History Film / AtomicTrain

** [[spoiler:The atomic bomb is triggered when Sodium metal explodes due to [[TooDumbToLive helicopter pilots extinguishing it by water]]. In real life, nuclear weapons are designed with mechanical and/or electrical safeguards to prevent unauthorized or accidental detonation. These mechanisms would have prevented the bomb from having a nuclear detonation. "Cook-off" of the conventional explosive components would be likely, but would not yield a nuclear explosion. This is then topped of by people running in ''nuclear fallout'' like it is a snow.]]

''Atomic Train'' is a made-for-television DisasterMovie about a train transporting explosive chemicals and, as the name suggests, an atomic bomb put there by smugglers the night before. [[ContrivedCoincidence By coincidence]], the train's brakes [[RunawayTrain fail]], and it's up to John Seger (Rob Lowe), an NTSB agent, teaming up with Wally Phister (John Finn), a train operator, to prevent the disaster of the train crashing and the bomb exploding in Denver, the train's destination.

** The train is said to become a runaway when it is still 300 miles west of Denver with a continuous decline ahead. Since this would place it on the other side of the Continental Divide, it should be going generally uphill for most of the first 250 miles. Furthermore, for safety reasons all trains are fitted with Westinghouse air brakes. In the event of a failure, such as an air leak like that which occurs in the movie, the brakes would be fully applied, thus stopping the train, rather than rendering it a runaway.
** Almost all railway cars and locomotives have handbrakes for one, more or all axles. No one on the train applies them, although they are near the handwheel. On the summit where the train practically comes to a standstill it would have been easy to apply some handbrakes and prevent the train rolling down. Also, it should have been possible to break the gladhand connector coupling between the engine consist and the freight cars, decoupling them, leaving the engines alone as a runaway, and allowing the rest of the train to brake to a stop. With the train traveling at 70 miles per hour, it would have taken at least four hours to arrive at the derailment point, thus someone on a helicopter could have flown in with explosives to blow the connector, if necessary.

''Atomic Train'' is made-for-television DisasterMovie about a train transporting explosive chemicals and, as the name suggests, an atomic bomb put there by smugglers the night before. [[ContrivedCoincidence By coincidence]], the train's brakes [[RunawayTrain fail]], and it's up to John Seger (Rob Lowe), an NTSB agent, teaming up with Wally Phister (John Finn), a train operator, to prevent the disaster of the train crashing and the bomb exploding in Denver, the train's destination.

* ArtisticLicenseGeography: Near the beginning of the film, where a bus is stopped at a crossing, the crossbuck is lettered "Railway Crossing" while the standard US crossbucks have always been lettered "Railroad Crossing". The signs in the film are typical of Canadian crossings prior to the 1980s, when new standards were adopted and crossbucks have since remained unlettered.

''Atomic Train'' is made-for-television DisasterMovie about a train transporting explosive chemicals and, as the name suggests, an atomic bomb put there by smugglers night before. [[ContrivedCoincidence By coincidence]], the train's brakes [[RunawayTrain stop to work]], and it's up to John Seger (Rob Lowe), an NTBS agent, teaming up with Wally Phister (John Finn), a train operator, to prevent the disaster of the train crashing and the bomb exploding in Denver, the train's destination.

* {{EMP}}: [[spoiler:The aftermath of bomb is none of modern cars are working.]]

* TooDumbToLive: The helicopter pilots. [[spoiler: They don't bother to listen to instructions given to them to extinguish the fire, simply fetching water in nearby lake because "it's better than nothing". Unfortunately, this doesn't lead only to their deaths, but also the Reuben's and by extension Noris' and basically everyone dying in Denver because of bomb exploding.]]

** [[spoiler:An electromagnetic pulse can shut down electronics, but between 3 MHz and 30 MHz, it doesn't have the power to shut down everything in a major city]]

''Atomic Train'' is B-DisasterMovie about a train transporting explosive chemicals and, as the name suggests, an atomic bomb put there by smugglers night before. [[ContrivedCoincidence By coincidence]], the train's brakes [[RunawayTrain stop to work]], and it's up to John Seger (Rob Lowe), an NTBS agent, teaming up with Wally Phister (John Finn), a train operator, to prevent the disaster of the train crashing and the bomb exploding in Denver, the train's destination.

* ArtisticLicenseNuclearPhysics: [[spoiler:The atomic bomb is triggered when Sodium metal explodes due to [[TooDumbToLive helicopter pilots extinguishing it by water]]. This is then topped of by people running in ''nuclear fallout'' like it is a snow.]]

* GoryDiscretionShot: After an attempt to slow down the train was successful, an another train behind them trying to help it [[NiceJobBreakingItHero collides with it, not only undoing all the work]], but also causing a man to fall out on the rails before the second train. The camera doesn't show the man afterwards.

''Atomic Train'' is B-DisasterMovie about a train transporting explosive chemicals and, as the name suggests, an atomic bomb put there by smugglers night before. [[ContrivedCoincidence By coincidence]], the train's brakes [[RunawayTrain stop to work]], and it's up to John Seger (Rob Lowe), an NTBS agent, teaming up with Wally Phister (John Finn), a train operator, to prevent the disaster of the bomb exploding in Denver, the train's destination.

* GoryDiscretionShot: After the try to slow down the train was successful, an another train behind them trying to help it [[NiceJobBreakingItHero collides with it, not only undoing all the work]], but also causing a man to fall out on the rails before the second train. The camera doesn't show the man afterwards.

* RunawayTrain: The films premise.
* TooDumbToLive: The helicopter pilots. [[spoiler: They don't bother to listen to instructions given to extinguish the fire, simply fetching water in nearby lake because "it's better than nothing". Unfortunately, this doesn't only lead to their death, but also the Reuben's and by extenstion Noris' and everyone dying in Denver because of bomb exploding.]]

* EMP: [[spoiler:The aftermath of bomb is none of modern cars are working.]]

* ArtisticLicenseNuclearPhysics: [[spoiler:The atomic bomb is triggered when Sodium metal explodes due to [[TooDumbToLive helicopter pilots extinguishing it by water]]. This is then topped of by people running in ''nuclear fallout'' like it is a snow.]
* EMP: [[spolier:The aftermatch of bomb is none of modern cars are working.]]

* ArtisticLicenseNuclearPhysics: [spoiler:The atomic bomb is triggered when Sodium metal explodes due to [[TooDumbToLive helicopter pilots extinguishing it by water]]. This is then topped of by people running in ''nuclear fallout'' like it is a snow.]
* GoryDiscretionShot: [spoiler: After the try to slow down the train was successful, an another train behind them trying to help it [[NiceJobBreakingItHero collides with it, not only undoing all the work]], but also causing a man to fall out on the rails before the second train. The camera doesn't show the man afterwards.]

* TooDumbToLive: The helicopter pilots. [spoiler: They don't bother to listen to instructions given to extinguish the fire, and they do it with water. Unfortunately, this doesn't only lead to their death, but also the Reuben's, Esai's and everyone dying in Denver because of bomb exploding.]