The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974 film)

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three aka The Taking of Pelham2is a 1974 American thriller film directed by Joseph Sargent, produced by Edgar J. Scherick, and starring Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Martin Balsam and Hctor Elizondo. Peter Stone adapted the screenplay from the 1973 novel of the same name, written by Morton Freedgood under the pen name John Godey about a group of criminals taking the passengers hostage of a busy New York City Subway car for ransom. Musically, it features one of the best and most inventive thriller scores of the 1970s. It was remade in 1998 as a television movie and was again remade in 2009 as a film.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant Zachary Garber Walter Matthau, a cynical and curmudgeonly yet lighthearted New York City Transit Authority police lieutenant, is leading a tour of New Yorks subway command center when it is interrupted by Blues radio announcement that your train has been taken. Blue Robert Shaw, the leader of the hijackers, reveals their demands a ransom ofmillion, to be delivered within one hour, or else theyll kill one passenger per minute after that.Garber, the sarcastic Lieutenant Rico Patrone Jerry Stiller, and other transit workers cooperate while trying to guess how the criminals intend to get away. The supervisor at Grand Central decides to confront the hijackers himself. As he approaches the train, Grey Hector Elizondo shoots him dead. Various clues surface for Garber Blue has an English accent, while Green Martin Balsam has a cold and periodically sneezes over the radio, to which Garber says Gesundheit. Garber surmises that as the hijackers are able to operate the train, one is probably a disgruntled transit worker. He also learns that one of the hostages is an undercover police officer. ........

Source: Wikipedia