The Color-Coded Hijackers The Taking of Pelham One Two Three

Screenwriter Peter Stone gave the four hijackers in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) color-coded aliases -- Mr. Blue, Mr. Green, Mr. Grey, and Mr. Brown -- replacing the real character names from John Godey's novel (Ryder, Longman, Welcome/Benvenuto, Steever). The device solved a screenplay problem: four men in identical disguises need to be distinguishable to the audience without breaking their anonymity. The colors work because they are arbitrary. They carry no information about the men behind them, which is exactly what a professional operation would want.

Stone's screenplay stripped the novel's backstories and replaced them with operational anonymity

Godey's novel distributed attention across interior monologues and detailed backstories for each hijacker. Stone cut all of that. He kept the four-man squad structure but replaced the novel's psychological depth with surface discipline -- the aliases tell the audience exactly as much as the hostages know, which is nothing. The hijackers' hats match their code names, providing the only visual distinction in a group deliberately dressed to be interchangeable.

"Peter Stone's screenplay concerns itself with establishing the individual identities of the crooks" through action and dialogue rather than exposition, building "people with interconnecting lives and competing agendas." — Of or Involving Motion Pictures (2017)

Stone also fictionalized the escape mechanism -- the dead-man's override device that Blue clamps to the control handle -- at the Transit Authority's insistence. The TA refused to cooperate unless the production ensured the crime depicted on screen could not actually be replicated. Joseph Sargent described the concern plainly:

"We're making a movie, not a handbook on subway hijacking." — Joseph Sargent, Cinephilia & Beyond

The result was a screenplay that withheld information strategically. The aliases were part of that withholding -- a device that made the hijackers legible as functions (leader, technician, liability, extra) while keeping their identities opaque until the investigation revealed them.

The color names make the hijackers feel like functions rather than people

The aliases do something structurally that real names cannot: they flatten the criminals into roles. Mr. Blue is the leader. Mr. Green is the technician. Mr. Grey is the volatile one. Mr. Brown fills out the squad. The colors carry no psychological weight, which is exactly why they work -- they signal that these men have subordinated their identities to the operation.

"Mr. Blue, Mr. Brown, Mr. Green, and Mr. Grey are all as distinct as their names, each having a key role" -- but the naming convention deliberately makes them feel "less like people we can relate to and more like emotionless blank slates." — Digital Trends

The Cinephilia & Beyond retrospective detailed the four men behind the aliases:

"Mr Blue (Robert Shaw): An icy English mercenary so confident he brings crossword puzzles. Mr Green (Martin Balsam): A flu-ridden former motorman and reluctant criminal. Mr Brown (Earl Hindman): The stuttering member. Mr Grey (Hector Elizondo): A psychotic operator cast out by the Mafia." — Tim Pelan, Cinephilia & Beyond

The aliases migrated directly to Reservoir Dogs

Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (1992) uses color-coded aliases -- Mr. White, Mr. Orange, Mr. Blonde, Mr. Pink, Mr. Blue, Mr. Brown -- as a direct homage to Pelham. Mr. Blue and Mr. Brown appear in both films. The connection is well documented and was one of the ways Pelham reached a younger audience that might not otherwise have encountered a 1974 subway thriller.

"Before Quentin Tarantino co-opted their colorful monikers for his crew of overzealous gangsters in Reservoir Dogs (1992), Misters Blue, Green, Grey, and Brown hijacked a New York City subway train in Joseph Sargent's The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)." — Screen Slate, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three

"If this rings a bell to the cinephiles reading this, yes, this inspired Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs." — SBIFF

The BFI retrospective on Reservoir Dogs confirmed the lineage, noting that Tarantino's color-coded crooks "echo those -- Blue, Grey, Brown -- from The Taking of Pelham 123." (bfi)

Turner Classic Movies documented it plainly:

"He borrowed the code names -- Mr. White, Mr. Blonde, Mr. Pink, etc. -- from the original The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)." — Turner Classic Movies

Tarantino added uniforms and turned the aliases inward

In Pelham, the color names are operational -- the hijackers use them on the radio and with the hostages, shielding their real identities from the police. In Reservoir Dogs, the function is different: the aliases shield the criminals from each other. Joe Cabot assigns the names before the job so that if anyone is caught, he cannot give up his partners. When Mr. Pink objects to his assigned color, Joe shuts him down: "No way, no way. Tried it once, it doesn't work. You get four guys all fighting over who's gonna be Mr. Black."

Tarantino also layered in matching black suits, which serve a separate practical purpose:

"It actually has a basis in reality, because a lot of times when robbers will commit a robbery, they want to adopt a uniform, could be suits, could be anything, could be Raiders jackets, it could be parkas... the idea is that they go in and they do the robbery and they all look alike." — Quentin Tarantino, SlashFilm

Stone's screenplay did not need the uniforms -- his hijackers were already underground, unseen by the public. Tarantino's robbers operate in the open, so the suits solve a different problem: making witnesses useless.

Tony Scott's 2009 remake dropped the aliases entirely

Tony Scott's remake replaced the color-coded system with real names and a single antagonist (John Travolta's Ryder). The codenames had become so associated with Tarantino that reusing them would have felt like quoting the wrong film. The device Peter Stone invented for a subway thriller in 1974 had, through Tarantino, become the permanent property of a different heist movie.

"Did you know that Quentin Tarantino borrowed Reservoir Dogs' colourful codenames from Sargent's film?" — Mark Harrison, Film Stories

The real names carry the character work

In Stone's screenplay, the aliases are operational -- the hijackers use them on the radio and with the hostages. But the film gives the audience the real names through the investigation, and the real names do the character work. Robert Shaw's Mr. Blue is Bernard Ryder, a former British mercenary. Martin Balsam's Mr. Green is Harold Longman, a fired motorman whose persistent cold becomes the detail that unravels the plot. Hector Elizondo's Mr. Grey is Giuseppe Benvenuto, ex-Mafia, whose volatility is the operation's greatest liability. Earl Hindman's Mr. Brown is George Steever, the least developed of the four -- the one who is there to fill out the squad.

The tension between the aliases and the real identities is part of the film's structure. The hijackers try to be interchangeable. The film insists they are not.