The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009 film): Difference between revisions

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 is a Template:Fy American thriller film directed by Tony Scott, and starring Denzel Washington and John Travolta. The film is based on the thriller novel by Morton Freedgood (writing under the pseudonym John Godey), and is a remake of the original 1974 film adaptation, which was also remade in 1998 as a TV movie. Production of the current remake began in March 2008, and the film was released on June 12, 2009.^[1]

Four heavily armed men, led by Bernard Ryder (John Travolta) board a New York City subway 6 train (aka the Pelham Line, hence the title), then proceed to take control of the train. Meanwhile, MTA dispatcher, Walter Garber (Denzel Washington), is assigned to the Rail Control Center due to an ongoing investigation that he took a $30,000 bribe in for making a recommendation to a Japanese car manufacture while in Japan. Ryder orders two of his hijackers, Ramos (Luis Guzman), a former MTA Train operator, wearing in "uniform", and Bashikim in uncoupling nine cars of the hijacked train while commandeering the lone front car; capturing the attention of an on-duty NYPD undercover officer. Baskhikim kills the officer while Ryder orders the conductor aboard the train to evacuate the customers on the 9 cars. Ryder and the hijackers settle down on the front car, demanding $10 million dollars in ransom money to be paid within the next 60 minutes, or for each minute past the deadline, one passenger aboard his car will be killed. Garber and Ryder exchange conversations though the microphone, while one of the male passengers has a laptop with a webcam, his girlfriend eventually sees the hostage situation through her webcam and provides the live feed to the police stationed at RCC. Ryder accesses his laptop to watch the stock market plunge nearly 1,000 during the course of the next hour, in hopes that his gold investments will increase his net return. Garber agrees to have the city pay Ryder the $1 million ransom while the Mayor is intercepted by his staff aboard a train in the Bronx and is transported back to RCC.

NYPD Emergency Service Unit Lt. Camonetti (John Turturro) enters RCC, ordering Garber to leave the premises. Camonetti takes over the hostage negotiations, infuriating Ryder who demands Garber, and only Garber, speak to him. When Camonetti refuses, Ryder shoots and kills the hostage train operator, who was Garber's classmate in school car. Camonetti immediately has Garber back on the mike, talking to Ryder while he sets up a sniper unit in the tunnel where the car is stuck, ordering all officers not to fire upon any hijacker until told to do so. Camonetti is puzzled as to why Ryder will only talk to Garber but when he learns about Garber's bribery investigation, he asks Ryder in consenting to search his home, which Ryder agrees and tells his wife about it. Ryder learns through news reports about Garber's alleged bribe in Japan and forces him to confess by holding the boy with the laptop at gunpoint. While the police stand down in the tunnel, one of the many rats inside the subway tunnels slithers inside an officer's leg, causing him to lose control of his gun and fire off a shot, killing Ramos who was sitting in the motorman's position.

The money is transported uptown to Grand Central, which Ryder demands Garber to deliver it within 8 minutes. Garber delivers the money with the aid of a 9mm gun loaned to him by Camonetti, then is ordered to operate the train to another location where the hijackers will exit. Ryder uses a special mechanism to lock the driving lever in the full speed position, causing the train to speed down Coney Island at high speeds. Garber escapes from the hijackers while picking up his gun, and then follows them to emergency exit inside an abandoned subway station underneath the Waldorf-Astoria hotel. Inside the hotel, Ryder splits away from Bashkim and Emri, who are surrounded outside the hotel by police, they are killed instantly in a hail of police gunfire. Ryder boards a taxi with Garber in pursuit, to the Manhattan Bridge where he leaves the cab to use the pedestrian walkway on the bridge. Garber confronts Ryder on the bridge; Ryder dares Garber to kill him. Before the police can stop him, Garber kills Ryder with one shot to his chest, while Camonetti watches from an NYPD chopper. The Mayor thanks Garber for saving the hostages, and vows his staff in representing him in the bribery investigation tomorrow. Garber refuses the Mayor's offer for a car ride home saying the subway is faster and is his lifeblood.

