Bullet Train (film)

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Bullet Train is a 2022 action comedy film. It is directed by David Leitch (John Wick, Atomic Blonde). It is a Live Action Adaptation of the novel of the same name (originally titled Maria Beetle) by Kōtarō Isaka.

"Ladybug" (Brad Pitt), an assassin just returned to work following a hiatus, is in Tokyo, Japan at the behest of his handler Maria Beetle (Sandra Bullock), who has given him a simple assignment of grabbing a briefcase on board a westbound bullet train and getting off immediately afterwards. Unfortunately, he soon finds that things are never that simple. Yuichi Kimura (Andrew Koji), a Father hunting the person who pushed his son off a rooftop, is trying to make up for his neglect that earned him a chastening from his former Yakuza Elder father (Hiroyuki Sanada) by acting on a tip that the perpetrator is on board the same train. Twins "Lemon" (Brian Tyree Henry) and "Tangerine" (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) are also on board the train to bring back the son of mobster "White Death" (Michael Shannon), as well as a briefcase. Various other characters also make their moves, including a mysterious young lady known as the "Prince" (Joey King).

Tropes used in Bullet Train (film) include:

Absurdly Sharp Blade: The Elder's katana slices through train seats without slowing.
Actor Allusion: This is not the first time Hiroyuki Sanada plays a high-ranking (ex-)Yakuza whose organization is destroyed by a foreigner.
Archnemesis Dad: The White Death, who the Prince wants to kill, turns out to be her father.
Black Dude Dies First: Inverted! Despite two fakeouts, Lemon survives the whole film.
Briefcase Full of Money: The briefcase Ladybug's after contains both cash and gold bars.
Car Fu: The Prince is run over by a tangerine truck, revealed in the stinger to have been driven by Lemon, and presumably dies from it.
Chekhov's Gunman: A certain mascot keeps showing up and messing with the other characters. The Hornet is using such a costume as a disguise.
Chekhov's News: A news broadcast mentions that a boomslang has escaped from a zoo. Naturally, it finds its way onto the train.
Contrived Coincidence: This gets a bit of a workout, in line with the centrality of destiny, fate and luck in the film -
- Seriously, what are the odds of so many killers being on the same train? Subverted. The White Death arranged for them to be there as part of his plan to avenge his wife.
- Ladybug and the Hornet both happened to be at the Wolf's wedding, and the former just happened to spill wine on the Wolf, so he went to try to clean up the stain... and avoided eating the poisoned cake.
- The White Death's wife was in his car instead of him the day Carver made an attempt on his life because he was in Bolivia fixing the mess the twins had made. She would have survived had a top heart surgeon been available... except that it just happened that two days ago the man got assassinated by the Hornet.
Cruel and Unusual Death: Boomslang venom makes the blood congeal before bleeding horribly from the eyes and vomiting. If you don't get antivenom within 30 seconds, you're dead.
Dead-Man Switch: The Prince has someone in position to kill Yuichi's son if she isn't heard from at regular intervals.
Demoted to Extra: Minegishi was an important character in the original novel, and the son being escorted by Lemon and Tangerine was his. Here, he was killed in the backstory by the White Death during the latter's takeover.
Double Tap: The Prince shoots Lemon thrice. Fortunately for him, he was wearing a Bulletproof Vest, and she didn't go for the head or stick around long enough to ensure he actually died.
Emergency Impersonation: Partway through the film, events force Ladybug to pretend to be Lemon and meet the White Death's mooks alongside Tangerine.
Experienced Protagonist: Ladybug has been in the business for a while before his hiatus, including crossing paths with various other characters on past jobs.
Extremely Short Timespan: The whole film, barring flashbacks, takes place over the course of an overnight journey.
Foreshadowing: Lemon and Tangerine have a conversation in which Lemon says he's got a Bulletproof Vest on and Tangerine says he doesn't bother because it doesn't protect the neck. The vest protects Lemon from the Prince. Tangerine is fatally wounded by a shot to the neck.
