Bullet Train — How to Elevate Action Spectacle | Film Perfection

foreign [Music] [Music] bullet train is a new big budget action movie from the director of John Wick where Brad Pitt boards a bullet train in Tokyo on a mission to recover a mysterious briefcase a mission that isn't very easy because turns out that the terrain is full of deadly assassins from all over the world who are all after the same things and when you explain the movie's core premise at face value like that there's immediately a danger of it becoming just another John Wick action knockoff you know there are way too many characters here to properly develop so they could all very easily become indistinguishable shelves that you can't name or even teleport the story here is so contained and so done to death already that it could very easily become forgettable noise you won't remember past the credits the action here could very easily become the same John Wick gun through action except on a train which obviously wouldn't be as good because it's not John Wick and there's no Keanu you're making as you may have guessed already that's not the case here all these would be negatives have been somehow turned into positive positive now does that mean that bulletin overall is a great movie does that mean it's better than prey that I looked through a negative lens last time for which I apologize the answer is I don't know it's up to you you can only find what you search a negative side here could be that the tone isn't for everyone and that the pacing can be a bit all over the place another positive side here could be that the cast list is incredible that is an Avengers level threat it's just about what you're looking for but in terms of the premise that I mentioned bullet train is a very positive example to learn from it takes these core action movie elements that it face value seem very generically basic and then elevates them into something more even though there are tons of new characters here they're all easily distinguishable even though the story here is familiar and unreals there are some very outside the box aspects about it that set it apart from every other movie even though the action here could be just more John Wick It ultimately consists of things that John Wick has never and could have never done so today let's find out how bullet train pulls that off here's how to take the most basic action movie cores and Elevate them into something more than what they at face value would be they were buying it they're oh I had him foreign the way the characters here are elevated with very limited time is with a motivation to make them feel like people and a signature Quirk to distinguish them take for example code name Ladybug who serves as our anchor into the movie he boards the bullet train on a simple work mission to steal a briefcase which isn't the strongest motivation since again he's not our main hero as much as he is our eyes admiration soon evolves into him having to solve the murder mystery on board to get blame of his own back which isn't the strongest either but is enough to most importantly understand him as a person why he does what he does if I can figure out who the horn it is I can give him to the lemon and tangerines so they don't whack me I'm really proud of yourself but he's very strong with ladybug though is his Quirk the fact that he seems to have crippling bad luck all he has to do is exit the train with the case which he can do because the nemesis from his past just happens to show up at the door all he has to do is pretend to have the right case for 60 seconds which he can do because he just happens to crack the combination lock no one gets greedy I mean the whole reason he's on the train is that he just happened to fill in for the wrong person at the wrong time Mr Carver bro and whether you like The Quirk itself totally or not it is something specific that helps you identify this character right away by definition it's much easier to distinguish Brad Pitt with bad luck than just Brad Pitt as another example to build on this look at the lemon and tangerine this pair of Stone Cold Hitmen their goal is to deliver the son of a Yakuza bus back home along with the case of Ransom money which takes a bad turn when the case goes missing and the Sun dies oops and so now because the Yakuza bus isn't the nicest kind modern plague they said a white death they need to find the case and the killer to at least be able to shift blame which again makes them seem like humans behaving according to human motivation rather than fictional characters following the script and as for the Quirk not only are they the most unlikely twin brothers so sure they're twins stop it everyone knows their twins their personalities are also very strange for professional Hitmen one of them has a hard on for foodie code names is sophisticated and together they argue in public about the most private matters like the number of people they just killed which makes them much easier to immediately distinguish than if they were just to generic Hitmen but perhaps the best example of this is the prince a spoiled rich girl called the prince because her parents weren't a boy her motivation is often in the driver's seat and quite strongly so she at her core is a broken and angry daughter looking to kill the Yakuza boss for reasons that become more clear and understandable the further we go and her Quirk is the fact that even though she is a young girl she is usually the one in charge she easily outwits grown men with guns she's an embodiment of fearless confidence as well as coercion and