| Last Train to Christmas | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Julian Kemp |
| Written by | Julian Kemp |
| Produced by |
|
| Starring | Michael Sheen |
| Music by | Anne Nikitin |
Production companies |
|
| Distributed by | Sky Cinema |
Release date |
|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Last Train to Christmas is a 2021 Christmas fantasy comedy-drama film written and directed by Julian Kemp. The film was released on 18 December 2021 in the United Kingdom via Sky Cinema and Now.
 | This article needs an improved plot summary.(December 2021) |
On Christmas Eve 1985, Anthony "Tony" Towers, a successful nightclub manager, is engaged to his girlfriend Sue Taylor while travelling from London to Nottingham for a family reunion with his brother Roger. But when Tony walks into the next carriage forwards, he's transported to 1995 and discovers that he lost everything. He soon realizes that he's in a time warp and can travel through time via the number of carriages: Whenever he enters the next carriage in the direction the train is heading, he leaps 10 years forward. Whenever he enters the previous carriage, it's 10 years back.
Not only can he travel through the decades: He discovers that he also is able to change the history of the people travelling with him in the train, by changing former decisions in his life. But no matter when or how he changes his decisions, they always seem to come to desperate endings.
During one of these instances, Tony finds out from his depressed aunt that his marriage to Sue became strained due to his celebrity life. In desperation, Tony unwittingly travels back between 1955 and 1965, accidentally creating an alternate timeline where Roger has succumbed to the temptations Tony has endured. After a falling out with Roger in an alternate 1995, Tony manages to change the timeline that ends with Roger getting arrested in 1975.
Upon entering an alternate 1985, Tony reunites with Sue. He encourages her to live out the life she deserves before bidding farewell. By travelling back to 1945 during his childhood, Tony is able to stop his aunt from abandoning Roger.
He then walks further down the train than he ever has before. Entering the year 2015, a relieved Tony reunites with Roger, who plays on a piano at Nottingham station an original song they had written in their youth.
The film, written and directed by Julian Kemp, was announced on 20 October 2021 ahead of its December release. It was produced by Sky Studios, Matt Williams of Future Artists Entertainment, and Matthew James Wilkinson of Stigma Films.
Michael Sheen and Nathalie Emmanuel were announced as the film's stars, [1] followed by an announcement that Cary Elwes had also boarded the project. [2]
A trailer was revealed on 24 November 2021. The film was included in Sky's festive slate. [3]
Ivan Simon Cary Elwes is an English actor. He is best known for his lead role as Westley in The Princess Bride (1987), as well as for roles in films such as Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993) and the Saw series. The accolades he has received include nominations for a Screen Actors Guild Award and two Satellite Awards.
The Princess Bride is a 1987 American fantasy adventure comedy film directed and co-produced by Rob Reiner and starring Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin, Chris Sarandon, Christopher Guest, Wallace Shawn, André the Giant, and Robin Wright. Adapted by William Goldman from his 1973 novel, it tells the story of a swashbuckling farmhand named Westley, accompanied by companions befriended along the way, who must rescue his true love Princess Buttercup from the odious Prince Humperdinck. The film preserves the novel's metafictional narrative style by presenting the story as a book being read by a grandfather to his sick grandson.
Penny Serenade is a 1941 American melodrama film directed by George Stevens starring Irene Dunne and Cary Grant as a loving couple who must overcome adversity to keep their marriage and raise a child. It was produced and distributed by Columbia Pictures. Grant was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance.
Catherine Rosalind Russell was an American actress, model, comedian, screenwriter, and singer, known for her role as fast-talking newspaper reporter Hildy Johnson in the Howard Hawks screwball comedy His Girl Friday (1940), opposite Cary Grant, as well as for her portrayals of Mame Dennis in the 1956 stage and 1958 film adaptations of Auntie Mame, and Rose in Gypsy (1962). A noted comedienne, she won all five Golden Globes for which she was nominated. Russell won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 1953 for her portrayal of Ruth in the Broadway show Wonderful Town. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress four times during her career before being awarded a Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1973.
Bad Santa is a 2003 American Christmas black comedy crime film directed by Terry Zwigoff, written by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, and starring Billy Bob Thornton in the title role, with a supporting cast of Tony Cox, Lauren Graham, Brett Kelly, Lauren Tom, John Ritter, and Bernie Mac. It was Ritter's last live-action film appearance before his death on September 11, 2003. The film was dedicated to his memory. The Coen brothers are credited as executive producers. The film was released in North America on November 26, 2003, and was screened out of competition at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. It received positive reviews and was a commercial success.
Judd Asher Nelson is an American actor. His acting roles include Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime in The Transformers: The Movie, John Bender in The Breakfast Club, Alec Newbury in St. Elmo's Fire, Alex in Cybermutt, Joe Hunt in Billionaire Boys Club, Nick Peretti in New Jack City, Billy Beretti in Empire, and Jack Richmond in the television series Suddenly Susan.
