Bullet Train Explosion (2025)

Bullet Train Explosion (Japanese: 新幹線大爆破, Hepburn: Shinkansen Daibakuha; lit. 'The Shinkansen's Big Explosion') is a 2025 Japanese action thriller film directed by Shinji Higuchi and starring Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, Kanata Hosoda, Non, Takumi Saitoh, Machiko Ono, Jun Kaname and Hana Toyoshima. A sequel to the 1975 film The Bullet Train, the film premiered on Netflix on 23 April 2025.

Plot

An H5 Series Shinkansen operating the Hayabusa 60 service to Tokyo departs Shin-Aomori under the supervision of first-line manager Kazuya Takaichi. Shortly after the train's departure, someone contacts the JR East headquarters, claiming they have planted a bomb on the train that will explode if it slows down below 100 km/h. To prove the threat's legitimacy, a similar bomb is detonated on a nearby freight train, prompting JR East to stop all trains on the Tōhoku Shinkansen line to make way for Hayabusa 60, whose driver, Chika Matsumoto, is ordered to pass through all stations and maintain the train's speed at 120 km/h.

To avoid panic, the bomb is initially kept a secret from the passengers. The bomber demands a ransom of ¥100 billion from all citizens of Japan in exchange for the lives of those aboard the stricken train, but the government refuses to fulfill the ransom due to its policy of not negotiating with terrorists. Panic and distrust of the train's staff quickly spreads among the passengers when Takaichi is ordered by his superiors to announce the bomb emergency. At the same time, the bomber conducts a broadcast signal intrusion to show a video of the bomb being planted on national television.

A problem arises when a southbound train stalls at Morioka due to a bird strike, forcing JR East to divert Hayabusa 60 onto the northbound track. With dispatcher Yuichi Kasagi's calculations, Hayabusa 60 avoids the stalled train but hits the rear car of a northbound train without derailing. On board, millionaire influencer Mitsuru Todoroki announces an online platform to raise the ransom money through crowdfunding, prompting the passengers to share the link and make donations before being confronted by politician Yuko Kagami, who attempts to use the situation to restore her tainted reputation.

TMPD Inspector Kawagoe and his team note that the threat is a copycat of the 1975 Hikari 109 incident. Back on the train, two livestreamers approach disgraced businessman Masayoshi Goto and demand an apology for an accident involving one of his tour helicopters, triggering a fight between them that results in Goto being knocked unconscious.

Kasagi informs Takaichi of a plan to rescue the passengers without stopping the train, which would require the train crew to disconnect the last two cars to allow a temporary bridge between Hayabusa 60 and a rescue train. The rear cars are cleared out before being uncoupled, causing them to slow down and explode, seemingly indicating that the bomb was planted there; however, the crew suspects that there are more explosives aboard the train and decides not to stop.

The crew successfully evacuate most of the passengers to the rescue train, with the exception of a high school student named Yuzuki Onodera, who goes missing after being separated from her classmates, and Goto, who goes on a suicidal rampage before Kagami calms him down. The emergency brake on the rescue train suddenly activates, destroying the bridge and seriously wounding assistant manager Fujii. Despite this mishap, nearly all of the passengers are successfully rescued, leaving just nine people—Takaichi, Fujii, Matsumoto, Kagami, Todoroki, Goto, and Onodera—aboard Hayabusa 60.

Unilateral works begin at Tokyo Station to connect JR East's Tōhoku and JR Central's Tokaido Shinkansen lines to extend the train's running route. Meanwhile, Onodera calls her father Tsutomu and reveals herself to be the bomber. She kills her father with a similar bomb at their home before calling JR East and explaining that the detonators are linked to a heart monitor in her body, meaning they must kill her to defuse the explosives. Kawagoe learns that Tsutomu was one of the police officers sent to arrest Masaru Koga, one of the perpetrators of the Hikari 109 incident. Though Koga blew himself up when police surrounded his hideout, the authorities claimed that Tsutomu shot Koga in self-defense, branding him a hero who saved the Shinkansen industry. With the help of Koga's son, Masatoshi, Onodera plotted a copycat attack to tarnish the reputation of her abusive father and the Shinkansen.

JR East is ordered by the government to stop the rail extension. The police learn from Masatoshi that the remaining bombs are in cars 1, 4, and 6. Kasagi devises a plan to divert the front six cars onto a branch where they can safely explode while using timed track switches to uncouple the final two cars. Matsumoto leaves the train running and joins the remaining passengers and crew in the rearmost cars, which are successfully disconnected but become derailed, while the front six cars slow down and explode. As rescue workers recover the survivors from the wreckage, Kawagoe apprehends Onodera and reveals that Todoroki's fundraiser reached its goal. The other passengers bow to Takaichi before JR East workers congratulate him and Matsumoto for their efforts.

Cast

Hayabusa 60

Outside people

Production

Unlike the original film, production for Bullet Train Explosion received support from the East Japan Railway Company, which provided actual Shinkansen units and railway facilities for filming.

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 66% of 32 critics' reviews are positive. Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 63 out of 100, based on five critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

Todd Gilchrist of Variety wrote, "For multiple generations of audiences weaned on the first film's downstream successors, Higuchi's follow-up may prove too straightforward or classy to elicit the same excitement. But Bullet Train Explosion feels like a blockbuster made for adults — or let's say, not for a lowest-common-denominator audience — where the priority is throwing challenges and complications at smart characters instead of sparking conflict with cheap narrative shortcuts and bad, even dumb choices."

Simon Abrams of RogerEbert.com gave the film three out of four stars and wrote, "With Bullet Train Explosion, you get a straight-down-the-line crowdpleaser, replete with duty-bound authority figures in well-pressed uniforms, anxious and often self-absorbed passengers, Macgyver-like problem-solving, seat-of-your-pants close calls, that sort of thing. There are no real surprises here, just what you'd want from this sort of cheeseball entertainment."

References

External links

Official website

Bullet Train Explosion at IMDb

Bullet Train Explosion at Eiga.com