Trivia: Unrealistic Trains on the Big Screen.

[GrimsbyPacer]

I am currently watching Mission Impossibe (movie) and a TGV running from London to Paris.... then a helicopter somehow follows it down a long tunnel at high speed without crashing!
The Channel Tunnel which the "chopper" flys down is a single non electric double track tunnel oddly.
The overhead wires appear to be missing too. The whole scene is ridiculous.
Exciting though!

But it made me wonder, what other films have trains portrayed in other silly or unrealistic ways?
Anyone?

 

[samuelmorris]

I don't know how realistic (or otherwise) this film was, but can't help but think of
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM-0Ywc7wNY

 

[Nym]

1996TS on the "District" Line that happens to sound like 1995TS...?

 

[DarloRich]

Have you ever heard a real person leaving the pictures say:

That was a really good film but the portrayal of High Speed Train services was massively inaccurate, they used a French train in England which inst possible because of gauging constraints and incompatible signalling systems, to say nothing of route or traction knowledge issues for the driver and guard and it really spoilt my enjoyment of an otherwise decent picture?

Neither have I. They usually say:

DID YOU SEE THAT HELICOPTER CHASING THAT TRAIN INTO A TUNNEL!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOW COOL WAS THAT???????????????????????????????????

It is a film not a documentary. It is designed to offer an enjoyable piece of escapism for people. The train used really isn't importnant.

 

[driver_m]

You were watching a midget who believes in aliens and didn't want his Mrs to make any noise during childbirth. Capturing accurate OLE isn't going to be high on his list of priorities.

 

[Bald Rick]

Have you ever heard a real person leaving the pictures say:

That was a really good film but the portrayal of High Speed Train services was massively inaccurate, they used a French train in England which inst possible because of gauging constraints and incompatible signalling systems, to say nothing of route or traction knowledge issues for the driver and guard and it really spoil my enjoyment of an otherwise decent picture?

Had you been leaving the Odeon, Birmingham in 1996, I'm afraid you may well have heard something rather like that from me.

Next up, tube sized stock on the district line in Skyfall. A glaring error in an otherwise excellent film.

 

[DarloRich]

Had you been leaving the Odeon, Birmingham in 1996, I'm afraid you may well have heard something rather like that from me.

Next up, tube sized stock on the district line in Skyfall. A glaring error in an otherwise excellent film.

But you are not a real person though are you so you dont count

(by real person i mean the man in the street - not an enthusiast)

 

[wheelnrail]

NBC Mini-movie, Atomic Train. Holy crap was it terrible.

 

[JaJaWa]

I am currently watching Mission Impossibe (movie) and a TGV running from London to Paris.... then a helicopter somehow follows it down a long tunnel at high speed without crashing!
The Channel Tunnel which the "chopper" flys down is a single non electric double track tunnel oddly.
The overhead wires appear to be missing too. The whole scene is rediculous.
Exciting though!

Here's the scene for anyone that's not seen it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cho039BrHpg.

 

[Abpj17]

Have you ever heard a real person leaving the pictures say:

That was a really good film but the portrayal of High Speed Train services was massively inaccurate, they used a French train in England which inst possible because of gauging constraints and incompatible signalling systems, to say nothing of route or traction knowledge issues for the driver and guard and it really spoilt my enjoyment of an otherwise decent picture?

Neither have I. They usually say:

DID YOU SEE THAT HELICOPTER CHASING THAT TRAIN INTO A TUNNEL!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOW COOL WAS THAT???????????????????????????????????

It is a film not a documentary. It is designed to offer an enjoyable piece of escapism for people. The train used really isn't importnant.

*pouts* I'm a real person (but not an all out enthusiast) - my answer was somewhere half where between the two lol. I immediately thought mission impossible simply from reading the thread title...

unfortunately, I also exclaimed about the browser/email system used in I believe the same mission impossible x 2

 

[rdeez]

I nominate "Snowpiercer", a Korean produced film where all the action takes place on board a perpetual motion train that circles the globe. The passengers of the train are the only survivors on earth, which has been plunged into an ice age. Maintenance issues aside (the track, bridges, tunnels etc around the planet have, at the time of the movie, survived 17 years intact with no maintenance), obviously the notion of an infinite motion engine is a bit outlandish.

