The locomotive
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The locomotive |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1992 |
| length | 80 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Gerd Haag |
| script | Gerd Haag Andreas Engelmann Hans Gerd Müller |
| production | Gerd Haag |
| music | Wolfgang Böhmer |
| camera |
Reinhard Köcher Uwe Schäfer |
| cut | Corina Dietz |
| occupation | |
| |
The Locomotive is a German adventure film by Gerd Haag from 1992. In it, five children want to take a trolley to Siberia on the run from the problems in their parents' homes . The film is a TAG / TRAUM production in coproduction with WDR .
action
The film begins with a short intro in which Carlo, one of the five children who want to run away, explains what he and his friends are up to from the off. He uses his finger to draw the planned route from the Ruhr area to Siberia on a map . Carlos' friends are called Bob, Mega and the girls Chip and Spange. They call themselves “The Wolves” and have been tinkering with an old trolley for some time. With her they want to cope with the 8000 km long way to Russia , on the run from problems with their parents and the school. Later, however, there is talk of driving only part of the route on your own and then coupling the vehicle (presumably from Moscow) to the Trans-Siberian Railway .
The first scene after the opening credits takes place the day before the originally planned departure. Carlo drives the draisine alone to the meeting point, an old roundhouse with a connection to the Deutsche Bahn network . The track on which he drives the last few meters leads directly into the shed. Shortly before that, he accelerates again to test the brakes. These fail, however, as a result of which the draisine drives into the shed at excessive speed and, half sunk in the workshop pit, comes to a standstill, severely damaged. The "wolves" are extremely angry with Carlo.
At the same time, an elderly man in a pickup truck approaches the shed with his German shepherd in the passenger seat. It is Hans Kastler, a former train driver who was imprisoned for an accident that was allegedly his fault and is now returning to whip up the class 41 locomotive that was involved in the accident in the shed for a steam locomotive meeting. However, the children do not yet know that. When they see him, they hide in the shed. Chancellor inspects the facility briefly. On going out he meets “Löwi”, a resident of the site. Löwi is hostile to Chancellor for causing the accident at the time and tells him to go away again.
Then the everyday life of Carlo is shown, who has to help his father with repairs and maintenance in his car workshop and gas station after school. Carlo again comments from the off and provides some background information about the rest of the "wolves". Spange got the warm clothes for the upcoming trip, Chip had the idea with Siberia, Mega had the IT skills to get into the DB network and Bob never had anything else in mind than a Siberian tour anyway.
To get the broken trolley back on the road, Carlo and Bob remove the engine of Löwi's lawnmower at night . Löwi barely catches her. The next day, Bob and Chip help Carlo in the garage. Suddenly, Chancellor comes to refuel his car. Bob is supposed to serve him as a customer, but panics and runs away.
The next day should be the departure. But the shed is now secured with a padlock . The children are even more shocked that Chancellor apparently dumped their equipment in a dumpster. When Chancellor arrives shortly afterwards, the "wolves" threaten him. Then his dog Willy chases the children away.
Dejected, the gang arrives at Bob's home. They make plans to recapture the shed or the key to it. So they study Chancellor's habits and at night break into the wagon next to the shed in which Chancellor lives and which he left shortly before to do some errands. Chip and Bob can't find the key there, but learn a little more about Chancellor's motives for using the shed. A romance is suggested between Spange and Carlo, who stand outside for the other two Schmiere.
The plan to paralyze Chancellor's car with the help of a water trap designed by Mega also fails. Meanwhile, Chancellor's old locomotive is being transferred to the shed. The children watch the huge steam locomotive through the shed window and are discovered by Willy and thus also by Kastler. During the escape, Spange cannot take the bike that her brother has secretly borrowed with her, so Chancellor takes it back to his shed. Since she comes home without the bike, Spange is seriously injured by her brother, coupled with the threat of further violence if Spange does not get the bike back.
Regardless of this, Carlo and Bob manage to make Kastler's pickup unfit to drive by adding a substance to the tank, and to kidnap his dog Willy. They plan to swap the dog hostage for the draisine. Since Spange is much more likely to need the bike, she and Chip take Willy back to Chancellor without consulting the boys, whereupon she gets her bike back. The girls and Chancellor get a little warm when they help wash the spokes and try to get a broken part for the locomotive, which Chancellor believes is irretrievable. In exchange, however, Chancellor promises to return the trolley.
Mega actually tracks down the piston ring that has been declared dead on the Internet, in the course of which the "wolves" get their trolley back. When Carlo, Bob and Spange took another test drive, the brakes did not work again . The draisine shoots over a slope on a stump track . The children can still jump before the vehicle hits through the roof of a shed full of barrels filled with explosive substances and explodes . Thereupon, at Löwi's instigation, the three children and chancellors are arrested and interrogated by the railway police , also because of the stolen lawnmower engine. However, Chancellor reveals nothing of the children's plans.
While Carlo, Bob and Spange try to get money for the damages , Chip negotiates another deal with Chancellor. Since Chancellor lost valuable time due to the arrest and the locomotive could no longer finish alone until the steam locomotive meeting, for whose first prize a trip to Siberia happened to be awarded, Chip offers the help of the "wolves". If they manage the restoration together on time, Chancellor should take the children with him to Siberia. Chancellor agrees.
Soon afterwards, Kastler can steam the locomotive in the shed. Two fateful things happen: Chancellor notices in the driver's cab that the locomotive's brakes are not working properly, which he does not mention to the children. The misfortune of that time was therefore not on his cap. On the other hand, the former train driver was seriously injured when he saved Carlo from the simmering steam from the locomotive, as he was standing right next to the locomotive with headphones on and didn't hear Chancellor's warning calls from the driver's cab.
