Directed by David Leitch
Written by Zak Olkewicz, based on a novel by Kôtarô Isawa
Starring Brad Pitt, Joey King, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, (Michael Shannon)
Running time 2 hours, 6 minutes
Rated R for bloody violence, pervasive language
In theaters August 5

by “Doc” Hunter Bush, Staff Writer

Boy howdy did I have a good time with Bullet Train! While it’s not going to leave any lasting emotional imprint on you, or win accolades for its stunt work or choreography, David Leitch’s latest is a big, candy-colored actioner with hit after hit of instant gratification, like pumping dollar after dollar into a gachapon machine. It does some really interesting things with music, and running gags and in its best moments genuinely approaches the avant-garde. BUT. Fair warning (and my biggest point of criticism) There’s not enough Michael Shannon. Not by damn sight.

Brad Pitt plays a mercenary returning to the job after some time off while he’s been seeing a therapist and generally trying to self-actualize past his belief that he is cursed with unending bad luck. To that end, his handler has christened him Ladybug as his new codename, drawing on the belief that Ladybugs are lucky. He’s non-violent and only took this particular job because A) it’s supposed to a basic Grab-The-Briefcase-And-Leave job, and B) the other guy called out sick.

Unfortunately for him, the briefcase is located on the titular bullet train traveling to Kyoto which is positively bursting with other, much less pacifistic mercenaries. As they make themselves known to the audience, and/or Ladybug, the film jumps around in time explaining how and why they’re all unknowingly convening on this train. Some are working, some are seeking revenge. The twins, Lemon and Tangerine (Brian Tyree Henry and Aaron Taylor-Johnson respectively) are escorting the son of a crime boss, recently rescued (by them) from kidnappers. The briefcase Ladybug is after was the ransom money, but he doesn’t exactly know that.

Also on the train is Kimura (Andrew Koji), a father whose son was pushed from the roof of a department store. He was lured to the train by the person responsible, who intends to use Kimura as a weapon against the same crime boss whose son is now on board. This crime boss is Michael Shannon, a Russian who rose through the ranks of a Japanese crime family due to his sheer brutality, despite his outsider status. His name is White Death, and his shadow looms large over the entire film but, despite getting a bunch of his backstory early on, Bullet Train is disappointingly light on Shannon.

Michael Shannon, as the folks at the bus stop are tired of hearing me say, is one of our greatest living actors. He chooses projects sparingly, so any time he shows up in something, I crave a full film’s worth of the man some call “Big Chicago”. By that metric Premium Rush, The Shape of Water, and Take Shelter are all great Michael Shannon movies while Bullet Train is a great movie with a Michael Shannon deficiency. And hey, I get it: White Death is a great, extremely fun role to see Shannon play and the story is structured in such a way that he shows up the perfect amount for the character. It’s also just not the right amount of Mike Shannon. Both of these things can be true.

The flick isn’t lacking in characters by any means, and they’re of the big, colorful variety that all but demand trading cards. As opposed to something like Atomic Blonde (also directed by David Leitch) where the characters are a little more grounded in a reality, everyone in Bullet Train could almost have wandered out of the world of The Venture Bros. The Wolf (Bad Bunny, né Benito A Martínez Ocasio) for example, is a Mexican knife pervert still wearing the bloodstained suit from his wedding, seeking revenge on the persons responsible for the death of not only his wife-to-be, but the entire wedding party. He has about ten minutes total screen time, yet I have a good handle on his character and motivations. There doesn’t need to be any more of him in the movie than there is, but he’s such a fun character that I wouldn’t have minded if there was.

The same goes for pretty much all the characters. Some get more development and screen time than others, but only one feels underserved - Zazie Beetz as The Hornet. She serves more as a plot device than a character which would be a problem in any case but here, it’s doubly so for wasting Beetz, though I presume that her cameo is more of a favor to David Leitch who directed her in Deadpool 2.

There’s a certain visual flair to Bullet Train that really works. It’s not something wholly original, it’s just being done here better than in a number of similar films that attempt it: the totemizaton of objects. Certain items become tied to the characters and can be tracked throughout numerous interactions and fight scenes so much so that, late in the film, there’s a ten second break where we follow the adventures of a particular inanimate object from its boarding the train to the then-current moment. It’s a sequence that really shines and feels like something you’d expect from more narratively experimental directors like Daniels, for example. And somehow, despite happening in the middle of a semi-climactic battle, it doesn’t do anything to upset the flow of the movie or the dramatic build of the scene.

If there’s one thing that I can say Bullet Train did better than most any other film I’ve seen this year, it’s creating pleasantly modular action sequences. In an era where big, messy, sprawling (heavily CGI) fights are the soup du jour, Bullet Train relies on clever choreography and contained spaces. For example, Ladybug and Lemon have a fight where they never leave the booth they’re sitting in on the train’s quiet car, but it’s fun, and inventive, and the action is easy to follow and unpredictable. The geometry of the train lends itself perfectly to choreographic reinvention and creative camera work.

Perhaps it’s a reaction to the gravity of the last few years, but 2022 has already had so many Big Fun movies released. On that metric, Bullet Train fits nicely alongside things like Everything Everywhere All at Once, RRR, The Princess, The Lost City, and even Elvis. Regardless of their differing aims as far as meaning, you’ll find yourself smiling and engaged the entire time. In execution, Bullet Train comes off somewhere between James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad (2021) and any of John Woo’s ‘90s output (Face/Off, Broken Arrow, etc.). I’m a physical media supporter, so when I tell you I can’t wait to own a copy of this, I hope you know how much I mean it.