A Brave Engineer: Buster Keaton's Last Ride

A Brave Engineer: Buster Keaton's Last Ride (2026) is a documentary film directed by Luke Ryan.

From 1920 to 1965, the great Buster Keaton made spectacular use of locomotives in his films. This video essay charts the course of his iconic cinematic career across the many tracks he rode along on screen: as a young man in the surge of his silent movie ascent in Our Hospitality, while making his masterpiece The General, and traversing the width of Canada on a railway speeder car as an old man in The Railrodder.

Cast

Luke Ryan

Narrator

Buster Keaton

Self (Archival)

Roscoe Arbuckle

Self (Archival)

Marion Mack

Self (Archival)

Sybil Seely

Self (Archival)

Joe Keaton

Self (Archival)

Natalie Talmadge

Self (Archival)

Joe Roberts

Self (Archival)

Glen Cavender

Self (Archival)

Red Skelton

Self (Archival)

Gerald Potterton

Self (Archival)