This is an absurd but hugely entertaining film which – pun absolutely intended – goes off the rails repeatedly, both literally and metaphorically, yet somehow keeps you watching right to the end. Liam Neeson plays a man who has taken the same commuter train into Manhattan every day for years. When he’s suddenly made redundant and dreading how to tell his wife, a mysterious woman sits opposite him and offers a large sum of money if he’ll carry out a “simple” task: identify someone on the train. He’s an ex-cop, he’s intrigued – and before long this perfectly ordinary commuter is trying to prevent a murder.

The problem is that every attempt he makes to intervene triggers a series of warnings. Surveillance cameras appear to be everywhere on the train, other commuters are killed to prove a point, and Neeson is told in no uncertain terms that if he doesn’t comply, his wife and son will be next. None of this makes the slightest logical sense. If the villains have such an astonishing surveillance network, it’s unclear why they need him to identify anyone at all. The film briefly gestures towards the fallout of the 2008 financial crisis, but quickly reveals itself to be ‘Taken’ on a train.

There’s a Hitchcockian premise here – an ordinary man thrust into a vast conspiracy beyond his control – and at times it flirts with ‘North by Northwest’ or ‘The Taking of Pelham 123’. But this version is pure nonsense. Neeson shoots guns, smashes windows, and assaults people on a packed commuter train, yet the conductor appears blissfully unaware. When the plot requires Neeson to have an entire carriage to himself, the commuters simply… vanish.

And yet, the very fact that the film is so ludicrous becomes part of its appeal. What could have been a tight paranoia thriller ends up as a knowingly silly action romp, lightly seasoning its chaos with the way daily commuters may be quietly panicking about mortgages, jobs, and financial collapse. The notion that Neeson somehow “knows” all the passengers because they commute together daily is laughable – anyone who’s ever caught a train knows people rarely take the same service every day – but the film ploughs on regardless.

There is a genuine moral dilemma buried in the madness: if you’re desperate, and someone offers you money without explaining the full cost, would you take it? Neeson’s character does – briefly – before deciding he won’t endanger innocent lives, meaning he attempts to keep the cash and do the right thing. It’s ridiculous, implausible, and full of holes – but it’s also unapologetically cheesy fun, and sometimes that’s more than enough.