movie. For some reason, I never saw The Baxter. Never got around to it. And so I was excited to watch it, and then unfortunately, just wasn't able to for this podcast. But hopefully one day, if it ever becomes available in an easy way to do it, I do still have Amazon Prime. I don't have AMC+. And I'm probably not going to get it. Yeah, it's not worth it just for that.

[00:07:01] You know, better call Saul's over.

[00:07:02] What is there for me to get on AMC+, for?

[00:07:05] Yeah, they actually just got settled in a class action

[00:07:08] lawsuit, actually. that. Yeah. And instead I use this as an opportunity for me to have a first time watch also. Yeah. This is what the birthday watches are for. I know, but it was last minute. It was like three days beforehand and I was like, I got to give Mike a backup. What am I going to do? Right. And so you selected a John Frankenheimer's 1964 action movie, The Train. The Train. And I accidentally had my finger on the pulse again because just yesterday was John Frankenheimer's

[00:08:24] birthday. Hey, that's something I didn't realize, trapped on a thing. I was thinking about that while watching the train, yeah. It's like actually kind of a double feature. Kinda works. Yeah, so we're gonna talk about both those movies. Which one would you like to talk about first, Mike? I guess let's talk about the train first. Okay, let's do it. All right, it's time for a Mike Makes Mike Watch.

[00:09:40] I hope they choose right.

[00:09:42] Mike's watching Mike's movie.

[00:09:45] Bitch for him specially.

[00:09:46] Whoa, it's just another night. It will carry you to the peak of adventure. All right. That was from the trailer for the train from 1964, directed by John Fragenheimer and starring Bert Landcaster in the lead role. And Mike D, like we said, you kind of had this as your backup choice.

[00:11:00] You just needed something to,

[00:11:01] you really just needed something to get me,

[00:11:03] to make me watch,

[00:11:04] but it was one that you wanted to watch as well.

[00:11:06] So what put the train on your radar? of, you know, like we kind of sort of reference dudes on a mission kind of movie. And it's just, it's just one of those kinds of things. I'm Frankenheimer also is a pretty large blind spot for me in our general filling in filmographies of directors kind of discussion that we've sort of been having a little bit this past six months or so. And so I was like, hell yeah. I'm just, I think, I feel like this is going to be the one that we're going to watch other than me wanting to watch it.

[00:12:23] You know?

[00:12:24] Yeah, definitely. I mean, this is a movie that I of those guys that's been around forever, or was around forever and made a ton of stuff. Yeah, and especially big in kind of the action scene as well. And the train, this really is like, you know, a very early example of like, man, this is a pretty kick-ass action movie. Yeah. It's really fun to watch just them blow up a train yard. Yeah, I mean, I guess the plot of the train,

[00:13:42] because it's probably a lesser-known entity.

[00:13:44] Basically, it is the final this is how a train switches tracks in a train yard for like 15 minutes or whatever. But it kind of rules. But it kind of rules because it's cool to watch. Because it's how are they going to sabotage this? How are they going to make this take as long as possible? How are they not going to get caught doing this, and all this stuff? And then also mixed in with just awesome action. Burt Lancaster too, somebody that I am very familiar with.

[00:15:03] But I don't think I've? Yeah, which I think that was actually, that was in reference to The Last Duel. I think you're right as well. Last Duel also takes place in France and it's like Ben Affleck and Matt Damon.

[00:16:21] Yeah, yeah.

[00:16:23] Exactly.

[00:16:24] And yeah, I think that idea is just awesome. because you're having all these like boxes full of paintings. I don't think you ever actually, like the audience never sees the paintings really. They just see like boxes that say like Picasso on them or like that kind of thing. And then at the end of the movie, when Bert Lancaster and the evil Nazi friends, Von Waldheim, who is trying to keep, bring the paintings in the Germany,

[00:17:40] and really he's just being like,

[00:17:42] oh, well I will appreciate them.

[00:17:44] I am the one who deserves to see them because I am,

[00:17:47] you know, what do you know of art also strewn about that the Nazis abandoned to flee. But for a long time. It's really hammering home the point. These people died for this stuff, and they're just both refuse on the side of the train tracks. And it's just fascinating that that's the really dour ending it ends on.

