Four hijackers overtake a NYC subway car, override the "dead-man's switch" – a fail-safe which is supposed to ensure a human driver – manage to extort a $1 million ransom, and then escape off the train before sending it hurtling around the bowels of Manhattan, ensuring that police all head the wrong way.

To call the plan at the center of 1974's "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three" genius is an understatement. But how in the world would it work today – with passengers all carrying cell phones, with GPS, with laptop computers and thermo-imaging? That's the big dilemma for screenwriter David Koepp, who recently adapted the novel for director Tony Scott and star Denzel Washington. Read more...