John Wick meets The Orient Express in Brad Pitt’s latest action thriller

Sony Pictures has shared a first teaser trailer for the Brad Pitt-starring action thriller, Bullet Train – and, suffice to say, it goes heavy on the irony. 

The 30-second clip sees Pitt narrating a tranquil ad for the fictional Nippon Speed Line, complete with sweet piano melodies and vistas of rural Japan, before a final shot reveals the battered and bruised face of his protagonist, Ladybug. 

Based on the novel Maria Beetle (published in English as Bullet Train) by Kōtarō Isaka, the movie will find a group of assassins, who are travelling together on said bullet train, realizing that their individual contracts are interconnected. Naturally, high speed chaos ensues, and the Nippon Speed Line quickly becomes a bloody playground for its money-hungry passengers. 

Check out the teaser below:

The tagline “Get on Board March 2” is presumably teasing the release of a full-length trailer next week, but we do know that Bullet Train is currently scheduled to arrive in theaters on July 15 this year. 

Brad Pitt isn’t the only high profile name attached to the project, either. Deadpool 2 and Atomic Blonde filmmaker David Leitch is on hand as Bullet Train’s director, while the likes of Joey King, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Zazie Beetz, Michael Shannon and Sandra Bullock are also all confirmed to star. 

Stylized violence, then, seems a formality – a former stunt coordinator, Leitch made his directorial debut with John Wick, though only co-director Chad Stahelski was credited as helming the movie. 

Both Deadpool 2 and Atomic Blonde share the ultra-violent DNA of the John Wick franchise, mind, and their dry humor – think character’s making pithy remarks before being blown away – suggests viewers can expect more of the same with Bullet Train. 

A little more action, please 

There are plenty of exciting new movies heading to theaters in 2022, but bona fide action thrillers appear few and far between over the next twelve months. 

Beyond Top Gun: Maverick and, arguably, The Batman, 2022’s release slate is dominated by new comic book flicks – Doctor Strange 2 and Aquaman 2 among them – with little theatrical real estate reserved for more traditional pulse-pounding blockbusters. 

Mission: Impossible 7 was scheduled to arrive this September, but production delays pushed its release date back to July 14, 2023. Hopefully, though, some high speed fisticuffs between Brad Pitt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Sandra Bullock will tide us over until then.

That being said, a few of this year’s new Netflix movies (The Gray Man and Carter, in particular) look like they’ll give viewers an edge-of-their-seat experience, but there’s something about seeing action films in theaters that adds to the appeal of the genre.