[00:19:00] And then just that wide shot of Burt Lancaster walking away

[00:19:03] down the train tracks as the credits roll.

[00:19:04] And you're just like, whoa, holy shit.

[00:19:07] There's a couple shot. This is insane. This is crazy that they just had Burt Lancaster dive onto a moving steam engine. Yeah. This is crazy. And so much of it, I mean, you're watching actual trains crash into each other at various points, which is very fun.

[00:20:22] You see in the real stuff.

[00:20:24] It was 1964.

[00:20:25] There was no CGI back then, right?

[00:20:27] Yes, you're just watching all these things actually happen. since the beginning of cinema and stuff like that. But this really feels like an early prototype of what we kind of expect from a modern action movie. Yeah, yeah, 100%. And yeah, I think the moments where the movie does slow down and take the time, like right before that air raid, the whole thing is they're delaying this armored train

[00:21:40] that's in front of the train with the paintings.

[00:21:43] Has to take long enough to be there at 10 a.m.

[00:21:45] when the British are gonna cursed the train. It carried their tears, their hopes, their nation's honor. It will carry you to the peak of adventure. Incredible. Man, we don't get taglines like that anymore, you know? Do we even get taglines anymore? I don't even know. Oh, sure. Taglines still exist. Are you not aware that Madam Web's web connects them all?

[00:23:00] Oh, you know, I see stuff.

[00:23:02] Her web connects them all is the tagline from Madam Web.

[00:23:04] So I think we've a really fun, deep dive to do for filmography. Yeah, absolutely. And he wasn't actually the original director of this. Really? Yeah, no. Arthur Penn was the director of this movie, the director of Bonnie and Clyde. This is a couple years before Bonnie and Clyde. But yeah, I guess Burt, like three days into filming, Burt Lancaster fired Arthur Penn.

[00:24:22] Good for Burt Lancaster.

[00:24:23] Yeah, because I guess I'm reading Wikipedia right now.

[00:24:26] So this is where And that's amazing. And the movie does. It does take its time every now and then to stop and remind you that these paintings are the national heritage of France. Don't forget what's at stake here. Every time they convince a new person to join their cause, give this monologue about the long-lasting heritage of art and stuff. It's still got that in there. Yeah, it's all still there.

[00:25:40] It's just much more heavily focused

[00:25:42] on the mechanics of the train and the action sequences,

[00:25:44] which I think that's kind of interesting,

[00:25:46] because Arthur Penn went on to direct Bonnie and Clyde, of them barely making it by like a second before the train comes around the bend to show the fake town name on the station and stuff is like, ah, this is awesome. Yeah, no, it's rad. I also did want to mention, so I really enjoyed the train and I mentioned this to you right before the podcast, but my experience watching it was a little bit hard because yeah, we watched it through a extra legal means

[00:27:01] and the way that like,

[00:27:03] I was having buffering issues for some of the movie,

[00:27:05] not like that so much that it would like

[00:27:07] really detract from it, machine gun. Like I was just true like fist pump like, yeah, like moment. It's great. It's so good. Even through all that, it was still a four star movie. So like, mwah. There you go. Without all that, could have been a five star movie. Could have been five. I was watching this and I curate my action movie series, The Roxy. And I've never gone as early as 1964 for a movie.

[00:28:21] But the train could be a good one to show.

[00:28:24] It'd be fun.

[00:28:25] Could be in there.

[00:28:25] Yeah.

[00:28:26] It'd be like a prototypical action movie or whatever. a crowded plane to get away with it. Marshall, we have a right to know what the hell is going... No! This is a setup. Something else is going on. Mr. Parks, do you hear me? We're running out of time. Do you hear me?

[00:29:43] I'm not hijacking this plane.

[00:31:01] I'm trying to save it. But for some reason I had that like kind of weird thing where I was like, I gotta go see the new Liam Neeson action movie. And so I saw pretty much all of them. I saw Taken, I saw Unknown, saw The Grey, which is my favorite of those. But when Nonstop was coming out, just something about the trailer, maybe be like, there's something here. This is gonna be a fun one. This could be a good one. I have a good feeling about this one, which I recently had for The Beekeeper

[00:31:03] with Jason Satham, and I was 100% correct.

