Brad Pitt in Bullet Train (2022)
Vitals
Brad Pitt as “Ladybug”, anxious assassin
Tokyo to Kyoto, Japan, Spring 2021
Film: Bullet Train
Release Date: August 5, 2022
Director: David Leitch
Costume Designer: Sarah Evelyn
Brad Pitt’s Personal Costumer: Craig Anthony
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Happy 60th birthday to Brad Pitt, born in Shawnee, Oklahoma on December 18, 1963. In addition to many acclaimed dramatic and romantic roles, the Oscar-winning actor has long excelled in playing comedic roles as recently affirmed with his performance in David Leitch’s action comedy Bullet Train, adapted from Kōtarō Isaka’s 2010 novel Maria Beetle.
Pitt’s introduction in Bullet Train is scored to a Japanese rendition of the Bee Gees’ disco-era anthem “Stayin’ Alive” (one of many Japanese versions of popular songs featured on the soundtrack), framed just like Travolta had been 45 years earlier in Saturday Night Fever as we start on Pitt’s kicks hitting Tokyo’s neon-lit pavement before we meet the man himself, his shoulder-length hair contained to a dirty bucket hat with a graying goatee framing his beaming smile. Indeed, his new therapist Barry has helped him develop a positive outlook to overcome his anxiety about being unlucky—a particularly unfortunate trait for a contract killer:
My bad luck is biblical. I’m not even trying to kill people and someone dies.
Still, he insists during a phone call to his handler Maria Beetle (Sandra Bullock) that she’s getting “the new and improved me” after agreeing to take their mission on such short notice, albeit as their second choice. Of course, there’s only so much that therapy can do, and the bad luck seems to pile back onto our unnamed protagonist—whose assigned moniker “Ladybug” seems to be yet another indication of his bad luck.
Despite getting splashed by a passing bus and a bumpy encounter with a glum traveler, “The Father” (Andrew Koji), Ladybug keeps his optimism as he boards the eponymous bullet train, yet to meet his fellow passengers ranging from a mysteriously polite pink-clad girl (Joey King) to the bantering “twins” Lemon (Brian Tyree Henry) and Tangerine (Aaron Taylor-Johnson).
With everything that’s ever happened to him leading him there, Ladybug initially believes he’s taken on a “simple snatch and grab” job, but—as his character had corrected Matt Damon decades earlier in Ocean’s Eleven—it becomes “slightly more complicated than that.” Over the course of the evening, he grows desperate to just abandon the troublesome job, leave the train, and look for a zen garden or temple to “reevaluate my choices or something.”
What’d He Wear?
“You look like every white homeless man I’ve ever seen,” Lemon tells Ladybug. Indeed, Ladybug’s workwear-influenced style looks far more modest than the screen assassins or Brad Pitt characters we’re used to seeing—more school janitor than secret agent.
Costume designer Sarah Evelyn explained to Eileen Carter for GQ that Brad Pitt’s intention was that Ladybug would be a quasi-Columbo character, following “[this] idea that you wouldn’t take him seriously and you wouldn’t necessarily think he was dangerous, and that gives him an edge [regarding his] character’s own relationship to danger and violence.”
Evelyn has shared in several interviews that Pitt was a collaborative partner in developing Ladybug’s costume, which ultimately required many duplicates due to the bloody, action-packed nature of these scenes, with at least 12 copies of his jacket, 14 pairs of trousers, and 20 duplicate T-shirts made for the film.
A few sources describe Ladybug’s “matching” jacket and trousers, though the jacket appears to be a somewhat brighter teal shade of green while the trousers appear more olive on screen.
The Bucket Hat
According to Evelyn, the bucket hat was informed by Brad Pitt’s concept that he wanted Ladybug to look “like I had retired and I was on a dock fishing,” she elaborated to Carter, sharing that he elaborated “I want to be wearing a bucket hat.” With that direction in mind, Evelyn and Pitt worked to find the shape, color, and style that Ladybug would wear for much of the movie. As she shared with Ingrid Schmidt for The Hollywood Reporter, the pair “went through a bunch of bucket hat silhouettes until we found two that we liked and combined to make a custom bucket hat.”
