Breakheart Pass was the end of the line.

Revenge Mystery Danger Ambush

Death rode the express to Breakheart Pass.

Death rode the rails to Breakheart Pass


Posing as a fugitive from justice, frontier undercover agent John Deakin (Charles Bronson) boards a train to go after a ruthless gang of outlaws. Ingredients essential to the action include an anti-military conspiracy involving gunrunners and Indians, a phony epidemic, and a down-and-dirty traintop fight between Deakin and Carlos (boxer-turned-actor Archie Moore). Breakheart Pass was adapted for the screen by Alistair MacLean from his own novel.

In the 1870s, residents of the garrison at the Fort Humboldt Army outpost are supposedly suffering from a diphtheria epidemic. A train is heading towards the fort filled with reinforcements and medical supplies. There are also civilian passengers on the train – Nevada governor Fairchild (Richard Crenna) and his mistress Marica (Jill Ireland), among others.
The train stops briefly in Myrtle, where it takes on board a local lawman (Ben Johnson) and his prisoner, John Deakin (Charles Bronson), a notorious outlaw who was identified via a picture in a newspaper article. However, Deakin is actually an undercover federal agent.
Deakin, along with his partner, the Reverend, discovers en route that there is no epidemic at the outpost and the "epidemic" is actually a conspiracy between a group of killers and a tribe of Indians. One by one, though, men aboard the train keep dying as it steams toward Breakheart Pass.
At Breakheart Pass all hell breaks loose as Indians attack the train (over 400 stolen rifles). The Army train, which lost all its troops in a spectacular crash, is defenseless. Meanwhile, the gold smuggling co-conspirators (hired killers) are signaled by the train whistle, and ride out to take the train. Guns & dynamite erupt in the ensuing battle, and in the end, the pass is littered with carnage as the Indians are left running.

Release Date: March 1976

Distrib: United Artists