‘Bullet Train’ First Reel Shown Off At Sony’s CinemaCon Presentation

Bullet Train director David Leitch came with more than a trailer for his upcoming July 29 action film, rather the pic’s opening.

Leitch called the pic “his action thriller with a comedic edge,” saying “All of us at 87 North Productions are 100% committed to cinema experience, and when we were making this film during Covid and mask we were sure it would be seen in a cinema. We made this movie for the big screen, and it’s meant to be seen in theaters.”

“All have conflicting objectives,” he added by the characters played by Brad Pitt, Sandra Bullock, Joey King, Zazie Beetz, Brian Tyree Henry, Aaron-Taylor Johnson and Bad Bunny.

In the opening, we see Brad Pitt aka Ladybug getting a cell phone call from a mysterious female voice giving him an assignment as he strolls the alleys of Tokyo. He heads to a subway locker to retrieve sleeping powder, fireworks, however he leaves a gun behind. He then boards a bullet train, on which an enigmatic gentleman boards. That guy winds up getting tazed by King’s Prince.

On the train we meet Taylor-Johnson’s Tangerine and Henry’s Lemon who in flashbacks are talented and stylish assassins. Ladybug walks through the train and retrieves a briefcase that apparently belongs to Tangerine and Lemon. Before exiting he encounters Bad Bunny’s knife wielding killer, who Ladybug fends off with the steel case.

Bullet Train was the first piece of footage shown tonight in Sony’s session, which kicked off with an introduction by the studio’s Motion Picture Group President Josh Greenstein, “I’ve spoken many times about Sony’s commitment to protecting the exclusive theatrical window. When I was here last, seven months ago, I said theatrical would triumph and indeed it has, and we did it together.”

Greenstein went through Sony’s recent releases including Venom 2, Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Uncharted which he noted was approaching $400M worldwide. “Trust me, my bosses will not let me not get to $400, so we will get to $400. And Spider-Man: No Way Home is the third-highest grossing film in U.S. history. It’s also worth noting it had an 88-day theatrical window” which caused the room to erupt in applause. “Even with that it still broke the record for the biggest EST launch in history of EST. We all proved theatrical windows matter and we did it together.”