The White Death

### Current Motivation

Get Lemon, Tangerine, The Hornet, Carver, and The Son on the same train to make them kill each other (partially succeeded, as Lemon survived and Ladybug was sent in Carver's place)

### Weaponry

Katana
Revolver

## Relationships

### Family

The White Death's Wife (Spouse)
The Prince (Daughter)
The Son (Son)

### Professional

Minegishi (Former Boss)
The Elder (Rival)
The Twins (Contractors)
The Hornet (Contractor)

## Description

### Equipment

Uwa-Obi
Oni Mask

### Attire

Navy haori, white under-shirt, blue hakama, black loafers

> If you do not control your own fate, it will control you.
>
> - The White Death to Ladybug

**Roshan Reznikov** (Russian: **Рошан Резников**), often referred to by his nickname, "**The White Death**", is the main antagonist of the 2022 action-comedy film *Bullet Train*, based on Kotaro Isaka's 2010 dark comedic thriller novel *Maria Beetle*.

He is a ruthless crime lord from post-Soviet Russia who seized control of the Japanese underworld by overthrowing and killing its previous boss, Minegishi. He is the father of The Prince and life-long enemy of The Elder, a former acquaintance who also worked for Minegishi seeking revenge for his betrayal and his wife's murder. In the film, The White Death is portrayed by American actor Michael Shannon.

## Appearance

In his prime, The White Death was a hulking brute of above-average build and height. He has blue eyes and brown shoulder-length hair accompanied by a goatee, boasting a robust and athletic physique with well-defined musculature which he would carry on even into his later years. The White Death sports several tattoos across his body, such as chains around his arms, a star beneath his right shoulder, a cloaked figure on his back over a tattoo of Saint Basil's Cathedral indicative of his homeland, among others. He is seen shirtless with a black hakama while in combat, and later wearing a formal suit and tie over a white under-shirt.

Decades later, The White Death is shown to have aged relatively well. He possesses enhanced agility for his age and appears to have retained his musculature. His face is now clean-shaven and his shoulder-length hair shows few signs of baldness, albeit graying. He now wears a patterned blue haori accented by his red-colored lapels and cuffs, worn over a white button-up shirt and blue trousers.

## Personality

The White Death is consistently manipulative and violently domineering, and has repeatedly shown a lack of conscience and empathy. He is a merciless crime boss with no regard for the well-being of others. Rising up from nothing after arriving in Japan, The White Death set for himself the goal of taking over the criminal underworld. To do so, he earned their leader's trust with plans to betray him, eventually succeeding and ruthlessly slaughtering all those who remained loyal to him. The White Death became the leader of the world’s largest criminal organization in one night.

He is also shown to be egocentric and sexist, neglecting his daughter for not having been born male and wishing to use her as a nothing more than a tool to fulfill his own selfish needs. This treatment would eventually come back to haunt him, as he unintentionally set his daughter down the path towards revenge. Though he had initially chosen his Son to inherit the criminal organization after his passing, he seems to have regretted this decision, as he grew up to become a delinquent youth who would constantly get himself into trouble and act as a nuisance to The White Death, who went as far as to blame The Son on his wife's death and subsequently ordered his assassination in a fit of rage.

The White Death's most recognizable trait is his lack of discipline with the concept of Fate, occasionally playing the deadly game of chance, Russian roulette, to prove that luck is always on his side. After his wife is killed due to a number of unfortunate circumstances, The White Death sets out to "take control" of his own Fate by tasking everyone responsible for her death with retrieving a single briefcase onboard a bullet train, knowing that they would end up killing each other.

He is also shown to detest anyone who does not do their job properly, inflicting harsh and often cruel punishments upon those who fail to follow his orders. According to one story, a woman once found herself in the unfortunate position of owing a tidy money to The White Death. She struggled to acquire this money, but managed to pay him back only five minutes late. The White Death responded by chopping her arm off, hoping to make an example out of her and claiming that she owed him a "finger for every minute".

## Biography

### Background

The White Death's past is shrouded in mystery. According to Tangerine, he could have come from the ranks of the Russian Mafia, while other rumors state that he was formerly an agent of the KGB. Decades ago, the White Death, known at the time by his birth name Roshan Reznikov, traveled south and arrived in Japan, where he found work under the yakuza boss named Minegishi. Thanks to his astonishing physical strength and remarkable fighting skills, likely from his experience in the KGB, young Reznikov quickly rose through the ranks of Minegishi's criminal empire by working his way up with each kill. Eventually, Reznikov managed to fully earn Minegishi's trust and became one of his devoted kobun.

However, in spite of his many accomplishments, many of Minegishi's men distrusted the Russian. Behind his back, they feared that his strength and abilities posed too much of a threat to the organization, knowing that their boss was too caried away by his skills to see the inherent danger. Shigeru Kimura, one of Minegishi's closest advisors, privately warned him not to trust Reznikov. However, Minegishi rejected his claims, unaware that his own stubbornness would lead him to his eventual downfall.

