THE BULLET TRAIN and the Origins of Speed

THE BULLET TRAIN (1975)

Starring Ken Takakura, Shinichi (Sonny) Chiba, Ken Utsui, Fumio Watanabe, Kei Yamamoto. Directed by Junya Sato. (152 min).

Essay by D.M. ANDERSON💀

1994’s Speed was a great movie. Back then, I was kinda digging the plethora of action movies that followed in the wake of Die Hard because they were sort-of like repackaged disaster movies, which has been my favorite genre since I first beheld the pyromaniacal wonder of The Towering Inferno in the fifth grade.

Speed and its ilk have always drawn comparisons to Die Hard, since plotwise, they shared most of the same DNA…an urgent hostage situation, a tough, dedicated protagonist, an arrogant villain and a shitload of fiery, kinetic ka-BOOM. While Speed is arguably the best of them, to call it “Die Hard on a bus” isn’t entirely accurate. 

There’s a largely forgotten made-for-TV movie from 1966 called The Doomsday Flight, which was written by none other than Rod Serling and features a plot about a bomb on-board a commercial airliner, which will explode if the plane tries to descend. Starring Hawaii 5-0’s Jack Lord and film noir legend Edmond O’Brien as the disgruntled bomber, it’s a tidy little thriller, but not particularly action driven and shares little in common with Speed aside from the basic concept. 

1975’s The Bullet Train is another matter. It’s a Japanese production that was produced to capitalize on the success of American disaster movies at the time, along with the prerequisite handful of melodramatic subplots. The primary story, however, predates Speed by two decades. I don’t know if the makers of Speed consciously or unconsciously borrowed the same premise for their film, but the similarities are pretty obvious.

In this one, a crew led by a desperate out-of-work tech expert plant a bomb on a Tokyo bullet train bound for Hakata, ten hours away. They inform railway security that the bomb will explode if the train slows down to 80 kph, demanding a $5,000,000 ransom in exchange for instructions on how to deactivate it. The government, police and railway execs have ten hours to either pay up or find those responsible. Along the way, the train faces dangerous obstacles, such as other nearby trains and increasingly panicking passengers.

The biggest difference between this one and Speed is it dedicates just as much screen time to the antagonists as it does the protagonists. In fact, the former are the most well rounded characters. And despite being willing to kill 1500 people if their demands aren’t met, they aren’t entirely unsympathetic, especially the leader, Tetsuo Okita (Ken Takakura), whose quiet desperation in light of all he’s previously lost is kind of affecting. 

"The $5 million is for my cat. She's a diva."

Conversely, the team of talking heads trying to stop him largely exist to provide urgent exposition, though renowned martial artist Sonny Chiba is kind of engaging as the bullet train’s panicky engineer. Considering he’s mostly known for his action flicks, it’s an unusual performance and he plays his entire role sitting down. Then there are the passengers themselves…a big batch of cartoonishly conceived characters that are so collectively selfish, irritating, unlikable, histrionic and loud (particularly screaming all their dialogue) that a small part of us might find ourselves wishing for Okita to blow up the train just to put them out of our misery. Or at the very least, maybe Chiba could’ve burst from the cab to deliver a few roundhouse kicks to some of ‘em. A missed opportunity, if you ask me.

The film serves up some good action sequences, both on and off the train. The hunt for the hijackers is genuinely gripping, as is watching Okita’s elaborate plan to collect the ransom without being caught. And again, because Okita is such a well-realized character, we’re kinda rooting for him. Concurrently, efforts to locate the bomb generate tension, as do sequences where the train is in danger of crashing. 

The Bullet Train is a long, exhausting movie, epic in length and stuffed with more secondary characters that the narrative needs (such as all those asshole passengers). Still, it’s a fun ride that seems mostly plausible, and comes to an affecting conclusion. Fairly obscure on this side of the pond, the film is certainly a product of its time, but worth seeking out for fans of ‘70s-era disaster, crime thrillers and anyone curious about the origins of Speed.

There’s also a remake/sequel on Netflix called The Bullet Train Explosion, which is okay, though kind of superfluous.