9 / 10
The Taking of Pelham 123 has been adapted twice.
Both versions are essential. The 9 rating is for the combined achievement. Joseph Sargent directed the 1974 original with Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw. Tony Scott directed the 2009 remake with Denzel Washington and John Travolta. Both films are based on John Godey’s 1973 novel. Four armed men hijack a New York City subway train carrying seventeen passengers and demand $1 million in ransom within an hour. The plot is compact, and both films are smart enough not to pad it.
I’d take either of these trains on a bad night, but my heart belongs to the 1974 one. It’s a grubby, funny, tense piece of New York filmmaking with two actors trading threats over a radio, and the remake is a louder, shinier ride I still enjoy. Putting them together under one 9 feels right to me, because each one covers a gap the other leaves.
The Setup (Both Versions)
New York City. The 1-6 IRT Lexington Avenue local line. Four men board the Pelham 1:23 train at separate stops. They wear identical disguises (color-coded by Mr. Color names). They take control of the train at a planned tunnel location. They detach the lead car carrying themselves and seventeen passengers. They demand $1 million in ransom. They’ll execute one hostage every minute the deadline is exceeded.
The Transit Authority’s Lieutenant Garber (Walter Matthau in 1974, Denzel Washington in 2009) negotiates with the lead hijacker Mr. Blue (Robert Shaw in 1974, John Travolta in 2009). The negotiation occurs through the subway radio system. The two men can’t see each other.
Garber has to assess the threat through voice alone. Mr. Blue is calm, organized, and demonstrably willing to execute hostages. Garber has to calculate whether the demands can be met within the timeline and whether the hijackers intend to escape.
The films document approximately ninety minutes of real-time action across the negotiation, the ransom delivery, and the eventual confrontation. Both versions handle the same plot mechanics. The differences are in directorial approach, casting choices, and the details the films emphasize. Both versions deliver the central tension without softening the stakes.
The 1974 Version
Joseph Sargent directed the 1974 original. Sargent had been working primarily in television. The Taking of Pelham 123 was his first major theatrical feature.
The film established him as a major commercial director. He later directed Jaws: The Revenge (1987) and other productions. Jaws: The Revenge is a lousy movie, and it shouldn’t cost him a shred of credit for this one. The Pelham 123 assignment rewarded his particular discipline.
The direction is restrained and procedural. The film takes the subway operations seriously. The Transit Authority work, the police coordination, the hostage management are all documented with suitable technical detail. The audience receives the institutional complexity instead of just the dramatic crisis. The procedural depth is the film’s distinguishing feature compared to most 1970s crime thrillers.
The David Shire score is one of the film’s signature elements.
The main theme uses jazz-funk fusion that captures the energy of 1970s New York. The score is distinctive enough that it’s been sampled, covered, and referenced in later productions. The original soundtrack album became a serious commercial release. The score is one of the strongest individual elements of the 1974 version and one of the elements the 2009 remake couldn’t replicate.
That Shire theme is the first thing I think of when anybody mentions this film. It’s all brass and bass and nervous energy, and it tells you before a single line of dialogue that this city is loud, broke and in a hurry. The remake had nothing to match it, and it feels quieter for the loss.
The Walter Matthau Performance
Walter Matthau plays Lieutenant Garber as competent professional under considerable pressure. Garber is a Transit Authority cop. He’s not a hostage negotiator by training. He’s been pulled into the negotiation because he was on duty when the hijacking occurred. He responds to the unfamiliar requirements through procedural competence instead of through theatrical heroism.
The performance is one of Matthau’s strongest in his late career. Matthau had been working in comedy for decades. The Pelham 123 role required control with real tone.
He delivers the work without reaching for either comedic relief or theatrical drama. The audience reads Garber as a man doing routine work under pressure that the routine hasn’t prepared him for. The choice is consistent with the film’s broader procedural approach.
Matthau’s negotiation scenes with Robert Shaw are the film’s central dramatic content. The two actors share approximately fifteen minutes of direct radio dialogue across the film. The scenes are duets between two professionals who can’t see each other. Matthau handles the work with the right restraint. The performance is one of the cleanest examples of his late dramatic capability.
The Robert Shaw Performance
Robert Shaw plays Mr. Blue with real controlled menace. The character is a former British Army officer who has turned to mercenary work after his military career ended in disgrace. The backstory is delivered in efficient dialogue instead of extended exposition. Shaw plays Mr. Blue as a professional with major military discipline. He doesn’t raise his voice. He follows his plan. He executes hostages when he’s said he’ll execute hostages.
Shaw is the reason I put the 1974 film ahead. That clipped, bored voice on the radio scares me more than any gun in either movie, because Mr. Blue sounds like a man filling out paperwork while he decides who dies.