The "wolves" visit Chancellor in the hospital and give him a picture book of the Trans-Siberian Express. Chancellor gives them the keys to the shed, instructing them to lock everything properly and then bring the bundle back. However, the "wolves" decide to take the locomotive to the steam locomotive meeting on their own and unannounced, as they don't want to wait until the meeting next year. To do this, according to Mega's instructions, they collect the necessary data from the trains crossing in the area by hand measurement.
Shortly afterwards, the "wolves" meet early one morning to start their journey to the steam locomotive meeting. However, Mega is caught by his mother when he leaves the house very early, fully packed. The other four of necessity drive off without him, Willy also stays behind. At the moment when Carlos accidentally breaks through the shed door with the locomotive and it bursts, Chancellor, half asleep, has an inspiration that the children could do something stupid. He then escapes from the hospital in a bathrobe.
At the same time, a dialogue scene in a nearby signal box shows that a special train is on the way that morning that the "wolves" could not take into account in their measurements. Unsuspecting, both trains, the children's steam locomotive and a heavy diesel locomotive with several wagons, head towards each other. Chancellor has meanwhile arrived at the shed, where he meets Willy and notices that his locomotive is missing. He calls Mega at home and asks about their whereabouts.
In a barrier post, a railroad employee witnesses the unregistered locomotive on its way because, to his surprise, he has to operate the track safety at the level crossing to be monitored. In the meantime, Chancellor calls the signal box to stop the locomotive with a passage signal, but initially he is not believed. Only when the message from the gatekeeper arrives at the signal box do the railway officials feverishly look for a solution to the dilemma. On the phone, a railway official told Chancellor about the special train and that he could not reach the driver.
Mega then calculates the expected collision point of both locomotives with his computer. As an alternative option for the steam locomotive, he gives the railway officials a siding and a turnout number. However, the officer sees that it is a very old, mechanical switch that he cannot operate remotely. Therefore Kastler and mega get in the car, manually to the locomotive of the "Wolves" on the siding redirect.
Chancellor controls the car with one hand due to the burns he has suffered, while Mega follows the path of the trains on his portable computer . When Chancellor tries to drive around a barrier that is in their way off the road, his car gets stuck in the mud. You lose valuable time through the liberation work. Shortly before the impending collision, Kastler and Mega finally turn onto a street parallel to the railway line of the steam locomotive and catch up with it. With a show of hands, Chancellor tries to get the "wolves" to stop. When they understand what is going on, they can no longer brake the locomotive. Chancellor reaches the local switch and turns the lever seconds before the heavy counter train arrives, so that the steam locomotive escapes onto the siding. The "wolves" can only slow them down with great effort. The locomotive still properly touches the buffer stop and only then comes to a stop. Chancellor and Mega run after the locomotive on foot and reach it. Mega encourages everyone with his warning to set off again immediately, after all, the first prize at the steam locomotive meeting is waiting for them.
Apparently the children and chancellors are actually still going there, as she shows the end of the film as passengers on the Trans-Siberian Railway . Chip translates the remarks of the Russian conductress and suggests that Chancellor should get to know her better. The grumpy Chancellor is open to this suggestion.
characters
Carlo brings with him the greatest technical understanding of the "wolves" through his work in the garage. He is primarily responsible for repairs and also drives the rail vehicles. Spange and he become a more or less inconspicuous couple in the course of the film. Bob has a rather gross motor predisposition; When he learns of the girls' barter deal (Willy for Spange's bike instead of the trolley), he jumps the girls from behind on Spange's bike and thereby demolishes it. Bob's parents have a restaurant, and his mother once brings pastries for the children. Chip is the warmest of the children, she wins Chancellor's heart and thus brings everyone involved together. She also believes in the survival of the dinosaurs she hopes to discover in Siberia. Mega is the only one whose correct first and last name (Klaus Mertens) is revealed in the film. He is the smallest of the "wolves" and is not part of their nightly actions because of his rigid mother. A running gag of the film is his mother's invitation to him to finally go to bed, with a warning about the current exact time, as well as Mega's comment to himself or his guests that his mother will be back in "60 minutes at the earliest" would come.
Technical background
The exhaust steam that scalds Hans Kastler's arm badly comes from the area of the air pump that generates the compressed air for the brakes . On the class 41 locomotives it is built on the right-hand side quite far back, on the film locomotive it is single-stage. The upper part is a small steam engine that drives the lower part (the air pump) with a common piston rod . Part of the steam engine is the main steam inlet and the exhaust steam outlet, where a pipe is normally screwed on, which discharges the exhaust steam upwards. He only comes outside near the chimney . An accident like the one in the film shouldn't happen in reality, because locomotives like these usually drive past platforms with waiting passengers. During the shoot, a small extra steam line should have been laid, from which steam came out at low pressure, because locally it came out a bit in front of the air pump.
Location
Among other things, the roundhouse and the facilities of the former Gelsenkirchen-Bismarck railway depot were used as the shooting location .
criticism
“This film, which sees everything from the children's point of view, is extremely exciting from start to finish. It shows how great it is to stick together - and how strong and smart the children are. It is funny, but also a little sad, because it also shows their problems at home and how little they are partly understood by their parents. "
Others
The film is funded by the Economic Film Funding of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Film Funding Agency, the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the Board of Trustees for Young German Film.
Web links
- The locomotive in theInternet Movie Database(English)