Blasting its technique to Netflix’s most-watched films in its first week on the platform, Bullet Prepare Explosion is an official sequel to a movie most followers won’t anticipate, a lot much less find out about. Equal elements Velocity and Runaway Prepare, the story considerations a high-speed Japanese practice with a bomb planted someplace inside, with the assailants demanding a 100 billion yen ransom to defuse it. If the authorities don’t comply, the practice will blow up as soon as it reaches a pace under 100 km/h.
Whereas it is simple to imagine that Bullet Prepare Explosion is a continuation of the 2022 Brad Pitt motion thriller Bullet Prepare, it is extra associated to the obscure 1975 Sonny Chiba movie, The Bullet Prepare. Each films are advisable for his or her excessive idea, breakneck tempo, visceral thrills, excessive dramatic stakes, and sophisticated infighting between the practice passengers and staff throughout the wild and unpredictable experience.
Bullet Prepare Explosion
- Launch Date
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April 23, 2025
- Runtime
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134 Minutes
- Director
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Shinji Higuchi
- Writers
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Kazuhiro Nakagawa, Norichika Oba
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Tsuyoshi Kusanagi
Takaichi
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What Is ‘Bullet Prepare’ Explosion About?
50 years after The Bullet Prepare was launched, director Shinji Higuchi injects the identical quick tempo and excessive power into Bullet Prepare Explosion. The favored Netflix motion movie includes the Hayabusa 60 (5060B), a high-speed bullet practice headed east en path to Hachinohe Station. With a number of passengers on board, the East Japan Railway Firm is contacted by terrorists who declare they’ve planted a bomb someplace on the practice. The terrorists demand that 100 billion yen be paid to defuse the bomb. If the practice dips under 100 km/h, the bomb will detonate and kill everybody onboard.
Fairly than stipulating JR East pay the ransom, the terrorists order Japanese residents to pay 1,000 yen apiece. As soon as the passengers catch wind {that a} bomb is on board, and so they should pay to defuse it, infighting amongst them complicates issues and stalls a plan of assault. In the meantime, a youthful practice conductor, Non (Chika Matsumoto), vows to maintain the practice above 100 km/h in any respect prices regardless of impending obstacles like fowl strikes and competing trains on the identical monitor.
At an exhilarating tempo, the movie shifts forwards and backwards between these on the Hayabusa 60, these formulating a plan at JR East headquarters in Tokyo, and several other staff on the bottom doing all they’ll to detach practice automobiles and divert the practice onto empty tracks to stop high-speed collisions. Because the passengers argue about dividing the ransom funds and varied technique of defusing the bomb themselves, the bomber is revealed to be onboard, and their murderous motivations are defined.
How ‘Bullet Prepare Explosion’ Connects to ‘The Bullet Prepare’
Junya Satō directed The Bullet Prepare, an equally fast-paced motion thriller boasting an almost similar premise. As a substitute of the Hayabusa railway line, the story considerations the Hikari 109 high-speed bullet practice en route from Hakata to Tokyo with 1,500 passengers on board. As soon as the practice departs, the safety chief is contacted by Okita (Ken Takakura), a bankrupt enterprise supervisor who claims a bomb has been planted on the Hikari 109. Okita calls for that $5 million be paid to defuse the bomb and stipulates that the practice will explode if it goes underneath 80 km/h.
Whereas the premise is basically the identical as Bullet Prepare Explosion, a number of key variations make The Bullet Prepare price boarding. As an illustration, Okita is revealed because the bomber upfront, fairly than unveiling the villain halfway. Furthermore, Okita is just not one of many passengers, and his whereabouts are a lot tougher to pin down. One other essential distinction is that Okita calls for that the Japanese authorities pay the ransom fairly than Japanese residents. By retaining the bomber’s id shrouded till midway and mandating that the Japanese residents pay the ransom, Bullet Prepare Explosion has extra thriller at its heart and private stakes that drive the drama to extra harrowing heights than its predecessor.
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Nonetheless, The Bullet Prepare has a a lot stronger and extra convincing efficiency at its heart, with the good Sonny Chiba towering over Chika Matsumoto in the important thing conductor position. Furthermore, The Bullet Prepare lacks phony-looking CGI and makes use of sensible FX, making the expertise extra sensible. One other obvious distinction between the 2 is the cooperation of JR East in Bullet Prepare Explosion and the shortage of the Japanese Nationwide Railway’s cooperation (JNR) in The Bullet Prepare. Within the unique movie, the railway is simply as culpable because the bombers and extorters, giving far more complexity to the good-guy vs. bad-guy dynamic.
But, no matter who’s accountable and the way they’re revealed in every movie, each ship incendiary thrills and intense motion. Within the unique, Aoki performs a one-man hero. Within the sequel, the passengers and HQ staff should work collectively to stop the practice from exploding.
The Bullet Prepare’s Worldwide Legacy, Defined
It is easy for these scrolling on Netflix to see Bullet Prepare Explosion and assume it connects with the 2022 Brad Pitt motion movie, Bullet Prepare, additionally hosted by Netflix for a time. Whereas it has nothing to do with that movie, Bullet Prepare Explosion‘s predecessor has paved the best way for comparable tales to flourish. As an illustration, the 1994 runaway summer season blockbuster Velocity was impressed by the 1975 Bullet Prepare, in accordance with screenwriter Graham Yost. Fairly than setting the high-concept aboard a fast-traveling practice, Velocity considerations a metropolitan bus in Los Angeles strapped with a bomb, with the bomber (Dennis Hopper) mandating that the bomb will detonate if and when the practice goes under 50 MPH.
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Whereas the Indian movies The Burning Prepare (1980) and Tezz (2012) additionally adapt the essential Bullet Prepare premise, it might be silly to not point out Unstoppable, the vastly neglected Tony Scott/Denzel Washington film launched in 2010. With out the need of a bomb to drive the dramatic stakes, the true story finds an unmanned freight practice unintentionally unhooked, choosing up immense pace because it heads straight towards a densely populated Pennsylvania metropolis.
It might seem as if we have veered off the tracks a bit, however the level right here is that the unique 1975 Bullet Prepare deserves recognition for introducing a plot that continues to provide audiences visceral thrills. With out it, there could be no Runaway Prepare, Velocity, Unstoppable, or Bullet Prepare Explosion.
Bullet Prepare Explosion is out there to stream on Netflix