The Great Train Robbery

Writer and director Michael Crichton based his book and movie, only loosely on the actual crime committed in 1855. In real-life, there were four criminals: Pierce, Agar, the railway guard Burgess, and a railway clerk named Tester. All four keys were kept on railway premises, two in London, and two in Folkestone. They were stolen temporarily by Tester and Pierce, respectively, so that Agar could duplicate them, but it turned out that the Folkestone keys were not being used anyway. The guard's van was not locked from the outside; Pierce and Agar were let in by Burgess, and a share of the loot was handed out to Tester, at stations. None of the criminals were spotted at once; it was several months before the railway conceded that the crime must have occurred on the train. The details came to light after Agar had been convicted in an unrelated crime, and his accomplices decided to steal his share instead of using it, as he had asked, to provide his mistress an income. She got word to him, and he turned Queen's Evidence against the others, and told all. At no point in the case, did anyone escape from custody.

If the gold shipment was solely to pay British soldiers in Crimea, as asserted, it would have been in the form of barrels of gold coins, not gold bars as shown.

Córas Iompair Éireann is misspelled in the end titles with an accent over the 'C' instead of the 'o'.

Under the terms of the Cinematograph Films (Animals) Act 1937 all UK versions of the film are cut by 32 secs with edits to a scene where a dog hunts and kills rats in a show arena ('ratting').

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