kieran's - 20 best films set on trains List

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Train engineer Johnny Gray (Buster Keaton) is turned down when he tries to enlist in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War as his occupation is deemed too important.

When his train (The General) is stolen by Union soldiers so that it can be used to attack Confederate forces, only Johnny and his girl Annabelle Lee can save the train and warn the Confederates about an impending attack.

Intrigue and espionage abound when a young woman travelling aboard a transcontinental express train strikes up an acquaintance with a charming elderly English governess, who then disappears without a trace. Is the young woman hallucinating, or is something altogether more sinister afoot...?

The story of a maniacal Broadway director Oscar Jaffe (John Barrymore) who transforms shop girl (Carole Lombard) from a talented amateur to a smashing Great White Way success adored by public and press.

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Tennis star Guy Haines (Farley Granger) half-jokingly muses about killing his wife with a stranger he meets on a train, unhinged playboy Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker), who'd prefer his father be deceased. In theory, each could murder the other's victim. Crisscross. No motive. No clues. No problem...

except: Bruno takes the idea seriously, with deadly consequences.

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After a failed global-warming experiment, a post-apocalyptic Ice Age has killed off nearly all life on the planet. All that remains of humanity are the lucky few survivors that boarded the Snowpiercer, a train that travels around the globe, powered by a sacred perpetual-motion engine.

A class system has evolved aboard the train, fiercely dividing its population - but a revolution is brewing. The lower-class passengers in the tail section stage an uprising, moving car-by-car up toward the front of the train, where the train's creator and absolute authority resides in splendor. But unexpected circumstances lie in wait for humanity's tenacious survivors...

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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.

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Screen legends Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw team up with Martin Balsam and Hector Elizondo to deliver a sure-fire entertainment that's gripping and exciting from beginning to end and is guaranteed to give you the ride of your life.

A gang of armed professionals hijack a New York subway train somewhere outside the Pelham station threatening to kill one hostage per minute unless their demands are met. Forced to stall these unknown assailants until a ransom is delivered or a rescue is made, transit chief Lt. Garber (Matthau) must shrewdly outmaneuver one of the craftiest and cruelest villains (Shaw) in a battle of wits that will either end heroically or tragically.

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Yesterday strangers, today inseparable soulmates. But separate they must in just a few hours. Jesse and Celine are making every moment count, pouring as much living as they can into the time 'Before Sunrise'. From Richard Linklater comes another smartly observed tale of young people at a crossroads.

Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy play twenty-somethings who meet on a train in Europe, sense a connection and explore after-hours Vienna together. The people, places and allure of the city become their sudden itineraries. Love is their destination. On the way there's the mutual sharing of hopes, jokes, dreams, worry and wonder. It's a day to linger in their memories. And a valentine to young love forever.

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This stylish, cult 1966 erotic thriller stars French new wave icons Jean-Louis Trintigant and Marie-France Pisier. Trintignant plays a drug courier smuggling a stash of cocaine from Paris to Antwerp on the Trans-Europ-Express.

Matters are complicated by surreal encounters with police, three filmmakers who are also on the train making a film about drug-traffickers and erotic-fantasy sequences featuring Pisier being bound and subjected to Trintignant's will.

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Young Finnish archaeology student Laura (Seidi Haarla) is convinced by her lecturer - and lover - to take a trip to an ancient site of petroglyphs near the Arctic Circle.

However, when she boards the long-distance train to take her there, she finds that she has to share her carriage with the boorish and belligerent Ljoha (Yuriy Borisov), a foul-mouthed, misogynistic drunk travelling to his new job as a miner. Initially, they seem to have nothing in common, but, like the landscape they're travelling through, the more time Laura spends with Ljoha the more he thaws, revealing an unforeseen kindness beneath the macho facade. This chance meeting between the two occupants of compartment no.6 brings about an awakening within them, forming a bond they will never forget.

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Penniless husband, Tom Jeffers (Joel McCrea) looks like he is losing his scatterbrained wife, Gerry (Claudette Colbert) to multi-millionaire John D. Hackensacker (Rudy Vallee) when she walks out on him and heads for fun and sun in Palm Beach, Florida.

They become involved with any number of outrageous characters, played by many of the Sturges regulars in hilarious cameos. The witty, sparkling dialogue, poking merciless fun at, amongst other targets, money and sex, is unforgettable.

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In post WWII Germany, an idealistic young American of German descent (Jean-Marc Barr) tries to help rebuild a damaged country. Soon, however, emotions and conflicting political interests force him to make some difficult decisions.

Stylishly realised in stunning black and white, this modern expressionist drama brought its director huge critical acclaim.

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Poland, in the politically turbulent late 1970's: Witek (Boguslaw Linda) is running to catch a train. From this banal event, Krzysztof Kieslowski imagines three different possible outcomes in the young man's life.

In the first scenario, Witek catches the train on which he meets some hard line communists and joins the party. In the second, as Witek runs for the train, his path is blocked by a ticket inspector; the ensuing struggle leads to his arrest and subsequent involvement in the political underground. In the final scenario, Witek misses the train and he returns to the medical studies that he intended to abandon. He falls in love with a female student, gets married and lives a quiet life as a doctor, showing little interest in politics.

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The superb GPO documentary 'Night Mail' plus three classic Scottish films about the West Highland Railways never before released. The programme includes: Night Mail (1936) - The overnight Postal Special from Euston to Scotland.

One of the first films to epitomise the style of the classic British documentaries. West Of Inverness (1939) - About the problems faced by a rural community and the growing importance of the railway from Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh to communities threatened by depopulation. The Line To Skye (1973) - Another Eddie McConnell film made to support the retention of the West Highland railway line from Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh at a time when it was threatened with closure. A Line For All Seasons (1980) - A retrospective account of the building of the West Highland Railway line from Glasgow Queen Street to Mallaig. Filmed by Eddie McConnell.

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This 1974 production of Agatha Christie's 1934 classic is a judicious mixture of mystery, murder and nostalgia.

Which member of the all-star cast, on board the luxurious train, perforated the no-good American tycoon with a dagger twelve times? Was it Ingrid Bergman's shy Swedish missionary; or Vanessa Redgrave's English rose; Sean Connery as an Indian Army Colonel; Michael York or Jacqueline Bisset; perhaps Lauren Bacall; Anthony Perkins or John Gielgud as the victim's impassive butler. Finney spreads unease among them with subdued wit and finesse.