| Director | David Leitch |
|---|---|
| Budget | $90 million |
| Box office | $239.3 million |
Yuichi Kimura ("the Father"), boards a bullet train departing Tokyo to find the person who pushed his young son Wataru from a rooftop, leaving him comatose. At the same time, an American freelance gangster codenamed "Ladybug"—whose "bad luck" often kills those around him, although he always survives—embarks on the train on a mission in which he is a last-minute replacement for a colleague named Carver and is being guided remotely by his handler, Maria, to retrieve a briefcase from the train. Also aboard are British assassin brothers "Lemon" and "Tangerine", who are escorting "the Son" to his father, a ruthless Russian-born yakuza boss known as the White Death, and are also to deliver the briefcase, containing cash, to him.
Soon after departure, the Son is found fatally poisoned. Ladybug quietly takes the briefcase but is confronted by another assassin, "the Wolf", who mistakenly believes him responsible for the death of his wife at their wedding. During their fight, the Wolf accidentally kills himself with his own knife. Meanwhile, the Father identifies his son's attacker: a manipulative schoolgirl assassin ("the Prince"). She reveals she lured Yuichi onto the train to force him to kill the White Death, threatening Wataru's life through a henchman at the hospital.
Lemon encounters Ladybug and, recalling him from a failed job in Johannesburg, suspects him of murdering the Son. They fight, leaving Lemon briefly unconscious; Ladybug drugs his water with sleeping powder and escapes. The Prince locates the briefcase, rigs it with explosives, and sabotages Yuichi's gun to explode if fired. Ladybug later clashes with Tangerine and knocks him off the train, though Tangerine manages to climb back aboard. Lemon, increasingly suspicious, shoots Yuichi and prepares to shoot the Prince, but collapses from the drugged water. The Prince shoots Lemon in return and hides both men in a bathroom.
Ladybug then meets "the Hornet", the assassin responsible for poisoning both the wedding party and the Son using boomslang venom. After a struggle, both are exposed to the poison, but Ladybug secures the antivenom first, and the Hornet dies. Believing Lemon to be dead, Tangerine confronts the Prince, but before he can act, Ladybug, unaware of her identity, intervenes and kills Tangerine.
At the next stop, Yuichi's father, "the Elder", boards the train and confronts the Prince. He reveals her henchman has been killed and Wataru is safe, and the Prince flees. The Elder explains to Ladybug that the White Death previously murdered his wife during his takeover of the yakuza, and he intends to confront him. Reuniting with the wounded Yuichi and the recovering Lemon, the group joins Ladybug to prepare for the White Death's arrival.
When the train reaches Kyoto, Ladybug hands over the briefcase to the White Death. The Prince, revealed to be the White Death's estranged daughter, tries to provoke her father into shooting her with the sabotaged gun, but he refuses. The White Death explains that everyone on the train was tangentially connected to his wife's death: Lemon and Tangerine had drawn him abroad, leaving his family vulnerable; his Son's troubles forced his wife to travel; Carver caused the car crash that fatally injured her; and the Hornet poisoned the surgeon who might have saved her. He gathered them hoping they would eliminate one another, unaware Ladybug had replaced Carver.
The White Death's men open the briefcase, triggering the Prince's bomb and throwing Ladybug and the White Death back onto the moving train. A violent fight erupts with the remaining gunmen. Lemon tackles one off the train into a river, while the Elder duels the White Death. The out-of-control train eventually crashes into a neighborhood in Kyoto.
After the wreck, the White Death, impaled by the Elder's katana, attempts to kill Ladybug but fires the Prince's sabotaged gun, which explodes and kills him. The Prince then threatens Ladybug, Yuichi, and the Elder, only to be run over by a truck driven by Lemon. Maria arrives to collect Ladybug as authorities respond to the crash.