Bullet Train needs a post-credits scene to explain one final mystery

After a little over two hours of sudden surprises in David Leitch’s over-the-top action extravaganza Bullet Train, there’s one final surprise: There’s no post-credits scene. That feels unusual in a movie that’s so overtly about callbacks and yes-ands, about piling gags on top of gags, about one-upping even the most ludicrous action bit with just one more twist. Like Leitch’s previous projects, John Wick, Hobbs & Shaw, Atomic BlondePlease see the following: Deadpool 2, Bullet TrainIt’s more than just tongue-in-cheek about the excesses. But thanks to the source material, Kotaro Isaka’s novel Bullet TrainThe film’s obsession with justification for every leap in logic is also evident, even though the movie creates many more unbelievable coincidences.

So the lack of a final stinger gag feels out of sync with the rest of the action, but it also feels like a lost opportunity for a movie that’s so blatantly focused on explaining how every single puzzle piece fits together. There’s an odd plot hole in the middle of it all, and a post-credits scene would have been the perfect place to fill it in.

[Ed. note: Minor plot spoilers ahead, mostly for something that doesn’t happen in Bullet Train.]

Image: Sony Pictures Publicity

Early in the film, smash-and-grab mercenary “Ladybug” (Brad Pitt) accidentally loses his ticket for the titular bullet train. A conductor is waiting for him when he boarded.Heroes’ Masi Oka) confronts him, and is incensed that he doesn’t have a ticket. The conductor tells him to stop at the next stop. Ladybug attempts to do so, but his circumstances and his much-discussed impossible bad luck prevent him from doing so. He is given a stronger warning by the conductor to get off the train. Ladybug makes frantic attempts to escape the conductor and it is clear that the stage has been set for an escalated face-off.

However, it doesn’t happen. Masi Oka disappears magically from the movie, and there is not much more to say about it. For that matter, the train doesn’t appear to have drivers, and the staffers mostly disappear as well. Unlike other aspects of the film’s gleefully complicated scenario, this one never gets explained. Except for one concessions seller, played by Karen Fukuhara (Katana in the 2016). Suicide SquadKimiko and? The Boys), the train crew just… evaporates.

The rest of the article is a thorough read. Bullet Train is about explaining other aspects of the trip — how X character found out about Y, what happened to the rest of the passengers along the journey, and more — that unexplained disappearance and dropped plot thread feel like a real anomaly. The movie takes a minute to explain the origins and travel of each character. One water bottle, for God’s sake. (Granted, it’s a blatant piece of product placement, but it’s a funny one. Yet, this illustrates Bullet Train’s commitment to the bit, as far as trying to keep the connections between every discrete element of the film clear.)

As Bullet Train progresses, the bodies stack up, and more and more of the cars fill up with blood, smashed glass, and impromptu weapons, it becomes more and more improbable that the train’s crew never notices or intervenes. It also becomes increasingly odd that all the expensive booze and food — not to mention that £20 water bottle — are left unguarded. All this feels like a setup for the final gag about Masi Oka’s disappearance.

That gag is never made. The film certainly isn’t short on ways to accidentally or purposefully kill them off, and it doesn’t lack dramatic or comedic reasons to do so. You will never run out of random coincidences to have them rescued from the train. Maybe in some future Blu-ray release, we’ll find out about a cut scene that reveals Oka’s fate. Until then, don’t settle down in the theater (or on your couch, once it hits streaming) waiting for a final resolution, because it isn’t coming.