One night, Reznikov rallied a large number of the yakuza and betrayed Minegishi. As the rebels set the headquarters ablaze and killed off those who refused to join the revolution, their leader walked amongst the carnage with a gun in hand, standing before an injured Minegishi down on his knees. With only one bullet left, Reznikov spun the revolver's cylinder and tested his own luck by playing a round of Russian roulette, surviving. He spun the cylinder again and aimed it towards the back of Minegishi's head, finishing him off at point-blank range. In a single night, Roshan Reznikov became the leader of the largest criminal organization on the planet, earning himself the nickname of "The White Death".

When Shigeru Kimura returned home from battle, he found that The White Death had sent one of his followers to raid the house, murdering his wife in cold blood and setting the place on fire. His son, Yuichi Kimura, miraculously survived the attack by hiding inside an air duct. Shigeru would then spend the next few decades planning a way to get revenge against The White Death, without endangering what little family he had left.

At some point, The White Death met a Russian woman and married her, with whom he had a Son and a daughter. As a child, his daughter was given the nickname of "little prince" by her parents, due to them wanting a boy for a child. Indeed, The White Death preferred his Son more as his candidate to inherit the family's criminal organization after his passing, desiring to have his daughter marry a powerful man and give him grandchildren. Ironically, the Son would grow up to become a delinquent, getting arrested several times for his antics only to be bailed out of jail by his parents. The fact that The White Death had chosen his petty son to be his heir over his well-behaved daughter infuriated her, who took up the moniker of "The Prince" due to the feelings that her father would have valued her much more had she been born male. This neglect unintentionally sent The Prince down the path of plotting revenge against her own father, unbeknownst to him.

Years later, the British assassins Lemon and Tangerine are hired by an unknown client to wipe out The White Death's guerilla encampment in Bolivia. The White Death is thus forced to travel to South America and clean up the mess in the wake of the massacre. Around the same time, his Son gets himself into trouble once again, resulting in a dispute between his parents on whether or not they should bail him out again. Despite The White Death's orders, his wife decides to bail their Son out of jail anyway, but promises that this would be the last time they would ever get him out of trouble. While in the car, The White Death's wife is caught in the middle of an assassination attempt carried out by a hitman named Carver. The assassination was intended for The White Death, but because he was away in Bolivia at the time, his wife was the one inside the car.

She sustains critical injuries from the accident and is immediately rushed to the hospital, with a piece of her rib having been lodged inside her heart. Only the most skilled cardiovascular surgeon would have been able to save her life, but because their surgeon had been poisoned by another assassin known as The Hornet two nights earlier, his wife's emergency operation fails and ends in tragedy. Wracked with grief, The White Death concludes that Lemon, Tangerine, Carver, The Son, and The Hornet had all played a part in his wife's death, wanting to kill them all.

Some time later, The White Death orders sixteen members of his criminal organization to kidnap his own Son, posing as a Chinese Triad group holding him for ransom. The Triad was supposedly attempting to blackmail The White Death for $10 million in exchange for setting the Son free, keeping him captive at a fish market in Tokyo. The White Death then hires the assassins Lemon and Tangerine to "rescue" his Son, instructing them to wipe out his captors and deliver the Son to him by bullet train with the ransom money in a briefcase, without telling them that the "Triad" was actually part of his own organization. However, this story is simply a façade intended to trick the duo into boarding the train with the briefcase and the Son, without telling them that the supposed "Triad" is actually part of his own organization, in the hopes that they are killed by other assassins he had planted on the train.

Unbeknownst to Lemon and Tangerine, The White Death had ordered Carver to steal the briefcase from the duo. He also tasked The Hornet privately with killing The Son and stealing the briefcase as well, in the hopes that they would all end up killing each other and thus avenge his wife's death. However, Carver called in sick and was unable to complete the mission due to a stomach ache. Another operative, codenamed Ladybug, was assigned to take his place and retrieve the briefcase from Lemon and Tangerine, despite having nothing to do with The White Death's revenge.

### *Bullet Train*

After rescuing The Son from his captors and retrieving the briefcase with the ransom money, the assassins Lemon and Tangerine board a high-speed bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto to escort them back to The White Death. The assassins Ladybug and The Hornet are also onboard the train, who were both given the same task of retrieving the briefcase from the duo as part of The White Death's secret plan to have them all killed. As a result, The White Death himself is not present on the train, instead overseeing his operations from the comfort of his compound by frequently calling Tangerine and sending his agents to ensure that everything is going according to plan. During the journey, he learns that The Son is poisoned by The Hornet who is eventually killed by Ladybug, and Tangerine is later killed also.

