According to NPR, there were more than 1,000 train derailments in the U.S. just last year. An astronomical number for such an event, and a statistic that many Americans aren’t aware of. Recently however, with the Ohio derailment and chemical disaster, more heads are being turned. On February 3, 2023 a Norfolk Southern freight train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio resulting in 38 wrecked cars. CNN states that of those there were “11 tank cars carrying hazardous materials…” which ignited into flames. On top of this, due to increasing concern, authorities chose to release and burn one of the unharmed cars in a controlled environment due to its rising temperature–which if left alone would have resulted in, as NPR calls it, “a catastrophic explosion.” This controlled release left the evacuated residents unsettled and unsure to return as it produced a large black “plume” of smoke that loomed over their hometown.

As more viewers tuned in across the country to stay informed about the progression of the accident, some drew lines to the similarity of the event to the plot of the 2022 film starring Adam Driver, and 1986 Don DeLillo novel White Noise. Eerily comparable to East Palestine, the story features a toxic event born by a train derailment that produces (parallel once again) a monstrous cloud of black smoke over the heads of citizens in a small town. And get this–the movie was shot around Ohio. To add to the uncanny sense of coincidence, Ben Ratner, a resident of East Palestine, was an extra in one of the scenes in the film. In an interview with news channel WKBN27, he shares the discomfort he felt trying to rewatch the film after the derailment happened only a couple miles from his backyard. “Probably like 15 minutes in, I turned it off. It was not something that I was ready to watch yet.” Ratner and his family were forced to evacuate temporarily, allowing his character, a man stuck in an evacuation traffic jam, to come to life. 

While the movie shares many uncanny resemblances to what happened in East Palestine, it is to be warned that those who choose watch White Noise expecting a full plotline surrounding a toxic event will find themselves confused about half-way through when suddenly the lingering cloud of death introduced in the beginning is no longer a threat; things go back to normal to allow for an entirely new plotline to be followed for the remaining hour of the film. Nonetheless, though the ending goes completely off the rails, it’s a great watch if you enjoy artsy, mess-with-your-mind kind of movies. In the grand scheme of things, maybe people are reading too much into the nearly identical timeline of events between fiction and real life, but it’s hard not to feel suspicious when everything lines up so conspicuously. And while I’m no conspiracy theorist, it’s interesting to witness just how incredible coincidences can be.