On the Rails: My Favorite Train Movies
#1-20 in ranked order beginning with my favorite; #21-end in no particular order. Most of these are set primarily on or around rail transportation while a few just feature extremely memorable scenes involving trains.
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- DirectorRobert AldrichStarsLee MarvinErnest BorgnineKeith CarradineIn 1933, during the Depression, Shack the brutal conductor of the number 19 train has a personal vendetta against the best train hopping hobo tramp in the Northwest, A No. 1.
- DirectorClyde BruckmanBuster KeatonStarsBuster KeatonMarion MackGlen CavenderAfter being rejected by the Confederate military, not realizing it was due to his crucial civilian role, an engineer must single-handedly recapture his beloved locomotive after it is seized by Union spies and return it through enemy lines.
- DirectorJohn FrankenheimerStarsBurt LancasterPaul ScofieldJeanne MoreauIn 1944, a German colonel loads a train with French art treasures to send to Germany. The Resistance must stop it without damaging the cargo.
- DirectorJosef von SternbergStarsMarlene DietrichClive BrookAnna May WongA notorious woman rides a train through a dangerous situation with a British captain she loved.
- DirectorSidney LumetStarsAlbert FinneyLauren BacallIngrid BergmanIn December 1935, when his transcontinental luxury train is stranded by deep snow, detective Hercule Poirot is called on to solve a murder that occurred in his car the night before, with a multitude of suspects.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsMargaret LockwoodMichael RedgravePaul LukasWhile travelling in continental Europe, a rich young playgirl realizes that an elderly lady seems to have disappeared from the train.
- DirectorJoseph SargentStarsWalter MatthauRobert ShawMartin BalsamFour armed men hijack a New York City subway car and demand a ransom for the passengers. The city's police are faced with a conundrum: Even if it's paid, how could they get away?
- DirectorSam PeckinpahStarsWilliam HoldenErnest BorgnineRobert RyanAn aging group of outlaws look for one last big score as the "traditional" American West is disappearing around them.
- DirectorAnthony MannStarsDick PowellPaula RaymondAdolphe MenjouA New York City detective, traveling by train between New York and Baltimore, tries to foil an on-board plot to assassinate President-elect Abraham Lincoln before he reaches Baltimore to give a major pre-Inauguration speech in 1861.
- DirectorRichard FleischerWilliam Cameron MenziesStarsCharles McGrawMarie WindsorJacqueline WhiteA woman planning to testify against the mob must be protected against potential assassins on the train trip from Chicago to Los Angeles.
- DirectorPreston SturgesStarsClaudette ColbertJoel McCreaMary AstorA New York inventor needs cash to develop his big idea, so his adoring wife decides to raise it by divorcing him and marrying an eccentric Florida millionaire with a capricious high-society sister.
- DirectorHoward HawksStarsJohn BarrymoreCarole LombardWalter ConnollyA flamboyant Broadway impresario who has fallen on hard times tries to get his former lover, now a Hollywood diva, to return and resurrect his failing career.
- DirectorAndrey KonchalovskiyStarsJon VoightEric RobertsRebecca De MornayTwo escaped convicts and a female railway worker find themselves trapped on a speeding train with no brakes and nobody driving.
- DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsYoshitaka ZushiKin SugaiToshiyuki TonomuraVarious tales in the lives of Tokyo slum dwellers, including a mentally deficient young man obsessed with driving his own commuter trolley.
- DirectorSergio LeoneStarsHenry FondaCharles BronsonClaudia CardinaleA mysterious stranger with a harmonica joins forces with a notorious desperado to protect a beautiful widow from a ruthless assassin working for the railroad.
- DirectorDavid LeanStarsCelia JohnsonTrevor HowardStanley HollowayMeeting a stranger in a railway station, a woman is tempted to cheat on her husband.
- DirectorCharles CrichtonStarsStanley HollowayGeorge RelphNaunton WayneVolunteers take over their local passenger train service (against bus company resistance) when the government announces its closure.
- DirectorArthur HillerStarsGene WilderRichard PryorJill ClayburghOn a long-distance train trip, a man finds romance but also finds himself in danger of being killed, or at least pushed off the train.
