Unstoppable

Today, I ended up on an impromptu lime with my friends ('lime' being a Trinidadian slang word for 'a social event with friends') at the mall. We decided to go see "Unstoppable" which I thought was a pretty good movie. Apparently some of my friends didn't like the idea of a movie based around stopping a train using brakes. For those of you who don't know, or who have never seen the movie, it's about Denzel Washington and Chris Pine (Captain Kirk from the new Star Trek) trying a stop a runaway train that's carrying hazardous material. All in all, its a pretty good movie, and I recommend it if your looking for something to go watch.

Now, apparently the movie is "based on a true story", the 'true story' being that of the CSX 8888 incident. According to Wikipedia article on the incident, the producers of the movie actually used a great deal of the actual happening of the incident and incorporated it into the movie, from the job experience of the people who stopped the train to the chemical that was being transported. However, the whole Denzel jumping train cars at nearly 70 mph thing, yeah, that was made up.

Like any good thriller there were points in the movie that had you on the edge of your seat, wondering if your beloved protagonist were going to survive the perils thrown at them. It's easy to forget that you're watching a movie and get caught up in the action on the screen. But there's always something in the back of my mind that reminds me that despite the fact that the characters may be in trouble, the actors face no real danger. When the director yells "CUT!" everything for them would revert back to being normal.

And that got me thinking: what about the real life people who stopped the train? They had no script to follow and they had no assurance of a happy ending. For them, the danger was real and imminent. And yet, if it had not been for a Hollywood production of the incident, I would have never known of the brave men who risked their lives to save thousands of people. While everyone will remember the names Denzel Washington and Chris Pine but probably only a handful of people will remember theirs. Yet if they hadn't done what they had done, there would have been the lost of many many lives. I guess that their job, though less known, was all the more important.

Sometimes, we struggle hard and we overcome what may have seemed to insurmountable problems and won great victories. And even after that, it may seem that people don't really care about how much effort and sacrifice you put into you struggle and flock to someone who probably did something less difficult but more flashy. Don't feel discouraged and don't belittle your achievements. What you do could be far more important than they'll ever know, and as long as you know that, there's no need to worry. You may not be Denzel, but I'm pretty sure that you'll do greater things that stop a runaway train.

See you tomorrow!!