Gary James Kemp is an English songwriter, musician and actor, best known as the lead guitarist, backing vocalist, and principal songwriter for the new wave band Spandau Ballet.
Sandbanks is an affluent neighbourhood of Poole, Dorset, on the south coast of England, situated on a narrow spit of around 1 km2 or 0.39 sq mi extending into the mouth of Poole Harbour.
Sirens is a 1994 film, based on the life of artist and author Norman Lindsay, written and directed by John Duigan and set in Australia during the interwar period. Sirens was mostly filmed at the Norman Lindsay Gallery and Museum, Lindsay's home and studio in Faulconbridge, New South Wales and the town of Sofala near Bathurst.
Saw is a 2004 American horror film directed by James Wan, in his feature directorial debut, and written by Leigh Whannell from a story by Wan and Whannell. It is the first installment in the Saw film series, and stars Whannell alongside Cary Elwes, Danny Glover, Monica Potter, Michael Emerson, and Ken Leung. The film tells a nonlinear narrative revolving around the mystery of the Jigsaw Killer, who tests his victims' will to live by putting them through deadly "games" where they must inflict great physical pain upon themselves to survive. The frame story follows Jigsaw's latest victims, Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Elwes) and Adam (Whannell), who awaken in a large, dilapidated bathroom, with one being ordered to kill the other to save his own family. A subplot features Detective David Tapp (Glover) investigating the games surrounding Jigsaw's victims.
William Jacob Busey is an American actor. Among his most prominent roles have been serial killer Johnny Bartlett in 1996's The Frighteners, Ace Levy in 1997's Starship Troopers, Kyle Brenner in 2001's Tomcats, Aiden Tanner in the 2014–2016 TV series From Dusk till Dawn: The Series, and Sean H. Keyes in the Predator franchise.
The Chase is a 1994 American action comedy film written and directed by Adam Rifkin and starring Charlie Sheen and Kristy Swanson. Set in California, the film follows a wrongfully convicted man who kidnaps a wealthy heiress and leads police on a lengthy car chase in an attempt to escape prison, while the news media dramatize the chase to absurd extents. It features Henry Rollins, Josh Mostel, and Ray Wise in supporting roles, with cameo appearances by Anthony Kiedis and Flea of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Gervase Henry Cary-Elwes, DL, better known as Gervase Elwes, was an English tenor of great distinction, who exercised a powerful influence over the development of English music from the early 1900s up until his death in 1921 due to a railroad accident in Boston at the height of his career.
Disney's A Christmas Carol is a 2009 American animated Christmas film produced, written for the screen and directed by Robert Zemeckis. Produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Zemeckis' ImageMovers Digital, and released by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it is based on Charles Dickens's 1843 novel A Christmas Carol. The film was animated through the process of motion capture, a technique used in ImageMovers' previous animated films including The Polar Express (2004), Monster House (2006), and Beowulf (2007), and stars the voices of Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Bob Hoskins, Robin Wright Penn and Cary Elwes. It is Disney's third adaptation of the novel, following Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983) and The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992).
Luke Andrew Cary Elwes is a British contemporary artist whose paintings capture his encounters with the landscape and with the elements. He gained prominence in the early nineties when he returned from his travels in India, Asia and North Africa with a series of key paintings.
Shrine is a 1983 horror novel by English writer James Herbert, exploring themes of religious ecstasy, mass hysteria, demonic possession, faith healing and Catholicism.
Black Christmas is a 2019 slasher film directed by Sophia Takal and written by Takal and April Wolfe. Part of the Black Christmas series, it is the loose second remake of the 1974 Canadian film of the same name, after the 2006 film and follows a group of sorority sisters at Hawthorne College as they are preyed upon by an unknown stalker. The film stars Imogen Poots, Aleyse Shannon, Lily Donoghue, Brittany O'Grady, Caleb Eberhardt and Cary Elwes.
The Unholy is a 2021 American supernatural horror film written, produced, and directed by Evan Spiliotopoulos, based on the 1983 novel Shrine by James Herbert. Produced by Sam Raimi through his Ghost House Pictures banner, it stars Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Katie Aselton, William Sadler, Diogo Morgado, Cricket Brown, and Cary Elwes. The film follows on a disgraced journalist (Morgan) who discovers a series of seemingly divine miracles in a small New England town and uses them to resurrect his career, though those "miracles" may have a much darker source.
Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre is a 2023 spy action comedy film directed by Guy Ritchie, and written by Ritchie, Ivan Atkinson, and Marn Davies. The film stars Jason Statham, Aubrey Plaza, Josh Hartnett, Cary Elwes, Bugzy Malone and Hugh Grant. The film is about a spy, Orson Fortune (Statham), who must retrieve a stolen high-tech device before an arms dealer (Grant) can sell it to the highest bidder.
A Castle for Christmas is a 2021 American Christmas romantic comedy film directed by Mary Lambert. The film was released on November 26, 2021, by Netflix.