When on skiing holiday with the family, what better to watch as evening-entertainment than a disaster movie about a runaway train ... in a ski-resort!
"Runaway!" is one of the more obscure ABC Movies of the Week, I reckon. I never even heard of it when I accidentally stumbled upon it on YouTube (the picture quality is poor but certainly watchable). Nevertheless, it's a very entertaining and exciting thrill-ride that has quite a lot in common with the 2010 blockbuster "Unstoppable". So much even that I wonder if the late Tony Scott perhaps found some inspiration here, like the head-machinist's forced retirement or the attempt of stopping the train by connecting another one at the rear end.
For the rest, it's a typical 70s TV-movie, with typical 70s TV-movie characters. The only difference is that they are rushing down a snowy mountain at 60mph on a train of which the brakes have given up due to the ice and cold. Will the life-threatening ordeal save the marriage of a bickering couple? Shall the young student overcome the forbidden love for her professor? Will the careless and selfish rebel develop some humanity and help the other passengers? Etc. It's incredibly clichéd, but I loved it. And besides, remember the unwritten rule of disaster movies: when there's an exclamation mark in the title (!), the situation is very, very serious!