The historical basis for Unstoppable is a incident in which an unmanned CSX train became a runaway, covering 66 miles in Ohio in under two hours before being stopped in a manner similar (albeit less dramatic) to what is depicted in the movie. Unstoppable is "inspired by true events," which is a technically accurate statement, although considerable license has been taken to amplify the tension and make the situation more cinematic.
And, as villains go, Kevin Dunn is reduced to irrelevancy by a very big, very fast-moving train. The initial bickering between the two characters does not make their eventual cooperation more meaningful. We don't need to understand that the love of his two daughters is what motivates Frank Barnes (Denzel Washington) to risk his life. We don't need to know that Will Colson (Chris Pine) is fighting a restraining order filed by his wife in order to appreciate the chances he takes. Still, it employs a contrived conflict between the protagonists and throws in a human opponent (in this case, a petty bureaucrat) rather than having faith that the story, stripped to its essentials, can stand on its own. Unstoppable reminds me of Twister, although it's fractionally more suspenseful and considerably less cheesy. Some movies of this ilk are assembled better than others, but the crutches filmmakers rely upon in these circumstances are often not as effective as they might wish. The central struggle is therefore more impersonal. There's no way to put a human face on the antagonist - it's soulless and uncaring. It's a difficult thing to craft a motion picture in which the bad guy is a runaway train. However, the incorporation of clichéd back stories for key characters, a fractious relationship between the protagonists, and an unnecessary villain - all elements lifted from the Screenwriter's Handbook - provide moments of unwelcome and unnecessary annoyance. When the production concentrates on the action, which includes dangerous activities and a race against time, Unstoppable delivers. Unfortunately, the sheer exhilaration is dampened somewhat by an overreliance upon action/thriller stock situations and characters. Unstoppable, a 95-minute thrill ride from director Tony Scott, delivers the right level of adrenaline.
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