Why Are Movies So Obsessed With Trains?

[@jliller]

I knew Patrick was a crazy about film, but to make an entire episode about trains he must have some loco motives.

[@AdnaanBheda]

ugh

[@MIRobin22]

Oh no

[@louvegouroute]

*slow clap, not sure if sarcastic or not * :p

[@da47934]

This is the kind of comment I'm here for!

[@LP-rn6id]

Great pun

[@turbo1431]

"All the best movies have trains. I struggle to think of a movie that wouldn't be improved by having a train." Ah, I see that Patrick is speaking directly to me.

[@katherinealvarez9216]

Even the Adams Family movie had a train.

[@sirBrouwer]

and if they don't big chance that they feature the best next thing a (space)ship. as it can fill that narrative to a degree.

[@nathancrouch5567]

At least one of the twelve angry men should have been a train

[@toms781]

@@nathancrouch5567 Twelve Angry Men has an off camera train. In the film as part of the murder case a piece of evidence is a witness testimony of seeing a murder through the windows of a passing train.

[@nathancrouch5567]

@@toms781 by god you’re right. Thus thing goes higher than we thought

[@LostCosmonauts]

Overly Sarcastic Production recently made a Trope Talk about trains, and now with this video I decree that we've finally entered the era of trainposting. Give me more video essays on TRAINS.

[@rithimreidh2899]

If I remember correctly, What's So Great About That? Has one :)

[@Crazael]

Came here to make this comment.

[@ThomasSorensen1]

Trains are the superior mode of transportation! Bring on the train posting!

[@T.E.S.S.]

* you've finally become aware of trainposting

[@joshuanishanthchristian5217]

Train of Thought just put out a video about everything wrong with the train stuff in The Lone Ranger!

[@adr_57]

Bridge on the River Kwai: the mere implication of a train can engender 2.5 hours worth of suspense.

[@benwasserman8223]

Trains are, at heart, a mix of public transportation and social gathering places. That makes them the perfect vehicle (pardon the pun) to do everything from murder mysteries (Murder on the Oriental Express) to high-speed thrillers (Unstoppable). Genre versatility works well on a train. Plus one could argue the action movie genre began with The Great Train Robbery, along with cinema's first 4th wall break.

[@tdjhue]

@@benwasserman8223 I live on the lightrail god bless public transport god bless baltimore

[@edwarddorey4480]

But planes are both too...

[@tdjhue]

@edwarddorey4480 I like planes but there's an inherent bad for the environment that colors the experience. It's why there the perfect vehicle for the nihilistic self destructive nicotine covered fight club

[@IkeOkerekeNews]

​@@tdjhue Trains are inherently bad to the environment, unless they are specifically powered by renewables or nuclear power.

[@tdjhue]

@IkeOkerekeNews yes but they are better than cars. Their birth was destructive but their remnants and the forgotten dream of public mass transit is a very green ides these days

[@lynnwalsh7517]

Patrick: "Spirited Away was the highest grossing Japanese film." Me: "Oh my god, until Demon Slayer: Mugen TRAIN." Patrick: "Until Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Movie: Mugen Train." It's trains. It's trains all the way down.

[@Poonchow]

Japanese turtle demons? NO! TRAINS!

[@samsveryniceaccount9258]

I get that refrence.

[@TukaihaHithlec]

How did he overlook *_Your Name_* from 2016? The one that beat out Spirited Away before Mugen Train? By the director who famously loves trains? Where several major scenes occur on trains??

[@VICTORZITOSS]

Or, in this case, all the way up

[@SezShares]

@@TukaihaHithlecI thought this too!

[@joelsunnex5171]

I feel like Patrick's next episode is going to be about planes, just to string the past two episodes into an elaborate Planes, Trains and Automobiles joke.

[@firiel2366]

Finally Disney's obscure arthouse film "Planes" will have its time to shine

[@pennyfarting]

He did that one already if you count his vid from a couple years ago about that one tidiculously expensive establishing shot of a plane landing

[@MariaVosa]

This absolutely needs to happen now!

[@davidbjacobs3598]

Planes Part Two: Miyazaki

[@matthemming9105]

Unless he does an episode on Boats! Maybe he'll return to New York via the same Trans Atlantic route in The Legend of 1900? I think we all want to see Patrick say "I'm on a Boat."

[@morank3]

Can't wait for the future "Best Train Scene That Was Essential To The Plot" award Patrick gives out

[@MIRobin22]

But that's just "best train scene" because any scene on a train is ipso facto essential

[@chancecole437]

I love how imagery of the Train is used in the original Gojira, and especially in Godzilla Minus One. -1 sets the train system up as a symbol of how Japan and the characters are recovering from the war and their trauma… and then Godzilla comes and effortlessly rips the Train to shreds like it’s nothing, a greater threat than their country can handle.

