LAST PASSENGER

GB
2013
1hr 37mins
Dir: Omid Nooshin
Starring: Dougray Scott and Kara Tointon

A small group of everyday passengers trapped on a speeding train battle their warped driver who has a dark plan for everyone onboard

This modern-day suspense thriller centres around a train driver who is hell bent on murder suicide, and takes place on a fictitious train running between London and Tunbridge Wells. The identity of the driver and his motivations for committing a murder-suicide are left unknown throughout. The film was generally well received, with some good ‘cause and effect’ scenarios, though the completed movie doesn’t quite work and it lacks serious bite with several weak characters and even weaker links. The film was set onboard two Class 421 4 CIG EMU carriages, vehicle numbers 76747 (a DTC) and 62385 (an MBSO), from unit 1399, and painted in mock Connex livery. Despite being part of an electric train, artistic licence was taken and the carriages were portrayed as diesel powered for the purpose of the story line. The film is presumably set when ‘slam door’ trains were still in service. The two Class 421 carriages were delivered to Shepperton Studios and mounted on off-set hydraulic rams. Instead of using the more common technique of green screen to create the illusion of movement outside the train’s windows, Nooshin designed a six-screen system of rear projection, maintaining a near 360 degree view, something only now viable with digital projectors. Some sequences, however, required a more complex combination of techniques. The ‘train surfing’ scene towards the end of the film was shot in four different locations over six months, the main bulk on Shepperton’s ‘H’ Stage, pick-ups on Pinewood’s Bond Stage, and on the Bluebell Railway, who are owners of a similar Class 423 4 VEP unit, along with background plates shot from a freight train. The Last Passenger production team visited the Kent & East Sussex Railway in November 2011 to shoot the carriage fire scenes at the end of the film. The level crossing crash scene was filmed using CGI, but the location used was Milford, in Surrey, a bit of a distance from the Hastings route on which the train was supposedly running. Milford station also appears in a later scene, masquerading as ‘Crowhurst’. The train displays Headcode 74, which on the South Eastern section would be either a Charing Cross-Gravesend or Maidstone West via Bexleyheath service, or a Victoria-Dover Western Docks via Herne Hill and Chatham service. However, in the tunnel scene, passengers trapped on the train cannot alight due to the narrowness of the tunnels preventing the doors from opening. This is clearly aimed at replicating the restricted width tunnels on the Hastings line, although they are now single track and this would not have been a problem for the passengers. Guildford station was used for several scenes and the opening credits feature a cab ride at night on the Great Western mainline passing through stations in the following order: Reading, Taplow, Twyford, Goring & Streatley, Maidenhead and Slough. HST sets pass in this sequence and a Class 165 ‘Turbo’ is seen at Reading, in the old east facing bay platform 6. There are plenty of other night scenes in the film that show the train moving around various locations, but the train is entirely a CGI creation as it is a three-car unit. The large station in which the runaway train passes through remains, as yet, unidentified. Due to the complexity of the scenes, only those that largely show the train in identifiable locations will be shown below.

The entire film takes place here, inside two vehicles of a Class 421 4 CIG EMU
For the record, this is one of the many countless scenes that show the train passing through the night. The 3-car train is a CGI effect, but the surroundings are likely to be the real deal.
Dougray Scott leans out of the train as part of the ‘train-surfing’ sequence, largely filmed on the studio stage at Shepperton
The opening credits feature a cab ride on the Great Western main line. This is Twyford station.
And this is the eastern (London) end of Reading station prior to its wholesale redevelopment. The two Southern Region platforms are on the left.
And this is the western (Country) end of Reading station with the Basingstoke and Newbury bay platforms on the left
This is Goring & Streatley though the image is reversed, hence the ‘right hand’ running
The level crossing at Milford features in one short scene…….
……as does Milford station which is playing the part of Crowhurst in the film. The CGI train passes through the station wrong line
But as yet, this station remains unidentified. The platform signs have been blanked out but if the platform numbers of 6 and 7 are anything to go by then it is quite a size.
Looking the other way and the flaming train continues on towards destruction. I thought at first that this could be Woking but the footbridge is wrong. Can anyone help?
The final fire scene was filmed on the Kent & East Sussex Railway. We can see some of the special effects used in this sequence of events in close up in this shot, but not that the 74 headcode on the front of the unit is in reverse!
The train meets its inevitable fate, bringing the film to its ultimate conclusion