The resulting hat was made from a light beige pinwale corduroy, a soft yet interesting texture that looks particularly relaxed when adapted to the bucket hat’s relaxed shape. As David Fincher was planning The Killer (2023) at the time, he joked that he told Pitt he was “stepping into our sandbox” by featuring yet another cinematic contract killer wearing a bucket hat.
The Glasses
Ladybug’s black square-framed glasses are also a key identifier as many of his fellow passengers begin chasing him through the train. These are the Police Origins Bullet 1 VPLE37 model in “shiny black” acetate (color code 700) with 52mm-wide lenses, rather than the star’s usual Oliver Peoples brand. The Italian brand Police is yet another connections to The Killer, as Michael Fassbender would wear Police sunglasses in that film.
Once Ladybug realizes he’s been made by rival killers Lemon and Tangerine, he passes off the hat and glasses to a random American tourist (Channing Tatum) to buy himself enough time to sneak into another train car and avoid getting whacked.
Ladybug’s corduroy bucket hat and black square-framed glasses are a crucial part of his look for Bullet Train‘s first act.
The Clothes
The nautical and workwear crossroads that informed Ladybug’s bucket hat also resulted in Evelyn designing a lightweight variation of a classic pea coat for Ladybug to wear in his early scenes. Rather than the pea coat’s traditional heavy melton wool, the jacket was made from a waxed cotton in a military-inspired shade of olive-green.
Other than this deviation in cloth, the thigh-length jacket generally followed pea coat design with its broad lapels over an 8×4-button double-breasted front and vertical-entry chest-positioned hand pockets rigged above the low-slung straight flapped hip pockets. The set-in sleeves are finished with plain cuffs, and the back is ventless.
Under the coat, Ladybug’s base layers were anchored in hardy Dickies-style workwear, though the color required continued brainstorming between Evelyn and Pitt.
“We were between a blue, a green, and a yellow, trying to figure out what would work best for the character in this very tight world of the bullet train,” she explained to The Art of Costume. After eventually selecting green (though a yellow variation appeared in the brief Johannesburg-set flashback), the dozen duplicate jackets each had to be dyed the same shade that appeared a cool teal-green on screen.
The cotton twill waist-length jackets have a straight-zip front up to the shirt-style collar. The set-in sleeves are finished with single-button squared cuffs, and there are slanted welted hand pockets.
Once the Hornet’s boomslang finally catches up to Ladybug, he yanks off his jacket to try to pull it off, eventually flushing both the jacket and the venomous snake down one of the train’s toilets that he had previously been marveling. Thus, Ladybug is stripped down to his T-shirt for the final act.
This short-sleeved T-shirt is manufactured in a softly broken-in white slubbed cotton, made by Wittmore x Velva Sheen according to The Hollywood Reporter. Bullet Train production designer David Scheunemann created the custom graphic printed in dark-blue across the back of the shirt, depicting an oversized carp as the logo of the fictional “Master Baiter” fishing store in Ozark, Missouri… continuing Ladybug’s persona as a laidback angler. A dark-blue “S” printed over the left breast is already covered in blood by the time Ladybug strips down to the shirt.
Ladybug’s trio of gold necklaces can be spied under the T-shirt’s round crew-neck, including a beaded necklace and an 18-karat yellow-gold box-chain necklace that a Spotern user identified as a David Yurman item.
Ladybug’s work trousers are also a green cotton twill like his jacket, though the color appears to be a slightly more muted olive than the brighter teal of his jacket. These flat-front trousers are styled with belt loops (which go unused), slanted side pockets, jetted back pockets (with a button to close the left one only), and plain-hemmed bottoms.
Ladybug’s all-white sneakers may bare the worst of his famous bad luck, growing increasingly soiled over the events of Bullet Train from their first splash on the sidewalk to ultimately being doused in blood during the finale.
