One Night on Bullet Train – Review

Molly Kurpis ’25 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer 

David Leitch’s Bullet Train (2022) is a two hour action-packed comedy filled with powerhouse performances, exciting visuals, and storytelling at its finest. Based on the 2010 novel written by Kōtarō Isaka, Bullet Train is an adrenaline-fueled adventure about luck, fate, and what it means to follow one’s destiny.

Spoilers ahead.

Bullet Train heavily focuses on its protagonist Ladybug (Brad Pitt). An assassin sent to take a briefcase from the lethal Lemon and Tangerine (Aaron Johnson and Bryan Henry), Ladybug stumbles through his unluckiness as he meets various characters that further prompt the briefcase’s purpose. Ladybug acts as the glue that holds all of the plots together. His interactions with every single character carries the story along – incidentally, his bad luck is what drives the story forward. Ladybug is the only character to run into The Wolf (Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio) and Hornet (Zazie Beetz). Though their interactions last only in one scene, these minor characters string Ladybug’s story to the other two running plot lines. 

Ladybug is given a fun storyline. Since he interacts with the most characters, the audience really gets to see the spastic, luckless personality he holds. Pitt does a wonderful job at being frustrated and confused, using the two emotions to push humor that lands for some, but not for others. A few critics deemed Bullet Train to be “unfunny,” since most of the movie’s humor revolves around slapstick and cursing. Still, the film’s quick-paced storytelling makes for an exciting two hours, whether or not the humor works.

Ladybug is also the clarifier of the film’s relatively extensive plot. Exposition is used to explain details and important points that ties everything together in the third act, accomplished through Maria Beetle (Sandra Bullock), Ladybug’s handler. Exposition is a gamble in movies: spoon-feeding information to the audience is often regarded as “safe” and can get boring quickly. Bullet Train’s exposition was purposeful: the film’s plot already has a lot of working pieces, and Maria’s phone calls guide the audience through important details and plotlines.

Arguably the most memorable storyline of Bullet Train involves the twins, better known as Lemon and Tangerine. The two British assassins are hired by the White Death (Michael Shannon) to retrieve the same briefcase Ladybug is after. Henry and Johnson have wonderful chemistry: their scene work together is witty and brilliant. They also demonstrate the movie’s ability to develop characters in compelling manners. For example, Lemon and Tangerine get into an argument about how many people they’ve killed together. In a five minute scene, complete with flash cuts and bodies galore, the twins’ close relationship and lethality are revealed through the seventeen, not sixteen, casualties they’ve killed. It is the scenes like these that make Bullet Train such a special movie; entertaining in all of its visuals and dialogue. 

What makes Lemon and Tangerine’s storyline the strongest is the acute balance between action and emotion. When Lemon finds Tangerine’s body, shot after a rough encounter with Ladybug, the film plays a flashback that showcases how young the Twins were upon knowing and being friends with one another. Accompanied by melancholy music and tears no assassins ever wear, the tear-jerking scene of Tangerine’s death is avenged at the end of the film, when Lemon runs The Prince over with a tangerine truck.

Bullet Train’s final storyline intercepts The Prince and Yuichi Kimura (Joey King and Andrew Koji). This part of the movie is the weakest: it doesn’t have the humor Ladybug brings or the comradery Tangerine and Lemon share. The emotional aspects of family relationships are explored, but these scenes lack the exciting action sequences the other two plotlines withhold. Furthermore, the storyline doesn’t become important until the very end. When it is revealed The Prince is the White Death’s daughter, the final battle scenes commence: White Death’s hitmen versus the assassins, finally working together to defeat the man who brought them all there in the first place. 

Leitch’s new film is no short of the thrilling action-comedies he is known for making. Bullet Train incorporates a refreshing style of bright visuals and exciting fight sequences, emotional backstories and true lessons in what it means to follow one’s fate. From Fiji water to Thomas the Tank Engine, there’s never a dull moment on this ride.