[@jmalmsten]

Helpless people on subway trains, scream My God as he looks in on them. 🎶 Sorry. Couldn't resist

[@rmsgrey]

Personally, I always interpreted that train in Spirited Away differently - that the spirit train Chihiro rides along the flooded tracks coincides with a mundane train running its normal route, and the shadowy figures are the mundane travellers in the mortal world, who Chihiro can't fully interact with due to still being trapped in the spirit world. Obvious metaphor for passengers sharing the same space, but never being more than background extras in each other's lives - never entering each other's worlds - and all that...

[@43bg1]

I’ve always thought the same-they’re normal humans who are existing on a different plane of existence than Chihiro. I think this in-universe explanation doesn’t contradict the metaphor though.

[@TheUltimateGeminiHasSurvived]

NERRRRRD

[@BryWithAWhy]

Ooooh that’s an interesting take! For me, the train scene always captured a kind of melancholy I associate with traveling. How it feels passing these strangers that aren’t quite fully formed since you don’t really know them. Where are they heading? The kind of bittersweet feeling that returning from a trip brings. Idk how to describe it.

[@OlleLindestad]

Haven't seen the movie in ages, so I dunno if this tracks (pun intended), but your suggestion works with the observation that the train used to run in both directions. Modern society losing its connection to the spiritual world is one of the themes of the film, after all.

[@rmsgrey]

@@BryWithAWhy Yeah, when you're travelling, particularly by public transport, you're in a peculiar state of between-ness, and don't really have anything to _do_ - except to _be_ - until you arrive at your destination. And particularly on your homeward leg, you're leaving behind something you'll not return to for a long time, if ever, and you're no longer exactly the person you were while you were there, but you're not the person you were before you left, and will be again once you settle back in at home (unless it was one of those few life-changing trips where even being back home doesn't bring you back to who you once were). A part of you is, if not dying, going to sleep for a long time, and a part of you is only starting to wake up, and it's natural to mourn quietly for the you that you're leaving behind. And, while some around you may only be commuters - people for whom the trip is just part of their daily, or weekly, or similar frequency routine, many will be other long-distance travellers, making the same, or the reverse transition between two settings, two lives, two worlds. And, just like you're not completely real - or at least not completely ordinary - to yourself, none of them are quite real either. Even the regular commuters are less active than at work or at home. There are exceptions - times when something breaks through the boundaries between yourself and your fellow travellers and someone steps into full glorious technicolour, becoming fully part of your temporary world - but, except when travelling together for extended periods - as part of a tour group, on an ocean voyage, on a three-night journey on the Orient Express... - those are exceptions. And even rarer are times when such a connection manages to persist beyond the trip. Of course, everything in life is temporary, but a journey, with its start and end clearly delimited, is unavoidably so.

[@CaptainRaccoonWhitly]

You didn't cover train sequences based on historical tragedies. Schindler's List, which is about The Holocaust, features them heavily as a vehicle of doom and foreboding terror, such that the train to Schindler's factory, which includes a real shower, is all about fear and panic prior to the reveal. Also, an action episode about trains? Count me in! I hope you'll mention Castle in the Sky in there, since there's a prominent action scene in the first half involving trains and train tracks.

[@goodial]

he'd have to wait for the DVD release of the Indian movie "Kill" first, to use that in the action episode, as it is basically a great and visceral action movie completely set on a train :)

[@jonathaneilbeck2263]

@@goodial Ther'es a Korean movie called Carter on Netflix which has it's climax on a train and it is Glorious.

[@da47934]

The Sting is an example of a movie that was improved by involving a train. The poker game didn't need to be on a trail, but it was and just made it better.

[@climatebrad]

Also one of my all-time favorites

[@8utchC4551dy]

I was surprised that Bullet Train wasn't mentioned at all. Glad there's a part 2 coming. Not saying that it makes any top 10 list or anything, but I definitely found it very enjoyable.

[@TukaihaHithlec]

I’m sure it’ll appear in the second part focused on action scenes. I was surprised *_Your Name_* wasn’t mentioned while Ghibli movies were. Especially because *_Makoto Shinkai_* is famously obsessed with trains and that film held the record between Spirited Away and Mugen Train, but he acted like it doesn’t exist.

[@christianwise637]

​@@TukaihaHithlec I think there might be some confusion here, Your Name definitely outgrossed Spirited Away on an international scale, but within Japan (which is what I assume Patrick is talking about) Miyazaki's film remained at the top until 2020

[@ermeeleer]

Yeah no Snowpiercer. I suppose it’s in the next one.

[@StKildaFan]

Can’t believe the opening titles were replaced with a training montage

[@edgreig]

Came here to comment on how good the titles were, couldn't do better than this...

[@TygerKrash]

nice.

