Hey Hot Water

Yes I was. I also took some of the color photos used in Railfan & Railroad Magazine when she "ran through the end of track blockade". I have a great "crew photo" with our 4449 crew and Kirk Douglas and the late Bert Lancaster, on the pilot of 4449. Great bunch of actors and film people to work with.  

Did the actually crash it through the barrier? It looked a lot like a bunch of models being crashed.

Jack Sessums' 1" scale live steam Daylight did the crash at the end*.  If you can find a copy of "Grand Scales Video #2 - The Magic of Grand Scale Railroading" it has some information on the Daylight crash as well as his other movie work in the segment on his 15" gauge railroad.

 

*Edit: Jack's loco did the run off the end of the track into the desert.  I'm not sure about the barrier.

Well of course not! There was no way we would have done that. The "crash through the barrier" scene was actually a three different shot event. First, the real full size 4449 ran through a complete scene made out of cardboard and paper, built to look just like the real "end of track" concrete barrier. They had 55 gallon drums of gasoline & explosive charges strategically placed so that when the 4449 ran through the scene, everything exploded, all in real time, full size. It was really hot and we thought we may have seared the paint on her, but everything came out OK.

 

Second, there was a one inch scale live steam SP GS-4, that ran through a scale size "disposable" barrier that exactly matched the full size scene. The one inch scale locomotive smashed through its barrier and dug itself right into the sand (actually ground up cornflakes), with the drivers still turning as it came to a stop, with the "sand" up to the side skirts.

 

Third, the special effects crew built a full size plywood mock-up of just the Engineer's side, which was buried in the real sand, and that is the scene when both of Kirk and Bert walk out of the cab onto the sand, which is then supposed to be across the boarder in Mexico.

 

 

No matter how many times one watches the movie, it is pretty difficult to detect the exact moment when the switch is made from the real, full size 4449, to the live steam one inch scale model. 

Here's a link to a clip for folks like me that missed this film.

 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=...vm=bv.96952980,d.b2w

I had always wondered how they did that. Great scene. Funny Movie.

Yeah, I loved the movie as a kid and I stumbled across it on one of the cable channels and had to watch it. I was paying special attention to the end when the crashed the train but wow there is some great footage of 4449 in that movie. But it's great on its own merits not because it has a train

Hot Water;

I understand the final scenes were filmed out at Eagle Mountain and the plywood engine is still out there, do you know if that is true? 

 

Thanks for the video clip, Steims!  I never heard of this movie before.  Where have I been for the last 30 years??

 

I guess my brother was right when he told my wife and I back in the '80s that we were 30 years behind our time.  

A good friend of mine and I saw a advanced screening of the movie before it came out. They even gave us all 'one sheet' movie posters, which I still have rolled up in a tube after all these years. It's never been released on DVD but I got a pirated copy out of Asia a few years ago, which is very watchable. I've watched the 4449 sequences many times.

As for the mockup, it does still exist and is locked in a big shed today, I can't recall exactly what town it's in.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/...2/2932/dsc02372p.jpg

Would that be Desert Center?

You have lived quite a life Jack

The DVD was available at one time, I have a legit copy here somewhere. Like a lot of movies that have a cult following, it probably did not sell well enough to keep it inventory.

I can't recall what forum I saw it on now, but someone posted several shots of the mockup, which surprised me to find it still existed.

I have never heard of, nor seen, a DVD of this movie. However there WAS a high end Laserdisc produced of Tough Guys, and a good friend of mine made me an excellent DVD copy of his Laserdisc. It is then a heck of a movie on the big flat screen Sony TV!

Even though there is no DVD, it can be viewed on Amazon Instant Video.

I have heard of that, but more than one person has told me that something about that "region 1", seems to gum up the works, and they were not actually able to purchase the DVD; what ever THAT all means. 

 

At any rate, I'm more than satisfied with my DVD copy of the Laserdisc.

When you "Buy It" from Amazon it is in the form of a file stored on your computer OR you can stream it again at any time. I think the cheaper "streaming" option is only good for 24 hours.

Is this the forum?

 

Jerry

I'm with Jack on the factory DVD, I've never heard of that. A good friend of mine worked at Suncoast (back when they existed) and he kept an eye out for the release of that, but I never got the call.

A Google search turns up several vendors selling DVDs. None are the studio-made one. I can't for the life of me recall where I got mine, sorry.

Nope, I'd never even heard of that forum before. But it has the same content of what I saw. Sometimes I'll cut/paste the same post across several forums on the same topic. I'd bet this person did the same thing. I'm glad they did because it never would have occurred to me that the mockup still existed to this day. If there weren't photos of it as it is now, I doubt I'd believe someone posting that they'd seen it without the proof.

Showtime (pay cable) runs Tough Guys quite often, including several times next week.

Cool! Is it edited?

No, Showtime doesn't edit for time or content, you even get to see Kirk's bare bottom when he moons the police helicopter from the top of 4449's tender.

Very cool!!   We had to do that "shot" over and over, so as to get the "correct angle" in order to NOT show Mr. Douglas' private parts. Naturally the women in the "film editing room" just loved it! It should also be pointed out that Mr. Douglas did all his own stunts! When shaking hands with him, it becomes a contest of just who has the stronger grip. I dindn't "win" but he completed me on not dropping to the ground under his unbelievable hand grip strength. I held on to him for about 30 seconds, before he finally broke out laughing. He sure is a hell of a man!

I've never bothered to ask him personally, but I've heard people asking Doyle about the film and I've heard standard responses about all the 'hurry up and wait' aspects of filming, but that he liked the two stars.

Good to hear everyone seemed to have a decent time of it and that Lancaster and Douglas didn't seem to be jerks.

It's not the time to take the takes that takes the time, it's the time between the takes that takes the time.

All the "stars" were really great guys. Naturally Kirk and Bert were the "really big stars", and were thus flown out by chopper to the desert site, just in time for filming. I'm sorry to admit that Mr. Lancaster was really showing his age by then (1986) and as a result he was much more "subdued" the Mr. Douglas. I always tried to "get near" Charles Durning, as he was a WWII veteran of D-Day, on Omaha Beach, but one of the funniest guys was Eli Walic (sp). Remembering him from the Magnificent Seven movie, he sure didn't fit the profile of a half blind professional Hit Man. He could also "play" a drunk like nobody I've ever seen, including Foster Brooks.  

 

Without a doubt, Dana Garvey was the funniest, as he could mimic ANYBODY's voice! 

Yep, I've done movie and TV work myself, anyone who ever has knows all about that...

Correct. What I witnessed was, the ONLY thing the movie industry does in unison is; "That's a wrap!", and EVERYONE disappears at once! 

With the exception of the art department. First one in, last one out.

Fascinating!  I knew it had to be a good flick when right off the bat the classic guy in the copter goes, 'how do we get a hold of these bums?'
That is probably Durning I'm thinking.  Looks like a keeper for sure.  Great topic!

Really interesting discussion of one of my favorite movies.  Thanx, Hot Water for your insight.  As I recall, Doyle had one line in the movie, something like:  "Nobody robs trains anymore" or words to that effect.  And I recall reading that the movie company thought that it would be "easier to teach a locomotive engineer how to act, than it would be to teach an actor how to run a locomotive."  Always enjoyed that line!

 

Paul Fischer