Unstoppable is, in certain ways, a completely formulaic action movie. It features an odd couple, divided by age and race. It involves a highly improbable but disastrous scenario. It taps into a contemporary disaster fear, in this case, nuclear, chemical, or biological detonation or release. It involves placing adorable children at risk:
But it is notable that the heroes are, rather than members of the military or intelligence services or virtuous white-collar citizens, blue-collar workers with considerable amounts to lose, at least in that they both have loving families. There's been a ton of buzz over the Chilean miners, and reports that there will be a Lifetime movie about them at minimum. But as captivated as the world was by the plight of workers who do jobs many of us would never consent to take, in America, we don't really like to watch movies that dramatize the risks folks who take those jobs accept. Whether that's because movies about people trapped in mines, or injured in industrial accidents, or hurt slaughtering hogs make us feel embarrassed or guilty, I don't know. But I suppose if we don't want to do these sorts of jobs, I suppose we don't want to think very hard about the fact that anyone has to do them at all.