Transsiberian (film)
Encyclopedia
Transsiberian is a 2008 thriller directed by Brad Anderson, which premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival
and began its theatrical release on July 18, 2008 in New York City.
The film was written by Anderson and Will Conroy, starred Woody Harrelson
, Emily Mortimer
and Ben Kingsley
, and was set on the Trans-Manchurian Railway between Beijing
and Moscow
(the film's name is a misnomer). Filming began in December 2006 in Vilnius
, Lithuania
, with additional photography in Beijing
and Russia
.
couple, Roy (Woody Harrelson
) and Jessie (Emily Mortimer
), take the train from Beijing
to Moscow
as an adventurous side trip on their return home from a Christian mission in China
. The gregarious Roy befriends their cabin mates, a Spanish
man, Carlos (Eduardo Noriega
), traveling with his young Seattle-born girlfriend, Abby (Kate Mara
). The reserved Jessie does not share her husband's warmth towards the globe trotting pair. In course of the journey, Carlos shows Jessie a collection of "rare" souvenir matryoshka dolls
he is carrying.
When Roy misses the train in Irkutsk
while sightseeing, Jessie is left alone with Carlos and Abby. Jessie gets off the train at Ilanskaya station
, about 400 miles further, to wait for Roy to arrive in another train. Carlos and Abby get off with her, claiming she would not be safe alone. In a restaurant, Jessie sees dolls nearly identical to the ones that Carlos showed her. Abby is upset when she mentions this and goes off to bed. Jessie begs Carlos not to involve Abby in his suspicious activities.
The next morning Carlos comes to Jessie's room, tells her that his shower is not working and asks to use her bathroom. Jessie receives a call from the reception desk and leaves Carlos alone in her room. At the reception she later receives a telephone call confirming that Roy will rejoin her at 4 o'clock, and Carlos convinces her to accompany him on a trek into the middle of a snowy wilderness, where they come upon the ruins of an abandoned church.
Jessie, an amateur photographer, starts taking pictures of the old church. At first she surrenders to Carlos' advances and the two begin kissing, but she comes to her senses and asks him to stop. When he continues making advances and chases her, she becomes terrified and beats him to death with a fence post, then returns to the railway station and rejoins Roy on the train.
IIya Grinko (Ben Kingsley
), an inquisitive Russian narcotics officer whom Roy previously befriended, is the new cabin mate of Roy and Jessie. Jessie finds Carlos' dolls in her own suitcase and realizes that Carlos must have hidden them when he was in her room that morning. In the course of a conversation with Grinko about his police work, Jessie realizes that Carlos was smuggling heroin in the dolls, and she unsuccessfully tries to get rid of them. She panics when Grinko becomes suspicious and confronts her. When she returns to her cabin to find Roy examining the dolls, she breaks down and explains their origins to Roy, though without telling him about Carlos' death. The two of them surrender the dolls to Grinko, who at first seems satisfied that they were not involved in the smuggling operation.
The next morning, however, she and Roy awake to discover that most of the train's cars are now gone along with the passengers; only Grinko and his partner Kolzak Yushenkov (Thomas Kretschmann
) remain. Grinko and Kolzak stop the train in the middle of nowhere and take Jessie and Roy to an abandoned military bunker, where Abby is being tortured. Grinko is on the payroll of a Russian drug lord and explains that, in addition to the heroin, he wants the money that Carlos carried, which belongs to the drug lord. Grinko tells Jessie that Abby is not a "good girl" as Jessie had thought: Abby recruited Carlos, was responsible for another man's death and is trying to cheat the drug lord of his money. Jessie disbelieves Grinko because Carlos told her Abby was innocent.
