Movie Review - Last Passenger

Dougray Scott (left) and Kara Tointon
in "Last Passenger"

As I think about action films involving trains, I think about Under Siege 2, which was basically Die Hard on a train. I also think about Unstoppable, which was Ridley Scott's runaway train movie. This piece, directed and co-written by Omid Nooshin, feels somewhere in between those two. It's somewhere in between Under Siege 2 and Unstoppable.

On a commuter train from London during Christmas time, six people find themselves trapped as the train travels faster and faster without ever stopping. Eventually, the train will reach the end of its line where there is no more track or land, and if it doesn't slow or stop, the train will be destroyed along with everyone on it.

Dougray Scott plays Lewis Shaler, a 40-something doctor who is widowed and the single dad of a 7-year-old son named Max, played by Joshua Kaynama. Lewis is a surgeon who's also good at diagnostics. He flirts with Sarah Barwell, played by Kara Tointon, a beautiful blonde in the seat next to him. Sarah is on her way home from a girls night out in London.

The other three passengers include Jan Klimowski, played by Israeli actor Iddo Goldberg. Jan has an engineering degree who works for the subway system, but he's also an amateur magician who smokes too many cigarettes and has a bit of an attitude problem. Peter Carmichael is an elderly man, played by David Schofield. Peter is the biggest denier of something being wrong. Finally, there's Elaine, played by Lindsay Duncan, a grandmother hoping to see her family for the holidays.

The trip from London to the end of its line is about a hour or so. Therefore, the movie almost plays out in real-time. The train is hijacked. Yet, Nooshin never shows us the hijacker. Nooshin never even lets us know who the hijacker is, whether he's a young Muslim terrorist or a disgruntled and depressed, white guy.

In the recent Liam Neeson film Non-Stop, the filmmaker there provides us vision and voice to the hijacker, which contributed to that movie's detriment, but giving us something would have helped here. Nooshin presents thrilling moments of the passengers' attempts to stop or get off the train, but it's thrilling moments with no context or that add up to nothing.

Dougray Scott is a good actor, charming and handsome. He doesn't have quite the presence or gravitas of Liam Neeson, but he carries the film rather well.

Three Stars out of Five.
Rated R for language.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 36 mins.