End of the Line | |
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Directed by | Jay Russell |
Written by | Jay Russell John Wohlbruck |
Produced by | Lewis M. Allen Peter Newman Mary Steenburgen |
Starring | |
Cinematography | George Tirl |
Edited by | Mercedes Danevic |
Music by | Andy Summers |
Distributed by | Orion Classics |
Release date |
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Running time | 103 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $3 million [1] |
Box office | $25,000 |
End of the Line is a 1987 American drama film directed by Jay Russell [2] in his directorial debut. Produced by Lewis M. Allen, Peter Newman and Mary Steenburgen, the film was shot in Arkansas.
Leo Pickett and Will Haney, railroad workers in Clifford, Arkansas, find out the parent company of the Southland railroad is about to close their yard and lay off the employees, switching all future shipments to the air freight business.
In a last-ditch effort to save their jobs, the two men "borrow" a locomotive and drive it from Clifford, Arkansas, to Chicago, Illinois, to make their case to Thomas G. Clinton, the railroad's chairman of the board.
End of the Line was produced with the cooperation of the Missouri Pacific Railroad, which provide technical assistance to production crews as well as the contribution of multiple sets of rolling stock and locomotives. All Southland rolling stock and locomotives, including trackage rights for filming rights was provided by the Missouri Pacific, as well as limited assistance by the Union Pacific, which approved use of some rolling stock, trackage, and locomotives for completion of the film.
Mary Nell Steenburgen is an American actress, comedian, singer, and songwriter. After studying at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse in the 1970s, she made her professional acting debut in the 1978 Western comedy film Goin' South. Steenburgen went on to earn critical acclaim for her role in Jonathan Demme's 1980 comedy-drama film Melvin and Howard, for which she received the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
BNSF Railway is the largest freight railroad in the United States. One of six North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, 32,500 miles (52,300 km) of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that provide rail connections between the western and eastern United States. BNSF trains traveled over 169 million miles in 2010, more than any other North American railroad.
The Soo Line Railroad is one of the primary United States railroad subsidiaries for the CPKC Railway, one of six U.S. Class I railroads, controlled through the Soo Line Corporation. Although it is named for the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad (MStP&SSM), which was commonly known as the Soo Line after the phonetic spelling of Sault, it was formed in 1961 by the consolidation of that company with two other CPKC subsidiaries: The Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway, and the Wisconsin Central Railway. It is also the successor to other Class I railroads, including the Minneapolis, Northfield and Southern Railway and the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. On the other hand, a large amount of mileage was spun off in 1987 to Wisconsin Central Ltd., now part of the Canadian National Railway. The Soo Line Railroad and the Delaware and Hudson Railway, CPKC's other major subsidiary, presently do business as the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP). Most equipment has been repainted into the CP scheme, but the U.S. Surface Transportation Board groups all of the company's U.S. subsidiaries under the Soo Line name for reporting purposes. The Minneapolis headquarters are located in the Canadian Pacific Plaza building, having moved from the nearby Soo Line Building.
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The St. Louis Southwestern Railway Company, known by its nickname of "The Cotton Belt Route" or simply "Cotton Belt", is a former Class I railroad that operated between St. Louis, Missouri, and various points in the U.S. states of Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Texas from 1891 to 1980, when the system added the Rock Island's Golden State Route and operations in Kansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. The Cotton Belt operated as a Southern Pacific subsidiary from 1932 until 1992, when its operation was assumed by Southern Pacific Transportation Company.
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The Detroit and Mackinac Railway, informally known as the "Turtle Line", was a railroad in the northeastern part of the Lower Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. The railroad had its main offices and shops in Tawas City with its main line running from Bay City north to Cheboygan, and operated from 1894 to 1992.
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