The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1998 film)

Infobox Film | name = The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1998)

director = Félix Enríquez Alcalá
producer = Edgar J. Scherick
writer = John Godey(novel)Peter Stone(earlier screenplay) April Smith (teleplay)

starring = Edward James Olmos
Vincent D'Onofrio
Donnie Wahlberg
Richard Schiff
music = Stewart Copeland
cinematography = Félix Enríquez Alcalá
editing = Robert A. Ferretti
distributor = Trilogy Entertainment Group
released = 1 February , 1998 (USA)
runtime = 100 min
language = English
budget =
imdb_id = 0140594

"The Taking of Pelham One Two Three" is a television movie remake of the 1974 film of the same title starring Edward James Olmos.

Plot

Edward James Olmos plays Detective Anthony Piscotti, a New York City police officer. He is trying to crack the hijacking of a subway train where the bad guys are holding the passengers for ransom.

Cast

*Edward James Olmos as Detective Anthony Piscotti
*Vincent D'Onofrio as Mr. Blue
*Richard Schiff as Mr. Green
*Donnie Wahlberg as Mr. Gray
*Lisa Vidal as Babs Cardoza
*Kenneth Welsh as Caz Hollowitz
*Lorraine Bracco as Det. Ray
*Louis Del Grande as Frank Stonehouse

Production details

The film is a remake, with Edward James Olmos in the Walter Matthau role and Vincent D'Onofrio replacing Robert Shaw as the senior hijacker. Although not particularly well received by critics or viewers, this version was reportedly more faithful to the book specifically in the rigging of the hijacked train for the getaway. It was also devoid of the quirky humor that made the original so memorable.

Since the film was produced much later than the original, there are also additions to the movie that did not exist in the original. For example, one of the characters sets up an IBM ThinkPad laptop computer, connected wirelessly to a motion detector that he places on the track. Later in the film another character views the screen to see an approaching person, whom he confronts in the tunnel. The ransom demand in the remake was $5 million as opposed to $1 million in the original movie and the novel.

The film was shot in Toronto's TTC subway system, mainly using the system's only abandoned station platform Bay (TTC), St. Andrew (TTC) station and Museum (TTC) station, and two of a class of older cars being retired by the TTC. The two cars were shipped by road to the scrapyard the day after filming ended, still disguised as New York cars.

The Toronto subway cars used for filming cannot operate singly, so a two-car set was used. A phoney cab was built on the other end of H-1 H-series (Toronto subway car) car 5482 to simulate single car operation. The single car supposedly detached from the front of the train can be seen on several occasions to be part of a train of at least two cars. The most obvious cases are when rounding curves: once when first moving forward after being detached, and later when Anthony has just figured out the hijackers' plan.

Reception

Many fans of the New York City Subway (locally termed railfans) despise the newer version, often calling it "The Taking of Bloor-Danforth One Two Three" after the Toronto subway line it was filmed on. Fact|date=February 2007