[@mikery12]

Respect is granted to Casino Royale and the other Craig Bond films for their use of trains, but the best Bond train scene is really in From Russia With Love.

[@alejoparedes2388]

Speaking of "The Great Train Robbery", I need everyone to know this: one year later, the same director made a spoof film (one of the first ever) starring a cast of kids. It's called "The Little Train Robbery" and it's delightful. Also: I'm so happy "Blue Flame Special" is coming back!

[@tmorganriley]

To clarify: this refers to the 1903 film, not the 1978 one.

[@GuineaPigEveryday]

The Train (1964) is easily one of the best Train films, absolutely phenomenal example of John Frankenheimer's excellence as action director

[@franksmith7247]

Yes. Couldn't agree more. Von Ryan's Express is another excellent train movie.

[@GuineaPigEveryday]

@@franksmith7247 Yes its really great too, Great Escape but on rails. Also Runaway Train, Unstoppable great examples of how you can do so much with setting a film just of someone on a fast train, its exciting as hell, The General ofc the best example.

[@jonathaneilbeck2263]

@@GuineaPigEveryday There's a South Korean film called Carter on Netflix and I go in blind, but at the end, there's a train. But don't read up on the film before you do, for God's sake.

[@aaronleverton4221]

Bond has made good use of trains, the Orient Express in From Russia With Love, Live and Let Die codas on an overnight Amtrak, Roger Moore throws Richard Kiel out of an unnamed Italian sleeper in The Spy Who Loved Me, he than has an epic fight on top of a train with one half of a pair of knife-throwing twins in Octopussy, Vesper and Bond meet on a Euro express to Montenegro in Casino Royale and Moneypenny shoots Bond off the roof of a train to start Skyfall. Later he's observed to be rather keen to get home when he jumps on a London tube train that has already left the platform.

[@brunswick1ful]

@@GuineaPigEveryday I love Runaway Train.

[@inazumaajax9939]

Louis Le Prince, the real earliest inventor of the motion camera, even disappeared in 1890 last seen bording a train.

[@jdrobertson42]

I really love the train sequence in Makoto Shinkai’s 5 Centimeters per Second. A nightime journey in the midst of a snowstorm. Normally crowded carriages abandoned except for our character, cold and alone looking out upon eerie snow-covered landscapes. So good.

[@Daneelro]

There are actually several train scenes in that movie, but the one you mention is the most impressive Indeed! After I watched it, I had to look up the locations in real life. Another recent anime movie with impactful train scenes is Belle.

[@TukaihaHithlec]

Not to mention the iconic train crossing scene at the end. I can’t believe he never acknowledged Shinkai, not even when discussing the first Japanese movie to beat Spirited Away, which was *_Your Name_* and not Mugen Train! *_Your Name_* even has pivotal train scenes, namely the _”My name is… Mitsuha!”_ and _”I was always searching… for _*_someone!”_* scenes.

[@bartonallenlewis6012]

As much as I love the Extended Patrick Willems Universe it’s really refreshing to see a video essay get right to the point like in the old days

[@taylordugan5300]

God I love trains.

[@internetera1523]

You know something is goated when American elites do everything to tear it down

[@dfabiano11]

Real asf

[@joesizzle10]

Now there just needs to be a film about a baseball team rushing to catch a train and Patrick will have a new favorite film.

[@katestahla]

a league of their own has a bunch of baseball players brought together by trains... that's the power of trainsball

[@DannyBReviews]

There is a baseball team in Train to Busan :O

[@nitehawk86]

20:27 "On a fixed schedule." The real villian of the movie is Precision Scheduled Railroading.

[@friemo660]

Precision scheduled railroading which is neither precise nor scheduled nor railroading

[@cartilagehead]

It's notable, and worth pointing out, that the brothers board a different train (the "Bengal Lancer") at the end of the Darjeeling Limited, making the metaphor about personal/interpersonal growth and the passage of time even more pointed. They literally change their trajectory and the vehicle they've been moving in for something wholly new.

[@completetotalgoodness4786]

And they drop their *literal baggage before they continue

[@cartilagehead]

@@completetotalgoodness4786 it’s their father’s baggage*

[@danielg3918]

I love the train sequence that opens The Man Who Would Be King. Michael Caine steals a man's pocket watch only to realize that he is a brother mason. He does the only honorable thing and boards to same train car and attempts to perform a rare reverse pick pocket

[@wachyfanning]

In this video in particular, it seems really easy to follow Patrick's train of thought

[@bl3343]

I know Patrick apologized for the bird affecting the audio, but I think the bird actually enhances the video. The tweeting almost sounds like a train whistle, adding vibes to the video.

[@bevanmorgan3946]

That train scene in the first MI is still one of my favourite ever. I was 11 when I saw it, and I still think it holds up.

