Stop! That! Train!: Queer Spectacle on the Rails
New film starring RuPaul and Drag Race queens turns a runaway train into a carnival of absurdist humour and camp excess.
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Stop! That! Train!, a new comedy catastrophe directed by Adam Shankman, casts RuPaul as a tyrannical U.S. president aboard the Glamazonian Express—a luxury train presented as a glittering utopia where passengers can become their best selves. When a meteorological disaster threatens to derail the convoy, the crew and passengers must band together to save it.
The film assembles what may be the most openly queer cast ever to headline a major studio release: alongside RuPaul are Drag Race regulars Ginger Minj, Jujubee, Brooke Lynn Hytes, Symone, and Monét X Change. Guest appearances from Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicole Richie, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, and Joel McHale round out the ensemble.
Shankman leans into theatrical artifice from the opening frame. The sets are deliberately fake—pink, sequined, oversized. The costumes explode with glitter and gossamer. Characters are caricatures of contemporary archetypes: the rich socialite with her reconstructed gaze, the incompetent men obsessed with sex, the grotesque figures of authority. When the film works, it lands sharp observations about human cruelty beneath the camp veneer.
The problem: the strategy exhausts itself. After accumulating salacious gags and Drag Race in-jokes, the narrative loses momentum. Audiences versed in queer culture and RuPaul's universe will find their playground. Everyone else risks staying on the platform.
The film has drawn controversy over allegedly artificial visual effects. Shankman has denied the claims, saying "no frame of the film was designed by artificial intelligence." Several effects do appear sparse, though whether by intentional aesthetic or technical limitation remains unclear.