Shaw completed the performance shortly before his work on Jaws (1975). The two performances together (Mr. Blue and Quint) represent some of the strongest work of his career. Shaw was an exceptional actor whose career later critical history has undervalued. The Pelham 123 work shows the particular kind of controlled intensity he could deliver. The character is frightening without being theatrical. The choice is right for the film’s procedural tone.
Shaw’s untimely death from a heart attack in 1978 at age 51 cut short a career that should have continued for decades.
The Pelham 123 role is one of his most essential performances. The combination with Matthau produces dramatic dynamics that few films achieve through radio dialogue alone. The achievement is partly the direction and screenplay and considerably the two performances themselves.
For Writers
The 1974 Pelham 123 stages its central dramatic content as radio dialogue between two characters who never see each other. The technique is rare because it requires the actors to generate dramatic energy through voice alone. The visual cinema medium typically depends on facial expression, physical action, and shared screen space. The Matthau-Shaw radio sequences refuse those tools. The audience receives the drama through voice quality, dialogue rhythm, and accumulated character knowledge. The lesson for writers is that limiting your dramatic tools can produce stronger drama than expanding them.
If your characters can do anything and go anywhere, your scenes can become diffuse. If your characters are constrained to specific limited interactions, your scenes have to do more with less. The Pelham 123 radio sequences are one of cinema’s cleaner demonstrations of constrained dramatic interaction producing maximum dramatic effect.
The 2009 Version
Tony Scott directed the 2009 remake. Scott’s filmography included Top Gun (1986), Crimson Tide (1995), Enemy of the State (1998), Man on Fire (2004), and other productions. His approach is recognizably more stylized than Sargent’s. Fast cutting.
Multiple camera coverage. Color processing that produces specific aesthetic tones. The 2009 Pelham 123 applies Scott’s visual style to the procedural material the original handled with restraint.
The stylistic difference produces specific results. The 2009 film works at considerably higher visual intensity than the 1974 original. The audience receives the same plot at faster pace and with more visual stimulation.
The choice is consistent with 2009 commercial action filmmaking expectations but also costs the film some of the procedural depth the original had developed. The procedural material is still present but has less screen time and works at less depth.
Scott died in August 2012, three years after Pelham 123’s release. His broader filmography includes some of the most influential American commercial action films of the period. The Pelham 123 remake is one of his last completed projects. The film works inside his career conventions instead of as a departure from them. The work is competent professional craft from a director with heavy showed capability.
The Denzel Washington Performance
Denzel Washington plays Garber at serious dramatic tone. The 2009 Garber is different from the 1974 Garber. Washington’s Garber is a Transit Authority supervisor who has been demoted from a higher position after corruption allegations. He’s awaiting the outcome of an internal investigation. The personal stakes are larger than the 1974 version’s stakes. Washington handles the additional dramatic weight with the right craft.
For Washington, the performance is one of his stronger late-career thrillers. He’s been working with Tony Scott across multiple productions including Crimson Tide (1995), Man on Fire (2004), Déjà Vu (2006), and Unstoppable (2010). The collaboration produced some of Washington’s most commercial work. The Pelham 123 role uses his capabilities with the right tone. The performance doesn’t reach the level of his strongest individual roles but does support the production with real competence.
The Washington-Travolta interaction is the 2009 film’s central dramatic content. Both performers work at higher theatrical tone than Matthau and Shaw had in 1974. The 2009 dynamic is more confrontational. The 1974 dynamic was more procedural. Both versions work. I’ll take the 1974 radio duet over the 2009 shouting match, though the remake’s version still holds my attention.
The John Travolta Performance
John Travolta plays Ryder, the lead hijacker, with real theatrical intensity. Ryder is a former Wall Street manipulator who served prison time for financial fraud.
He’s emerged with real rage at the institutional system and a plan to extract revenge through the subway hijacking. The backstory provides Ryder with motivation that the 1974 version’s Mr. Blue hadn’t been given.
Compared with Robert Shaw’s 1974 work, the performance contrasts considerably. Shaw played Mr. Blue at controlled menace. Travolta plays Ryder at theatrical intensity. He speaks more, gestures more, displays more emotional volatility. The choice is consistent with 2009 commercial action filmmaking conventions and produces a different character than the 1974 version. Neither character is correct. Both serve their respective films.
Travolta is where the remake loses me a little. He’s fun to watch, all snarl and swagger, but every time Ryder starts shouting I’m reminded how much scarier Shaw was doing half as much. Washington keeps the film honest, and I’d have happily traded ten minutes of Travolta’s rants for more of Garber sweating at that console.
Travolta’s career across the period included Wild Hogs (2007), Hairspray (2007), and other productions.
The Ryder role is one of his stronger antagonist performances of the period. Travolta has periodically returned to villain work across his career, including Swordfish (2001), From Paris with Love (2010), and other productions. The capability is consistent. The individual roles vary in quality. Ryder is one of his stronger entries.
