DESPERATE AND DETERMINED TO SURVIVE

Two convicts break out of Stonehaven Prison in the dead of winter, boarding a freight train with the intention of getting as far away as possible before their notoriously sadistic warden finds out. But the brakes fail and the driver has a heart attack, sending hundreds of tons of metal hurtling through the snowy Alaskan wastes at terrifying and unstoppable speed.

Based on a script by Akira Kurosawa (Seven Samurai), with hardboiled prison slang added by real-life ex-con Edward Bunker (Mr Blue in Reservoir Dogs), this riveting thriller also boasts Oscar-nominated performances from Jon Voight and Eric Roberts – with Voight playing spectacularly against type as a criminal so vicious that he served much of his sentence welded into his cell.

Combining electrifying action with constant psychological tension (the only surviving member of the train crew is a young, inexperienced woman), Runaway Train is one of cinema’s great thrill-rides.