IND
2012
2hrs 01mins
Dir: Priyadarshan Soman Nair
Starring: Anil Kapoor and Kangana Ranaut
To revenge his past, a man plants a bomb on a train endangering the lives of all onboard
This Hindi-language action thriller is based on the 1975 Japanese movie The Bullet Train and the name translates literally to ‘fast’. The story centres around a disgruntled illegal immigrant who returns to the UK to blow up a train. The film is a bit like the movie Speed for if ‘London-Glasgow Train 112’ drops its speed below 60 mph, then the bomb will detonate. Although the stunts are good it is quite forgettable and the director in typical Bollywood style has taken considerable liberties in the way that railway operations and procedures are portrayed (and even geography, 10 hours from London-Glasgow whilst travelling at 100mph for instance!). The faults and failings occur far too often to repeat here but, unsurprisingly, there is a lot of railway material in the film, as well as some obvious model work using a Hornby layout! The railway scenes open with a sequence filmed at Southwark Underground station on the Jubilee Line with a train of 1996-built tube stock arriving. There are then scenes filmed at London Euston and Class 390 ‘Pendolino’ EMU No.390005 City of Wolverhampton provides the centrepiece of these after which the main action begins. There is a whole plethora of shots of ‘Pendolinos’ passing through the countryside though some locations are recognisable. These include an aerial shot of one passing through Watford Junction with a pair of Class 350 ‘Desiro’ EMUs in an adjacent platform; one passing over Bushey Arches; another aerial shot of a Class 390 passing through Tring with another Class 350 ‘Desiro’ visible; a shot that shows a ‘Pendolino’ passing some sidings where a DB Class 66 and a First Group-liveried Class 90 electric are stabled, and an aerial shot of Linslade Tunnels just north of Leighton Buzzard. There are also a couple of scenes filmed in a railway yard and among all the wagons there is a glimpse of another DB Class 66 and a First Group-liveried Class 90 (the same two perhaps?), plus a Class 67. This is thought to have been filmed at Crewe Basford Hall. Scenes towards the end were shot at London St Pancras station which inexplicably merges in with other shots of London Euston with a ‘Pendolino’. Perhaps most odd of all though is the random shot of a Class 170 ‘Turbostar’ DMU crossing the Forth Rail Bridge, part of the story of course, but nothing at all to do with the journey! Initially, a pre-planned explosion to show the bomber’s intent uses a Class 66 hauled Freightliner train (known as London-Manchester Goods Train 509 which exploded near York!!). There are a couple of shots of actual Freightliners passing hauled by Class 66’s (one of which is 66565) but the explosion is a computer-generated sequence using 66546. There are lots of scenes filmed onboard a ‘Pendolino’, and the in-cab sequences used a simulator. Finally, Network Rail’s Aérospatiale AS355F1 Ecureuil 2 helicopter G-NETR is also seen in several sequences, though with ‘POLICE’ branding.
