Stupidity: The Engineer and Fireman of the Polar Express train crew should have known better than to not bend back the the metallic prongs of the cotter pin, which would have prevented the cotter pin from coming loose and causing all those problems in the driving of the train.
Scott215
29th Dec 2018
The Polar Express (2004)
29th Dec 2018
The Polar Express (2004)
Corrected entry: If these tracks are in plain sight why would any of these kids doubt Santa? They could follow the tracks and go to the north pole.
Correction: The whole thing is most likely a dream, so the train tracks would not be visible to the kids in their daily lives. Also, what kid in their right mind would walk to the North Pole when they could dream up a magical train to take them there and also get served hot chocolate by gravity-defying dancing waiters?
19th Nov 2017
The Polar Express (2004)
Corrected entry: When the hero boy opens the window to grab the girl's ticket, you see few cars between them and the engine. When the shot pans out as the ticket flies away, there are several more cars than before.
Correction: The Polar Express is a magic Christmas train that defies logic and physics throughout the movie. Further, this whole experience could be a dream of the Hero Boy, so it is likely the train would change the number of cars, as well as bend with the tracks as it corkscrews up a mountain, etc.
30th Jan 2017
The Polar Express (2004)
Corrected entry: As the train goes up the corkscrew the cars bend like rubber to match the tighter top curves. (00:41:30)
Correction: Not a mistake. The Polar Express is a "magic train" as the Hero Girl pointed out earlier in the film, and can do incredible things that other trains cannot.
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Suggested correction: As you yourself stated, the whole thing is likely a dream, where "normal" reality doesn't apply. In the "real world", the train would never be able to do any of the things that it does in the film.
wizard_of_gore ★
Dream or not, it is still a stupidity of the train crew to not secure a pin that could work itself free of the controls of the locomotive.
Scott215
Dreams are often unrealistic. There is no mistake.
The entry doesn't say anything about the entire trip to the North Pole being a dream.
Agreed. It was never stated that it was a dream considering that Hero Boy lost the sleigh bell only to find it Christmas morning with a note from Santa. And to add, Steamer said that cotter pin was sheared off which caused it to come loose.