白昼のニューヨーク。ペラム駅発123号列車が地下路線の途中で武装集団にハイジャックされた。犯人4人、人質18人。地下鉄公安局のガーバー警部補と犯人たちの虚々実々の駆け引きが始まった・・・。
AIが作品の魅力を深く読み解いています
監督: Joseph Sargent
脚本: Peter Stone / John Godey
音楽: デヴィッド・シャイア
制作: Edgar J. Scherick / Gabriel Katzka
撮影監督: Owen Roizman
制作会社: Palomar Pictures International / Palladium Productions
Robert Shaw is great in this tensely presented heist thriller with a difference. Allied with Martin Balsam's "Green", Hector Elizondo as "Grey" and Earl Hindman's "Brown" they meticulously hijack a subway train and hold the city to ransom for $1 million. It falls to grizzled transit cop "Garber" (Walter Matthau) to try and second-guess their plans before they start killing one passenger per minute! What adds suspence to this mystery is their potential escape route? Stuck in well mapped and monitored tunnels fifty food beneath street level, how are they planning on getting their loot to Cuba? Joesph Sargent gets loads from an established cast of players here who develop the sense of peril and excitement well - especially the master of less-is-more that is Robert Shaw. It's good to see Matthau demonstrate he's not just about whacky comedy and as the plot reaches it's duplicitous, nerve-wracking denouement with even some space for a delicious irony at the end. The photography captures well the dark and claustrophobically dingy subterranean environment as well as the increasingly frenetic command centre where "Garber" is being wound up by track manager "Correll" (Dick O'Neill) whilst facing increasingly pressure from the hapless mayor (Lee Wallace). Pay them or have your electorate slaughtered? What would you do...?
