Train Dreams Is an Argument Against Complicity

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Spoilers follow for Train Dreams, which is streaming on Netflix. 

In Joel Edgerton’s Train Dreams, Robert Grainier is a reserved man who prefers to stay out of trouble. He lives a quiet life with his family on a remote piece of land in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, and works diligently as a logger, mostly keeping to himself and working peacefully alongside his colleagues. He avoids debt, stays sober, and generally avoids getting involved in anything that doesn’t concern him directly – he simply keeps to himself.

Grainier’s most noticeable trait leads to a critical failure when a colleague is attacked by a group of vigilantes. In the original story, Grainier even tries to participate in the attack, believing he’s been cursed when the man escapes. However, in the film, Grainier freezes, and that moment of inaction haunts him for the rest of his life. He stands by and watches as his co-worker is brutally killed by other railroad workers, and the guilt consumes him. This inability to act, to defend someone helpless, dramatically alters the course of Grainier’s life and underscores the film’s central idea: that we are all ultimately insignificant. Our lives are finite, and most of what we do will be forgotten. What truly matters is how we treat others. Through Grainier’s story, Train Dreams offers a poignant reflection on powerlessness, the possibility of hope, and the small ways we can make a positive impact on the world.

Johnson’s story opens with an attack on a Chinese laborer who is accused of stealing from the Spokane International Railway. The story uses deeply prejudiced language common in the early 1900s to describe him, calling him a “little demon” with unusual features and claiming he speaks unintelligibly. Three men carry this man past the story’s narrator, Grainier, and he assists them as they take the laborer to a tall bridge, intending to throw him off. The man manages to escape into the forest, and afterward, Grainier becomes fixated on him, imagining him constantly. Although Grainier is disturbed by the violence, he still wishes they had killed the man, believing he brought a curse upon them.

Throughout the rest of the story, Grainier is convinced that all his troubles – especially the wildfire that killed his wife and led to his daughter going missing – are the fault of a Chinese man. He later feels bad about not helping a man dying in the woods (who confessed to being a pedophile who had abused his niece and fled when confronted), but he never truly reflects on his own prejudices. Grainier only sees himself as the victim. Even when recalling a childhood memory of numerous Chinese families being forcibly removed from town, he dehumanizes them, describing them as “strange people” making unintelligible noises as they were loaded onto trains at gunpoint.

The film improves on the original story by making Grainier less judgmental and more inquisitive. The writers highlight a central theme – that everyone is eventually forgotten – and use this to explore how we should live our lives knowing this will be the case. They achieve this by changing the story of the Chinese man and his relationship with Grainier, shifting the emotional tone from bitterness to sadness and regret.

The film shows Grainier deeply disturbed by witnessing a vigilante group forcibly deport people. As an adult, he finds comfort in the close bonds formed between workers on difficult, long-term projects, especially his connection with Fu Sheng, whom we see working alongside him. However, when Fu Sheng is accused of theft and dragged away by three men, Grainier is transported back to the helplessness he felt as a child watching Chinese families being taken. He instinctively reaches for Fu Sheng, questioning the accusation and protesting as Fu Sheng is carried off, but he doesn’t physically intervene. The director highlights the other workers’ deliberate avoidance of the situation, and Grainier is shown to be just as unwilling to get involved. He stands silently as Fu Sheng is thrown into the gorge, and is then haunted by Fu Sheng’s accusing ghost. Grainier struggles to understand his own inaction, unable to explain why he allowed someone he considered family to meet such a fate.

As Grainier ages and becomes more isolated, he comes to understand that everything we create will eventually become outdated, just like the Spokane International Railway and the old bridge where Fu Sheng fell—both have been replaced by modern structures. What truly matters, he realizes, are our relationships with others—the friends we make, the people we love, and even those we hurt or betray. This idea is central to Train Dreams, which champions dignity for all and encourages empathy for everything around us. The novel suggests that everything has value—the trees we fell, the land we use, and even the people we’ve forgotten or taken for granted—and deserves our respect. This same belief was also evident in the films Jockey and Sing Sing by Bentley and Kwedar.

Bentley subtly alters the connection between Grainier and Fu Sheng, making us care about both of them, and by softening Grainier’s negativity, he refocuses the story. The film now explores how inaction and apathy can be deeply damaging. In a time when people are being taken by federal agents without explanation, Train Dreams sides with those who are defending their communities. As William H. Macy’s character, Arn Peeples, explains to Grainier and the other loggers, everything is connected, and even small actions – or a lack of them – have consequences, even if we feel insignificant.

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2025-11-24 21:55