• Denzel Washington portrays Walter Garber, the New York City subway dispatcher who is negotiating with the hijackers. The negotiator in the 1974 film was a transit policeman called Lt. Zachary Garber (portrayed by Walter Matthau); Edward James Olmos played Detective Anthony Piscotti, the negotiator in the 1998 television movie.^[2][3]
• John Travolta portrays "Ryder"/Dennis Ford, the leader of the hijackers. Instead of playing a mercenary, he plays a former Wall Street "high roller" named Dennis Ford who blames the city of New York and the mayor for causing him to stay in prison for 10 years, longer than the guilty plea of three years. Scott courted Travolta heavily for the actor's first action role in years.^[4]
• James Gandolfini portrays the mayor of New York City, who is under heavy pressure to address the hostage crisis.^[5] The character was originally portrayed by Lee Wallace in the 1974 film.
• John Turturro portrays Camonetti, the lieutenant of the Emergency Service Unit of the NYPD of hostage negotiations.
• Luis Guzmán portrays Phil Ramos (a.k.a. "Mr. Green"), one of the hijackers. The role, originally named "Harold Longman", had been portrayed by Martin Balsam in the 1974 film.
• Ramon Rodriguez portrays Delgado, an MTA train dispatcher.^[6]
• Victor Gojcaj portrays Bashkim (a.k.a. "Mr. Grey"), the most aggressive of the hijackers. The character, originally named "Joe Welcome", was portrayed by Hector Elizondo in the 1974 film.
• Robert Vataj portrays Emri (a.k.a. "Mr. Brown"), the stammering young gun who helps hijack the train under the command of Ryder. The character originally was portrayed by Earl Hindman in the 1974 film.
• Gbenga Akinnagbe portrays Wallace^[7]
• Michael Rispoli portrays John Johnson
• Jason Butler Harner portrays Mr. Thomas^[8]
• Frank Wood portrays Police Commissioner Sterman
• Aunjanue Ellis portrays Garber's Wife

The first drafts of the script faced the challenge of updating the novel with contemporary technology, including cell phones, GPS, laptops, thermal imaging, and a post-9/11 world in New York City. In December 2007, David Koepp, who adapted the novel for Scott and Washington said:^[9]

I wrote many drafts to try and put it in the present day and keep all the great execution that was there from the first one. It’s thirty years later so you have to take certain things into account. Hopefully we came up with a clever way to move it to the present.

Koepp's drafts were meant to be "essentially familiar" to those who read the novel, preserving the "great hero vs. villain thing" of the original.^[9] Brian Helgeland, the only one receiving credit for the screenplay, took the script a different direction, making the remake more like the 1974 film than the novel and, as Helgeland put it, making it about "two guys who weren't necessarily all that different from each other."^[2] As writer Michael Ordoña describes it:^[2]

Whereas the novel is told from more than 30 perspectives - keeping readers off balance because it's unknown which characters the writer might suddenly discard - the two films focus on the lead hijacker and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority employee with whom he communicates by phone. The new version sharpens that focus until it's almost exclusively a duel between disgraced MTA dispatcher Walter Garber and manic gunman Ryder.

In the book and original film, Ryder is "cold-blooded and calculating", but in the 2009 film he's a "loose cannon willing to kill innocents not out of necessity but out of spite."^[2]

Production began in March 2008 with all cast and crew being required to attend a track safety course taught by MTA personnel, as much of the filming would take place in the subway on active tracks.^[10][11] For the initial hijack sequence at Grand Central on the 7 line, the crew used the Times Square-bound track during late night hours while regular 7 train service operated in both directions on the Flushing-bound track. An actual R142A train (the current model used on the service that is the title of the film) was used for the Grand Central sequence (in order to reach that track, the train would need to navigate through four boroughs). Other underground locations were unused express tracks in Brooklyn, and a retrofitted R62A car was used during filming to give the appearance of an R142A car, for exterior filming only.^[12] Interior car scenes were filmed at the Kaufman-Astoria studios in Queens, NY, on a set that more closely resembles the newer and larger R160B used on the BMT Astoria Line, which runs in the Astoria neighborhood where Kaufman is based.^{[citation needed]} Outdoor street filming locations were the lower level of the Manhattan Bridge, Tudor City including the First Ave tunnel near the UN, Manhattan's Upper East Side, the Times Square area, and Turtle Bay.^{[citation needed]}

The film was originally scheduled to release on July 31, 2009 but the release was moved earlier to June 12. The first theatrical poster was released on February 10, 2009 while the first trailer for the film debuted at the screenings of The International on February 13, 2009.

