I like movies set on trains. There’s something old school about trains that I always find refreshing. I’ve never been on a long train ride through the mountains or anything but it’s something I’ve always wanted to do. It’s a bucket list thing. After I saw David Leitch’s new film The Fall Guy last week, I thought it would be fun to revisit some of Leitch’s earlier films that I haven’t covered on this blog yet, and his 2022 film Bullet Train was the perfect candidate.
I like Bullet Train a lot. It’s action-packed, funny, has great characters and performances, and a twisty, complex plot. It has the DNA of Quentin Tarantino, Shane Black, and Guy Ritchie but doesn’t feel derivative. It’s based on the novel by Japanese author Kotaro Isaka, originally published in Japan in 2010. I read the book after I saw the movie and while I enjoyed the book, I thought that the film fleshed out the story in interesting ways and added connections between the characters that weren’t present in the novel.
The main character of Bullet Train is a hapless assassin played by Brad Pitt. Nicknamed “Ladybug” by his handler Maria, he is an anxious fellow who constantly quotes aphorisms from his therapist (my favorite was “When you point at someone in judgment, there’s four fingers pointing back at you!”) and is suffering from a run of bad luck that resulted in a series of accidental deaths during his previous jobs. His handler Maria is played by Sandra Bullock, although we don’t meet her in person until the end of the film. It’s funny to hear her voice over the phone throughout the movie and think to yourself, “that voice sounds familiar,” and then when you find out whose voice it is at the end of the movie it makes perfect sense.
Sony Pictures
As a fun side note, Bullet Train also has a very brief (and very funny) cameo from Channing Tatum, and Tatum and Bullock enjoyed working with Brad Pitt so much that they offered him a supporting role in their film The Lost City, which was also released in 2022. I like little connections like that.
Anyway, Ladybug’s job is to retrieve a briefcase full of money from a high-speed bullet train in Tokyo. It sounds like a simple job but things soon go off the rails (literally). The case is being looked after by a pair of British assassins called Lemon and Tangerine, played wonderfully by Brian Tyree Henry and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Lemon and Tangerine are both hilarious and are my favorite characters in the film. The banter between Henry and Taylor-Johnson is top-notch and even though they constantly give each other grief you can tell that they have a very close relationship and regard each other as brothers. Lemon is also obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine, and likens everyone he meets to a character from Thomas & Friends. It’s a very funny quirk, and makes Lemon downright lovable at times, even though he and Tangerine kill quite a few people.
Sony Pictures
Lemon and Tangerine are also on the train to transport a man they just rescued from kidnappers back to his father. The man’s father just so happens to be a legendary gangster known only as The White Death. We meet The White Death much later in the film, and he’s played by the great Michael Shannon, an actor so good at playing terrifying villains that he makes a big impression despite limited screen time. But everything goes wrong for Lemon and Tangerine too when the briefcase they are supposed to deliver to The White Death goes missing (because Ladybug stole it) and The White Death’s son dies mysteriously (Ladybug didn’t kill him, meaning there is at least one more assassin lurking on the train).
ALSO on the train is a man named Yuichi Kimura, played by Andrew Koji. Kimura is on the train looking for the person who pushed his young son off a roof, and he soon encounters a young woman known as The Prince, played by Joey King. Despite appearing at first glance to be a normal schoolgirl, The Prince just might be the most devious person on the train. In the novel, The Prince is a teenage boy and his interactions with Kimura are not related to the rest of the characters on the train.
In the book, The Prince encounters the other characters and decides to mess with them because he is a sociopath who enjoys manipulating people, but he isn’t actually connected to everything else going on. The movie makes significant changes to The Prince’s motivations (it’s revealed later that The White Death is The Prince’s father), and the character’s race and gender are different in the movie, but in terms of personality the movie is very faithful to the book’s portrayal of The Prince, and Joey King nails the character’s cunning and the glee she takes in getting people to unwittingly do her bidding.
Sony Pictures
As you’ve probably noticed, there is A LOT going on in Bullet Train, and if it sounds a bit overstuffed that’s because it is (I haven’t even mentioned every character, but I think I’ve mentioned enough). There are so many characters and subplots to keep track of that it can be challenging at times, but the film’s complexity makes it fun to rewatch and find little details you may have missed earlier. It’s also a very darkly funny movie, if you like gallows humor you will get a kick out of this flick for sure. If you don’t find it funny when characters are killed in violent and unexpected ways, then this movie might not be for you. But if that kind of dark humor appeals to you then there is a lot to like in Bullet Train.
The movie is also very nonlinear, it frequently jumps around in time and place. All of the film’s core action takes place on the train, but there are several flashbacks showing the backstories of the characters and these can be a bit jarring. At times it feels like you’re suddenly watching a different movie, and it takes a few minutes to acclimate yourself to a different setting all of a sudden. But everything eventually comes back to the train. Leitch said that he wanted to give the characters flashbacks to get the movie off the train periodically so that audiences wouldn’t get bored or tired of being in the same location for most of the film. That makes sense but the frequent flashbacks are perhaps a bit overdone at times and kinda mess with the film’s pacing.
But this is a minor complaint. The flashbacks are a bit disorienting but they are all relevant to the plot. I also found it impressive that the movie was able to convincingly portray all the various settings, given that it had a modest budget of around $90 million, which isn’t a lot for an action film of this scope. Add the fact that the movie was filmed entirely in Los Angeles during the Covid pandemic, and you are left with an impressive technical achievement. The special effects are terrific and I never had any trouble believing that the film was set in Japan, starting in Tokyo and ending in the Japanese countryside.
The film also packs in a lot of violent and bloody action. This film doesn’t pull punches with its violence, and some of the deaths are surprisingly gruesome. This being a David Leitch movie, the fights are brutal and extremely well-choreographed. Brad Pitt also did most of his own stunts, which is something I respect a lot. Pitt is a very likable protagonist, he has that “Aw, shucks” quality that makes him very appealing and easy to root for, and his terrible luck makes him always feel like an underdog.
Sony Pictures
I also have to mention the great Hiroyuki Sanada, who is a terrific actor and I am always happy to see him in any movie. He is a magnetic actor who is one of those people who disappears into every role and I never have any trouble believing him as every character he plays. It’s impossible to miscast Hiroyuki Sanada because he is good at everything. He’s also a total badass and his character uses a SWORD CANE, and if there is one thing I absolutely love it is a good sword cane. If I ever reach a point in my life where it becomes necessary for me to use a cane, I will do my utmost to ensure that there is a sword in it. Whether the sword would ever be used is irrelevant to me, I just really want a sword cane.
I like Bullet Train a lot. It’s a bit overstuffed and its combination of violence and dark comedy might not be to every viewer’s taste, but if you can get on its wavelength you’ll have a lot of fun with it. If you like violent action movies and don’t mind a healthy dose of gallows humor, you should absolutely check it out.
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