10 Best Train Movies That You Should Watching Update 04/2024

Best Train Movies

Snowpiercer is a beloved train movie that will soon have its own television adaptation. If you’re a fan of train movies, here are 10 more you should check out.

Director Bong Joon-prior ho’s work was just a matter of time after Parasite won Best Picture at last year’s Oscars. Director Ridley Scott had already established Snowpiercer as one of his more accessible films, so it made sense to adapt the film into an episodic television series.

Check out Snowpiercer before you start binge-watching the entire series, and if you’re still craving more locomotive action, we’ve got your back! We’ve compiled a list of ten of the best train-themed films for you to check out.

 1. Shanghai Express (1932)

Shanghai Express (1932)

During the Chinese Civil War, Clive Brook plays a British Captain who finds himself on the same train as Marlene Dietrich’s former flame “Shanghai Lily,” a high-class prostitute who has changed her name to “Shanghai Lily.” Henry Chang, a Chinese spy, entangles the two in the political turmoil as they try to piece together their shared past (Warner Oland).

Dietrich, his muse, never looked better than she does in this drama/thriller from Josef Von Sternberg, and Anna May Wong is the perfect counterbalance. Shanghai Express is an old-school Hollywood film that is soaked in the most beautiful chiaroscuro photography of the era.

2. The Lady Vanishes (1938)

In a secluded guesthouse, the plucky young Iris (Margaret Lockwood) and other unusual people find refuge from an avalanche-delayed train journey. Iris develops a friendship with the gentle Miss Froy (Dame May Whitty) while on the train, but she vanishes when the train returns. Iris and Gilbert (Michael Redgrave) work together to solve the mystery of the elderly woman’s whereabouts.

This scintillating thriller is one of Alfred Hitchcock’s most devilishly entertaining pictures, while simultaneously investigating the British national spirit in the lead-up to World War II.

3. The Train (1964)

The Train (1964)

Nazi Colonel Franz Von Waldheim (Paul Scofield) intends to smuggle all of France’s stolen art by train on the eve of Paris’ liberation. The French Resistance is contacted by a curator who is desperate to save the treasures, and they ask railway inspector Paul Labiche (Burt Lancaster) to help them smuggle the art back to France.

The Train, John Frankenheimer’s action masterpiece with a brain, has a lot to say about the moral degradations of war, along with exhilarating set pieces.

4. Horror Express (1972)

Alexander Saxton (Christopher Lee) is a British anthropologist who boarded the Trans-Siberian Express with a bizarre, bipedal creature frozen in ice. Saxton and his old buddy, Dr. Wells (Peter Cushing), analyze the specimen and try to decipher its hazardous potency as the train descends into a state of terror.

For the second-greatest adaptation of John W. Campbell’s Who Goes There?, after John Carpenter’s The Thing, this Spanish production brings together Lee and Cushing for the best Hammer Horror film that Hammer never made!

5. Murder on the Orient Express (1974)

Murder on the Orient Express (1974)

Poirot (Albert Finney), the legendary investigator, is about to embark on a nice journey home when a greatly loathed tycoon is found dead on the Orient Express.

He has his work cut out for him with everyone on board the infamous train having a clear motive for murder. There are other notable actors in the picture, such as Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, and Sean Connery.

For decades, Murder on the Orient Express has been one of the most popular adaptations of an Agatha Christie novel and a star-studded event.

6. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)

A New York City subway vehicle is taken over by “Mr. Blue” (Robert Shaw) and his criminal gang. Every minute past the hour, they aim to execute one innocent traveler until they obtain a large ransom from the city. In order to stop Mr. Blue and his gang, veteran cop Zachary Garber (Walter Matthau) must to deal with the city’s leaders, his fellow police officers, and deliver the ransom before the clock runs out and innocent victims begin to fall to their deaths.

With Shaw and Matthew, this fast-paced, exhilarating crime thriller is rightfully considered a classic.

7. Runaway Train (1985)

Runaway Train (1985)

Eric Roberts and Jon Voight, two escaped prisoners, hide away on an Alaskan train. It is only the two escapees who are able to halt the train after the conductor had a heart attack.

This is one of the few truly brilliant films made by the Cannon Group during its heyday, based on a story by Japanese master Akira Kurosawa.

8. Transsiberian (2008)

Missionaries On a train voyage from Beijing to Moscow, Roy (Woody Harrelson) and Jessie (Emily Mortimer) meet a couple (Eduardo Noriega and Kate Mara). She insists on waiting for Roy at the next station if he doesn’t return after a stop. A dangerous turn is taken, however, when Carlos and Abby decide to go along with her.

“Throwbackpicture” Brad Anderson’s film is pitch black and fascinating, and easily matches the locomotive thrillers of the past that it is inspired on. “

9. Unstoppable (2010)

Unstoppable (2010)

Denzel Washington and Chris Pine star as experienced engineers and young conductors trying to stop an unmanned train full of deadly chemicals from wrecking the environment.

Unstoppable is a late-career masterpiece from Tony Scott (Top Gun) that is relentlessly paced and delivers all the popcorn fun you could possibly wish for.

10. Train to Busan (2016)

Gong Yoo plays a businessman who has a fraught father-daughter relationship, but that’s nothing when it comes to a zombie epidemic in his neighborhood. As the reanimated dead close in on them on a fast-moving train, the two must work together with their fellow passengers to stay alive.

Train to Busan, a surprise worldwide blockbuster, demonstrated that the now-tired zombie genre still has enough of thrills to offer.