John Travolta decided against promoting for the movie being that it released just five months after the tragic death of his 16-year-old son, Jett. He stated that he still wasn't ready to step back into the spotlight. Travolta released a statement saying, "Tony, Denzel, Luis, John, James and Sony Pictures stepped up without hesitation to help promote this wonderful film, and their unselfish efforts have allowed my family the additional time to reconcile our loss." "I am very proud of the efforts we have all made in making this movie, and I want each and every one of you to enjoy it," he adds. "So, set your calendars for the weekend of June 12th. I promise you won't be disappointed. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart."^[13]

Reviews of the film were mixed overall, with a 51 percent "rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 120 reviews.^[14] "Top Critics" at Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 55% "rotten" rating.^[15] Metacritic gives the film a metascore of 57 based on 20 reviews, which indicates "mixed or average reviews".^[16] Jim Ridley of the Village Voice noted that the new Pelham film was worse than the original: "Scott's redo comes up short in almost every regard against the '74 model ... If it's somehow unfair to compare the two, why was The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 even remade?"^[17] "As expected, Tony Scott’s hyperkinetic, entirely unnecessary revamp attempts to update Pelham by cranking the volume and inflating the Noo Yawk attitude to a cartoonish level of macho posturing," wrote Sean Burns in Philadelphia Weekly.^[18] Writing in New York Press, Armond White was critical of Tony Scott's direction: "Tony Scott’s craft cannot create suspense, it substitutes noise, cursing and brutality."^[19] Michael Rechtshaffen of Hollywood Reporter noted: "Even with the plot's built-in ticking clock, the film relinquishes the tautly calibrated pace in the third act, never to get completely back on track."^[20] David Edelstein's review for New York Magazine carried the headline "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 is not worth running down a flight of subway-station stairs for."^[21]

Roger Ebert gave the film two and a half stars, and began his review with "There’s not much wrong with Tony Scott’s “The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3,” except that there’s not much really right about it."^[22] Ebert commented that the lead actors lacked passion in their performances: "Oh, John Travolta is angry and Denzel Washington is determined, but you don’t sense passion in the performances. They’re about behaving, not evoking."^[22] Christy Lemire of the Associated Press gave the film two out of four stars, and called it "another overcaffeinated thriller".^[23]

Writing for the Orlando Sentinel, Roger Moore gave the film three out of five stars, and commented "Pelham, for its crowd-pleasing heart-racing virtues ... plays out like a Tony-Denzel pairing that Denzel, at least, should have taken a pass on."^[24] In a review for MSNBC, Alonso Duralde was critical of actor John Travolta's performance in the film, comparing it to his roles in Swordfish and Battlefield Earth: "Travolta remains singularly unbelievable as a villain. In movies like this and 'Swordfish' and, let's not forget, 'Battlefield Earth,' the actor strives for malice but generally can’t get much darker than playground-bully meanness."^[25] Peter Moore, writing for Rolling Stone, gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4, stating "This movie hits you like 600 volts from a sparking third rail. Damn straight it's electrifying. ... The only letdown comes in Scott's handling of the passengers, who remain frustratingly generic."^[26]

The film debuted in the number three spot with an approximately US$25 million at the box office in the United States in its opening weekend, in what The New York Times called "an unusually quiet weekend at the box office because of soft ticket sales for 'The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3'".^[27] The film was beat out by The Hangover and Up for the number one and number two spots.^[28] The Taking of Pelham cost over $100 million to make, and was co-financed with Relativity Media and Sony Pictures.^[28] Ben Fritz of the Los Angeles Times commented on the box office results of the film's opening weekend: "Although far from disastrous, that's a soft start for a film budgeted at more than $100 million."^[29]

• The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974 film)
• The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1998 film)

• Official website
• The Taking of Pelham 123 at IMDb
• The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 at AllMovie
• The Taking of Pelham 123 (Theatrical Trailer)
• The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 Trailer