The Comparative Approach
Neither version is definitive. The 1974 original has procedural depth, the Matthau-Shaw radio negotiation chemistry, the David Shire score, and the 1970s New York atmosphere. The 2009 remake has Tony Scott’s visual style, Washington’s contemporary dramatic tone, Travolta’s theatrical antagonist work, and a contemporary New York that updates the original’s setting.
The David Koepp screenplay for the 2009 version adapts the original David Shaber screenplay with serious changes. The hijackers are different. The motivations are different. The personal stakes are different. The plot mechanics remain consistent. The screenplay manages the adaptation without damaging the source material. Both versions are legitimate engagements with the John Godey novel.
Audiences who watch both versions get a complete picture of what the source material can support. The 1974 version is the more disciplined interpretation. The 2009 version is the more stylized interpretation. The combined viewing produces material neither version alone delivers. The 9 rating reflects the combined achievement instead of either film individually.
For Writers
Both Pelham 123 films use the same core plot but produce different films through different directorial execution and different antagonist characterization. The 1974 Mr. Blue is a disgraced British Army officer. The 2009 Ryder is a disgraced Wall Street manipulator. The change in antagonist identity changes the film’s institutional commentary. The 1974 version commented on post-Vietnam American institutional decay through a foreign military character. The 2009 version commented on the post-2008 financial crisis through an American financial character.
The same plot is different cultural commentary depending on who is hijacking the train. The lesson for writers is that characterization decisions can considerably alter the meaning of identical plot mechanics. Your antagonist’s identity isn’t just the surface of the conflict. Your antagonist’s identity determines what the conflict means.
The 1974 Ending
The 1974 ending is the film’s most distinctive structural choice.
The four hijackers escape through a hidden tunnel exit. They split up and return to their respective lives. Garber tracks Mr. Blue through the hijacker’s residual cold from a winter illness. The closing scene is Garber at Mr. Blue’s apartment confirming his identity through a sneeze. The film cuts to black on the sneeze. The audience doesn’t see the arrest or the resolution.
The choice is consistent with the 1974 version’s procedural approach. The film documents the hijacking and the negotiation and stops. The audience knows that Garber has identified Mr. Blue. The audience doesn’t see the institutional consequences. The choice respects the audience’s intelligence. The setup has been complete. The conclusion doesn’t require additional spectacle.
The technique is rare in commercial cinema. Most productions deliver the institutional resolution explicitly, and the 1974 Pelham 123 refuses. The audience supplies the resolution from the information the film has provided. That sneeze is my favorite ending in any seventies thriller. Matthau’s face does the whole arrest in a second, the screen goes black, and I can’t help grinning at it.
The 2009 Ending
The 2009 ending works at more conventional commercial action tone. The hijackers are defeated through tactical action. Ryder confronts Garber directly during the climax. Garber kills Ryder. The film documents the institutional resolution explicitly. The audience receives the conventional catharsis the action film expectations require. The choice is consistent with the 2009 version’s broader commercial approach. The film is conventional action thriller instead of as procedural drama. The conventional ending fits the conventional production. The audience receives the resolution that the commercial structure has been building toward. The 1974 sneeze beats a shootout every time, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise. The 1974 ending is more sophisticated. The 2009 ending is more commercially conventional. Both endings serve their respective productions. The differences show how the same plot mechanics can produce considerably different cinematic experiences depending on how the directors handle the conclusions.
Craft: Two Complementary Achievements
Craft Note
Both Taking of Pelham 123 films work at high craft within their own creative purposes. The 1974 version has procedural depth, the Matthau-Shaw negotiation chemistry, the David Shire score, and the 1970s New York atmosphere. The 2009 remake has Tony Scott’s visual style, Washington’s dramatic tone, Travolta’s theatrical antagonist work, and contemporary New York production design. Neither version replaces the other. Both versions deserve viewing.
The 1974 version is more critically respected. The 2009 version is more commercially accessible. The John Godey source novel supports both interpretations. The David Shaber and David Koepp screenplays manage the two adaptations with suitable respect for the source.
The Shaw and Travolta antagonist performances bracket the role’s range. The Matthau and Washington protagonist performances bracket the institutional response’s range.
The 9 ratings are for the combined achievement. Neither film alone reaches 10. Together they cover what the source material can support. Both films belong in any serious thriller cinema conversation.
The 1974 version is the stronger artistic achievement. The 2009 version is the stronger commercial entertainment. The combined viewing produces a fuller picture than either alone delivers.
Does The Taking of Pelham 123 still hold up?
A 9, and I’m comfortable with it. The 1974 film is the one I’d grab first, for Matthau’s weary decency, Shaw’s cold voice, that Shire score and the best closing sneeze in movie history. The 2009 version is louder and thinner, and Travolta chews more scenery than he needs to, but Tony Scott keeps it moving and Washington gives it a spine. Neither film alone gets a 10 from me. Back to back, they show what John Godey’s story can do in two very different pairs of hands, and the older pair is still the steadier one.
