In the first trailer for his upcoming action film Bullet Train, Brad Pitt wears a bucket hat. I repeat: Brad Pitt. In a bucket hat.
He also faces off against Bad Bunny (yes, as in Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny) in a knife fight, knocks someone out with a tray of sushi, and generally infuses every scene he’s in (which is most of them) with his typical dry sense of humor and rugged good looks.
Directed by Deadpool 2’s David Leitch, Bullet Train is based on the novel Maria Beetle by Kotaro Isaka. Pitt plays a retired assassin who reluctantly gets back into the murder business, only to find himself on a high-speed train through Japan with several other deadly assassins. “I am ready. You’re getting the new and improved me, because if you put peace out in the world, you get peace back,” he tells Sandra Bullock over the phone. “I think you might be forgetting what you do for a living,” she replies.
All the assassins are after the same metal briefcase full of cash, so naturally, plenty of blood-soaked violence ensues. Most of the film’s action takes place on one wild, nonstop bullet train ride, meaning fight scenes are grounded with hilariously mundane interruptions, like an attendant offering sparkling water from a beverage cart and an old lady shushing Pitt as he breaks someone’s hand with a laptop in the “quiet car.” Set to a Japanese-language version of “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees, the trailer is a deliriously paced visual feast of Mount Fuji in the moonlight, neon cityscapes, and high-tech train interiors.
The eclectic cast of killers includes Bullock, Joey King (perfecting a posh British accent that requires her to pronounce “schedule” like “sh-edule”), Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Andrew Koji, Hiroyuki Sanada, Michael Shannon, Zazie Beetz, and Benito A Martínez Ocasio, aka rapper Bad Bunny.
Bullet Train is scheduled to leave the station on July 15 with a theatrical release.
