The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Warwick chapter.
The first time I watched Bullet Train, I really enjoyed it. The characters are really fun, the cast is great, and it’s all very aesthetically pleasing. It’s a good watch, but unfortunately, I cannot look past the train wreck of a plot (pun intended).
After my first watch, I was just confused. After my second watch, I was admittedly less confused, but there’s still a lot that doesn’t make any sense.
This is my (full spoilers!) list of plot holes and discrepancies:
- The Elder (Hiroyuki Sanada) worked for Minegishi (Nobuaki Shimamoto) and watched his downfall at the hands of the White Death (Michael Shannon), resulting in a longstanding vendetta lasting the whole movie. So why does Kimura (Andrew Koji), his son, work for the White Death? Is Kimura not bothered that his boss killed his mother? How does the elder have no qualms about his sons work? Equally, was the White Death not concerned by this connection when he hired Kimura?
- Continuing with Kimura, how does he survive getting shot by Lemon (Brian Tyree Henry)? Not only does he survive, but he is fully revitalised and ready to fight by the time the White Death arrives at the end of the film, and can even survive a train crash. Lemon’s survival is explained by his bullet proof vest — why does Kimura bounce back from a bullet wound like nothing happened?
- The train crash. Not only does Kimura the Invincible survive, but everyone survives. Some survivors would have been fine, but why even let the train crash if no character is even going to get a scratch?
- The White Death booking every ticket on the train. First of all, how does this happen? Was he waiting for the tickets to come out? How complicated would it be to orchestrate every civilian getting off the train at some point, but not a noticeable enough rate for any character to wonder why the train is empty? The key issue with this is how the Prince (Joey King) managed to get a train ticket. Everyone on the train is there by the White Death’s design — other than the Prince, who is there of her own accord. So how does she conveniently get a train ticket to mess with all the characters in an annoying yet ultimately purposeless way? In the case that she didn’t get a ticket and instead snuck onto the train — why was this not a problem for her in the way that it was for Ladybug (Brad Pitt) who has to avoid the ticket inspector?
- Where did all the train staff go? Sure, the girl serving drinks might just be dead — killed by the Hornet (Zazie Beetz) — but what about the ticket inspector? Surely he has to stay on board until the end of the line?
- Finally, what happened to Lemon? He tackled someone off the train… and then what? Is he dead? If so, surely that’s a bit anticlimactic for a man whose survival is already a major plot point. If not, surely another mention would have been worth it for such a key character? Perhaps a post-credits climbing out of the water scene? A wholly unsatisfactory ending for his character, especially when contrasted with Tangerine’s symbolic return as a truck of oranges.
Overall, I’m still confused after watching Bullet Train twice. If anyone has answers for me I’d be happy to watch it again, but until then I’m pretty convinced that this film makes no sense.