- DirectorEugenio MartínStarsChristopher LeePeter CushingAlberto de MendozaWhile on the Trans-Siberian Express, an anthropologist and his rival must contain the threat posed by the former's cargo: a prehistoric ape which is the host for a parasitic life-form.
- DirectorMichael CrichtonStarsSean ConneryDonald SutherlandLesley-Anne DownEngland, 1850s. A master criminal aims to rob a train of a large sum of gold. Security is incredibly tight and the task seems an impossible one. However, he has a plan and just the right people to carry it out.
- DirectorStanley TongStarsJackie ChanMichelle YeohMaggie CheungA Hong Kong detective teams up with his female Red Chinese counterpart to stop a Chinese drug czar.
- DirectorYeon Sang-hoStarsGong YooJung Yu-miMa Dong-seokWhile a zombie virus breaks out in South Korea, passengers struggle to survive on the train from Seoul to Busan.
- DirectorTony ScottStarsDenzel WashingtonChris PineRosario DawsonWith an unmanned, half-mile-long freight train barreling toward a city, a veteran engineer and a young conductor race against the clock to prevent a catastrophe.
- DirectorTony ScottStarsDenzel WashingtonJohn TravoltaLuis GuzmánArmed men hijack a New York City subway train, holding the passengers hostage in return for a ransom, and turning an ordinary day's work for dispatcher Walter Garber into a face-off with the mastermind behind the crime.
- DirectorTom GriesStarsCharles BronsonBen JohnsonRichard CrennaJohn Deakin is being transported, as a prisoner, on a train with supplies and medicine to Fort Humboldt, Nevada.
- DirectorPhillip BorsosStarsRichard FarnsworthJackie BurroughsKen PogueWhen an aging, but gentlemanly stagecoach robber is released from prison, he decides to go to Canada to become a train robber.
- DirectorGeorge Roy HillStarsPaul NewmanRobert RedfordKatharine RossIn 1890s Wyoming, Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid lead a band of outlaws. When a train robbery goes wrong, they find themselves on the run with a posse hard on their heels. After considering their options, they escape to South America.
- DirectorLiliana CavaniStarsJohn MalkovichDougray ScottLena HeadeyA dying family man in need of money is persuaded to assassinate a European crime boss.
- DirectorWim WendersStarsDennis HopperBruno GanzLisa KreuzerTom Ripley, who deals in forged art, suggests a picture framer he knows would make a good hit man.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsCary GrantEva Marie SaintJames MasonA New York City advertising executive goes on the run after being mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies, and falls for a woman whose loyalties he begins to doubt.
- DirectorTerence YoungStarsSean ConneryRobert ShawLotte LenyaJames Bond willingly falls into an assassination plot involving a naive Russian beauty in order to retrieve a Soviet encryption device that was stolen by S.P.E.C.T.R.E.
- DirectorCarol ReedStarsMargaret LockwoodRex HarrisonPaul HenreidAfter Germany invades Czechoslovakia, the German and the British intelligence services try to capture Czech scientist Dr. Axel Bomasch (James Harcourt), inventor of a new type of armor-plating.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsHarrison FordKate CapshawKe Huy QuanIn 1935, Indiana Jones is tasked by Indian villagers with reclaiming a rock stolen from them by a secret cult beneath the catacombs of an ancient palace.
- DirectorJeremy KaganStarsMeredith SalengerJohn CusackJedIn the 1930s, a tomboy runs away from her guardian to join her single father who is 2,000 miles away, where he has found work.
- DirectorFrancis D. LyonStarsFess ParkerJeffrey HunterJeff YorkDuring the Civil War Union spy Andrews and his men volunteer to steal a Confederate train and drive it to Union territory while destroying the Confederate railway system along the way.
- DirectorWilliam A. WellmanStarsFrankie DarroRochelle HudsonEdwin PhillipsIn the depths of the Depression, two teenage boys strike out on their own in order to help their struggling parents and find life on the road tougher than expected.
- DirectorNick ParkStarsPeter SallisPeter HawkinsGromit butts heads with a mysterious penguin lodger, who hatches a sinister scheme involving the ex-NASA Techno Trousers that have been modified by Wallace for walkies.
- DirectorJun'ya SatôStarsKen TakakuraShin'ichi ChibaKei YamamotoCriminals plant a bomb on a high-speed train. It will explode when the train slows down, unless a ransom is paid.