The Hollywood Reporter definitively identified them as made by the British brand AllSaints, and the details (including the gray-embroidered ram skull toward the back of each upper) narrow the model down to the now-discontinued AllSaints Rigg Ramskull. These low-top trainers have white canvas uppers, derby-laced through six sets of nickel-finished eyelets. The toe-caps and outsoles are white rubber.
This isn’t the last—or the worst—of the damage that Ladybug’s white AllSaints sneakers would take over the course of Bullet Train.
Ladybug wears plain white ribbed cotton-blend athletic crew socks.
A brief moment of respite between enemies: the workwear-clad Ladybug and the more debonairly dressed—at least at one point—Tangerine.
Jewelry and Accessories
Most—if not all—of Pitt’s screen-worn jewelry are from his own personal collection, including several Amrit by Sat Hari pieces designed by his friend Sat Hari Khalsa. “We ultimately ended up copying some of his personal jewelry for stunts,” Evelyn shared with Schmidt for The Hollywood Reporter. “I felt it was a cool touchstone, like a thread linking him with the character.”
Ladybug keeps all of his jewelry on his right hand, including two David Yurman beaded-skull bracelets (one gold, one sterling silver) and a three-in-one woven bracelet of three colorful crimped bands of fabric—slate-blue, sage-green, and lavender. He dresses his ring finger with a silver signet ring that features a hornet—despite that being a different character’s nickname—raised in relief against the face. (Ladybug’s hornet ring was auctioned by Propstore in June 2023 alongside Tangerine’s trio of rings.)
If you’re wondering where that Fiji water bottle came from, don’t worry—the movie will eventually provide answers.
We get a glimpse of at least three watches in his locker (perhaps to detonate bombs), though Ladybug’s steadfast timepiece throughout Bullet Train is a Breitling AVI ref. 765, an elegant yet resilient reissue of a 1953 pilot’s chronograph. With a power reserve up to 70 hours, this 34-jewel wristwatch features a 41mm case with a rotating bezel, luminous Arabic numeral hour indices, and three sub-registers: a tone-on-tone small second counter, 15-minute, and 12-hour chronograph counters.
The 1953 edition was reissued with three cases: stainless steel (in a limited run of 1,953), 18-karat red gold (in a limited run of 253), and platinum—the most exclusive re-issue with only 153 created and a $41,950 price tag that’s nearly twice the price of the gold model and more than four times the price of the stainless model. Evidently, Ladybug has done very well for himself in his previous smash-and-grab jobs as Pitt wears the top-of-the-line platinum case (LB0920131C1X1), boasting a handsome midnight-blue dial protected by a highly domed Hesalite crystal.
You could hardly ask for a better shot of Ladybug’s Breitling.
GQ and Hodinkee both reported that Pitt has been a Breitling ambassador since 2000 so the brand’s appearance is logical, though the actor was intentional in choosing a piece that would be visually interesting, to the point that he swapped out the stock band for Breitling’s 23mm brown Drakkar calfskin leather strap that presents more of a distressed appearance.
The Gun(s)
Maria: I would assume you didn’t take the gun.
Ladybug: Barry says every conflict is an opportunity for peaceful… what is it?
Maria: And your handler says some conflicts require a gun.
Despite Maria’s assertions, Ladybug leaves his customized Glock 17 in the train station locker before boarding the bullet train. The screen-used 9mm Glock was customized by Taran Tactical Innovations (TTI), as identified by the logo decorating the bottom of the extended magazine. According to IMFDB, the customization follows TTI’s Combat Master Package that includes stippling on the slide and grips, fiber optic sight set, and an improved trigger that reduces the pull to less than four pounds.
Upon learning that his job is to retrieve a briefcase from more than one guardian, he asks Maria why she didn’t tell him to bring the gun. “I did,” Maria affirms, “you chose spiritual enlightenment.”
Ladybug eyes his TTI-customized Glock before deciding to leave it behind.
After outmaneuvering Lemon during their nearly silent hand-to-hand combat in the quiet car, Ladybug takes control of Lemon’s Taurus PT92 AFS-D semi-automatic pistol (which Lemon nicknamed “Lucille” and told Tangerine was his favorite gun), a stainless-finished Brazilian clone of the venerated Beretta 92FS that echoes its traditional double-action (DA/SA) operation.
