Netflix has really by no means had hassle serving to movies from all around the globe take off via its platform, with a specific tender spot amongst audiences for thrillers and motion amongst different genres. Such is the case for director Hung Tzu-hsuan’s 2025 characteristic, 96 minutes. However do not let its title mislead you, it is shut to 2 hours of provocative, searing stress.
96 Minutes was launched on September 5, 2025 in Taiwan earlier than becoming a member of Netflix, shortly climbing the charts and reaching #4 worldwide for non-English movies from January 26-February 1, 2026. That includes the skills of lead actors Austin Lin, Vivian Sung, Wang Po-chieh, Lee Lee-zen, and Eleven Yao, 96 Minutes tells the story of a diabolical bomb plot aboard two passenger trains.
96 Minutes Is Blowing Up Worldwide on Netflix
Shortly amassing 3.1 million views and 6.1 million hours watched on its first week within the high 10, Netflix’s 96 Minutes is making fairly a splash on the worldwide stage. It tells the story of Track “A-Ren” Kang Ren (Lin), a bomb defusal knowledgeable reeling from the troublesome moral selections compelled by his work, pushed into the highest-stakes scenario conceivable.
Whereas on a passenger prepare alongside his fiancé, Huang Xin, his captain, Li Jie, and even his mom, A-Ren is quickly compelled right into a troublesome alternative the place his prepare, together with one on a parallel route, are taken hostage by a bomber with ties to his previous.
Given 96 minutes earlier than the purpose of no return, he should work with Captain Li, Xin, and different passengers to cease the plot and, ideally, stop any casualties in any way. The bomber, nonetheless, sees issues in a different way, darkly contriving a scenario the place A-Ren is compelled to decide on who lives and who dies.
Netflix’s New Motion Thriller Offers with the Fallout of the Trolley Drawback
With out diving an excessive amount of into spoilers, a lot of 96 Minutes’ stress dives into the basic and darkish dilemma that’s the Trolley Problem thought experiment. Within the film, A-Ren, identical to Captain Li earlier than him, should stop one bomb from detonating aboard a crowded passenger prepare, regardless of the opposite finally being rigged to blow up in that case.
Nevertheless, in contrast to the basic Trolley Drawback of 5 folks on one path, and one on the opposite, every prepare is loaded with harmless, panicking civilians. The bomber levels this plot, pitting passengers in opposition to each other, whereas pushing the fallout of these affected by folks like A-Ren duty-bound to prioritize the numerous over the few left to die.
Because of this, it is a concise, gripping two-hour popcorn thriller the place it is best to concentrate to the small print as they’re laid out. It is not maybe essentially the most ingenious prepare thriller round, with South Korea producing extra iconic classics like Snowpiercer or Prepare to Busan, however as a substitute of post-apocalyptic or zombie themes, this Taiwanese flick is ostensibly rather more grounded.
With nowhere to go however the closing vacation spot, 96 Minutes is a stable viewing expertise from begin to end.
Nonetheless, the mix of motion but plausible stress locations 96 Minutes someplace alongside the traces between hits like The Taking of Pelham 123 and Unstoppabble, with the previous even getting a remake throughout Denzel Washington’s weirdly specific “train thriller” era. With nowhere to go however the closing vacation spot, 96 Minutes is a stable viewing expertise from begin to end.