Jessie and Roy escape with the train because Roy, a railway enthusiast
, knows how to operate a locomotive, but the train starts to slow down and Grinko and Kolzak are able to re-board the train. When the pair question Jessie once again about Carlos' whereabouts while holding her and Roy at gunpoint, Jessie comes clean and screams that she killed Carlos. Kolzak however does not believe her, but before they can do anything else, the train has a head-on collision with another train. With the police on the way, Grinko shoots Kolzak to maintain his cover that he is on the right side of the law, claiming to have rescued Jessie and Roy from Kolzak. The couple are taken away by the police, while Grinko escapes.
In Moscow, U.S. officials visit Jessie and Roy. Through a photograph Jessie took of Grinko and his associates, the officials believe it will be easy to shut down the drug operation. They reveal Carlos' criminal history and believe Abby just got mixed up with the wrong crowd. When signing statements, Jessie never tells the officials that she killed Carlos, although Roy may have heard her admit to this when the train was about to crash. Upon touring Moscow and seeing a billboard of a girl sitting on the end of a dock (similar to a scene Abby described earlier as her dream home), Jessie insists on talking to Abby in the hospital.
The final scene shows a still-limping Abby finding Carlos's body in the snow by the old church. Earlier, she had revealed to Jessie that she was "working" on finding money to buy back her grandfather's cottage on the lake in Vancouver
. She takes the stolen money from his jacket and walks away.
(with a 94 percent approval rating from top critics). Roger Ebert
of the Chicago Sun Times praised the film, saying it builds "true fear and suspense".
According to Box Office Mojo
, it ultimately grossed US$2,206,405 in the United States
and US$5,624,492 worldwide.
2008 Sundance Film Festival
The 2008 Sundance Film Festival ran from January 17, 2008 to January 27 in Park City, Utah. It was the 24th iteration of the Sundance Film Festival. The opening night film was In Bruges and the closing night film was CSNY Déjà Vu.-Films:...
and began its theatrical release on July 18, 2008 in New York City.
The film was written by Anderson and Will Conroy, starred Woody Harrelson
Woody Harrelson
Woodrow Tracy "Woody" Harrelson is an American actor.Harrelson's breakthrough role came in the television sitcom Cheers as bartender Woody Boyd...
, Emily Mortimer
Emily Mortimer
Emily Kathleen A. Mortimer is an English actress. She began performing on stage, and has since appeared in several film and television roles, including Scream 3, Match Point, Lars and the Real Girl, and Shutter Island....
and Ben Kingsley
Ben Kingsley
Sir Ben Kingsley, CBE is a British actor. He has won an Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards in his career. He is known for starring as Mohandas Gandhi in the film Gandhi in 1982, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor...
, and was set on the Trans-Manchurian Railway between Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
and Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
(the film's name is a misnomer). Filming began in December 2006 in Vilnius
Vilnius
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...
, Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
, with additional photography in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
and Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
.
Plot
An AmericanUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
couple, Roy (Woody Harrelson
Woody Harrelson
Woodrow Tracy "Woody" Harrelson is an American actor.Harrelson's breakthrough role came in the television sitcom Cheers as bartender Woody Boyd...
) and Jessie (Emily Mortimer
Emily Mortimer
Emily Kathleen A. Mortimer is an English actress. She began performing on stage, and has since appeared in several film and television roles, including Scream 3, Match Point, Lars and the Real Girl, and Shutter Island....
), take the train from Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
as an adventurous side trip on their return home from a Christian mission in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. The gregarious Roy befriends their cabin mates, a Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
man, Carlos (Eduardo Noriega
Eduardo Noriega (Spanish actor)
Eduardo Noriega Gómez is a Spanish film actor, perhaps best known for his roles in two Alejandro Amenábar films, the multiple Goya Award-winning Tesis and Open Your Eyes . He also starred in The Wolf...
), traveling with his young Seattle-born girlfriend, Abby (Kate Mara
Kate Mara
Kate Mara is an American television and film actress. Beginning acting in her hometown of Bedford, New York, she moved from the stage to her first film, Random Hearts...
