I don’t know about you, but since I’ve moved to Las Vegas and abandoned a life where commuter trains are part of the everyday scenery, I haven’t thought much about trains. Sure, when I’m driving north on I-15 and see one of those loooooooong freight trains with seemingly hundreds of cars piled one on top of the other, I do think of them, but that’s because such a sighting is relatively rare. Then I went to see Unstoppable, the new Tony Scott film. There, the power of a train and the potential destructive power of same, was emphatically driven home.

In the film, Denzel Washington is Frank Barnes, a trainman who was given a 90-day notice 72 days ago that he’d be let go. He is charged with helping newbie Will Colson (Chris Pine) get acclimated to the job. So, they are transporting a locomotive #1208 across the Pennsylvania countryside when word comes that train #777 is racing down the tracks with no human on board but with about a half-mile of freight — including, of course, some toxic chemicals — on board.

The plot of Unstoppable, is rooted in a 2001 incident when a freight train — also carrying the chemical molten phenol —with no one on board barreled across 66 miles of Ohio before being stopped when a trainman managed to jump aboard and apply the brake. Naturally, because this is for entertainment purposes, the train in the movies goes much faster and the terrain it covers is more dangerous.

When you see a movie like Unstoppable,, you are reminded of the power of movies to do many things. First, of course, movies tell stories. Second, we meet people and see places we might never meet or see in person. But, most important, we are taken along on some incredible exciting adventures. And few are more exciting than this.

Shot in Western Pennsylvania, around Pittsburgh, the sense that one is watching something real never leaves. These are real people, real towns and real danger. It is exciting, pulse-pounding and great fun. It is what movies are supposed to be.

In addition to Washington and Pine (who was such a good Captain Kirk in the last Star Trek film, the cast include Rosario Dawson as the train yard supervisor, Kevin Dunn as the bull-headed rail executive and Ethan Suplee (Jason Lee’s brother in the TV series, My Name Is Earl) as Dewey, the guy who let the train go.

Working from a script by Mark Bombeck, director Tony Scott (The Taking of Pelham 123 gives us 98 minutes of action populated by a cast of people we care about.

If you’re looking for pure escapism — but escapism rooted in reality — Unstoppable, is for you.