Entertaining in the Most Chaotic Way Possible

Read Time:5 Minute, 14 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
Speed Train
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Genre: Action, Thriller, Sci-Fi Fantasy, Futuristic, Independent
Year Released: 2025
Runtime: 1h 26m
Director(s): Ryan Francis
Writer(s): Ryan Francis, Judah Ray
Cast: Nicky Whelan, Scout Taylor-Compton, Oliver Masucci, Louis Mandylor
Where to Watch: in select theaters and on demand, December 5, 2025

RAVING REVIEW: SPEED TRAIN throws everything it has — and everything it can imagine — straight at the viewer, hoping the combined chaos will be enough to propel it across the finish line. It’s not the worst thing out there, far from it, but it’s also not the streamlined, high-concept sci-fi thriller it’s clearly dreaming of being. Instead, it becomes a chaotic mashup of competing tones and clashing genres: part futuristic action movie, part hyper-stylized cyberpunk thriller, part super-cheerleader fight flick, part prison-break sci-fi, and occasionally something that weirdly resembles a cheer-themed remix of GAMER on a train. It’s a lot. Sometimes too much. But there’s also an earnestness beneath the excess that keeps it from derailing completely.

The core premise is straightforward enough. In the near future, violent prisoners have brain chips that can be hacked, making them both controllable and weaponized. On this high-tech bullet train, a rogue tech genius takes control of those chips, forcing a group of passengers to try to stop him before the entire train becomes a rolling disaster zone. That foundation is interesting, and the fully serious sci-fi angle could have supported a whole film on its own. But SPEED TRAIN refuses to stay in one lane, instead barreling recklessly into multiple storylines, character types, and stylistic shifts all at once.

The film introduces enhanced cheerleaders, militant rebels, an FBI agent, AI adversaries, mercenaries, hacked prisoners, and an audience on the DarkNET watching the carnage unfold. It’s as if the movie raided an action-figure aisle, grabbed every box that looked cool, and decided to play with all of them simultaneously. On one hand, it makes for some undeniably entertaining moments — who doesn’t want to see cheerleaders fighting armed criminals in a bullet train corridor? — but on the other hand, the film rarely finds a consistent tone to anchor all these ideas.

SPEED TRAIN feels like BRING IT ON, CON AIR, AND BULLET TRAIN mixed with B-movie madness. Those movies have strong stylistic identities, but here the influences blend into a collage rather than a cohesive vision. The result is a film that constantly reinvents itself from scene to scene, sometimes charmingly, sometimes awkwardly.

The cast does what they can with material that leans heavily on exposition and quick bursts of stylized action. Nicky Whelan, Scout Taylor-Compton, Louis Mandylor, Oliver Masucci, Liana Ramirez, Jade Patteri, Devanny Pinn, Karmel Bortoleti, and others all deliver performances that fit within the heightened world, even when the script leaves them little room for grounding. The ensemble is large, sometimes unnecessarily so, which occasionally scatters the focus in a story that would benefit from fewer characters with clearer roles.

What works in SPEED TRAIN is its willingness to commit to the absurd. It doesn’t tiptoe around its wild concepts — it embraces them. The neural chip angle could easily have felt gimmicky, but the film uses it to fuel action sequences that stand out, even when the budget shows. There are moments of staging and movement where the movie briefly transforms into the late-night pulp version of the slicker studio films it evokes. Those flashes of creativity keep the energy up even when the story stumbles.

The pacing bounces between rushed exposition dumps and extended fight scenes, occasionally losing track of the bigger picture. Some characters vanish for long stretches, others are introduced without cause, and the villain — a disgraced tech genius orchestrating the chaos — lacks the presence needed to tie everything together. In a movie this big, the antagonist needed more personality, more flair, or at least a sharper motivation to keep the stakes feeling high.

SPEED TRAIN never feels lazy. Overambitious, yes. But not phoned in. There’s a sincerity to the way it throws itself at every idea, even when the result is chaotic. Independent sci-fi sometimes errs on the side of caution, but this film barrels into excess with full confidence; whether viewers find that endearing or overwhelming will depend on their tolerance for genre pandemonium and whether they want a midnight-movie experience or a clean, high-concept thriller.

At the end of the day, SPEED TRAIN lands in that middle zone where it’s the type of film that works best when you know exactly what you’re walking into: a smaller-scale production aiming for explosive spectacle by stacking genres until something sparks. Some will find that charm appealing. Others may wish the film had focused on one of its many ideas instead of trying to juggle them all at once. Not a bad time, not a great one, but an unforgettable patchwork of ambition, limitations, and full-throttle imagination.

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[photo courtesy of LEVEL 33 ENTERTAINMENT]

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