According to every early breakdown of the project, the new RuPaul Charles-headlined comedy Stop! That! Train! was designed to be nothing more than a silly, unapologetically fun watch. Helmed by Hairspray director Adam Shankman, the film acts as a spiritual successor to classic disaster spoofs such as Airplane! — it just cranks the queer tone and camp up to 11. Drag icon Charles stars as President Judy Gagwell, who is charged with stopping the out-of-control Glamazonian Express, a runaway train barreling straight toward the deadly "Stormaganza" event. The film features multiple RuPaul’s Drag Race alumni, and early pre-release reviews note that Stop! That! Train! leans into the same signature camp comedy that made the reality competition famous.
But amid these early takes, a number of viewers could not ignore what they argue is obvious use of AI-generated footage in the movie. On popular film review platform Letterboxd, user Gloria Cook published a particularly harsh, viral review of the film that quickly spread online. While Cook did not enjoy Stop! That! Train!’s brand of humor, she wrote that the far more offensive choice was the high volume of shots that appeared to be clearly created with generative AI.
“If the film wasn’t bad enough on its own, it’s one of the most conspicuous uses of AI I’ve seen in a film, with a lot of VFX looking like gen AI and doubt about how much of the obvious stock footage might also be,” Cook wrote. She added that Acme AI & FX, a visual effects studio that “fuses proprietary machine learning with cinematic artistry,” per its official website, is listed as a contributor to the film. This detail is corroborated by a recent Village Voice article about Acme, which confirms the studio served as Stop! That! Train!’s “VFX and AI partner.”
Cook is not alone in these claims, with other Letterboxd users echoing her observations. One user joked they are “fully convinced that RuPaul invented something called GAY I,” while another asked, “Why is there AI slop in my 2-hour Drag Race comedy challenge?”
