Tony Scott directs this remake of the 1974 crime thriller 'The Taking of Pelham One Two Three' which starred Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw. Denzel Washington takes over Matthau's role as Lieutenant Garber, a dispatcher for the New York City Transit Police who finds himself in a face-off with criminal mastermind Ryder (John Travolta, in the role originally played by Shaw) after an armed gang hijacks a subway train and takes its passengers hostage, threatening to start executing them one by one if they are not paid a hefty ransom within the space of one hour.