manipulation actually a man with black framed glasses had it he went that way she's essentially built on dramatic irony where the audience knows the truth about her and in every scene we're just begging for others to realize it too makes a good hostage yeah but we ain't wrong there but look keep your flickers on all right please all of which immediately gives his character Allah to work with to the point where the best performance in a movie filled with stars and legends might come from this young up-and-coming actor at least more so than if the character was just a moody teenage girl and in this manner the list goes on we have a Mexican cartel member whose motivation is to avenge his professional and personal family while his work is being the most Mexican cartel Mexican cartel member UFC we have a poison assassin whose motivation for the final fight is shielding her own identity while her Quirk is being a Viper in terms of her actions as well as personality we have a Russian Yakuza Buzz whose motivation is to avenge his wife's death while his work is being a Russian Yakuza boss the quality of which is up to you but the point being that by definition it's much easier to immediately distinguish a Russian Yakuza boss in Japan than a Japanese Yakuza boss in Japan what you might have noticed so far is that the quirks here are usually comedic but in your movie they don't have to be it's just about finding some unique quality to assign to your character that helps the audience immediately separate them from the pack that they would otherwise disappear into as an example let's say you have five assassins from all over the world who are all basic assassins except one who has this opposition of being anti-establishment he's so concerned about his files and info getting stolen by governments and hackers that he keeps his internet super encrypted 24 7. he gets so pissed off about the website and streaming content being geolog based on the region he's in that he enjoys circumventing those locks and accessing everything everywhere he hates the fact that online prices fluctuate based on locations so strongly that even though he's a millionaire he still presses a button to change his IP to another location to save a few dollars when you compare this specific quality of freedom and anti-establishment with the other assassins lacking anything like it who do you think is the easiest to remember oh and by the way all the stuff is doing he does with this blue bun called surf shark the number one assassin friendly VPN I've just explained why you need it so just know that right now you can get it for 83 off with three months for free by using Code film with below the way the story here is elevated is by imbuing it with narrative throw lines to make it into something that exists nowhere else which I've touched on before but for good reason I'll do again a good example of this is lemon's obsession with Thomas the Tank Engine which is this old children's Train cartoon as well as the most famous rap song from the rapper Biggie Smalls Thomas eats with lemon is all about that's how he understands people some people are Edwards wise kind some people are diesels those are trouble that's how he makes his choices build a diesel I can't kill you that's something that in many various ways just keeps coming up everything I learned about people I learned from you mentioned Thomas Tank Engine one more time I'm gonna shoot you in a fight and well offbeat character positions are nothing new this particular one spreads to such extent that it starts to get weird not only is it used to build this one character not only does it affect the journeys of other characters not only does it Touch under my girlfriend not only does it run in parallel with the location and serve as its punchline dude all you do is talk about traffic it's also very significantly guides the plot it's been a diesel time is trying because in all sorts of havoc and it was you don't have time you in other words the Thomas Tank Engine element isn't just a simple setup and payoff but instead an idea that may seem meaningless at first but in time grows and develops and keeps reappearing again and again in many different forms like a very specific narrative line through the story as another example to better explain this look at the main thematic message of Fate like I mentioned the key thing about ladybug is that he seems to have a bad case of bad luck my bad luck is biblical but the further we go and the more of it we see the more it starts to seem like something else yes he stumbles upon an old nemesis from his past but at the same time he survives a knife to the chest he remains on a train yes he runs into the poison assassin and gets poisoned but at the same time that's why he gets this anti-venom that saves him from a snake bite later on yes he kind of just ended up in the wrong train at the wrong time but it's his involvement that allows the events to unfold as if it's not so much bad luck as it is fate the ladybug calls all the bad luck so That Others May Live in peace fate that's a deal again the central theme of Fate may already exist in a thousand other movies but not in the grand scheme way it does here the way this character's personality is built on it the way the events of the plot follow it time and time again the way the villain's weakness revolves around it the way it seems so non-existent at first but then gradually becomes a defining part of this movie's story if I'm still not making sense think of it like one of those fighting games there's only so many different buttons and core moves