Grievous Bottley Harm: Yuichi breaks a bottle on a mook's head.
Hoist by His Own Petard:
- The Wolf's thrown knife bounces off the briefcase and flies right back into himself.
- The Hornet dies to her own venom.
- The White Death likes killing would-be assassins with their own weapons. The Prince carries a booby-trapped pistol that she plans for him to try doing just that with.
Hollywood Japan: Between the Mt Fuji shot, taking place on the eponymous most iconic of Japanese public transport, the cyberpunk neon colouration, the demon-masked mooks, the Cherry Blossoms raining on katana-wearing Yakuza - one of whom is even wearing a kimono - framed by a torii, cute mascots and fancy toilets, it is an unabashed greatest hits of Cool Japan.
I Never Said It Was Poison: Lemon has just had a conversation with the Prince and Yuichi and is about to go on his way. Then, in an And Another Thing moment, he points out that when "case" is mentioned on a train, most people think "suitcase", but the Prince said "briefcase" instead...
Inferred Holocaust: The train violently derails at the end, smashing through several buildings. The likelihood of all of them just happening to be Conveniently Empty is very low.
The Law of Conservation of Detail: It probably isn't too much of a spoiler to say that the briefcase Ladybug is supposed to grab is also the very same one the twins are supposed to be protecting.
Malevolent Masked Men: The White Death is initially introduced wearing a full-faced oni mask and several of his mooks wear mouth-covering ones.
Meaningful Name:
- The Prince's moniker holds more significance than just being a sign of her parents' thwarted hopes of a boy. It foreshadows that she's a Mafia Princess.
- The Hornet is an assassin that uses venom as her Weapon of Choice.
Mundane Made Awesome: A seemingly ordinary Fiji Water bottle gets a title card and backstory.
Of Corpse He's Alive: Done not once but thrice with the Wolf, the White Death's son, and the Hornet.
Only Known by Their Nickname: Almost everyone goes by codenames. Yuichi is the only clear exception, since "Maria Beetle" is ambiguous enough that it could go either way.
Pocket Protector: Ladybug's phone saves him from a stabbing by the Wolf.
Race Lift: Most of the named characters in the original novel were Asian, mainly Japanese. Here, despite the setting staying in Japan, almost all of them except The Elder are white or of African descent.
Reality Ensues: Near the end, Ladybug and Lemon are having an Enemy Mine moment fighting against the White Death's mooks. Lemon says that he's found a new brother, and Ladybug and probably the audience are expecting this to lead to Fire-Forged Friends. Then Lemon scoffs, and the audience is reminded that no, people don't actually become buddy-buddy quite so easily.
Running Gag: Lemon keeps talking about Thomas the Tank Engine, including likening others to characters from that franchise.
Russian Roulette: The White Death also likes doing this to his would-be victims.
Ruthless Foreign Gangsters: The White Death is a Russian who climbed the ranks of Minegishi's organisation until he could secretly form a rival group, do a violent takeover, and supplant his former superior as head of the Japanese underworld.
A Simple Plan: Board train. Steal a briefcase. Get off train at next stop. That was all Ladybug was supposed to have needed to do. Of course, things didn't work out that way.
Small Role, Big Impact: Carver appears for less than a minute, but his killing the White Death's wife while trying to kill the man causes the whole mess.
Soft Water: Lemon tackles a mook off the train and down quite the fall from elevated tracks into water. Both of them survive.
The Stinger: Lemon and the mook he tackled survived their fall off elevated tracks into water. Lemon kills the mook and hijacks a tangerine truck, which is revealed to be the same one that ran over the Prince.
There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Lemon and Tangerine simultaneously stab a mook in the neck with swords.
Three-Point Landing: The White Death sticks his landing after getting Blown Across the Room by an explosion this way.
The Voice: Maria is not seen in the flesh until the end of the film.
Would Hurt a Child: The Prince pushed Yuichi's young son off a rooftop, and has someone in the hospital in position to finish the job if she dies.