By all accounts, the new RuPaul Charles-led movie Stop! That! Train! is meant to be nothing more than a stupid good time.
The movie from Hairspray director Adam Shankman is a spiritual successor to disaster comedies like Airplane!, just with the queerness turned up to 11. Drag icon Charles stars as President Judy Gagwell, who’s tasked with stopping a runaway train—the Glamazonian Express—that’s headed straight for a deadly “Stormaganza.” The movie stars several RuPaul’s Drag Race alumni, and early reviews say that Stop! That! Train! features the same camp comedy the reality show is known for.
But among those pre-release reviews, some viewers couldn’t help but call out what they said looked like the use of AI-generated footage in the film. On film review platform Letterboxd, a user named Gloria Cook left a particularly scathing review that’s since gone viral.
Cook didn’t love Stop! That! Train!’s comedy—but more offensive, she wrote, was what looked to her like shots obviously 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 in the film’s credits, Acme AI & FX, a visual effects studio that “fuses proprietary machine learning with cinematic artistry,” per its website, is listed as having worked on the film. That’s corroborated by a recent article on Acme from the Village Voice, which says the studio served as “VFX and AI partner” on Stop! That! Train!
Cook wasn’t alone in her allegations, with other Letterboxd users writing that they’re “fully convinced that RuPaul invented something called GAY I” and asking, “Why is there AI slop in my 2-hour Drag Race comedy challenge?”
‘This is patently not true’: Shankman responds
Ahead of Stop! That! Train!’s wide release on June 12, director Shankman issued a statement across social media aiming to shut down the discourse.
“Every shot in Stop! That! Train! was made by human hands!” Shankman wrote. “It’s come to my attention that there is some online speculation that Stop! That! Train! is full of fully generative AI shots and I’m here to tell you this is patently not true.”
“There are a sum total of ZERO shots conceived by AI in the movie,” he continued. “We employed hundreds of VFX artists who all killed themselves getting this out for release and not one job was taken out of human hands.”
Though Shankman didn’t address Acme AI & FX’s involvement in the film, a source familiar with Stop! That! Train!’s production told Variety that the studio only contributed visual effects work to the film, with any AI use relegated to background workflow processes and not shown on-screen in the final product.
‘I see your careful word choice’: Social media not satisfied
Despite Shankman’s assurances, social media remains unconvinced that the movie is AI-free. Many users called out the statement’s phrasing, which is vague enough to leave room for AI usage within the film, even if it doesn’t contain any shots “conceived by AI” as Shankman wrote.
“I saw this movie and know it’s not true,” one user wrote in response to Shankman’s statement. “There’s some shots in this that straight up look like Sora. I keep thinking about it.”
“Notice the wording of ‘fully generative AI shots’, which directly swerves whether shots simply contain genAI with a strawman,” wrote another user. “This is a very intentional ploy because they’re scared of losing your revenue.”
“‘ZERO shots conceived’ is not ‘ZERO shots created,’” pointed out a third. “I see your careful word choice.”
But some users sided with Shankman, like one user who argued that AI “is part of normal production workflows.”
“Many tools in programs like Adobe Premiere may be technically considered AI, but it’s nothing like using Sora or whatever to AI generate content,” they wrote. “Sounds like it’s human made, assisted with digital tools, just like any other modern film.”
Another early viewer of the movie wrote that “it just looks like bad CGI,” not AI-generated footage as other reviewers claimed.
Meanwhile, Cook, the viewer who spearheaded the conversation, returned to social media claiming to have further evidence of AI use in the film. Looking at shots from Stop! That! Train!’s trailer, she pointed out that the train’s design varies from shot to shot in a way inconsistent with traditional CGI methods.
Though Cook conceded that she “can’t say for sure that Stop! That! Train! is using genAI,” she added that the issue hits close to home for her as a queer VFX artist.
“Like many other queer artists, I’m currently out of work and struggling to pay my bills,” she wrote. “We need to take a stand against genAI as a cost cutting measure and hold queer creators to that same standard.”