'John Wick' Meets Agatha Christie in This 126-Minute Sleeper Action Hit

Published Sep 27, 2026, 12:08 AM EDT

If you think your morning commute seems perilous, spare a thought for Brad Pitt’s Ladybug in the 2022 action-comedy Bullet Train. Currently slicing its way up the Hulu charts, the movie takes the world of assassins and puts it on high-speed rails, as a colorful cast of familiar faces clash in the carriages in David Leitch’s inventive, hilarious adaptation of Kōtarō Isaka's 2010 novel. With kinetic action that evokes the John Wick franchise, and a multi-character mystery worthy of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, it’s been a sleeper hit for action fans.

‘Bullet Train’ is a High-Speed Battle Royale

Image via Sony Pictures

Brad Pitt stars as Ladybug, an assassin with a reputation for being a bad luck charm to all those around him. Drafted in by his handler (Sandra Bullock) as a last-minute replacement on a job, he boards a bullet train departing Tokyo with the aim of retrieving a suitcase. His hopes for a quiet journey are dashed when he discovers the vehicle is filled with fellow killers, all with interweaving motives and orders. What begins as a routine job spirals into a chain reaction of mistaken identities and fate‑driven twists that tie every passenger’s destinies together.

Playing out like a video game come to life, the movie ignites the screen with a knowing wink and self-referential humor. Each carriage, and each stop offers a new ‘level’, with the enjoyment coming in the variety of wild encounters and twists in the tale. There’s never time to get bored as a new challenger comes to meet Ladybug, who usually greets them with a tired sigh. While he may not be happy to see them, it offers one of the most diverse and intriguing casts in modern memory.

An All-Star Cast Makes for a Hilarious Adventure

Image via Sony Pictures

It feels like every seat on Leitch’s express journey has a character worthy of a film in their own right, played by an actor who makes the most of every moment. There’s English assassins Tangerine and Lemon (Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Bryan Tyree Henry), Prince (Joey King), a young hit woman disguised as a schoolgirl, stoic patriarch Elder (Hiroyuki Sanada), and criminal kingpin The White Death, played with menace by Michael Shannon.

Some might think that makes for a train that’s too crowded, but the ensemble offers a tonal spread that keeps the viewer interested. Taylor-Johnson and Henry feel ripped straight from a buddy comedy, while King adds a shiver of mystery that belongs in a paperback thriller. Sanada brings a seriousness and gravitas to proceedings, while Shannon works as the puppet master, manipulating all who come aboard. Each character shifts the energy within the carriage, making for a story made of very different chapters. There’s a feast of familiar faces who make small but significant appearances, such as rapper Bad Bunny and Marvel star Zazie Beetz. It’s their ability to bring individual flavors, and complications, to proceedings that make it all the more compelling to untangle the web.

Brad Pitt Continues His Late-Career Resurgence

At the center of it all, of course, is Pitt, as the charmingly unwilling protagonist who treats each life-threatening duel like an inconvenience. His pacifist assassin is something of a contradiction, and watching Ladybug’s reluctance to dispatch his opponents (even when it means his own survival) is a consistent highlight of the movie. It’s also a notable chapter in his late-career resurgence, as Pitt rushes toward his sixties with an Oscar and a desire to make interesting work.

Having spent much of the early part of his career pigeonholed as a Hollywood heartthrob, age has suited the actor who always chased a variety of different roles. In his late fifties and early sixties, that's meant creating some truly iconic performances; he won his first Academy Award three years prior as Cliff Booth, the cool and mysterious right-hand man of Leonardo DiCaprio in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. While Ladybug may not have the composure of that role, Bullet Train is another example of the actor’s charisma shining through as he becomes less of a matinée idol and more of a pulp hero. It also gives him the opportunity to be funny in a way that wasn’t possible when he was an up-and-coming leading man.

Four years after its release, Bullet Train remains a fresh and exciting movie with Hollywood favorites at every turn and a momentum that won’t let up until the story reaches its destination. If you’ve ever wondered why Pitt remains a superstar at the age most are looking toward retirement, look no further than this unique cinematic obstacle course.