SPEED KILLS

Deadpool 2 director David Leitch directs Brad Pitt as an assassin on a hurtling train. Sounds ace to us, but can an old-school, star-powered action-comedy full of famous faces still make a killing at the box office? Total Film fights for answers with Leitch, Pitt and the super-cool cast.

- JAMIE GRAHAM

Brad Pitt's in a reflective mood as his car races up the west coast of America. It's not what Total Film expected given he's on the blower to chat about action-thriller Bullet Train, in which five rival assassins chase after a MacGuffin briefcase on a Japanese Shinkansen travelling at 300kph. The train tracks run straight and true but the plot twists and turns at breakneck speed.

What Total Film expected from the jovial, down-to-earth star (Hey man, he cries when he calls 10 minutes late due to signal issues, Thanks for bearing with me; I appreciate you hanging in there) were the standard discussions about getting in shape for action scenes (I love my Shake Shack in between movies, and then I get a little more serious, and eat a little better when I'm on a film) and a spiel/spew of hype. But Pitt is not content to skim the surface. He's been on Earth for 58 years and in the business of making movies for 35. There's more to life than promotional chit-chat.

I don't know if you've had any experience with therapy, he starts, but if you do any spiritual course or something... He chuckles. Let's say you do three months, and you get some profound answer for your own life. Suddenly you think everything's alright. Everything's in order. You're never going to have another problem again. You're on top of your game. You've mastered this thing called life, and it's easy rolling from here on out. So I had the idea of starting there, and playing with that conceit, and then trying to instate all this self-help practice. He laughs. It looks great when you're reading an Instagram post, but in actual practice, it's a different thing.