Like the Beretta, the Taurus design dates back to the 1980s and feeds 9x19mm Parabellum rounds from double-stacked magazines. The primary difference between the Beretta and the Taurus is the former’s slide-mounted safety/decocker, compared to the frame-mounted safety on the Taurus that allows it to be carried “cocked and locked” like a single-action 1911 in “condition one”.
Reaffirming to an unconscious Lemon that “I’m not a Diesel, you’re a Diesel,” Ladybug disassembles the Taurus and stashes its parts among the luggage rack. Imagine finding that when pulling down your Samsonite after a long ride!
Once again, Ladybug contemplates if he’s willing to arm himself for his dangerous work and—once again—decides not to.
Ladybug ultimately explains the rationale for abandoning both when Tangerine asks him if he’s carrying a gun, responding simply: “Don’t like ’em.”
What to Imbibe
Ladybug doesn’t appear to partake himself, but he uses a bottle of Mars Iwai Blue Label whisky in an attempt to make The Wolf’s bloody death look somewhat more like a passed-out drunk. Flaviar describes this moderately priced variety as “a corn-forward whisky from Japan aged in ex-bourbon casks for a bourbon-inspired profile.”
I guess Ladybug really isn’t a Bad Bunny fan.
When the time does come for Ladybug to be refreshed—mid-fight with Tangerine, of course—he requests a sparkling water from an attendant on the train… and forces Tangerine to pay for it.
How to Get the Look
Brad Pitt in Bullet Train (2022)
Ladybug’s hardy look is rooted in classic workwear with a twist of nautical-informed retirement, from his soft corduroy bucket hat and white sneakers to the prestige of his retro Breitling pilot’s watch and movie star jewelry.
- Teal-green cotton twill zip-up work jacket with shirt-style collar, slanted welted hand pockets, and single-button squared cuffs
- White cotton slub crew-neck short-sleeved T-shirt with blue fishing store back graphic print
- Olive-green cotton twill flat-front trousers with belt loops, slanted side pockets, jetted back pockets (with button-through back-left pocket), and plain-hemmed bottoms
- Olive-green waxed cotton 8×4-button double-breasted pea coat-inspired thigh-length rain jacket with broad lapels, vertical-entry chest pockets, straight flapped hip pockets, plain cuffs, and ventless back
- White canvas AllSaints low-top sneakers with nickel-finished lace eyelets, white rubber cap-toes, and white rubber outsoles
- White ribbed cotton-blend crew socks
- Beige pinwale corduroy bucket hat
- Black acetate square-framed glasses
- Gold beaded-skull bracelet
- Sterling silver beaded-skull bracelet
- Sage, slate, and lavender-woven bracelet
- Silver signet ring with hornet-relief face
- Breitling AVI ref. 765 1953 Edition (LB0920131C1X1) pilot’s chronograph watch with platinum 41mm case and bezel, midnight-blue dial (with luminous Arabic hour indices and three sub-registers), and brown Drakkar calfskin leather strap
- Gold necklaces
Sources
- The Art of Costume — “Designing Costumes for The ‘Bullet Train’: An Interview With Costume Designer Sarah Evelyn” by Spencer Williams
- GQ — “Brad Pitt Knew His Bullet Train Character Should Wear a Bucket Hat” by Eileen Carter
- GQ UK — “Bullet Train is a feast of big flex watches (and some action scenes, we guess)” by Alfred Tong
- Hodinkee — “Brad Pitt Fights His Way Across Japan’s Railways Wearing A Platinum Breitling AVI Ref. 765 1953 Re-edition In ‘Bullet Train'” by Danny Milton
- The Hollywood Reporter — “All The Details on Brad Pitt’s Workwear-Inspired ‘Bullet Train’ Look” by Ingrid Schmidt
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the movie.
The Quote
Hurt people hurt people.
The post Brad Pitt in Bullet Train appeared first on BAMF Style.