A Shinkansen with bombs in it is making its way to Tokyo and some people are on their smart tablets. On that tablet is a press conference from the Japanese Prime Minister, saying he doesn’t want to cave. He will not give into their demands of 100 billion yen, even if some passengers crowdfund that. One of those crowd funders is Todoroki (Jun Kaname), a novelist getting on cancelled politician Kagami’s (Machiko Ono) last nerve. The passengers are an eclectic group, some of them students like Yuzuki Onodera (Hana Toyoshima). Others include crew members like Takaichi waiting for word from command control on what to do. Tsuyoshi Kasanagi plays Takaichi, leading naive, younger crew members like Fujii (Kanata Hosoda) and Matsumoto (Non).

The passengers and crew on the minds of engineers trying to think of solutions to diffuse the bombs and minimize casualties. This film, being a sequel to a 1975 Japanese film The Bullet Train, comes from director Shinji Higuchi. In making this, Higuchi lucked out on getting JR East Company to film this on an actual Shinkansen. The partnership is probably beneficial, as the company can show off things going right despite things doing wrong. It also helps that this film comes out in the context of other disasters all over Asia. A film about solutions is better than real life where governments just allow disasters for everyone to see. The all access aura here also gives it a sense of realism, everything’s fancy without being overt.

Bullet Train Explosion shows what a real Shinkansen looks like as well as the offices that are running them. Calling this film a solutions film does feel reductive and there’s a bit of that here with its characters. There are scenes, specifically, where characters just nod at each other in agreement. And we all know that the film isn’t going to kill any darlings, but the sense of panic is still present in here. Anxiety still builds within its characters’ faces, some hairs are coming out of place. The film knows how to give its viewers a balance of showing both the control room and the fast Shinkansen. I’ll say that it’s 60% control room and 40% train, but the former does have power over most things.

It’s good to note that Bullet Train Explosion hints out gender dynamics, the control room being mostly men. They work as sun turns more orange as it sets, and lives are still at stake. The film, running at 130 minutes plus credits, eventually has to wrap its story up with a little bow. And this is the part of the film where it may reveal who’s responsible for the bombs. This is the part of the film where, without getting to spoiler-y, it gets a little soap opera. But I’m Asian and I like my theatrics, even in this film that tries to dial things down. The villains know who they are but the actors playing them give some nuance to their reasoning. After all, I didn’t say remake, I write sequel, but they’re just pieces in an otherwise satisfying puzzle.

Bullet Train Explosion is available to stream on Netflix.