[@NeonNion]

I think it's good too, but what I can't unsee, is that there's a high speed train running on conventional rails at very high speeds without overhead electrical wires.

[@Daneelro]

This is excusable if you were 11 (and American). But for us Europeans who actually travel on trains, in particular Eurostar through Eurotunnel (Chunnel), that scene is painfully unrealistic: no overhead wires, excessive speed in curves, the Chunnel is single-tube double track instead of two parallel single-track tubes, the men aren't thrown off the train by hurricane-force winds, the helicopter fits into the tunnel and is not smashed by the turbulence behind the train, there is no emergency stop at any point... Another, more recent very American-made train movie painful to watch for anyone riding actual high-speed trains is Bullet Train, repeating the same unrealistic elements and more.

[@NeonNion]

Yes, exactly this. You said it better.

[@bevanmorgan3946]

@@Daneelro Bro, I was talking about the explosion.

[@carcface]

Way to actually make me jump at a 120+ year old movie clip of a train arriving. Didn't expect that

[@emilythorkildson8514]

Can't forget about the movie "The Harvey Girls", which features Judy Garland singing the iconic, Oscar-winning "Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe". I also have to mention what is my personal favorite "goodbye at the train station" scene: 1944's Since You Went Away...which features Jennifer Jones and Robert Walker saying goodbye to each other as he heads off to fight in WWII. Completely heartbreaking.

[@joeytosi]

There is something about trains in movies that seem very cool. I recently looked into scenic train trips with sleeper cars because of how many fun movies take place in or around a train.

[@themigmadmarine]

If you are in the US, Amtrak's "California Zephyr" (the route that runs chicago to San Francisco Bay) is easily one of the most spectacular trips I have taken.

[@joeytosi]

@@themigmadmarine that’s one that I want to take. I’m in the Bay Area and I love Chicago. No brainer, right?

[@Lunch_Meat]

​@@joeytosi I'm going to be honest with you, the Pacific line is better if you haven't already done the Pacific highway. The zephyr is amazing from San Fran to Denver..... But from Denver to Chicago? Yeah.... There's a reason they call them fly over states. Amish country can get interesting, crossing the Mississippi is alright, and coming into Chicago is great, but that's really all you have to look forward to on that end

[@Lunch_Meat]

​@@joeytosi I'm going to be honest with you, the Pacific line is better if you haven't already done the Pacific highway. The zephyr is amazing from San Fran to Denver..... But from Denver to Chicago? Yeah.... There's a reason they call them fly over states. Amish country can get interesting, crossing the Mississippi is alright, and coming into Chicago is great, but that's really all you have to look forward to on that end

[@mjwbulich]

I worked as a propmaker in Hollywood during the 1990s and 2000s. One of my first feature films was Money Train. Over a six year period I helped build three trains, a cruise ship, two yachts, and four airplanes. It's incredibly hard to shoot on an actual train, boat, or plane. If you see an interior shot its going to be a set on a soundstage 99% of the time.

[@halfsourlizard9319]

Is 'Money Train' the prequel to 'Money Plane'!?

[@rwdavidoff]

Thomas the Tank Engine trains have human crews, drivers and firemen to work the engines, guards to operate the brakes at the end of the train, etc. At least in the books, and the series when it remembers to pay attention (so like the first...15 or so seasons). The author, the Reverend Awdry, was a big train buff who made up a lot of the lore of the series as backdrop for stories he was telling his son (who went on to take over as writer of the books after the Reverend Awdry passed) and model railroads he was building, and the series involves a lot of the mechanics of how trains work and how railways run in the books and early seasons of the TV show more directly drawn from the books--how fires burn from coal, how signals and tracks work, how train systems like brakes, fireboxes, water supplies, and traction work in weather, etc.

[@MufferNl]

You can quite clearly see the crew in the trains in many of the shots used.

[@SomethingSomewhereJustOnce]

Coincidentally I just watched Kill (2024 - Lionsgate). Almost all of the film takes place on a train and revolves around a gang of robbers who make the mistake of messing up with the wrong person. It's a Bollywood film and it's so good that the makers of John Wick have already optioned it for a Hollywood remake. It was a really fun watch.

[@HumbleWooper]

The Music Man (both the movie and the stage production) starts with a train scene to set viewers' expectations. Get ready for something very silly, there's a con man talking circles around people, and wonderfully precise rhythm and verbal pacing. And what sets that rhythm? The relentless chugging of the train they're all on, that only slows to a stop when Harold is ready to go. He's mastered the beat (or thinks he has), and it feels like all everyone else can do is come along for the ride or get left behind.

[@tape-6]

one of the BEST openers, the patter singing and if im remembering right almost a capella style instrumentation sticks so hard and shows tha this whole movie is gonna a massive flex of pure songwriting skill

[@floridaflamingogirl3119]

Glad to see appreciation for The Music Man. That's one of my favorite opening scenes too. I also like the scene where the ladies sing to each other over the sound of a piano lesson. Such an inventive musical that still holds up.

