One might think that “Bullet Train” is the first feature film that Brad Pitt shoots in front of David Leitch’s camera. But no. Because the actor had briefly appeared in one of the director’s previous films.
WARNING – The article below contains minor spoilers for “Bullet Train”. So please move on if you haven’t seen the film yet.
Strange place for… a reunion! Contrary to what one might think, Bullet Train is not the first feature film in which David Leitch directs Brad Pitt. Because the actor had already appeared, much more briefly, in one of the director’s previous films, in 2018. And at Marvel.
Brad Pitt was indeed a hilarious cameo in Deadpool 2, which David Leitch had directed, succeeding Tim Miller behind the camera. In the feature film, the talkative mercenary played by Ryan Reynolds set up his own super-team: the X-Force. But their first mission turned into a bloodbath, with a free fall after which almost all of the members died in excruciating pain.
Among them: Shatterstar (Lewis Tan) and Zeitgeist (Bill Skarsgard), respectively reduced to a pulp by the blades of a helicopter and a vegetable crusher. Bedlam (Terry Crews), dead embedded in the windshield of a bus. And the Ghost, able to prevent his body from materializing. Except when he falls on electric cables and perishes by revealing that his interpreter was none other than… Brad Pitt.
Twentieth Century Fox France Brad Pitt in “Deadpool 2”
A funny cameo, undoubtedly one of the best of all Marvel films combined, so surprising that many spectators had a hard time believing it. “I can confirm that it’s Brad Pitt”Ryan Reynolds told Collider shortly after release. “I still don’t know how we got him in the movie. I just wrote him a letter, saying what we wanted to do.”
“Because the basic idea was to find the best way to spoil the biggest star in the world: with a character invisible almost all the time, and without interest on the scale of the film. And he who comes to shoot eight images. I think Brad found the idea funny, like all of us. So he agreed, and he came over for seven minutes of filming. It took him longer to drink the coffee he had asked for as payment.”
What Ryan Reynolds does not say, and which undoubtedly played a lot, is that David Leitch was Brad Pitt’s understudy on several films. Including Fight Club, Ocean’s Eleven, Troy or even Mr. & Mrs. Smith. The knowledge behind the camera may have counted in the actor’s decision.
Brad Pitt was not the only cameo, since we could come across an unrecognizable Matt Damon under his makeup, in the skin of one of the rednecks who welcome Cable (Josh Brolin). And David Leitch appeared as a caged mutant.
Twentieth Century Fox France
David Leitch in “Deadpool 2”
The director and stuntman then returned to Hobbs & Shaw as a helicopter pilot. Then, today, in Bullet Train: he is the collateral victim of the bloodbath perpetrated by Citron (Brian Tyree Henry) and Mandarine (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) during a mission in Bolivia, while he found next to an exploding car.
For the occasion, the trio of Deadpool 2 is reforming: David Leitch is again in front of and behind the camera, Brad Pitt plays the main role and… Ryan Reynolds passes a head. Very briefly, when the identity of the character that the hero replaces for health reasons is revealed to us. And this is the third time that the Canadian actor has played under the direction of the director, because we saw him a little longer in Hobbs & Shaw.
We will therefore have to open our eyes in David Leitch’s next film, because the director could well hide there again, in the same way as Brad Pitt and/or Ryan Reynolds.
“Bullet Train” has been in theaters since August 3: