Unstoppable raw action

MANILA, Philippines - Action director Tony Scott presents his fifth film with Denzel Washington in the runaway train thriller Unstoppable, inspired by true events. Denzel describes the director as the hardest working person on set, while his co-star Chris Pine calls him “the magic movie elf,” a tightly wound ball of appropriately unstoppable energy.

Here, the British director explains the method behind his madness, and how his work was inspired by his mother.

What is it about the theme of man versus machine that you found inspiring?

Because my last movie was The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, everyone thinks I’ve got this love affair with trains. Actually, it’s two different stories and this one is more like Jaws; we even call the train The Beast. The movie starts at 50 miles an hour and ends up at 150.

Why did you want to tackle another movie set on a train so soon after Pelham?

I read the script three years ago and I loved it. Other people said to me, ‘Why are you doing another train movie?’ I said I don’t see it that way, it’s a totally different beast. This thing is very different from anything I’ve done before and it has this tremendous momentum in terms of the story.

This is the fifth time you’ve chosen to share that journey with Denzel Washington. Why him?

He’s a major talent. With every movie I’ve done with him we’ve always managed to tap into a different aspect of his personality, so it’s never Denzel. He can internalize something and give very little on the outside and still communicate everything. Two of my heroes are Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington and they both have that same thing. They do a lot of homework and they sit it all back, but they still communicate.