Money Train

For the vehicle used to collect revenue in rail systems, see Money train.

Money Train
Theatrical Release Poster
Directed by	Joseph Ruben
Produced by	Neil Canton Jon Peters
Screenplay by	Doug Richardson David Loughery
Story by	Doug Richardson
Starring	Wesley Snipes Woody Harrelson Robert Blake Jennifer Lopez
Music by	Mark Mancina
Cinematography	John Lindley
Editing by	George Bowers Bill Pankow
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	November 22, 1995
Running time	110 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$68 million (est)[1]
Box office	$77,224,232[1]

Money Train is a 1995 American comedy thriller film starring Wesley Snipes, Woody Harrelson and Jennifer Lopez as New York City transit cops. After losing his job, Harrelson's character plots to hijack and then rob the "money train" which hauls collected fare revenues for the New York City Subway from the system's stations.

Plot

The story begins on Christmas with two Foster brothers John (Wesley Snipes) and Charlie (Woody Harrelson) who works as transit cops, patrolling a subway in New York City. When a mugging occurs, and John and Charlie chase the mugger into the subway tunnel, all trains traveling in their direction are halted. But the harsh transit captain Donald Patterson (Robert Blake), allows the money train (a high dense single steel rail car designed to deliver the money from every station to the central command centre) to continue stating "nothing stops the money train". John and Charlie survive getting hit by the train, however when the transit police at the next station witness the mugger running to the train, they shoot the mugger dead thinking the incident to be a robbery. The mugger is revealed to be a young teenage boy, which creates a brawl between John, Charlie, and the other transit offices, so as a result Patterson blames to the two for causing his money train to arrive late taking it as a personnal sign of disrespect.

After leaving the station, Charlie askes John to borrow some money in order to by him a Christmas present. When John accepts, Charlie instead uses the money to pay off his gambling debts to the sleazy night club owner Mr. Brown. When the deal does not go as planned, Mr. Brown intends to have Charlie killed by throwing him off the edge of the building, but John bursts in and interrupts the process. John tells Mr. Brown that he has the money for him that Charlie already owes him, but Mr. Brown reveals to John thats Charlie is in $15,000 in debt. John makes an agreement to have the money delivered to him within serval days and to pay Mr. Brown the $300 he has brought, but have no harm done to Charlie. Mr. Brown accepts and lets Charlie live. During there night shift, John and Charlie are introduced to Grace Santiago (Jennifer Lopez), a decoy transit officer just assigned to their unit who both brothers immediately take a liking to. During their patrol, a serial killer known as the Torch (Chris Cooper) robs a station paybooth, then sets it on fire after spraying it with gasoline. John and Charlie both rescue the paybooth worker and put out the fire, but the Torch manages to escape.

Afterwards John, Charlie, and Clair take the rest of the afternoon off at the local bar, where Charlie reveals his plan to rob the money train in order to pay off their debts. John does not agree with the situation, saying it to be impossible. Later that night, the two brothers and Clair are assigned to patrol the money train which the other offices do not feel comfortable with. While Charlie discovers a metal grate in the floor along with a ladder leading out to Central Park, a brawl breaks out between John and another officer over who was standing in his position, causing the entire squad getting involved. Patterson again blames the two for the incident and also rudely accuses them for the loss of some money when the train arrived, but even after it is found that a collection agent miscounted the money, Patterson still continues to be harsh towards them. At the local bar, Charlie tells John that robbing the money train would still work and that the best time would be on New Year's Eve, not only because the subway security will be loosened, but it is the time when the subway makes highest profit during the year: up to $500,000. The plan involves entering the train through the metal grate when the train has stopped, driving it to the maintenance ladder, and escaping into Central Park. Now convinced, John argrees to go with the plan, then later sees Clair dancing in the back ally where two agree to share a dance.

Production

The subway car used as the money train in the film is a modified R22 subway car. The rolling stock was modified by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and film crew into an imposing subway train covered in silver armor plating and equipped with flashing orange lights and sliding barred doors, like those on a jail cell. After production, the car was donated to the New York Transit Museum, and is currently stored at the Coney Island Complex, as of February 2010. The actual money train resembled a normal maintenance train painted yellow with black diagonal stripes. The New York City subway system retired its money trains in 2006; the introduction of the MetroCard and computerized vending machines that allowed fare payment by credit card have dramatically reduced the number of coins stored in subway stations.

Reception

The film took in $35,431,113 at the North American box office, including $10,608,297 on its opening weekend.^[2] With a budget at an estimated $68,000,000, the film was a huge box office bomb.^[3] It was generally poorly received by film critics,^[4] described by one reviewer as "a loud and truly pointless action-comedy".^[5] Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a "Rotten" rating of 17%.

In addition to its middling reviews, the film was vilified for its portrayal of a man robbing a ticket booth by running a rubber tube around the bulletproof partition and dousing the attendant with an unknown flammable liquid, then threatening to set them on fire. This crime was repeated in real life after the film's release, although the police did not think the similar crime was related to the film. Nevertheless, many people including Bob Dole called for a boycott of the film.^[6][7]

Cast

• Wesley Snipes - John
• Woody Harrelson - Charlie
• Jennifer Lopez - Grace Santiago
• Robert Blake - Donald Patterson
• Chris Cooper - Torch
• Joe Grifasi - Riley
• Scott Sowers - Mr. Brown
• Skipp Sudduth - Kowalski

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Money Train - Box Office Data". The Numbers. http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/1995/0MOTR.php. Retrieved 27 July 2011. 
2. ^ "Money Train (1995)". Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=moneytrain.htm. Retrieved 2011-08-06. 
3. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113845/business
4. ^ "Money Train - Rotten Tomatoes". Uk.rottentomatoes.com. http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/m/money_train/. Retrieved 2011-08-06. 
5. ^ "Money Train - Review Comments - Rotten Tomatoes". Uk.rottentomatoes.com. http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/m/money_train/comments.php?reviewid=1523276. Retrieved 2011-08-06. 
6. ^ Holloway, Lynette (December 16, 1995). "Token Booth Fire Attack Seems Unrelated To Movie". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C07E4DB1739F935A25751C1A963958260. Retrieved May 13, 2010. 
7. ^ Vandam, Jeff (2006). "Cash and Carry". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/31/nyregion/thecity/31mone.html?ref=thecity. Retrieved 2006-12-31. 

See also

• Kingston–Throop Avenues (IND Fulton Street Line)

External links

• Money Train at the Internet Movie Database
• Money Train at AllRovi
• Movie stills