Train vs. Automaton

     In the dream sequence of Hugo, we are introduced to the idea of people falling onto the train tracks. In his dreams, though, we witness Hugo's nightmare of himself stranded on the train tracks after finding his fathers key. I've come to believe that this was Scorsese's way of showing us that Hugo had to unknowingly sacrifice his father in order to slow down a world (the train) that was moving too fast, leaving some of it's greatest treasures behind. Towards the end of the movie, we again see another body on the train tracks, but this time it is the automaton, thrown there on accident by Hugo and the Station Inspector. After Hugo throws himself after the automaton onto the tracks, we see the desperation this one little boy has to find a reason behind the terrible events in his life, and to save something that shouldn't be up to him to save.
      One of the questions I still have after watching and analyzing this movie extensively, is: why throw the automaton on the train tracks? To Hugo, the automaton symbolizes his father, and the last project they shared together before the museum fire. To Papa Georges, the automaton is everything he once cherished in life. It's the last 'living' piece of his past that he thought was gone forever. By throwing the automaton in front of a train, the two worlds collide. Hugo realizes in this moment, that the automaton is so much more than just a connection to his father. It's Papa Georges world, Hugo's fathers world, that needs to be saved in order to save his own world. Hugo knows that if this automaton is lost, so are his hopes of fixing Papa Georges, and saving the world that he missed out on being a part of. When the automaton is lying on the tracks, it symbolizes the balance Hugo's world hangs in, between plowing over the past and destroying it completely, or slowing down and remembering everything that was once good in a world without war.