The Best Movies set on Trains 🚂 🎥

I don’t know what it is I love about train travel. Probably the pace, and the act of watching the world go by, without the slight fear of a plunging, terrifying doom that comes with looking out an aeroplane window. I like that there is a dedicated person whose job it is to provide tea and snacks. I like sitting in the station bar wondering where everyone is going, and meeting different people. When it goes well, a department in which I’ve been lucky, train travel is very relaxing. I also love escaping inside a movie, and so some of the best films I’ve seen are those with a railway theme. I didn’t catch last year’s ‘Bullet train’ and have heard mixed things, but here are my favourite five:

5. Train to Busan

A masterpiece of South Korean cinema, and this list wouldn’t be complete without a horror entry. Quite a spin on the idea of a ghost train, this film features angry zombies who will run down the train and at their victims. It’s fast-paced, like the train on which it’s set, and action-packed, but like all the best movies of its kind, it has at its heart a human story about a very different connection, that between a cynical father and his daughter.

4. Poirot - Murder on the Orient Express

Okay, I know this is technically not one of the film versions, of which there are two, but it really is the best adaptation of this fantastic train story. And it’s a movie length episode to I’m going to count it. I’m sure most people know the Christie story, as Poirot discovers a murder on the train and works his way through the characters to find out “whodunit,” getting closer to the truth as danger looms and the train remains stuck in the snow. I wont spoil the famous twist, but this adaptation is stronger I feel for exploring Poirot’s own moral journey, brought on by his Catholic faith, which is tested throughout the events that take place on the train. Fantastic watch.

3. Terror by Night

The Sherlock Holmes movies with Basil Rathbone are amongst the best ever, and this very light hearted entry features everything that makes them fun. Quirky passengers, a plot full of twists and turns, references to the Arthur Conan Doyle stories and some of the funniest lines delivered by Nigel Bruce’s bumbling Watson. It’s also in the public domain, and full marks to anyone who can spot the model railway!

2. Snowpiercer

Another Korean entry, from acclaimed director Bong Joon-ho, but one of his few English language movies, uses the train as a metaphor for society, set on an uninhabitable Dystopian Earth where society is split between rich and poor. The central characters must take another journey, through the train, to find out what’s really going on. One of his best movies, I’d highly recommend this over the TV show, which admittedly I haven’t seen but just think the story is suited to the medium of film.

1. The Lady Vanishes

A classic. Unfortunately I watched several remakes before finally discovering Hitchock’s original, which was frustrating as I had some idea of the plot. But Hitchcock takes you on an atmospheric journey alongside the young Iris, who strikes up a friendship with the elderly miss Froy, only for her to disappear and nobody on the train claiming to remember her. I wont spoil it, but this mystery thriller has a great cast, script and pacing and shouldn’t be missed.