The Great Train Robbery

The Great Train Robbery is a short film directed by Edwin S. Porter in 1903. The main characters of this film are the robbers, the operator, and the men that pursue the robbers in the end. The film starts with two masked robbers forcing the operator to stop a train so that they can sneak on board. Once the train was stopped and they went on board, a gun fight occurs and the robbers kill a man. The robbers find a safe, but they find that they have to blow it up with dynamite to get its contents. They then force the passengers to exit the train. One tries to escape, but is shot while the rest are robbed. The robbers force the engineer to take them further on and are let off the train. The viewer is then taken back to the gagged operator. His daughter releases him and he shows up at a dance and tells the people there what had happened. The men then pursue the robbers in the woods. They catch up to the robbers and shoot all of them down. After the final scene, one of the robbers shoots point blank at the audience. Because this was new to audiences, this scene would have frightened them. The end of this film was probably considered to be a happy ending because good prevailed over evil. The men stopped the robbers in the end, resolving the conflict.