[@GitShiddy]

Damn two parts on trains and hopefully a future video about the Subway. Because yes the Subway on film deserves it's flowers & for a hell of a lot more than just The Taking of Pelham 123. I mean the dichotomy of how trains treat the people on them typically as star-crossed lovers with a handful of zany caricatures compared to how Subways aim to depict an entire subset and/or community of humanity (most notably how New Yorkers are at any given time) alone warrants an examination.

[@z-beeblebrox]

Ohhh, good observation. Trains center mystery and optimism; subways center anxiety and tension. On a train, the strangers are hidden away and invite discovery. On a subway the strangers are already exposed to you, and you dare not learn more than you already have.

[@pennyfarting]

Yeah, I feel there's a lot more to be said about subway cars being essentially a small cross-section of the entire population of a given city at a given time across all classes and demographics. On a subway you are, for just a few minutes, forced to share a small confined space with an array of strangers who share your city but whom you would otherwise never see or know exist, and that has been a huge source of narrative potential for film.

[@completetotalgoodness4786]

Yes! Patrick, read this!

[@GitShiddy]

@@completetotalgoodness4786 If anyone's going to read it it'll be Emma. Hi Emma, Locke rules!

[@JRS06]

I'll admit that most of my favourite films have a train in them somewhere. One of my favourite things when I was little was Thomas & Friends, and I think that my love for trains has undoubtedly stemmed from that. Another thing I grew up loving was The Polar Express, which is still my favourite Christmas movie. I think trains are so pivotal to cinema because they can be used in so many scenarios, especially action scenes. To list some of my favourites: The 2013 Lone Ranger, Back to the Future 3, Octopussy, Incredibles/Incredibles 2, The Wrong Trousers, Hugo, The Titfield Thunderbolt (an obscure 50s British comedy very few people will know about), Paddington 2, Solo: a Star Wars story, Goldeneye, and the first 20 minutes of the newest Indiana Jones. All of these use trains for grand action set pieces, usually crashes that give VFX artist/modelmakers some fun ways to shoot a lot of destruction. Don't forget there's a whole genre of movies centred around runaway trains, the most well known being Unstopable. Trains are also the perfect setting for dramas, notably Murder on the Orient Express, because there's a sense of romance and confinement. One shot of a train I always like to see in a film is a close up on the wheels, usually of the pistons moving fast or sparks flying from the breaks. That's the shot you want for dynamic action. If not, you get some wide shots of a train in some dramatic desert/forest/mountain backdrop, because there's something so elegent about a train (particularly steam) that means you can use it for beautiful cinematography. It's a vehicle that can be made to look impressive or mundane with the right editing. But this is just how I perceive it. I could be entirely wrong for all I know.

[@justingarner7163]

Not to mention, trains in video games are almost always a blast

[@dallinborrowman6075]

Got the notification on the train 🤯

[@tdjhue]

@@dallinborrowman6075 synchronicity

[@robwheeler2837]

3:10 to Yuma just appeared on streaming, promoted to my eyeballs this morning. I thought, "Maybe I should see that." Now you're talking about it.

[@Zeydarchist]

My new favourite character on Patrick's channel is the bird screaming in the background

[@carriemurphy7769]

Crazy getting this video and Overly Sarcastic Productions' trope talk in basically the same month, love to see it! It's fun getting a breakdown of the trope itself, and then a really grand cinematic breakdown.

[@bannnnner]

Notable mentions: Unbreakable, Live and Let Die, The Great Escape, Nymphomaniac, Goldeneye, Kids

[@ai-aniverse]

Stuck in traffic behind all the failed writers and actors that moved here but we are still coming Patrick!

[@MIRobin22]

The moto-BASE-jump-based marketing of Dead Reckoning didn't interest me enough to go see it, but finding out half the movie happens on the Orient Express now makes me want to see it.

[@quinn5109]

i need patrick to be a guest on a train heavy jet lag season and just talk about train movies the whole time it would be so good

[@Setheli216]

++

[@CaptainJim87]

Speed is even partly based on a Japanese movie with the same premise inside the shinkansen. Cool movie too! I teach a class about vehicles and cinema and I always begin with trains, because it was there at the very beginning of movies with arrivée d'un train en gare de la Ciuta (a Lumière film which is referenced in the opening scene of Gemini Man, because the 120fps 3D Ang Lee extravaganza was supposed to be a next step in all of this). As an European, I especially enjoy train scenes in set the US, because they are much rarer. If you've seen Ben Zeitlin's Wendy, the use of the train in this movie is absolutely OUTSTANDING. ANYWAY I love talking about trains and movies too, thank you Patrick for this.