). The reserved Jessie does not share her husband's warmth towards the globe trotting pair. In course of the journey, Carlos shows Jessie a collection of "rare" souvenir matryoshka dolls
Matryoshka doll
A matryoshka doll is a Russian nesting doll which is a set of wooden dolls of decreasing size placed one inside the other. The first Russian nested doll set was carved in 1890 by Vasily Zvyozdochkin from a design by Sergey Malyutin, who was a folk crafts painter at Abramtsevo...
he is carrying.
When Roy misses the train in Irkutsk
Irkutsk
Irkutsk is a city and the administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, one of the largest cities in Siberia. Population: .-History:In 1652, Ivan Pokhabov built a zimovye near the site of Irkutsk for gold trading and for the collection of fur taxes from the Buryats. In 1661, Yakov Pokhabov...
while sightseeing, Jessie is left alone with Carlos and Abby. Jessie gets off the train at Ilanskaya station
Ilansky
Ilansky is a town and the administrative center of Ilansky District of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, located on the Ilanka River east of Krasnoyarsk. Population:...
, about 400 miles further, to wait for Roy to arrive in another train. Carlos and Abby get off with her, claiming she would not be safe alone. In a restaurant, Jessie sees dolls nearly identical to the ones that Carlos showed her. Abby is upset when she mentions this and goes off to bed. Jessie begs Carlos not to involve Abby in his suspicious activities.
The next morning Carlos comes to Jessie's room, tells her that his shower is not working and asks to use her bathroom. Jessie receives a call from the reception desk and leaves Carlos alone in her room. At the reception she later receives a telephone call confirming that Roy will rejoin her at 4 o'clock, and Carlos convinces her to accompany him on a trek into the middle of a snowy wilderness, where they come upon the ruins of an abandoned church.
Jessie, an amateur photographer, starts taking pictures of the old church. At first she surrenders to Carlos' advances and the two begin kissing, but she comes to her senses and asks him to stop. When he continues making advances and chases her, she becomes terrified and beats him to death with a fence post, then returns to the railway station and rejoins Roy on the train.
IIya Grinko (Ben Kingsley
Ben Kingsley
Sir Ben Kingsley, CBE is a British actor. He has won an Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards in his career. He is known for starring as Mohandas Gandhi in the film Gandhi in 1982, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor...
), an inquisitive Russian narcotics officer whom Roy previously befriended, is the new cabin mate of Roy and Jessie. Jessie finds Carlos' dolls in her own suitcase and realizes that Carlos must have hidden them when he was in her room that morning. In the course of a conversation with Grinko about his police work, Jessie realizes that Carlos was smuggling heroin in the dolls, and she unsuccessfully tries to get rid of them. She panics when Grinko becomes suspicious and confronts her. When she returns to her cabin to find Roy examining the dolls, she breaks down and explains their origins to Roy, though without telling him about Carlos' death. The two of them surrender the dolls to Grinko, who at first seems satisfied that they were not involved in the smuggling operation.
The next morning, however, she and Roy awake to discover that most of the train's cars are now gone along with the passengers; only Grinko and his partner Kolzak Yushenkov (Thomas Kretschmann
Thomas Kretschmann
Thomas Kretschmann is a German actor best known for playing Leutnant Hans Von Witzland in the 1993 film Stalingrad, Hauptmann Wilm Hosenfeld in The Pianist, Hermann Fegelein in Der Untergang, and Captain Englehorn in the 2005 remake of King Kong.-Early life:Kretschmann was born in Dessau, former...
) remain. Grinko and Kolzak stop the train in the middle of nowhere and take Jessie and Roy to an abandoned military bunker, where Abby is being tortured. Grinko is on the payroll of a Russian drug lord and explains that, in addition to the heroin, he wants the money that Carlos carried, which belongs to the drug lord. Grinko tells Jessie that Abby is not a "good girl" as Jessie had thought: Abby recruited Carlos, was responsible for another man's death and is trying to cheat the drug lord of his money. Jessie disbelieves Grinko because Carlos told her Abby was innocent.