[00:31:05] That movie rips.

[00:32:07] whole conceit of Liam Neeson getting a text message that says wire $150 billion to this account or I kill somebody on this plane in the next 20 minutes, in 20 minutes.

[00:32:12] And just instant like tension, instant suspense, instant thriller stuff going on.

[00:32:16] And I was like, oh shit, this is incredible.

[00:32:18] And yeah, the, you know, the slow reveal of like who, one that he's an air marshal, two

[00:32:23] that he has a partner on the plane and all, and like all this stuff and who all these

[00:32:28] people are. is stacked. And it is not particularly a action movie. It's more of a thriller. It's like, I was immediately like, man, I should watch Red Eye, like right after the movie, that Wes Craven movie, which I guess somebody just asked Kelly Murphy about in, you know, what a variety or whatever. And he was like dismissive of it. He was like, Oh, that's, that's not a great movie. And there was like the Red Eye defenders came out for that. Also a movie

[00:33:41] I haven't seen. I think it might be on your list for me at some point. No, I think it

[00:33:45] might've been in the, when we used to pick our Neeson movies. I was going to ask, is he just all Liam Neeson stuff? So he directed four of them. And two of them I don't really like that much. Two of them I do like quite a bit. He did Unknown, which I didn't like, Nonstop, which I like a lot. That's, I think, the best one. Run All Nights, which I don't like that much, and The Commuter, which I do like,

[00:35:01] which is basically Nonstop on a train.

[00:35:02] On a train.

[00:35:03] Speaking of the train.

[00:35:05] Also, also the Commuter's Code.

[00:35:07] Yeah, also could never figure it out. But then here's the thing. Jean-Claude Leisera quickly established himself as a pretty cool director who makes pretty cool action movies. There's some really good filmmaking in nonstop, I think. Yes, absolutely. I remember there was this great one-take, or made to look like one-take shot, where it kind of leaves the plane and comes back around

[00:36:21] and all that stuff, which is really neat.

[00:36:23] And then Jean-Claude Leisera hooks up with The Rock.

[00:36:26] Oh, absolutely. So yeah, he's a director that I have generally really enjoyed and I have questioned his career choices in the last few years. So I'm hoping he comes back on the right track. But yeah, nonstop, I think, is my favorite of his movies. And it is my second favorite 2010 Liam Neeson action movie,

[00:37:42] which he had to run there.

[00:37:44] He had a solid run.

[00:37:45] Yeah, I can't say that um, yeah, just looking at his filmography I think honest thief would have been the next like like Liam Neeson action movie Which was 2020 and I missed that one. There was the marksman the ice road black light memory Oh Marlow he had the Philip Marlowe movie like in 2022

[00:39:03] Yeah, I forgot about that

[00:39:04] Which I think I had heard a couple people kind of liked. That security theater is just all farsome for governmental overreach and tracking and surveillance

[00:40:21] and stuff.

[00:40:22] And we're going to prove them wrong kind of thing,

[00:40:26] which is crazy. You know but yeah Shay Wiggum I think in the years since has become like you know kind of a go-to like one of our best character actor guys You know and yeah here is I don't remember the exact timeline But he's also the guy that Paul Walker keeps breaking his nose in the Fast and Furious movies I don't remember where they are in 2014 at that point. Yeah, I think he's in yeah the fast and furious the fourth one came out

[00:41:42] No nine and then oh yeah Fast and Furious 6 was 2013. So yeah, he's he's popped up in a couple of Fast and Furious

[00:42:42] to a certain altitude, like it's gonna blow up. And the guy's like, well, no, that's against protocol.

[00:42:45] I can't do that.

[00:42:46] And then finally he just says, fuck it, and does it.

[00:42:48] It's very good.

[00:42:49] Yeah, it rules.

[00:42:50] Yeah, they need to dive to an altitude

[00:42:55] where the pressure will equalize

[00:42:56] because if a bomb goes off when the cabin is pressurized,

[00:42:58] it'll just explode the entire,

[00:43:00] it'll just rip the plane apart.