The main action in the film revolves around the conflict between the first class (front) passengers and the third class (tail) passengers, who are basically enslaved by the front passengers.

Also a religion has developed on board to worship the 'sacred engine' and its creator...

It's actually quite a good film, I would recommend watching it if you like Sci-Fi / Dystopian Futures / Action.

However, as you can see from the above image, the movie DOES manage to accurately portray the cramped conditions aboard an XC voyager in the morning peak...

 

[sarahj]

Cassandra Crossing, nuff said.:roll:

 

[rf_ioliver]

I don't know how realistic (or otherwise) this film was, but can't help but think of
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM-0Ywc7wNY

Can't comment on US procedures and there are a few scenes which are more artistic than real, but that's actually quite a good film. A small cast of characters so you got some proper character development, good momentum to the overall plot and I think they got the level of suspense right throughout.

Worth watching, as is reading up on the incident on which it is based,

t.

Ian

 

[mrmatt]

Next up, tube sized stock on the district line in Skyfall. A glaring error in an otherwise excellent film.

Given it was filmed at Charing Cross with Jubilee line trains (either that or I'm terribly confused!) And the fact the destination was Westminster quite why they didn't just say it was the Jubilee I have no idea!

 

[Clip]

Given it was filmed at Charing Cross with Jubilee line trains (either that or I'm terribly confused!) And the fact the destination was Westminster quite why they didn't just say it was the Jubilee I have no idea!

They actually did it on purpose to annoy the life out of the whole rail enthusiast community.

 

[ainsworth74]

NBC Mini-movie, Atomic Train. Holy crap was it terrible.

You see I thought it was so bad that it started to swing around to being good again

 

[Kristofferson]

I am currently watching Mission Impossibe (movie) and a TGV running from London to Paris.... then a helicopter somehow follows it down a long tunnel at high speed without crashing!

Remember this film was made before the tunnel opened - the Eurostar trains weren't made yet, so the TGV was the obvious choice.

 

[GrimsbyPacer]

I nominate "Snowpiercer", a Korean produced film where all the action takes place on board a perpetual motion train that circles the globe. The passengers of the train are the only survivors on earth, which has been plunged into an ice age. Maintenance issues aside (the track, bridges, tunnels etc around the planet have, at the time of the movie, survived 17 years intact with no maintenance), obviously the notion of an infinite motion engine is a bit outlandish.

....

Why is the notion of pertual motion outlsndish? I've been designing and researching this idea and have a workable prototype.
It's possible if magnets are used to tip a wheel which auto corrects under gravity.
To build one, get a wooden cross on a nail on a spinable frame, put magnets loosely in taped up match boxes at the ends.
All magnets with North outward. To the left of the inside of the wheel have a magnet placed to push a magnet outward and on the right of the inside of the wheel to pull inwards. The centre of gravity then moves offcentre and the wheel spins.
It's works the same as a mayo jar rolling to the heavy side but with magnets moving slightly when horizontal to keep spin.
Just remember it's my idea.
The perpetual motion may look unworkable, but Gravity and Magnetism are never equal forces.

 

[sprinterguy]

Remember this film was made before the tunnel opened - the Eurostar trains weren't made yet, so the TGV was the obvious choice.

That's incorrect: Filming took place in 1995, the film was released in 1996 and the Eurostar service had already commenced in May 1994. The Eurostar sets had been around for a little while before the opening date anyway.

The TGV sequence was actually filmed on the Glasgow and South Western route:

http://www.movie-locations.com/movies/m/missionimp.html#.VNNUSU3iuUk
The supposedly ‘cross-channel’ railway climax, which so infuriated train buffs, were filmed in Scotland, on stretches of line between Annan and Dumfries, and Dumfries and New Cumnock.

I've found a photo here of the train that was used for filming purposes:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/75514026@N03/6854932466/in/photostream/

 

[ATW Alex 101]

I remember an episode of Miranda portrayed a 168 at Marylebone as going to Wick or somewhere.

