Questions
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Horror Express
PoisonedDragon — 10 years ago(June 28, 2015 01:38 AM)
I've seen this film a half-dozen times over the years; I happen to like the
Turner Classic Movies (TCM)
version best, which doesn't end abruptly, but has another minute or so of "Exit Music," score by
John Cacavas
. TCM just got finished airing it again last week, so I had another look.
But there are some things that even repeated viewings have not cleared up for me.
Why did Captain Kazan board the train with his men? What were they looking for?
Why did Moscow give orders to divert the train onto the dead-end track, sending it to its sure destruction?
I've looked for cogent answers to these questions, such as Morse teletype communication from the train. But since the teletype operator was killed and thrown off the train, that would seem to preclude this possibility. I wondered if perhaps (unlikely though it might be) that the body thrown from the train had been discovered, and this was why authorities were boarding and later destroying the train. Or did Moscow give those orders because they knew Captain Kazan's unit had boarded it, and he was their target?
The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters. -
antonasmodeus — 10 years ago(June 30, 2015 04:12 PM)
I also like this movie and have caught it on TCM a few times. As for your questions, from Wikipedia:
Why did Captain Kazan board the train with his men? What were they looking for?
News of the murders is wired to the Russian authorities. An intimidating Cossack officer, Captain Kazan (Telly Savalas), boards the train with a handful of his men. Kazan believes the train is transporting rebels; he is only convinced of the alien's existence when Saxton switches off the lights and Mirov's eyes glow, revealing him to be the creature's host.
Why did Moscow give orders to divert the train onto the dead-end track, sending it to its sure destruction?
The Russian government sends a telegram to a dispatch station ahead, instructing them to destroy the train by sending it down a dead-end spur. Speculating that it must be war, the station staff switch the points. -
!!!deleted!!! (1688273) — 10 years ago(June 30, 2015 05:44 PM)
I agree that Capt. Kazan got word of deaths upon the train, and I think that the very lack of a message from Kazan would tend to confirm Moscow's suspicions and fears that a significant armed group has seized the train. The directive from Moscow was not because they knew about the creature; when Captain Kazan failed to report, they must have assumed that the train carried subversive elements, revolutionaries and without a force available in the hinterlands with which to engage them, wanted the train destroyed.