The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009)

★ 6.4 1h 46m 3,365 votes IMDb
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Armed men hijack a New York City subway train, holding the passengers hostage in return for a ransom, and turning an ordinary day's work for dispatcher Walter Garber into a face-off with the mastermind behind the crime.

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3

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Cast

Denzel Washington
Denzel Washington as Walter Garber Age 71 · Mount Vernon, New York, USA Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. (born December 28, 1954) is an American actor, producer, and director. Known for his dramatic roles on stage and screen, he is widely regarded as one of the best actors of...
John Travolta
John Travolta as Ryder Age 72 · Englewood, New Jersey, USA John Joseph Travolta (born February 18, 1954) is an American actor. He began acting on television before transitioning into a leading man in film. His accolades include a Primetime Emmy Award, three G...
John Turturro
John Turturro as Lt. Camonetti Age 69 · Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA John Michael Turturro (born February 28, 1957) is an American-Italian actor, writer and filmmaker, known for his association with the independent film movement. He has appeared in over sixty feature f...
Luis Guzmán
Luis Guzmán as Phil Ramos Age 69 · Cayey, Puerto Rico Luis Guzmán (born August 28, 1956) is a Puerto Rico-American actor. He is known for his character work. For much of his career, his squat build, wolfish features, and brooding countenance have garnere...
James Gandolfini
James Gandolfini as Mayor Died 2013 · Westwood, New Jersey, USA James Joseph Gandolfini Jr. (September 18, 1961 – June 19, 2013) was an American actor and producer. He was best known for his role as Tony Soprano, the Italian-American crime boss in HBO's television...
Michael Rispoli
Michael Rispoli as John Johnson Age 65 · Long Island, New York, USA From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Michael Rispoli (born November 27, 1960) is an American character actor. He was formerly part of the HBO television series The Sopranos as Jackie Aprile, Sr.

Audience Reviews

JPV852 7/10 Apr 12, 2021
Saw this one many years ago, probably when it came out on Blu-ray, and decided to give it another watch at random, and... pretty much lined up with from the first go around. Nothing amazing nor has any great twists, but the performances from Washington and Travolta made the movie worth the time. On the downside, as with many of his later films, Tony Scott's choppy direction was a bit annoying. **3.5/5**
r96sk 7/10 Nov 15, 2023
Having seen (and truly loved) <em>'<a href="https://letterboxd.com/film/unstoppable-2010/" rel="nofollow">Unstoppable</a>'</em>, it's impossible not to see <em>'The Taking of Pelham 123'</em> as a rather pale incarnation of that 2010 flick (which also has Tony Scott as director and Denzel Washington as lead!).

How strange that those two came together to make two very similar movies so close together. In the end, here, there is enough done to separate them, but early on especially I felt like I was watching the same film almost. For the record, that other release is so vastly better than this... so I'd recommend that more if you want a train-centric production from Scott and Washington.

With all that noted, this 2009 film is still a fairly enjoyable 1hr 40mins or so - despite some questionable editing choices. A big reason for my positive rating is the aforementioned Washington, who gives as good a performance as he always tends to give - which is why he is probably my favourite actor, him or Leonardo DiCaprio anyway.

John Travolta does well though, even if I kept getting <em>'<a href="https://letterboxd.com/film/face-off/" rel="nofollow">Face/Off</a>'</em> vibes throughout. Here, he made me laugh a few times and the guy has some good dialogue/delivery of said dialogue. Even if that latter element is hit-and-miss elsewhere. The rest of the cast are alright-to-meh, nice to see James Gandolfini though.

It's, taking everything into account, all worth a watch, I'd say.
CinemaSerf 6/10 Feb 22, 2025
It’s not really fair comparing this with the much more sophisticated 1974 version of this story as Tony Scott has taken a fairly broad-brush to that template and pretty much re-characterised the whole story. That’s a story about a gang of well organised criminals who plan a daring hijack of a subway train in New York, USA. Their plan is simple enough. They seize one car and then their leader “Ryder” (John Travolta) demands $10 millions within the hour or the bodies will start mounting up. His contact in the control room is “Garber” (Denzel Washington) and soon wheels are in motion to get the cash. What’s not so clear, though, is just what the agenda of these criminals is. It’s not an excessively large sum of money and we know that “Garber” is under investigation for bribery, so is there something more sinister going on here? What is obvious is that these guys mean business and are not afraid to demonstrate that fact! Tony Scott has managed to convey something of the claustrophobic nature of the tunnels well here and Harry Gregson-Williams’s aggressive score also helps build the tension but for me, Travolta just doesn’t deliver anything on the scale of menace I wanted here. Sure, his character is vile and violent but with the story relying on a degree of ambiguity for much of it’s substance, his unsubtle and charm-free performance is all just too one-dimensional to keep the intrigue sustained. Washington, likewise, just doesn’t impose himself on the story anywhere near enough to give us any real sense of panic and the other  supporting efforts are all a bit too underwhelming too, delivering a great deal of wasteful shouty dialogue as this thing rather lumbers along as if it were stuck at the lights, too. It probably didn’t need remaking but it does remind you just how good Robert Shaw was on the less is more front.

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