The following morning, The White Death awaits the arrival of the bullet train at Kyoto Station together with his army of assassins. When the train finally reaches its destination, he and his henchmen secure the train and survey the inside of the passenger cars for any sign of life. In car number five, The White Death encounters his own daughter, The Prince, standing before him. After the two greet each other, The Prince explains her reason for being on the train and reveals that she has traveled to Kyoto for revenge, pulling a pistol on him from behind her back. She tells him that she was forced to build herself up to where she is now from the nothing he gave her, adding that she was the one who truly deserved his love and attention rather than The Son. She states that she is much worthier of being his successor than her pitiful brother ever was. Irritated, The White Death violently snatches the gun from The Prince's hand, before aiming it her at point-blank range. Having rigged the pistol with an explosive device designed to detonate if fired, The Prince attempts to goad her own father into shooting her, in the hopes that the bomb would go off in his face. After a brief moment of tension, The White Death mocks her playfully and puts the gun way, whispering to his daughter that he has always seen her for who she is, but that he never intended for her to be part of his plan.

After Ladybug disembarks with the briefcase, The White Death is surprised to discover that one of them had survived, unaware that there were others hiding inside the train. He entrusts the briefcase to two of his men as Ladybug asks him if he was the one who had brought them all together on the train. The White Death answers positively, revealing that their missions were nothing more than a façade and that he had put them on the same bullet train hoping that they would kill each other. After the latter questions him why, The White Death proceeds to monologue on how each of them had indirectly caused his wife's death and claims that he, Carver, was the only one left alive. Aiming his revolver at the back of his head, he tells him that he is the man who murdered his wife, only for Ladybug to frantically cry that he is not Carver. In that instant, The White Death's men finally open the briefcase, which triggers a bomb that was planted inside by The Prince hours earlier.

The explosion obliterates a large number of the criminals and causes severe damage to the platform, knocking Ladybug and The White Death back onto the train. At the same time, Lemon, who has taken refuge in the driver car, manages to start the train again. Departing from the station and rapidly picking up speed, the remainder of The White Death's underlings climb aboard and battle the assassins. After returning to his feet and making his way through the empty passenger cars, The White Death soon runs into an old acquaintance of his who was also onboard the train, Shigeru Kimura. He confronts his archenemy and states that their paths were destined to return to each other, having waited years to get his revenge. The two old men unsheathe their swords, clashing with each other once again.

Eventually, the bullet train collides with another on the same track at high speeds. The crash derails the other train and tears a gaping hole through the passenger cars, as The White Death pins The Elder to the floor with his foot. The latter screams that his actions are dictated by his fear of the only thing he will never be able to control: Fate. To spite him, The White Death empties his revolver until there is only one bullet left inside the cylinder and proceeds to play a round of Russian roulette, surviving as he always does. He then aligns the remaining shot with the gun's barrel and aims it towards The Elder's head in the same way that he had killed Minegishi all those years ago.

Meanwhile, Ladybug succeeds in activating the emergency brakes, causing the train to shudder violently and sending The White Death flying back from the jolt. As the bullet train rapidly slows down and hurtles towards the end of the unfinished track, The White Death stands back up and prepares to kill The Elder once more. However, a nearby Yuichi Kimura throws a bottle of water across the car towards The White Death's head, disorientating him and allowing The Elder to gain the upper hand. He musters up enough strength to overpower him and drives his blade deep into The White Death's torso, as the train suddenly flies off the tracks and skids down a hill. It violently tears through trees and picks up speed from the downward slope, before crashing into the suburbs of Kyoto.

In the aftermath of the disaster, The White Death emerges from the wreckage, covered in blood and impaled with The Elder's katana. He limps through the ruins of the city and finds that Ladybug had somehow survived the crash. In desperation, the American assassin explains that he is simply filling in for Carver and that he has absolutely nothing to do with the death of his wife, unintentionally angering the crime boss even more. The latter attempts to kill him out of frustration, only to realize that he has run out of bullets, and pulls out a secondary pistol. The pistol, however, is the rigged gun that he took from The Prince. The White Death aims the gun at Ladybug and fires, but the rewiring activates a bomb, blowing his head in half and finally avenging all those deaths he caused. As his brains splatter all over the ground, Roshan Reznikov's reign of terror over Japan comes to an end.

## Trivia

* The White Death's novel counterpart is Yoshio Minegishi. In the film, Minegishi was given a small role and adapted into the original boss of the yakuza.
* In real life, the "White Death" was the nickname of a Finnish sniper, Simo Häyhä, who fought against the Soviet Union during World War II. He famously lost half of his face from an explosive bullet in battle, which is reminiscent of how The White Death was killed in the film.

## External Links

* White Death on the Villains Wiki.
* White Death on the Near Pure Evil Wiki.