Jessie and Roy escape with the train because Roy, a railway enthusiast
Railfan
A railfan or rail buff , railway enthusiast or railway buff , or trainspotter , is a person interested in a recreational capacity in rail transport...
, knows how to operate a locomotive, but the train starts to slow down and Grinko and Kolzak are able to re-board the train. When the pair question Jessie once again about Carlos' whereabouts while holding her and Roy at gunpoint, Jessie comes clean and screams that she killed Carlos. Kolzak however does not believe her, but before they can do anything else, the train has a head-on collision with another train. With the police on the way, Grinko shoots Kolzak to maintain his cover that he is on the right side of the law, claiming to have rescued Jessie and Roy from Kolzak. The couple are taken away by the police, while Grinko escapes.
In Moscow, U.S. officials visit Jessie and Roy. Through a photograph Jessie took of Grinko and his associates, the officials believe it will be easy to shut down the drug operation. They reveal Carlos' criminal history and believe Abby just got mixed up with the wrong crowd. When signing statements, Jessie never tells the officials that she killed Carlos, although Roy may have heard her admit to this when the train was about to crash. Upon touring Moscow and seeing a billboard of a girl sitting on the end of a dock (similar to a scene Abby described earlier as her dream home), Jessie insists on talking to Abby in the hospital.
The final scene shows a still-limping Abby finding Carlos's body in the snow by the old church. Earlier, she had revealed to Jessie that she was "working" on finding money to buy back her grandfather's cottage on the lake in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
. She takes the stolen money from his jacket and walks away.
Cast
- Woody HarrelsonWoody HarrelsonWoodrow Tracy "Woody" Harrelson is an American actor.Harrelson's breakthrough role came in the television sitcom Cheers as bartender Woody Boyd...
as Roy - Emily MortimerEmily MortimerEmily Kathleen A. Mortimer is an English actress. She began performing on stage, and has since appeared in several film and television roles, including Scream 3, Match Point, Lars and the Real Girl, and Shutter Island....
as Jessie - Ben KingsleyBen KingsleySir Ben Kingsley, CBE is a British actor. He has won an Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards in his career. He is known for starring as Mohandas Gandhi in the film Gandhi in 1982, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor...
as Grinko - Kate MaraKate MaraKate Mara is an American television and film actress. Beginning acting in her hometown of Bedford, New York, she moved from the stage to her first film, Random Hearts...
as Abby - Eduardo NoriegaEduardo Noriega (Spanish actor)Eduardo Noriega Gómez is a Spanish film actor, perhaps best known for his roles in two Alejandro Amenábar films, the multiple Goya Award-winning Tesis and Open Your Eyes . He also starred in The Wolf...
as Carlos - Thomas KretschmannThomas KretschmannThomas Kretschmann is a German actor best known for playing Leutnant Hans Von Witzland in the 1993 film Stalingrad, Hauptmann Wilm Hosenfeld in The Pianist, Hermann Fegelein in Der Untergang, and Captain Englehorn in the 2005 remake of King Kong.-Early life:Kretschmann was born in Dessau, former...
as Kolzak
Reception
The film has received mostly positive reviews. It has a 90 percent "fresh" rating at Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
(with a 94 percent approval rating from top critics). Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
of the Chicago Sun Times praised the film, saying it builds "true fear and suspense".
According to Box Office Mojo
Box Office Mojo
Box Office Mojo is a website that tracks box office revenue in a systematic, algorithmic way. Brandon Gray started the site in 1999. In 2002, Gray partnered with Sean Saulsbury and they grew the site to nearly two million readers when, in July 2008, the company was purchased by Amazon.com through...
, it ultimately grossed US$2,206,405 in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and US$5,624,492 worldwide.
External links
- Transsiberian - Der Film Official German Film Website