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Thriller on the Express: Difference between revisions

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Thriller on the Express (view source)

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The train no longer has to be part of the whole work. You might have a train based episode in a series but it won't be much of a [[Bottle Episode]] since it requires a new set and extras. There may be brief departures from the train but the time spent on the train should be enough to set up enough plot elements to stop people wandering too far or going to get help.
 
Plane based thrillers...are almost exactly identical but they're covered by [[Death in Thethe Clouds]]. Compare [[Train Job]]. May occasionally but not frequently contain a [[Traintop Battle]], most likely as a climax.
 
Not to be confused with dancing to [[Michael Jackson]]'s ''Thriller'' on a train.
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* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' anime episode "The Man with the Mechanical Arm" had a terrorist attack inside a train.
** The episode itself was based on an early chapter of the manga; the ''Brotherhood'' anime left it out due to its lack of long-term importance.
* ''[[Baccano (Light Novel)|Baccano]]'''s "Pussyfoot Express" plotline.
* ''[[Soul Eater]]'': episode 30 of the anime, "The Red Hot Runaway Express". Kid, Patty and Liz have to board the speeding train and fight an enemy on board for possession of a magical artifact, while a third party outside is fighting both sides.
 
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== Film ==
* Hitchcock's spy thriller ''[[The Lady Vanishes (Film)|The Lady Vanishes]]''. A old lady who had befriend a young woman on a train vanishes. This added a psychological element because everybody else denies seeing the old woman and there's no apparent way they are all in a conspiracy. One them is a nun and two of them are English toffs who don't want to be held up [[Quintessential British Gentleman|and miss the cricket.]]
* ''[[Flight Plan (Film)|Flight Plan]]'': In this plane-based thriller, the main character's daughter disappears and she can't get anyone to confirm she existed and starts to doubt she existed herself.
* The [[Gene Wilder]]- [[Richard Pryor]] film ''[[Silver Streak]]'' has Wilder's character see a man thrown from a train. The film doesn't stay on the train, in fact he meets Pryor's character off the train, but in that first stretch he gets set up for the crime which means that he gets isolated from society and has to get back onto the train to solve the issue himself.
* ''[[Transsiberrian]]'' takes the elements of this trope to the extreme. It's the longest train journey in the world against some of the most famously inhospitable territory involving Americans travelling from China to Moscow. In order to work in some believable chase and action sequences they don't stay on the same train but they stick to their guns and have them steal a section of train.
* The 1946 [[Sherlock Holmes]] film ''Terror By Night'', touted with the [[Tagline]], "One Way Ticket To ''DEATH!''"
** Also, the train sequence in ''[[Sherlock Holmes (Filmfilm)|A Game of Shadows]]''.
* The original ''[[Under Siege]]'' was a well known example of [[Die Hard Onon an X|Die Hard On A Boat]] so for the sequel they went for Die Hard On A Train Based Thriller.
* ''[[wikipedia:Horror Express|Horror Express]]''
* The [[Slasher Film]] ''[[Terror Train (Film)|Terror Train]]''.
* ''[[Runaway Train (Filmfilm)|Runaway Train]]''.
* A significant portion of ''[[From Russia With Love (Film)|From Russia Withwith Love]]''.
* ''Snakes on a Train''.
* ''Train'', where the eponymous vehicle turns out to be operated by organ snatchers.
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== Literature ==
* ''[[Murder Onon the Orient Express]]''. Murder = thriller. The Orient Express = train. Bear in mind it comes from the same author who mastered the [[Nasty Party]] and uses it in much the same way for the purpose of subverting one of the big conventions of that trope.
** Another [[Agatha Christie (Creator)|Agatha Christie]] work, ''The Mystery of the Blue Train'', also deals with a homicide on board a train, though unlike ''Orient Express'', the entire novel does not take place on the train.
** Also ''4.50 From Paddington'' - the story opens with Miss Marple's friend witnessing a murder on a train running next to hers, and the first mystery to be solved is why there is no body to be found on the train or even lying in ground near the tracks where it might have been thrown from the train.
* Short story "The Napoli Express" is [[Lord Darcy (Literature)|Lord Darcy]]'s version of ''[[Murder Onon the Orient Express]]''.
* The [[Solar Pons]] story ''The Adventure of the Orient Express''.
* The [[Phryne Fisher]] novel ''Murder on the Ballarat Train''.
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* On ''[[SCTV]]'' there was a parody sketch of ''Orient Express'' called "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4C8VMdBaCPg Death Takes No Holiday]," featuring John Candy as Hercule Poirot uttering the immortal lines, "Someone abord zis train is a Murderer! -- Perhaps ''even ze Train Itself ... '''IS A MURDERER!'''''
* [[Benny Hill]] did a ''Murder on the Orient Express'' sketch once using various US TV detectives (Kojack, McCloud, etc.) along with Hercule Poirot.
* ''[[The Goodies (TV)|The Goodies]]'' parodied this trope in "Daylight Robbery on the Orient Express''.
* ''[[The Hardy Boys Nancy Drew Mysteries]]'' did this in "Mystery on the Avalanche Express".
* ''[[Quantum Leap]]'': "Honeymoon Express"
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== Video Games ==
* ''[[The Last Express]]''. The Pre- World War 1 Orient Express setting gives it a very Christie feel and then it actually tries to use some of the same setting advantages that you might get in other media using this trope by having the game take place in real time.
* Chapter 6 of ''[[Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door (Video Game)|Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door]]'' is a [[Breather Level]] that largely takes place on the luxuriant Excess Express. You get roped into solving a mystery that follows this formula during the three-day trip, and is almost totally devoid of actual fighting until the [[Traintop Battle|Traintop Boss Battle]] on the last day.
* The Ecliptic Express in ''[[Resident Evil 0]]''.
 
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* ''[[Danger Mouse]] On The Orient Express'' takes place on said train, where DM and Penfold must retrieve a document that would allow Baron Greenback to raze all of Europe's tourist attractions and lure tourists to his (''shudder!'') museum of Barry Manilow record sleeves.
* The [[Bugs Bunny]] cartoon ''Wild And Wooly Hare'' climaxes with Sam and Bugs playing chicken with trains.
* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' episode ''[[My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic (Animation)/Recap/S2 E24 Mystery On the Friendship Express|MMMystery on the Friendship Express]]'' is about an investigation into who ate the cake Pinkie Pie was guarding. Much spoofing of mystery tropes ensues.
 
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