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Bullet Train Explosion basically sets out its stall in three words.
30 years on from Keanu Reeves’ derring-do in Speed, a school trip to Aomori Shikansen Stock Centre – where Shikansen train cars are temporarily parked, board the bullet train – heading for Tokyo, amongst a full complement of other passengers.
Within ten minutes of the film beginning, a call comes through to the train company’s contact centre, from an anonymous man, threatening that he’s place a bomb on it, and if it goes below 100km/h… yep, as per the title.
Plus, he quickly puts on a demonstration with a freight train, as it drops below its designated 5km/h, albeit with some questionable CGI.
Just be glad there’s no zombies on this conveyance, a la Train to Busan!
The bomber wants 100bn yen (approx £528m), but he wants it to come from the population, not the JR train company. That equates to 1000 yen per person – so, just over a fiver each. That’s one thing, but how do you collect it all?
I’m aiming to go to Japan later this year, and these trains are absolutely gorgeous, unlike the rip-off, risible crap we get in the UK, where they go on strike when there’s a ‘y’ in the day(!)
Bullet Train Explosion features various inconsequential conversations between certain passengers that have contrasting personalities, feeling like a soap opera being played out.
Plus, at 134 minutes, it’s really dragged out, the acting is stilted, the dialogue is bland, and no-one ever feels like they’re really in danger to me. In fact, there’s at least one scene that’s effectively copied straight out of the aforementioned three-decades-old action movie, involving a rescue attempt.
And even when it does do something different, it’s just someone attempting to look menacing, but coming across more “mental, mental, chicken oriental”!
However, it’s amusing that as the situation is initially related to the passengers, one man still calmly eats from his Bento box!
NOTE: There is NO mid- or post-credits scene.
Thanks to our friends at Netflix for the screener prior to release.
Bullet Train Explosion is on Netflix from tomorrow, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
Check out the trailer below:
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 134 minutes
Release date: April 23rd 2025
Studio: Netflix
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Score: 3/10
Director: Shinji Higuchi
Producers: Kota Ishizuka
Music: Taisei Iwasaki, Yuma Yamaguchi
Screenplay: Kazuhiro Nakagawa, Norichika Ôba
Cast:
Kazuya Takaichi: Tsuyoshi Kusanagi
Keiji Fujii: Kanata Hosoda
Chika Matsumoto: Non
Mitsuru Todoroki: Jun Kaname
Yuko Kagami: Machiko Ono
Yuzuki Onodera: Hana Toyoshima
Yuichi Kasagi: Takumi Saitô
Yuko Kagami (English version): Jolene Kim
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.