Xtra-vision ventures beneath the streets of New York City to investigate the making of The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3.

Two-time Academy Award winner Denzel Washington shares the screen with two-time Academy Award nominee John Travolta in director Tony Scott's The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, a taut, glossy remake of the classic 1974 thriller. As subway dispatcher Walter Gerber, Washington plays an ordinary guy whose day is thrown into chaos by an audacious crime: the hijacking of a subway train.

As the criminal mastermind with a highly-armed gang and a fiendish plan, Travolta co-stars as Ryder, threatening to execute the train's passengers unless a large ransom is paid within one hour. As the tension mounts beneath his feet, Garber employs his vast knowledge of the subway system in a battle to outwit Ryder and save the hostages. But there's one riddle Garber can't solve: even if the thieves get the money, how can they possibly escape?

The dispatcher, Garber, seeks to clear a stain on his reputation: a charge of bribery that resulted in his demotion from administrator to dispatcher and now drives him to go head-to-head with the hijacker. "He believes if he helps the people on the train, he can make amends," notes screenwriter Brian Helgeland.

By contrast, Ryder seeks revenge. As played by Travolta, he's smart and manic, one moment showing mercy, a split-second later exploding in deadly fury. He and Garber are as opposed as the worlds they inhabit. "Garber works for the MTA [Metropolitan Transportation Authority] NYC Transit above ground, and when we researched it, we found it was very high-tech, like NASA," says director Scott. "I took that world, the quiet and cleanliness and high tech quality of the MTA, and balanced that with the darkness and grittiness and bowels of New York in the subways."

Scott believed there was only one way to achieve his vision. "Tony felt very strongly about shooting the real tunnels when we decided to make this movie," remembers executive producer Barry Waldman. "He wanted the sound and the fright of being in and around moving trains, for the subway to become a third character after Denzel and John."

"Usually people build sets and try to reconstruct it on a stage instead, but there's nothing like capturing reality," Waldman continues. "It's difficult, it's dirty, but it's exciting. It's a challenge, and I always love a challenge." And with temperatures above ground hitting 100 degrees and below ground even hotter, a challenge it certainly was.

Scott ended up filming in the subway for four weeks, the longest and most extensive shoot ever in New York's subway. The production was granted access to areas NYC Transit had never before allowed a film crew, including the makers of the original Pelham.

Shooting in the tunnels can be a harrowing experience, with 400 tonnes of train roaring past only inches away, while the train's ‘third rail shoes', or electrical conductors, speed by even closer, with 600 volts of electricity coursing through them. "You don't realise how big the trains are when you're on the platform," Washington explains. "But when you're down on the tracks, those things are monsters, rolling at 40, 50 miles an hour. The wind can whip you around, so you've got to brace yourself."

NYC Transit officials kept close watch to ensure safety; still, actors and crew were forewarned, as is every individual who enters the tunnels, that trains could come on any track, at any moment, and from any direction, and everyone should always assume the third rail is live at all times.

At the helm of The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 is Tony Scott, the man behind the mayhem of numerous action classics, including Top Gun, Crimson Tide and True Romance. With camera movement, quick pans, saturated colours, and selected focus among his inimitable visual vocabulary, the director builds an escalating sense of suspense and dread in the thriller.

"Tony is really a painter," says producer Todd Black. "The way he shot the scenes in the subway completely hypnotises you and makes you feel like you're right there."

Scott views the tunnels as a unique and separate world. "My goal was to touch that world in a way that I felt nobody had ever touched it before."

From the moment the filmmakers began to consider a new adaptation of The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, they had one name in mind for their leading man. "Only an actor like Denzel Washington, with his powerful screen presence and immense talent, could make such an ordinary character in an ordinary desk job so compelling to watch," Helgeland says.

Nor did it hurt that Washington had a long history with Scott, starring in three of the director's films, Déjà' Vu, Man on Fire and Crimson Tide. "He's the best, he has a good heart," says Washington of Scott. "Tony works harder than anybody, so whenever he calls I come running."

In a sense, Washington had spent many years preparing for the role. "I grew up in New York and I took the train from 241st and White Plains Road every day," he says. "When I was a kid, I'd go between cars, between stations, sneak down the side of the train. You never went too far. It was interesting, after 30 years, to be on the subway."

With Garber cast, the list of actors who could hold their own opposite Washington's dynamic screen presence was short. The role of Ryder required an actor who could make the character larger than life. John Travolta fit the bill. "When you give him a truly imposing role, Travolta knows how to pump a colour and energy into it that I think no other actor can," says Black.

"He's built up resentment toward the city, feeling betrayed and mistreated," says Travolta of his character. "I decided he was calculated to some degree, but at the same time, he is a stimulus/response type of guy, meaning you can push his buttons. Say the wrong word, and he goes off."

"Viewers should see this film if they want to be thoroughly entertained by two brilliant actors dancing with one another for two hours," says Black of The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, exclusively available now on Blu-ray and DVD from Xtra-vision. "It constantly keeps you on the edge of your chair."