Unstoppable

Unstoppable is Tony Scott’s final masterpiece: a runaway train thriller based on a real incident, featuring Denzel Washington and Chris Pine as railroad workers chasing a driverless, half-mile-long freight train loaded with toxic chemicals across Pennsylvania. Scott’s signature hyperkinetic editing and oversaturated color palette are perfectly suited to the urgency of the premise, and the film maintains a vice-grip tension for 98 breathless minutes. Washington’s quiet veteran paired with Pine’s hotheaded rookie is the best odd-couple dynamic in Scott’s filmography. At 87% on Rotten Tomatoes, it is the most critically acclaimed pure thriller on this list.