Movie: Bullet Train (2022) Caution Spoiler Alert

 Bullet Train

Came out; 2022

Time; 2 hours 7 minutes

Watched: On Demand

Rating; TV-MA

IMDB Rating; R for strong bloody violence, pervasive language and brief sexuality

Caution; Spoiler Alert

Staring;

Brad Pitt as Ladybug

Joey King as Prince

Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Tangerine

Brian Tyree Henry as Lemon

Andrew Koji as Kimura

Hiroyuki Sanada as The Elder

Michael Shannon as White Death

Sandra Bullock as Maria

Bad Bunny as Wolf

Zazie Beerz as The Hornet

Story Line;

Unlucky assassin Ladybug (Brad Pitt) is determined to do his job peacefully after one too many gigs has gone off the rails. Fate has other plans, however: Ladybug's latest mission puts him on a collision course with lethal adversaries from around the globe--all with connected, yet conflicting, objectives--on the world's fastest train. The end of the line is just the beginning in this non-stop thrill-ride through modern-day Japan

Thoughts;

Lots of things going on with this movie, it's hard to tell a little which is the most important story. It was fast paced and lots of action and in the end, it all comes together.

It was pretty good and had a few funny moments.

CAUTION; Major Spoiler Alert

A former professional assassin code-named Ladybug returns to work with a newly positive attitude, where he is tasked by his handler, Maria Beetle, to collect a briefcase aboard a bullet train travelling from Tokyo to Kyoto after her normal contact, Carver, is forced to call out due to illness. Unbeknownst to Ladybug, three other killers are on board: hit-men brothers Tangerine and Lemon, and deceptively innocent schoolgirl The Prince. Tangerine and Lemon have been hired by White Death, head of the world's largest crime syndicate, who seized control of the Japanese underworld years before.

Having recovered the crime lord's kidnapped son and the briefcase containing his US$10 million ransom, the brothers are delivering both to Kyoto. The Prince summons another assassin, Yuichi Kimura, to the train, having pushed his young son off a building. With an associate at the hospital ready to finish the boy off, the Prince forces Kimura to cooperate with her plan: rigging the briefcase and Kimura's gun with explosives to kill White Death. Stealing the briefcase, Ladybug is forced to kill another assassin, The Wolf, who arrives seeking revenge for the deaths of his wife and his entire cartel, poisoned at their wedding.

Realising the briefcase is missing, the brothers find White Death's son dead by poisoning. The Prince leads Tangerine to believe Ladybug is responsible, while Ladybug attempts to negotiate with Lemon but is forced to subdue him. Ladybug runs into the Wolf's intended target, The Hornet - the poisoner who massacred his wedding, hired to kill White Death's son. She stabs Ladybug with a syringe of boom-slang venom but he injects her as well, then saves himself with her only dose of anti-venom, and she dies instead.

Fighting Tangerine to a stalemate, Ladybug tries to help him convince White Death's men that his son and the briefcase are safe, then kicks Tangerine off the train. Suspicious of Kimura and the Prince, Lemon shoots Kimura but succumbs to a bottle of water drugged by Ladybug, and is shot by the Prince. Climbing back inside the train, Tangerine finds his brother's body and confronts the Prince, but is fatally shot in a scuffle with Ladybug. Kimura's father, The Elder, boards the train and reveals himself as a former Yakuza lieutenant whose wife and clan were killed in White Death's rise to power.

Ensuring his grandson's safety by having the Prince's associate killed, he and Ladybug find Kimura and Lemon still alive, and they all prepare for the ambush awaiting them. The train arrives in Kyoto, and Ladybug is met by White Death and his men. The Prince, revealed to be White Death's disgruntled daughter, tries to goad him into firing Kimura's booby-trapped gun, but he instead tells her she was never part of his plan. The White Death reveals that he hired all the assassins aboard the train as revenge for the murder of his wife.

After Tangerine and Lemon massacred his men during a job in Bolivia, his wife was called to bail their son out of jail and was killed by Carver, who meant to assassinate her husband. And the surgeon who was going to save his wife was poisoned by the Hornet, ensuring her death by killing the one person who could've saved her. Blaming the brothers, Carver, the Hornet and his own son, White Death arranged for all the assassins - including the Wolf, and Ladybug, who unwittingly replaced Carver on the train - to kill each other and his son. Before White Death can kill Ladybug, the briefcase bomb is triggered, knocking them both onto the train which Lemon sets back in motion.

As the train speeds out of control, the Elder duels White Death while Kimura and Ladybug fight off his henchmen. Lemon tackles a thug off the train into the river below, and the train derails, crashing into a nearby town. Ladybug is held at gunpoint by White Death. He attempts to shoot Ladybug, but is killed himself when Kimura's gun explodes. Ladybug, Kimura, and his father are confronted by the murderous Prince, who is run over by Lemon driving a truck carrying tangerines. Maria arrives to rescue Ladybug, who has fully embraced a positive outlook on life.