It was one of the most extravagant and ambitious independent production companies in history – and for a time in the late 1980s, it seemed like The Cannon Group, led by cousins Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus had the world at their feet.
In the UK, for example, they managed to broker a deal to secure ownership of the Classic Cinema chain, the Thorn-EMI film library and EMI-Elstree Studios in North London, where the likes of STAR WARS and RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK had been shot.
Yet, you have to have product that people want to see – and the majority of films that they made were low-budget. Even with those modest values (and it was known that often they would cut costs by removing pages of scripts during production) some films struggled to make a profit.
A recent documentary, ELECTRIC BOOGALOO, told the story of the company and there have been several documentaries over the years, including the 1986 BBC Omnibus special, THE LAST MOGULS.
Still, through all that, the films have garnered a cult following and have built up a fair amount of admirers thanks to the advent of Blu-Ray and streaming platforms – and there are some exceptions to the rule that have risen above the rest, even back in their original release.
One such example was Andrei Konchalovsky’s RUNAWAY TRAIN, made in 1985, which was based on a screenplay by the legendary Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, who directed THE SEVEN SAMURAI (inspiration for THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN films) and THE HIDDEN FORTRESS (known now as an influence on George Lucas when he was developing STAR WARS)
RUNAWAY TRAIN is the story of Manny (Jon Voight), a lifer at the Alaskan maximum security facility of Stonehaven, who with help from fellow convict Buck (Eric Roberts) escapes from the prison which is run by the sadistic Warden Ranken (John P Ryan). Braving the extreme elements of the Alaskan wilderness, they manage to hitch a ride on a freight train, but when the driver suffers a heart attack, the train suddenly barrels ahead with no-one at the helm.
Manny and Buck become acquainted with a lone female train worker, Sara (Rebecca DeMornay, RISKY BUSINESS, THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE) and the brutal reality of getting out of one prison that is in one location to one that has become an unstoppable prison in itself begins to set in. Ranken is none too pleased either – and is determined to bring Manny back to Stonehaven….
These days, you can guess that a lot of the action on screen could be simulated with clever CGI (if you saw the monotrain sequence in SOLO – A STAR WARS STORY, you can guess what I mean), but it is a testament to RUNAWAY TRAIN’s production value that it still wows in terms of its’ in-camera existentials (one stand-out sequence is a train collision halfway through)
If you remember the spirit of SPEED with the unstoppable bus that cannot go below 50mph, this is along the same lines – and was made almost a decade before. A trio of performances with Voight (who was nominated for Best Actor for his role), Roberts (Julia’s brother) and DeMornay whose characters are courageous in the face of helplessness keep the attention as well.
RUNAWAY TRAIN is also a good introduction if you want to look at some of the other works in the Cannon Legacy.