The Taking of Pelham 123 is a 2009 American thriller film directed by Tony Scott. The film is about a train dispatcher (Denzel Washington) who is pressed into the role of negotiator after a criminal (John Travolta) takes a subway car of passengers hostage. It is a film adaptation of the novel by Morton Freedgood in which a subway dispatcher's day is thrown into chaos when four armed men hijack the subway train and take the commuters as hostages. They demand USD 10 million from the mayor as ransom.