DAVID LEITCH’S ACTION EXTRAVAGANZA SEES SOME GRISLY ASSASSINS RIPPING THROUGH JAPAN — ON WHEELS. THE DIRECTOR, STAR BRAD PITT AND MORE TELL US HOW THEY CLUNG ON FOR THEIR LIVES

WORDS JOHN NUGENT

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THE JAPANESE SHINKANSEN train — widely referred to in English as the ‘bullet train’ — has a spotless safety record. In over five decades of service, and over ten billion passengers, there has never been so much as a minor collision. In public transport terms, it is surely the safest way to travel. So what happens when you chuck around half-a-dozen cold-blooded killers onto one and let them run riot?

That’s the premise of the efficiently titled Bullet Train, which sees an international cadre of assassins on a single Shinkansen train, all fighting — potentially, to the death — over a single briefcase full of money. “I have actually taken this particular journey,” says Brad Pitt, who plays one of said assassins, working under the operational codename ‘Ladybug’. “From Tokyo to Kyoto. It’s a special train trip.” At no point on that journey, however, did he encounter samurai swords, an anime mascot, or a complex web of global criminality vying for one steel suitcase.

Forged in the chaotic latter half of 2020, when Hollywood was still only just grinding back to life from Covid shutdowns, it is a film specifically moulded to be lightly ludicrous and nakedly entertaining, a bright response to the dark headlines of the day. For director David Leitch — the stuntman-turned-filmmaker who, with the likes of J The film, he says, just went “in the direction of joy”.

Brian Tyree Henry, who plays another of the assassins, agrees: “We started filming that movie at, like, the crux of the world. We were in the thick of the pandemic, the [2020 US Presidential] election was coming up. Everyone was mad. What better movie to do than one where you can come and, like, try to kill all your peers?” He laughs. “It was very cathartic.”

This is a summer blockbuster that seems to know exactly what it is: an absurd, balls-to-the-wall, go-for-broke action-comedy, played out at 200 mph. With more than just tickets being punched, it’s fair to say that the Shinkansen’s spotless safety record is about to go out the window. Here’s what it took to make it: the key ingredients for this summer’s craziest action-comedy high-speed journey. All aboard.