you can do but when you take one and start to build it into this longer chain that's when the possibilities row into the millions that's when the story starts to take a form that no other story in existing ends has and so the point is that when you're coming up with the story elements for your movie really evaluate their inherent value are they original already on their own or should you use them to build this larger truly original chain we've all seen Japanese anime culture in movies before but not in this way not how it affects the Aesthetics and the signature core of a character and the functionality of the plot and the finale we've all seen insignificant items like a water bottle carry significance before but not in this way not how it's used to reinforce a character's dislike of guns not the way it becomes a part of the theme not the way it makes Central events happen not the incredible route it takes to get to where the ultimately needed [Music] we've all seen cool inner connectivity before but not the way we do here in the cover yeah no he had a stomach thing man I'm just filling in I'm not saying Everyone likes these specific through lines in the story but I am saying that these through lines are specific enough for everyone to remember the story by what I'm saying is that even if your story overall is very straightforward and already done to death you can fill it with through lines that aren't to at least ensure that you won't be for gun as nothing foreign the way the action here is elevated is by mining the action from very specific places that only this movie can most of the movie takes place on a bullet train for example so that is where Allah the action originates from fighting in tight spaces still holding under their life to stay on board to climbing back in from the outside to having the respect the rules of specific cars this is the choir car through having to maintain the facade in front of places to having to find Outside the Box ways of hiding bodies he's a happy championing I mean this is something that the finale goes all in on we're taking control of the train to escape the Yakuza we're fighting enemies on the inside and outside while at the same time speeding out of control we're getting derailed and smashed into a small town at the end of the line this is something that wasn't in the original script and instead got added in by the director which is a good Showcase of why the John Wick directors have become some of the hottest names in action they understand that whatever it is you have you have to really go in on it the reason the action here is very different from John Wick is because it's the type of action that only a bullet train movie can do it's not so much about guns and gunfu as it is about the surroundings doesn't mean no other bullet train movies have ever done anything like it but it's better to expand on a specific three minute sequence than it is to be the 100th John Wick clone as another example a big influence on this movie is Japanese culture and it also shows in the action not only in terms of individual elements and evocative imagery but also the fact that the finale is all about swinging samurai swords while the speeding train is getting ripped to shreds machine or as a different example the action can also come from what we talked about before ladybugs fight with the poison assassin isn't just a whatever fight but instead all about her Viper quality about Venom and Anti-Venom the twins as Yakuza shootout is very heavily influenced by who they are about Wagon Wheel [Music] the whole climax here gets underway all thanks to the Thomas attack Engine train guy that we've got I'm not saying any of this is entirely new action we've never seen before because it's not that's not possible anymore all the core moves have been used it's not so much about discovering a new action element as is about identifying the elements that are exclusive to your movie and then mixing and matching and expanding that's how you create new action sequences that's how you earn the price of admission both of these sequences are built on the same core action elements and yet they're both new and worth paying for both of these movies are built on the same action elements and yet you could argue that the context of the action is different enough for the movies to be different whereas both of these movies are the same the original you've seen and the Clone you have no reason to pay for the action in bullet train at heart is very similar to a thousand Samurai movies and a few train movies and also Wolverine but thanks to the way those similarities get put in a blender with everything we've discussed it's not the same if you want to see it Train movie with action and a big crash you can see snow piercer you should see snow piercer but if you want to see the bullet train way of doing that you can only do so by seeing bullet train [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Filmento

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Keywords: bullet train, bullet train full movie, bullet train only action, bullet train ending, bullet train crash, bullet train funny moments, bullet train clips, bullet train explained, bullet train samurai fight, bullet train brad pitt, bullet train moments, bullet train trailer, bullet train videos, screenwriting videos, bullet train best moments, bullet train action, bullet train reaction, bullet train bad movie, bullet train good movie, bullet train honest trailer

Id: SK-cZiHoAJE

Length: 16min 49sec (1009 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 05 2022