Bullet train
Courtesy : en.wikipedia.org
Bullet Train is a 2022 American action comedy film directed by David Leitch from a screenplay by Zak Olkewicz, and produced by Antoine Fuqua, who initially conceived the film. It is based on the 2010 novel Maria Beetle (titled Bullet Train in its UK and US edition) by Kōtarō Isaka. The film stars Brad Pitt as a begrudging assassin who must battle fellow killers while riding a fictionalized version of the Tokaido Shinkansen. In addition to Pitt, the film stars an ensemble cast which also includes Joey King, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Andrew Koji, Hiroyuki Sanada, Michael Shannon, Bad Bunny, and Sandra Bullock.
Principal photography began in Los Angeles in November 2020 and wrapped in March 2021. Bullet Train premiered in Paris on July 18, 2022, and was theatrically released in the United States on August 5, 2022, by Sony Pictures Releasing. The film has grossed $211.8 million worldwide on a production budget of around $90 million, and received mixed reviews from critics.
Plot
In Tokyo, grieving father Yuichi Kimura seeks revenge after an unknown assailant pushes his son off a rooftop. Meanwhile, former assassin “Ladybug” is assigned to retrieve a briefcase from a bullet train bound for Kyoto. Also on the train are Yuichi, a young woman called the “Prince” who attacked his son, two assassin brothers called “Lemon” and “Tangerine” assigned to escort both the briefcase and the son of a Russian-born Yakuza boss known as the “White Death”. Ladybug retrieves the briefcase, but is attacked by another assassin called the “Wolf”, who blames Ladybug for fatally poisoning his entire wedding party. The Wolf’s knife attack backfires and results in his own death. Ladybug stashes the briefcase away. Meanwhile, the Prince reveals to Yuichi that she pushed his son off the roof to lure him to the train as part of an elaborate plan to assassinate the White Death, as well as the fact that she currently has a goon holding his son hostage in the hospital. While Lemon and Tangerine search for the missing briefcase, the White Death’s son is murdered in the same way as the Wolf’s wedding guests.
Ladybug offers the briefcase to Lemon in return for getting off the train. Lemon suspects that Ladybug killed the White Death’s son, leading to a fight in which Lemon is knocked unconscious. The Prince and Yuichi find the briefcase and booby-trap it with explosives to kill the White Death. Ladybug encounters Tangerine and kicks him off the train, but Tangerine manages to climb back aboard. A suspicious Lemon shoots and injures Yuichi, but collapses after drinking from a water bottle Ladybug had earlier spiked with a sleeping drug. The Prince shoots Lemon and stashes him and Yuichi in a bathroom. Ladybug encounters yet another assassin – the “Hornet”, who poisoned the White Death’s son and the Wolf’s wedding party with boomslang venom. After a struggle, Ladybug injects the Hornet with her own poison, then uses her antivenom on himself, causing her death. Tangerine runs into the Prince, and realizes that she shot Lemon, but Ladybug attacks before he can shoot her, killing Tangerine with his own gun. Believing the Prince to be innocent, Ladybug agrees to protect her.
Yuichi’s father, the “Elder”, boards the train and sees that the Prince is lying. After she flees, the Elder tells Ladybug that he is seeking revenge against the White Death, who killed his wife while taking over the Yakuza. They discover that Yuichi and Lemon are still alive, and the four work together to face the White Death. At Kyoto, Ladybug gives the briefcase to the White Death. The Prince, revealed to be the White Death’s estranged daughter, tries to goad him into shooting her with Yuichi’s rigged gun, but she fails. The White Death explains that every assassin on the train, as well as his own son (who was killed by his arrangement), were responsible in some way for the death of his wife (except for Ladybug, who was filling in for another operative), and that he hired them all in the hopes they would kill each other. The White Death’s henchmen open the booby trapped briefcase, which explodes, knocking Ladybug back onto the train. The White Death and his remaining henchmen board and battle the assassins. Their fight causes the train to hurtle out of control and crash into downtown Kyoto. Emerging from the wreck, the White Death (who is fatally wounded by the Elder) tries to shoot Ladybug, but is killed by the rigged gun. The Prince threatens Ladybug, Yuichi and the Elder with a machine gun, but is suddenly struck and killed by a passing truck – later revealed to have been driven by Lemon, avenging Tangerine’s death in the process. Ladybug’s handler Maria arrives to retrieve him as he celebrates finally getting off the bullet train.
