Among the many frustrating things about the modern streaming landscape is that, in addition to not knowing what to watch, it’s also difficult to know when you’ll actually be able to see it. Although Amazon Prime Video has plenty of great movies, those movies come to the streamer and leave it seemingly at random because of complicated rights agreements that no regular person should ever care about or understand.
It can be hard to make sure you catch a great movie before it leaves, which is why you should definitely make time to watch The Taking of Pelham One Two Three before it leaves Prime Video at the end of April. The movie, which tells the story of a MTA train heist in 1970s New York, holds up remarkably well 50 years later. Here are three reasons you should check it out.
It’s a perfectly paced heist movie
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three splits its time between four men who have taken a subway car hostage in Manhattan, and the transit policeman who is heading up the negotiations. Hanging over the entire film is the key question: These hostage-takers are trapped underground, so what exactly is their exit strategy?
Giving away the answer to that would spoil the fun, but rest assured that watching those investigating the crime try to figure it out is part of the movie’s charm. Like all great heist movies, Pelham One Two Three has its fair share of surprises, and those surprises keep you guessing about exactly how things might turn out.
It features the great Walter Matthau at the top of his game
Given his incredibly distinct physical features, Walter Matthau does not feel like the kind of man who would be allowed to play the protagonist in movies, but in the 1970s, he did, and we should all be grateful for that. Matthau plays the transit policeman who keeps things as cool and collected as possible, even amid the chaos of his circumstances.
Matthau’s incredible charm, combined with his overwhelmingly calloused and hardened demeanor, make him perfect for this role. This is a guy who cares, but he’s also a professional, even if he doesn’t necessarily present himself as one.
It has one of the best endings in movie history
To spoil the way that Pelham One Two Three concludes would be to give far too much away, but there are few endings in the history of cinema that are more perfectly satisfying and unexpected.
The ending is really just a reminder of exactly how well thought out every single one of the movie’s beats is. This is a movie where every single hair is perfectly in place, and that’s true up until the very last moment.
You can watch The Taking of Pelham One Two Three on Amazon Prime Video.
