While the 2022 film looks better (thanks to $90 million budget), the 1975 film feels more dangerous. There is no CGI; when the train shakes, you feel the actual vibration of a 1970s camera on a real locomotive.
With a reported production budget of between $85.9 million and $90 million, Bullet Train was a significant investment for Sony Pictures. The film performed solidly at the box office, debuting at number one with a $30.1 million opening weekend in North America and a global start of $62.4 million. It went on to gross $103.4 million in the US and Canada, with a worldwide total of $239.3 million. While it may not have been the blockbuster smash of the summer, its performance was more than enough to ensure a profit, cementing its status as a modest box-office hit and the final major studio offering of the summer season.
For audiences seeking the modern iteration, David Leitch’s Bullet Train (2022) shares only the title and a Japanese high-speed rail setting. That film is a sun-drenched, neon-lit, ultra-violent comedy about rival assassins (Brad Pitt, Joey King, Aaron Taylor-Johnson) whose bad luck intersects on a train from Tokyo to Kyoto. It is a stylistic cousin—fast, fun, and bloody—but it lacks the raw, sweating, desperate tension of the 1975 original.
The calm center of the storm, attempting to apply therapy techniques to a high-stakes assassination job. The Bullet Train Film
Inside "The Bullet Train" Film: A High-Octane Action Masterclass
The editing style (by Elisabet Ronaldsdóttir) often mimics video games. "Lemon" imagines his enemies as characters from Thomas the Tank Engine , turning the violence into a game. This stylization allows the film to be incredibly violent without earning an R-rating; the blood is minimized, and the impact is cartoonish.
: Played by Hiroyuki Sanada and Andrew Koji , these characters bring a grounded, traditional element to the film's themes of family and revenge. While the 2022 film looks better (thanks to
Released in the summer of 2022, Bullet Train roared into theaters, offering a neon-drenched, fast-paced action experience that felt part Guy Ritchie, part Tarantino, and entirely its own chaotic beast. Directed by David Leitch —known for his work on John Wick , Atomic Blonde , and Deadpool 2 —the film successfully blended stylized violence with eccentric comedy, creating a "ride" that critics and audiences largely described as a riotous, fun-filled cinematic experience.
Bullet Train is an adaptation of Kōtarō Isaka's novel Maria Beetle . The film's aesthetic, with its exaggerated characters and hyper-violent set pieces, is often compared to a live-action manga, with some critics noting that it was filmed "a little bit like a Japanese manga". While the film retains the core premise of multiple assassins on a train, it makes significant changes from the source material, most notably in setting the story in Japan but centering its cast largely on non-Japanese characters. Original fans of the novel were quick to point out these differences. Regardless, the film succeeded in capturing the novel's darkly comic, fast-paced spirit, even if it took creative liberties to forge its own identity.
Sound familiar? This plot directly inspired Speed (1994) with Keanu Reeves. of the 70s eschewed martial arts for raw mathematical tension. Starring the legendary Ken Takakura, the film follows the train conductor and the police as they race against time to identify the bombers while keeping the train moving. The film performed solidly at the box office,
Brad Pitt plays "Ladybug," an unlucky assassin who wants to leave his life of crime behind. His therapist convinces him to take a "simple" snatch-and-grab job aboard the eponymous Shinkansen from Tokyo to Morioka. Unfortunately, Ladybug discovers that the train is overflowing with rival hitmen: Tangerine and Lemon (Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Brian Tyree Henry), a British duo protecting a briefcase; The Prince (Joey King), a schoolgirl sociopath with a venomous snake; and Wolf (Bad Bunny), a vengeful killer seeking revenge for his wedding day massacre.
When director David Leitch boarded the project to adapt Kōtarō Isaka’s Japanese thriller novel Maria Beetle , audiences knew they were in for a stylized ride. Released in 2022, Bullet Train transformed a tense, claustrophobic literary thriller into a neon-drenched, hyper-kinetic Hollywood blockbuster. Starring Brad Pitt alongside an ensemble cast of colorful assassins, the film serves as a masterclass in modern action-comedy, blending the intricate puzzle-box plotting of Guy Ritchie with the bone-crunching choreography of John Wick .