Trains have long served as a compelling setting for filmmakers, offering a unique narrative environment characterized by confinement, a fixed destination, and a diverse group of passengers sharing a temporary journey. This enduring cinematic appeal has been highlighted by the British Film Institute’s recent season of films set on trains, curated by Booker Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro.
Amy Scott-Ringrow, a media production lecturer at Bournemouth University, explains that the attraction for directors lies primarily in the confined nature of trains, which can intensify storytelling. “You have characters where there has been a murder and they are in a confined environment, so there is no escape,” she says, illustrating with the classic 1974 adaptation of Agatha Christie’s *Murder on the Orient Express*. This setting allows for intricate character development and story progression without relying on changes in location, while time inside the train appears almost suspended compared to the outside world.
Scott-Ringrow adds that trains function as a familiar, almost neutral space for viewers, onto which they can project personal experiences. The fact that passengers are headed toward the same destination but for varied reasons provides fertile ground for exploring diverse character backgrounds and interactions. “Everyone has a different reason for being on that train,” she notes, “and that is something that can then be unpacked and explored.”
*Murder on the Orient Express* is often cited as the quintessential train movie, with its locked-room mystery and ensemble cast featuring Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot, alongside Sean Connery, Lauren Bacall, and Ingrid Bergman, who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role. Scott-Ringrow points out that murder mysteries particularly benefit from the train setting, bringing together people from different walks of life in close quarters and generating tension and revelations as the story unfolds.
The British Film Institute’s season also includes several other notable train films spanning different genres and eras. Early examples include *Shanghai Express* (1932), directed by Josef von Sternberg and starring Marlene Dietrich, which won the Oscar for Best Cinematography, and *Rome Express* (1932), a British thriller recognized as Best Foreign Film by the National Board of Review. Alfred Hitchcock’s *The Lady Vanishes* (1938) is another standout, praised for its suspense and awarded Best Director by the New York Film Critics Circle.
Other films in the lineup showcase the range of storytelling possible on trains. *Night Train* (1959), a Polish thriller by Jerzy Kawalerowicz, is noted for its tense atmosphere, while *Runaway Train* (1985), based on a script by Akira Kurosawa and directed by Andrei Konchalovsky, features Oscar-nominated performances by Jon Voight and Eric Roberts. More contemporary entries include *Transsiberian* (2008), a thriller set on the famous railway, and Bong Joon-ho’s *Snowpiercer* (2013), a dystopian saga recognized as the most expensive South Korean film to date. The 2021 Finnish-Russian drama *Compartment Number 6* won the Cannes Grand Prix for its story of an unlikely friendship developed aboard a train.
Through this diverse selection, the British Film Institute season underscores how the train setting continues to inspire filmmakers by providing a contained yet dynamic space for exploring human relationships, suspense, and social dynamics across different cultures and cinematic traditions.