[@Daneelro]

The most memorable US train movie to me is Silver Streak, a thriller-comedy with Gene Wilder & Richard Pryor.

[@CaptainJim87]

@@Daneelro I've never seen that one! But I recently caught up on Runaway Train which I really liked.

[@Daneelro]

@@CaptainJim87 Runaway Train is very good, but in spite of the US location and US actors, it doesn't feel really American to me - no wonder if you know that the screenplay was by Akira Kurosawa and it was directed by a Russian. Then again, IMO the best American-made train action is in the 1964 movie "The Train", with Burt Lancaster and directed by John Frankenheimer, which is a WWII story set in France (loosely based on real events). In that movie, they used real surplus trains of the French national railways to show realistic sabotage actions, filmed with perfectly set-up camera positions. (In addition, it's not a dumb action/war movie but has a deeper, more ominous message.)

[@CaptainJim87]

@@Daneelro I really like this one yeah!

[@debrachambers1304]

The next train episode BETTER open with you running to catch your train!

[@IsaacV24]

Either Patrick Willems mentions Thomas the Tank Engine at least once in the video or we riot! 🤣🤣🤣

[@somecitrus7561]

Dont be a Diesel, Patrick

[@tdjhue]

@@IsaacV24 we riot regardless

[@nitehawk86]

We are... Unstoppable.

[@digitaljanus]

He wouldn't want to be bricked up in the unused rail tunnel...

[@tdjhue]

@digitaljanus that made me cry as a kid

[@Bedinsis]

Something I once got a knack for was watching footage taken from the inside of ski-lifts as it goes up or down a mountain. That is something that naturally frames a landscape at a great distance, providing a vivid image and making you feel "above it all", while the loud clank that appears when it passes a tower suspension mechanism serves as a constant reminder of how small you are.

[@globalbookquest]

No wonder Sterling Archer just wanted to fight on the top a train

[@johnpark8188]

This channel is one of, if not the best, film essay channels on the web today. Extremely insightful, made by true cinephile who truly loves movies.

[@zypher8677]

Call this series, Patrick Willems': Eurotrip

[@dra900nka1n]

The trains in Thomas & Friends have drivers and they were shown frequently in the clips you used... There's also an early story where Thomas tries going without his driver and derails himself like 10 feet away from his shed.

[@wizzzer1337]

Fury Road is a "train" movie, the war rig truck is such a long and central vehicle to the movie and with how smoothly the truck soars the desert- it's practically one long train sequence.

[@juulosco]

yesss i came here to say this. functionally, one long train!

[@cliffsmith23]

I'm looking forward to part 2. I'm sure you'll be discussing the best action scene in all of the James Bond films; the final fight between Sean Connery and Robert Shaw in From Russia With Love.

[@z-beeblebrox]

Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing star in a non-Hammer production called *Horror Express* which is about a researcher smuggling the ancient remains of a possible "missing link" from China toward Moscow. Telly Sevalas then crashes the movie halfway through and steals the show. The entire movie takes place on a train and it is fucking awesome from beginning to end. So I agree all the best movies have trains. (also the movie is insane.) ((also, spoilers:)) (it's secretly a sequel to The Thing, if that's possible)

[@karlkarlos3545]

Actually it's a loose adaptation of The Thing.

[@z-beeblebrox]

@@karlkarlos3545 that’s what wikipedia claims, but if you actually watch the movie, it’s effectively imagining what if the events of “who goes there” resulted in the specimen escaping containment. In other words: secret sequel.

[@halfsourlizard9319]

Wait, there's a film with Christopher Lee + Peter Cushing + Telly Sevalas + mfing trains!?! Mind. Blown.

[@yvonnecole534]

WELCOME BACK! A great video essay with, humor, insight and flare. No "comedic" inserts with extras. All we need is you, please.

[@JefferyEPetrone]

With "3:10 To Yuma" and "Strangers On A Train" you have literary adaptations that deal with trains. But specifically "Strangers On A Train" is interesting because it's a Patricia Highsmith adaptation. Another Highsmith film adaptation is "The American Friend" which also has an iconic use of trains. It was shot by Robby Müller after all. Directed by Wim Wenders.

[@afroceltduck]

This reminds me of the various uses of trains in the recent adaptation of Ripley (although there's a really great bus as well)

[@rafaelbrandao4059]

I love how many times in this episode Patrick says "one of the best scenes," "one of the best movies," "one of the best sequences." It really works, it makes me want to go watch a bunch of train movies.

[@BlazeBops]

We get it, Patrick. Speed Racer 2 needs a train scene.

[@lutzknospe]

"Whisper of the Heart" is by Yoshifumi Kondō, not Hayao Miyazaki. - Anyway, great video!

[@TukaihaHithlec]

“Ocean Waves” and “Only Yesterday” getting attention for their train scenes but not “5 Centimeters Per Second” or “Your Name” is driving me insane.

