Frank J. Avella The Contending Aug 13, 2026 B+

Oscar-winner Voight (Coming Home) burrows deep into this messy, furious character and Roberts (King of the Gypsies, The Pope of Greenwich Village), still fairly new to the medium, matches him. Both have quite a few hilarious exchanges.

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Matt Brunson Film Frenzy Apr 19, 2026 3/4

Runaway Train is based on an unused screenplay by Akira Kurosawa, which right there gives it no small measure of class and import.

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Nick Rogers Midwest Film Journal Apr 6, 2026 4.5/5

Per the Cannon Films way, this still has breakneck pacing and crazy stuntwork. It also grafts a sort of sociological tone poem on the futility of trying to tame the wild using steel, whether in the form of a chassis or a cage.

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David Nusair Reel Film Reviews Nov 27, 2021 2/4

...a periodically effective yet predominantly tedious misfire that squanders a seemingly foolproof setup.

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Mike Massie Gone With The Twins Sep 7, 2020 8/10

Unpredictably cohesive elements collaborate, unveiling an intensity and underlying poignancy that come as a great surprise considering the cliché action movie title.

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Jon Dieringer Screen Slate Mar 1, 2019

It's one of the most beautiful and slickly produced pieces of reactionary junk food cinema ever made, and it's glorious.

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Paul Attanasio Washington Post Jan 4, 2018

"Runaway Train" isn't just bad -- it's bodaciously bad, grotesquely overblown, lurid in its emotion, big ideas on its brain.

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Jeffrey M. Anderson Combustible Celluloid Jun 16, 2017 4/4

It's a great, simple story, and, in the history of action movies, ought to be considered alongside Die Hard and Speed.

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Tim Brayton Antagony & Ecstasy Jan 2, 2016 8/10

A terrific mix of tightly coiled action and psychoanalysis that has no place in a genre film from the '80s, but works splendidly regardless.

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Matt McAllister Future Movies UK Feb 7, 2014 4/5

A thunderous proto-Speed with exploitation trappings, it also works as an existential art movie with a serious director and a dusted-off Akira Kurosawa script.

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Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com Jun 23, 2011 B+

A gripping action thriller that's also extremely well acted by Jon Voight and Eric Roberts in Oscar-nominated performances.

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Shane Burridge rec.arts.movies.reviews Sep 1, 2009

While RUNAWAY TRAIN does balance action and philosophy quite neatly it's still intriguing to wonder how differently Kurosawa would have handled it

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Variety Staff Variety Mar 26, 2009

Wrenchingly intense and brutally powerful, Andrei Konchalovsky's film rates as a most exciting action epic and is fundamentally serious enough to work strongly on numerous levels.

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Steve Crum Video-Reviewmaster.com Mar 2, 2008 5/5

Highly unusual drama with single premise: survive the runaway train. A metaphor for us all.

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Lori Hoffman Atlantic City Weekly Jan 5, 2007 3/5

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Geoff Andrew Time Out Feb 9, 2006

Somehow one leaves aside the blatant implausibilities, the coincidences, even Eric Roberts, and takes great pleasure in a breakneck ride to the end of the line.

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Caffeinated Clint Moviehole May 12, 2005 3/5

You'll be on the edge of your seat....until it stops

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Daniel M. Kimmel Worcester Telegram & Gazette Jan 19, 2005 1/5

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Mary Ann Brussat Spirituality & Practice Aug 21, 2004 2/5

Gets derailed by a mediocre screenplay.

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Jake Euker F5 (Wichita, KS) Jul 4, 2004 2/5

A real horror: heavy-handed, stupidly gruesome, as claustrophobic as its train cars and prison cells.

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