Stop! That! Train! review: RuPaul leads an all-star drag parody of 1970s disaster movies

This queer spoof inspired by Airplane! should delight fans of Drag Race, even if it eventually runs out of steam.

Universal

Published: Thursday, 20 August 2026 at 10:02 am

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A star rating of 3 out of 5.

Three exclamation marks should be your first clue as to what to expect from Stop! That! Train! – this is RuPaul’s Airplane!. The disaster comedy, produced by World of Wonder and fronted by drag queens, has a similarly absurd tone and density of jokes to the legendary Zucker, Abrahams, Zucker parody. But with three times the exclamations, is it really three times as funny?

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Helmed by Adam Shankman – director of 2007’s Hairspray – Stop! That! Train! should feel familiar to fans of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Indeed, it operates like a feature-length version of one of the show’s acting challenges, with the increased scope and production values to match, and a gag rate surpassed only by the speed of its runaway locomotive.

Writers Christina Friel and Connor Wright – who also penned RuPaul’s 2021 TV movie, The Bitch Who Stole Christmas – pack plenty of wit into a script that is otherwise light on suspense, intrigue and anything else you may expect from a conventional narrative drama. Thankfully the jokes, good and bad, are enlivened by a committed cast of Drag Race alumni.

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Ginger Minj and Jujubee star as Tess and DeeDee, respectively, two BFFs who work for budget carrier Stank Rail. Determined to see America, they trade in their ugly brown-and-yellow uniforms – surely the antithesis of charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent – for the red waistcoats of the Glamazonian Express.

Aboard the high-speed luxury rail service, they quickly clash with the first-class stewardesses, a mean-girl trio made up of Brooke Lynn Hytes, Symone and Marty Lauter. But just as tensions flare, a greater threat arises. The train is heading directly for a "stormaganza" and it’s up to Tess and DeeDee to somehow put the brakes on.

The Glamazonian attracts a certain calibre of traveller, making the setting an ideal vehicle for silly cameos. There’s a horny divorcee (Missi Pyle); a not-so-grieving daughter (Nicole Richie) and her coffined mother; a famous actor who nobody seems to recognise (Sarah Michelle Gellar, in one of the best recurring gags); and more. There are appearances from other queens too, including Drag Race royalty Latrice Royale, who appears in multiple roles.

RuPaul also delivers the goods as President Judy Gagwell, a head of state who still carries the scars from her time in the US Rail Force (a Reagan-era military experiment). The scenes set in the Oval Office are some of the strongest. RuPaul may not have the most screentime but she gets many opportunities to shine – and to drop her iconic catchphrases.

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The film has fun at the expense of its male characters, who are mostly morons and/or boorish chads. It’s a shame, then, that its commitment to gender-bending performance art doesn’t extend to drag kinging – an art form long and controversially sidelined by Drag Race. Kings could’ve brought the movie’s masculine stereotypes to life with a queer gusto that has been ignored in favour of conventional interpretations. It’s just one example of the film’s wasted potential.

Stop! That! Train! leverages the language of drag, from reading and vogueing to rose petals hidden under hats. But it too often fails to leverage the best of its premise. Promising set-ups are squandered and the disaster that frames the story has too little bearing on how it plays out.

This RuPaul vehicle certainly doesn’t reach the heights of Airplane!, then. What Stop! That! Train! lacks, perhaps, is a Leslie Nielsen. Shankman’s film cranks the camp to 11 but, with no comedic foil to invert the rapid-fire absurdities, the power of its humour is dampened. It’s all hot pink and no contrasting colours, and by the final third it runs out of steam. Still, fans of Drag Race will be rewarded for getting on board.

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Authors

Sean McGeady

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