[@ScottBaietti]

Hi Patrick (and Emma), I hope even though you’ve been exiled to Europe you’ll still do Patrick reacts to this one. I’m pretty curious what your take is on the train robbery scene at the beginning of Toy Story 3. Lots of scenes could have set the theme of formerly played-with toys, but it wasn’t just any scene, it was a train robbery scene. Second question if there is time. What was the process for researching and organizing all the info for this video. Did this have the most references to individual films of any videos? It sure felt like it.

[@LMRailfan]

18:54 Unstoppable Mentioned!

[@samuelbarber6177]

This is why The French Connection is the best of both worlds because there’s a scene where a car chases a train.

[@alexdelarco]

Damn, at first I thought, "well, yeah, there are *some* good sequences with trains, but I don't know if that's enough for a video... Then while watching the vid I started remembering ALL the amazing movies with trains and incredible train sequences with a full range of emotions, and also I started remembering how beautiful it is to go on a train by myself... Damn.

[@j.0x00n4]

I hope by "jump in a lake" you mean "to take a long swim and think about ones opinions, return refreshed and to rejoin the conversation" :)

[@heatrayzvideo3007]

Trains offer a single location that also moves, this seems like it gives good options for storytelling. I love an old murder mystery set on a train and I love nautical horror set on boats

[@btk1243]

"Disaster on The Coastliner" (1979) in which Lloyd Bridges character Al Mitchell seems like the archetype of Steve McCroskey in "Airplane!" (1980) - I can't believe you didn't mention it . . . Plus, it has William Shatner.

[@alternativeowen3957]

Some of the best video games have train levels too. Uncharted 2, Sly Cooper 2, Red Dead Redemption, Resident Evil Zero Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, you fight a train in both Cuphead AND Final Fantasy VI. Trains are freaking everywhere!

[@carroamarillo98]

Also GTA San Andreas, arguably the most Iconic missions of the game takes place in a train

[@alternativeowen3957]

@@carroamarillo98 Iconic does not necessarily mean good though

[@scottishcomedian1769]

This music feels like Brian played too much Tetris, said fuck it, and made a better version of that soundtrack. And I'm here for it

[@skyefraser9494]

Omfg THANK YOU!!! I remember when i finished watching Shameless I went straight to KZbin to see if anyone had made any analysis regarding Shameless+its use of trains...and I was super surprised to see nothing came up! Considering (and I'm sure anyone who's seen the U.S can agree) how many shots of trains and scenes featuring trains were used throughout the entire show. But this video...THIS VIDEO RIGHT HERE!! might just have given me some closure. Thank you.

[@robbybevard8034]

I was here when the video title was still "Why Do All The Best Movies Have Trains?"

[@galactic85]

I was just thinking a few weeks ago that i missed blue flame special........THANK YOU FOR BRINGING IT BACK!!!!

[@bilboswaggins8463]

Great video Patrick with some beautiful insight but unfortunately Hayao Miyazaki did not direct Whisper Of The Heart (40:48) and therefore your hard work was all in vain as I am forced to dislike the video. I wish it didn't have to be this way.

[@weirdy8]

Yoshifumi Kondo erasure will not be tolerated, especially when he was meant to be Ghibli's successor.

[@TukaihaHithlec]

Followed immediately at 40:58 by totally ignoring Makoto Shinkai’s *_Your Name_* in 2016, where trains critically feature in multiple pivotal scenes.

[@commissarcactus1513]

I'm hyped for a train episode of Blue Flame Special! I eagerly await finding out if Patrick will mention either of the two train-centric action movies that I've seen in recent years, Bullet Train and Kill. Also Kill is a quite good action movie. The fights get truly savage.

[@da47934]

I so much prefer Patrick sitting and talking about films to the studio shinannigans of recent years and side plotlines (with the exception of Patrick talking to his parents at their house - those were always great). His video essays are bar none and they don't need to be dressed up with comedy hijinks or storytelling. Just my opinion.

[@paulburner3817]

I agree but it's hard to sell merch without a nut or a puppet. I was adept at skipping and finding the essay.

[@halfsourlizard9319]

But any excuse to have Emma in the video ...

[@filippesic17]

This is the BEST thumbnail I've seen on film youtube space! Two of my all time faves in one beautiful symphony ❤ Great video as always Patrick

[@Tamajyn69]

The train sequence in Grand Budapest Hotel is still probably one of my favourite single sequences in cinema. Grand Budapest isn't even in my top 10 favourite movies, but that sequence is 🤌

[@bennyevans123]

Somehow I missed this one and I did paused and came back to watch it

[@robert9662]

Now you need to do a video on planes, just so you can make a playlist called 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles'

[@robwheeler2837]

Thanks, Patrick (H) and friends. For this stop-to-stop journey this afternoon, live.

