The Taking of Pelham One Two Three

“We are going to kill one passenger a minute until New York City pays us 1 million dollars.”

Four armed men in 1970s New York take over a subway car and demand a ransom for the passengers, and nobody can say how they plan to get out of a tunnel with the whole city watching. Lieutenant Garber (Walter Matthau) works the case by radio against the leader, Blue (Robert Shaw), who goes by a color like the rest of his crew. Joseph Sargent builds the story on a plain fact, that a city of millions depends on a few dozen men and machines to keep it moving.