2025, Shinji Higuchi (Shin Ultraman) -- Netflix
Now, is it just me who calls these movies "disaster movies" even when the disastrous events are rather localized? I have always likened movies the The Towering Inferno, and The Poseidon Adventure as "classics" in the (disaster movie) genre and this would fit into the mould -- some background, lots of innocent people gathered together, something goes horribly wrong, people have to be rescued or saved. But there have been runaway train movies where I wouldn't claim them to be "disaster" movies. What about the structure of these makes them more "disaster" and less generic "thriller" ? I mean, purely, a "disaster movie" should be a big thing, a natural or man-made event, wherein there is mass death & destruction. Or maybe just the ... threat of such?
Quit rabbit-holing. And no, this is probably not a disaster movie, as nobody actually dies.
Train 5060B is scheduled from the Aomori Prefecture in northern Japan to arrive in Tokyo, some 700 kilometers away, in likely less than 4 hours, at its normal rate of speed. That is, until a bomb threat is called in. The bomber wants ¥100 billion (just under a billion $ CAD) which they believe can easily be collected from everyone in Japan, or they will blow the train up in a populated area. Also, if the train slows to less than 100 KMh, it will explode. Yes, the premise for Speed, the bus movie with Keanu. To demonstrate their intent, they explode a cargo train sitting in a yard, and that forces the authorities to take it all seriously.
Like Shin Godzilla much of the movie focuses on the bureaucracy of response. The company that runs the train feels an obligation to save all the passengers and the reputation of their company, and the men leading these efforts are burdened by the immense weight of the responsibility. Yes, the fiction of a benevolent corporation that cares. They also have to deal with the conniving government representative who doesn't want the money to be collected because of the whole "don't negotiate with terrorists" ideal. Meanwhile onboard the train, the drama is led by conductor Kazuya Takaichi (Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, Seiten wo Tsuke), who in great Japanese tradition, takes his job Very Seriously and wants to defend each and every passenger from harm. He has so many conflicting and contradictory responsibilities as the passengers themselves are the typical mix of sympathetic and entirely dislikeable people, some who calmly follow the instructions given to them by Takaichi, and others just cause chaos.
I loved the little detail, when focus would shift to the actual train driver (Non, Amachan), who has to disengage all the automated procedures and lower the train speeds, but just enough to delay arrival in Tokyo, but not enough for them to go boom. She is very precise in all her actions, double and triple checking each action with little visual flairs and shouts of confirmation. She doesn't care what is going on out there, she has a job to do.
The corporation arranges a rescue of most of the passengers in a tense, exciting, intricately planned derailing of some of the train cars (which have bombs, so go boom) while having another train match speeds and collect terrified passengers. The ingenuity of the Japanese people is on display as even the handing-off of required equipment to facilitate the rescue operations is done in a very detailed, precise manner, and in very short time. Dispatch Manager Yuichi Kasagi (Takumi Saitoh, Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl) arranges all these things unbelievably quickly, as dozens of co-workers, police and government officials stare him down.
In the end, the actual bomber and her plan matters very little. The usual disaster movie / thriller details mattered very little. The fun was watching the background folks accomplish the nie impossible in short order, allowing destruction (that must amount to billions of yen) to ensue, as long as the passengers are saved. And they are, all of them, including the terrible people and the bomber herself.
We have a "train" tag?!?!
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