[@PakkoT]

Better talk about Bullet Train next time

[@Zed-fq3lj]

Yeah, somebody should inform him of that movie and 'Snowpiercer'...50minutes blabbering about trains in movies without mentioning Snowpiercer (probably the best train movie of all times) and Bullet Train...It's like talking about movies set in the desert and not mentioning Lawrence of Arabia 🙄😒!

[@wyattstrauser8393]

The moment I realized the video was about to end but the topic wasn’t over, I knew something was up, and then for it to be a new Blue Flame Special!!! Oh man am I pumped

[@SanoKei]

4:35 You should call it a "tax deductable trip"

[@halfsourlizard9319]

Business expenses ftw!

[@michaellauritano5252]

Gifting us with not just one but two(!) trains in cinema essays. Thank you, Patrick!

[@victorkl28]

The fact this video doesn't mention or even shows snippets of 2022's David Leitch's masterpiece Bullet Train is a crime.

[@TukaihaHithlec]

Likewise is 40:58 acting like Your Name by Makoto Shinkai didn’t break that record in 2016, with a train-obsessed director and pivotal train scenes.

[@petermhz]

This was fantastic. Even my SO, who is not really into video essays about films, watched this with me. You landed on an excellent subject, and your take was spot on.

[@comicdude456]

BLUE FLAME SPECIAL!!

[@halfsourlizard9319]

Young, dumb, ...

[@Liam_Mellon]

That end got me more hyped than I think I've ever been for one of Patrick's videos!

[@StKildaFan]

Disappointed there was no mention of Bullet Train, a super underrated action comedy from a few years ago, also no sight of the train that crashes into the dream in inception, or the train set fight scene from Ant Man, one of the best train related gags ever.

[@TukaihaHithlec]

Nor *_Your Name_* despite literally breaking the record in 2016 that he ignored and attributed to Mugen Train at 40:58.

[@ShawnSpencerAndBurtonGuster]

Didn't disappoint! The opening credits were out of this world. Can't wait for part 2!

[@TheDandy99]

This should’ve been called “Patrick H. willems loves to run a train”

When Patrick finally combines the two loves of my life. Videos essays, & Trains.

[@SlimeMcfly]

Autism

[@devinfaux6987]

It's like the man says: Train good Car bad

[@devinfaux6987]

Also: trains are supposed to have a fixed schedule and stick to it? Someone should tell the Class I railroads, I don't think they understand this.

[@Daneelro]

@@devinfaux6987 I'm a European railway specialist. A few years back, before things came to a head in the US, I was at a conference that had a session on scheduling. And one of the presentations was by two US consultants who described Precision Scheduled Railroading. It didn't made any sense to me, especially when they spoke about tearing up second tracks on double-track lines to save costs. When it came to questions at the end, I asked what happens to the schedule on their single-tracked line if there is an accident or extra traffic. The two guys just looked at each other with a smirk & a wink and did not answer.

[@devinfaux6987]

@@Daneelro Sounds about right. As on of my favorite podcasters puts it: "To paraphrase Voltaire, it is neither Precision, nor Scheduled, nor Railroading."

[@AndrewBehm]

Finally, a perfect synthesis of all my interests, trains, movies and video essays!

[@JarrodBaniqued]

A train is aesthetically appealing to me, more so than a car-it’s built longer in the direction it heads in, which means a long horizontal strip of windows. It makes the whole assembly look sleeker, which you only get with today’s supercars-it’s why airliners today are also appealing, and why Streamline Moderne was a popular architectural style for a long while

[@RomanPhilosopher]

Surprised no mention of A Hard Day's Night, From Russia With Love, the man who would be king, Reds, the opening if Skyfall, the Lars Von trier movie with bjork (Music of the heart?), or the subway tunnels in Superman, or the subway station in the matrix... I guess those are in next episode! All that said, Great video as always Patrick!

[@TukaihaHithlec]

Also, at 40:58 he’s literally describing 2016’s *_Your Name_* by train obsessed director *_Makoto Shinkai_* before suddenly acting like it doesn’t exist.

[@robwheeler2837]

It's tactful to describe the dubious choice of The Lone Ranger as "casting Johnny Depp as a native american" rather than "casting an alleged cannibal fantasist as the Lone Ranger".

[@karlkarlos3545]

I believe the key words are 'alleged' and 'fantasist.'

[@umitatsuky]

No way, this video felt so short. I guess that's the power of trains ❤

[@Zed-fq3lj]

Somebody should inform him of that movie and 'Snowpiercer' and Bullet Train...50minutes blabbering about trains in movies without mentioning Snowpiercer (probably the best train movie of all times) and Bullet Train...It's like talking about movies set in the desert and not mentioning Lawrence of Arabia 🙄😒!