[00:43:02] So he needed them to dive.

[00:43:03] But by this point, the English Air Force

[00:43:07] has fighter jets alongside them such a, like, I don't, realistic is a stretch of what's happening in this movie, but like believable I guess is the better word. Where they're setting up all these circumstances to turn him into the villain, right? His partner, the other air marshal is actually smuggling cocaine. Right, yes. And he thinks Liam Meeson has figured it out, and that's why he pulls this gun on Liam Meeson, which forces Liam Meeson to have to kill him because he's going

[00:44:21] to kill Liam Mee, right? And like all these like awful circumstances that can only be

[00:44:24] construed from an outsider's point of view as Liam and Julianne Moore's in this. She rules. Yeah, she's great. It's one of those things, I remember watching this for the first time in theaters and being like, why is Julianne Moore? Yeah. Like this seems like beneath her, sort of. You know, it's very funny, my friend,

[00:45:40] that all movies are the same bit.

[00:45:44] I think I've referenced this before on the podcast.

[00:45:46] He was watching this with me and he also, that she has now is because of how acclaimed she was in 12 Years a Slave. Then two months later, she's in this and she's a background character. Got a couple lines. She has an Oscar now. That's wild. It's very funny watching it. She's in so little of the movie that I was like, is that Lupini and Yaga?

[00:47:03] You never really get a moment to actually see her face

[00:47:05] and process the fact that it's her. molecular chemistry, like, or like a nuclear physics. Like I forget exactly. It's like a very specific, highly technical type of doctor. Yeah. And then exclusively has him do medical doctor stuff through the plane. Like, like everyone that's hurt,

[00:49:21] of the 2010s. What's first?

[00:49:22] The gray.

[00:49:22] Okay.

[00:49:23] Yeah, not even a question.

[00:49:24] It's the gray, the nonstop,

[00:49:26] and then I guess probably Taken.

[00:49:28] Yeah, you know, that's one of those things.

[00:49:29] Taken's a, I think it's an okay movie

[00:49:32] that's really elevated by Liam Neeson being in it.

[00:49:35] There's no like memorable action in Taken

[00:49:37] that I can think of.

[00:49:38] Like I haven't seen it in like over 10 years,

[00:49:40] but it does have the Amnesons big speech,

[00:49:42] which is, you know, that's why you watch Taken

[00:49:44] is to watch him do the big speech.

[00:49:46] Yeah, that and good luck.

[00:49:47] Yes, and good Yeah, you had the Clash of the Titans movies in here, which were not very good. Remember those movies? Yeah, those were bad. I think with Jai Courtney, the Jai Courtney motherfucker. Was Jai Courtney in those? I don't know. I think it might be Sam Worthington. Sam Worthington is the lead in those movies. Yeah, I think you're right. I wouldn't be surprised if Jai Courtney is also in those.

[00:51:01] How can I forget?

[00:51:05] Oh, man.

[00:51:06] Jake Sully.

[00:51:06] How can I forget Jake Sully?

[00:51:07] You almost forgot Jake Sully's name. All right, I think we can perhaps wrap this episode up Mike. What do you think? I think so. We're talking about the flash again Somehow. Yeah, we gotta get out full of record. We gotta get out of here All right. That is the train that is non-stop both kick-ass movies worth your time Yes, correct. Like we said non-stop on HBO Max and the train is around. Yeah, I think you can rent it for like three bucks

[00:52:21] Probably various VOD platforms out pretty soon, Mike. Whoa. And so next week it won't have been out yet, but what if we review Dune Part 1 next week and then the following week, and then the following week when Dune Part 2 is out, we talk about Dune Part 2. I don't know, just throwing it out there. Just being a crazy little guy. That sounds wonderful. That sounds like it could be a fun idea, right? Yes.

[00:53:40] So maybe we'll do that.

[00:53:41] I don't know.

[00:53:42] We'll see if we can work that into the schedule, if not discussions.

[00:53:45] How about that?

[00:53:46] That sounds good.