We are going to kill one passenger a minute until New York City pays us 1 million dollars.|Oct. 02, 1974|United States|104 Min.|R
Genre: Action;Crime;Thriller
Description: In New York City, four men in similar disguises and armed with hidden weapons board the downtown 6 train, Pelham 1-2-3, at different stations. Using the codenames Mr. Blue, Mr. Green, Mr. Grey, and Mr. Brown, they seize 18 hostages, including the conductor and an undercover police officer, in the first car.
Communicating via radio with New York City Transit Police Lieutenant Zachary Garber, Mr. Blue demands a $1 million ransom, to be delivered within one hour. He threatens to kill one hostage for every minute the deadline is missed. Throughout the ordeal, Mr. Green sneezes repeatedly, prompting Garber to respond with, “Gesundheit.”
Garber, along with his colleague Lt. Rico Patrone and others, works to negotiate while trying to figure out the hijackers’ escape strategy. Garber deduces that one of the hijackers must have been a former motorman, given their ability to uncouple the front car and park it in a tunnel below 28th Street.
The hijackers’ conversations reveal that Mr. Blue is a former British Army Colonel who worked as a mercenary in Africa, Mr. Green is a former motorman involved in a drug bust, and Mr. Grey was expelled from the mafia for his excessive violence. The tension escalates when Mr. Grey kills a supervisor sent from Grand Central to investigate the stalled train.
As the ransom is rushed uptown in a police car, the vehicle crashes far from the intended destination. With the deadline approaching, Garber attempts to deceive Mr. Blue by claiming the money has arrived and is on its way. A police motorcycle delivers the ransom, but as officers carry it through the tunnel, a sniper fires at Mr. Brown, sparking a shootout between the hijackers and the police. In retaliation, Mr. Blue kills the conductor.
Cast director: Joseph Sargent
Cast actor: Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Martin Balsam, Héctor Elizondo, Earl Hindman, James Broderick, Dick O’Neill, Lee Wallace, Tom Pedi, Jerry Stiller
Original name: The Taking of Pelham One Two Three