Tangerine

> If you mention Thomas the Tank Engine one more time I'm gonna shoot you in the fucking face."
>
> -Tangerine to Lemon

**Tangerine** is one of the two deuteragonists (along with Lemon) of the 2022 action comedy film *Bullet Train*, based on Kōtarō Isaka's 2010 dark comedic thriller novel *Maria Beetle*.

He and his brother Lemon are a famous assassin duo called The Twins. By the time of the film, Tangerine and Lemon are hired by the White Death to escort his son and his briefcase to him on a bullet train.

He was portrayed by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who also played William Rollins in *Chatroom*, Quicksilver in *Avengers: Age of Ultron* and Ray Marcus in *Nocturnal Animals*. As a child, he was portrayed by Miles Marz.

## Biography

In the past, Tangerine and his brother Lemon completed a job in Bolivia and kill an entire camp of guerillas. Unbeknownst to them, the guerillas were men of the White Death, causing him to travel to Bolivia and leave his wife's side. After the wife is murdered in an assassination attempt, the White Death hires Lemon and Tangerine for a mission on a bullet train in the hopes that they are killed by other assassins he hired.

Lemon and Tangerine are first seen on board of the bullet train in a compartment with the White Death's son. They banter for a short while until getting a call from one of the White Death's goons telling them to make sure the briefcase is still in their possession. Lemon tells Tangerine that he safely stashed the briefcase but upon checking the place where it should be, they realise it has been stolen. When they return to their seats the White Death's son has been poisoned and killed by an assassin named The Hornet.

Soon after they arrive at a train station, where goons sent by the White Death are waiting. Tangerine tells them that everything is under control outside, while Lemon puppeteers the son's corpse inside the train. The goons believe them and Tangerine returns inside.

After that the pair comes up with a plan to retrieve the briefcase from the thief. Tangerine finds another assassin called Ladybug on the train. He realizes that Ladybug stole the briefcase and chases him down the train. The chase ends, however, when Ladybug pays another passenger to wear his hat and glasses and uses firecrackers in a train car to distract Tangerine. Upon returning to his original seat, Tangerine finds an unconscious Lemon, who has been knocked out by Ladybug and wakes him up. They both come up with a new plan to catch Ladybug and head off into different directions.

After tracking Lemon's phone that Ladybug stole Tangerine finds his thief hiding inside a toilet. They both get into a fight across the train that ends with Tangerine being about stab Ladybug in the eyes with chopsticks. Their fight is interrupted by another call from one of the White Death's goons. He demands that both Tangerine and Lemon are present in the meeting at the next train station. Ladybug offers to step in for Lemon as they don't know what he looks like and Tangerine accepts. Ladybug wants to get the briefcase for the meeting but realizes it has been stolen by the Prince and Kimura.

They decide to take a fake briefcase and the meeting goes well until Ladybug accidentally opens it and reveals the clothes inside. They escape back to the train and try to come up with back-up plan until Ladybug pushes Tangerine out the train at the next station just as the doors are about to close. Tangerine jumps back onto the train and breaks through a window to get back inside.

Not long after Tangerine finds the unconscious body of Lemon, who he assumes is dead due to the shots in his chest, inflicted by The Prince. He gets a call from the White Death, who announces that he's going to kill everyone on the train to which a depressed Tangerine expressses indifference. He searches the train for the alleged killer and runs into Prince, who attempts to convince him that Ladybug killed Lemon. Tangerine sees through her deception due to finding train stickers that Lemon stuck on her. Before Tangerine can shoot the Prince, Ladybug enters and the Prince pretends that she is an innocent girl that Tangerine is attacking, and Ladybug fights Tangerine to defend her. In their fight, Tangerine accidentally shoots himself in the throat and bleeds to death on the floor. His corpse likely remained in the wagons and was presumably damaged when the bullet train gets wrecked at the end.

## Trivia

* Unintentionally, Aaron-Taylor Johnson's performance as Tangerine was decisive in his casting as Kraven the Hunter in his upcoming eponymous film, as the Sony Pictures executives quickly cast him in that role due to being "blown away" by early *Bullet Train* footage of him as Tangerine.
* Aaron-Taylor Johnson was cast as Tangerine due to David Leitch's desire to work with him. Leitch had previously offered Johnson a role in *Deadpool 2*, but he declined the unknown role.
* The fruit truck Lemon uses towards the end of the film to run over the Prince is one filled of tangerines. This was evidently done as a reference to Tangerine, symbolizing that even from beyond the grave, he still assisted his brother in carrying out a pivotal assassination.