While two yard hostlers are moving an Allegheny and West Virginia Railroad (AWVR) train, pulled by lead locomotive #777 at Fuller Yard in northern Pennsylvania, Dewey, the engineer of the mixed-freight train, realizes that a trailing-point switch is not correctly aligned and leaves the cab of the moving locomotive after setting the throttle to idle. As he moves the switch, the throttle pops out of idle into full throttle notch 8. Dewey attempts to get back on the now-accelerating lead locomotive but is dragged and falls, leaving the train unattended going south down the mainline.Unstoppable 2010 Full Movie
Believing the train is coasting, yardmaster Connie Hooper orders lead welder Ned Oldham to get ahead of the train in his pickup truck and switch it off the main track, but when Oldham finds that the train has already passed where it was expected to be, they realize it is running on full power. Connie alerts Oscar Galvin, VP of Train Operations, and contacts local, county, and state police, asking them to block all level crossings, while Ned continues to chase 777 in his truck. Federal Railroad Administration inspector Scott Werner, while visiting Fuller Yard to meet with the Railroad Safety Campaign excursion train (RSC 2002), warns that eight of the 39 cars contain highly toxic and flammable molten phenol, which would cause a major disaster if the train should derail in a populated area. News of the runaway soon draws ongoing media coverage.
Connie suggests they purposely derail the train while it passes through unpopulated farmland. Galvin dismisses her opinion, believing he can save the company money by lashing the train behind two locomotives helmed by engineer Judd Stewart, slowing it down enough for employee and former U.S. Marine Ryan Scott to descend via helicopter to the control cab of 777.