On the last ever episode of Ultimate Force, it shows somebody boarding a 444 at Waterloo in order to travel to Heathrow, but as it pulled off it sounded like a pacer and had somehow gained the old fashioned compartments inside!

 

[Ash Bridge]

That's incorrect: Filming took place in 1995, the film was released in 1996 and the Eurostar service had already commenced in May 1994. The Eurostar sets had been around for a little while before the opening date anyway.

The TGV sequence was actually filmed on the Glasgow and South Western route:


I've found a photo here of the train that was used for filming purposes:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/75514026@N03/6854932466/in/photostream/

Yes, it's amazing with modern CGI used in the film industry how a pair of class 33s + TC set(s) can change into a TGV

 

[sprinterguy]

Yes, it's amazing with modern CGI used in the film industry how a pair of class 33s + TC set(s) can change into a TGV

I really was quite astonished by that realisation!

 

[TheEdge]

I tend to allow action films to go by with all sorts of realism things by the wayside. Not just train things, see things like terrorists blowing up an Abrams with an RPG, not realistic.

But based on fact films however....

The Imitation Game was brilliant. But really, Kings Cross standing in for 1940s Euston with OHL and Mk1 stock. That shouldn't have been allowed.

 

[sprinterguy]

I tend to allow action films to go by with all sorts of realism things by the wayside. Not just train things, see things like terrorists blowing up an Abrams with an RPG, not realistic.

But based on fact films however....

The Imitation Game was brilliant. But really, Kings Cross standing in for 1940s Euston with OHL and Mk1 stock. That shouldn't have been allowed.

A Stanier LMS loco (in black, as a reasonable sop for wartime running conditions even if the livery itself was era inappropriate) on a rake of maroon coaching stock is a fair enough approximation for most people however.

Could have been worse - they could have filmed it at 1960s Euston.

I am generally quite happy to let railway inaccuracies pass me by in the majority of films, but if, for the sake of this thread, we must nitpick then I could also volunteer "The Railway Man" with Colin Firth:

BR green pre-TOPS "Peak" and undisguised West Coast Railways class 37s hauling maroon mark 1 coaching stock on unelectrified lines, on what is purporting to be the West Coast main line circa 1980. If only Cargo-D had still been around with their excellent rake of blue and grey liveried mark 2 "coffins": Paired up with preserved and mainline registered 86101 or 87002 they would have been just the ticket!

Very good film though, and not reduced in any way by these sorts of inaccuracies. It is worth noting that the class of loco depicted as delivering Lomax and his troop to the prisoner of war camp in Thailand is correct.

 

[Kristofferson]

That's incorrect: Filming took place in 1995, the film was released in 1996 and the Eurostar service had already commenced in May 1994. The Eurostar sets had been around for a little while before the opening date anyway.

Ah, I stand corrected! I'd always thought wrongly.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Dempsey and Makepeace - they famously went several stations along on the Waterloo and City Line.

 

[Ash Bridge]

If TV productions are allowed, what about ITVs Heartbeat set in North Yorkshire. I've seen for example a Southern Railway 4-6-0 in Southern green livery with blood & custard mk1s in what was supposedly the late 60s, even a car with a registration plate that wasn't issued until two or three years later in the 1970s, yet the attention to detail regarding fashion & music etc. always seems to be rather more accurate.

 

[Kite159]

You see I thought it was so bad that it started to swing around to being good again

I agree, one of those films which are so bad that it is good.

 

[Bald Rick]

But you are not a real person though are you so you dont count

(by real person i mean the man in the street - not an enthusiast)

Whoa whoa whoa whoa WHOOOOOA.

Just to be clear, I'm not an enthusiast, railways are work, not hobby! I just like things done properly. I'd be equally annoyed if a film had a 747 leaving London City.

 

[AnonymousUser1]

If TV productions are allowed, what about ITVs Heartbeat set in North Yorkshire. I've seen for example a Southern Railway 4-6-0 in Southern green livery with blood & custard mk1s in what was supposedly the late 60s, even a car with a registration plate that wasn't issued until two or three years later in the 1970s, yet the attention to detail regarding fashion & music etc. always seems to be rather more accurate.

Heartbeat gave up all pretensions of any fixed period or time progression other than sometimes in the 1960s fairly early on