Netflix has actually by no means had bother serving to movies from everywhere in the globe take off by way of its platform, with a specific smooth 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 pressure.
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 films 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
Rapidly amassing 3.1 million views and 6.1 million hours watched on its first week within the prime 10, Netflix’s 96 Minutes is making fairly a splash on the worldwide stage. It tells the story of Music “A-Ren” Kang Ren (Lin), a bomb defusal skilled reeling from the tough moral decisions pressured 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 pressured right into a tough 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, forestall any casualties in any way. The bomber, nonetheless, sees issues in another way, darkly contriving a scenario the place A-Ren is pressured to decide on who lives and who dies.
Netflix’s New Motion Thriller Offers with the Fallout of the Trolley Downside
With out diving an excessive amount of into spoilers, a lot of 96 Minutes’ pressure dives into the traditional and darkish dilemma that’s the Trolley Downside thought experiment. Within the film, A-Ren, similar to Captain Li earlier than him, should forestall one bomb from detonating aboard a crowded passenger prepare, regardless of the opposite in the end being rigged to blow up in that case.
Nonetheless, in contrast to the traditional Trolley Downside of 5 individuals on one path, and one on the opposite, every prepare is loaded with harmless, panicking civilians. The bomber phases this plot, pitting passengers in opposition to each other, whereas pushing the fallout of these affected by individuals like A-Ren duty-bound to prioritize the various 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 probably 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 way more grounded.
With nowhere to go however the last vacation spot, 96 Minutes is a stable viewing expertise from begin to end.
Nonetheless, the mixture of motion but plausible pressure locations 96 Minutes someplace alongside the strains between hits like The Taking of Pelham 123 and Unstoppabble, with the previous even getting a remake throughout Denzel Washington’s weirdly particular “prepare thriller” period. With nowhere to go however the last vacation spot, 96 Minutes is a stable viewing expertise from begin to end.