Bullet Train | Empire Entertainment

Bullet Train | Empire Entertainment | Almost Impossible

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Bullet Train VR — A mobile VR experience that immersed moviegoers directly into the action

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Case Study

Bullet
Train VR

A mobile VR experience that invited moviegoers into the action.

Turning a film launch into a playable hunt.

Client

Empire Entertainment

Year

2022

Testimonials

Working with Almost Impossible on Bullet Train was exactly the kind of bold, non-traditional thinking we look for. They took the film’s core story and turned it into a genuinely immersive 360° mobile web VR game that moviegoers actively chose to play. The QR entry point was brilliantly simple, placed directly on the movie posters, so audiences could scan and jump in instantly with zero friction and no app download. The concept was tight, the execution was polished, and it created real participation and buzz at launch. Huge credit to Jobi and the team for the creativity, speed, and collaborative spirit. They delivered an experience that truly cut through.

Serge ZabbalBusiness Director, Empire Entertainment

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The case film showing how we turned a movie launch into a playable VR hunt.

01 — The Brief

Launch a cult Japanese film with a bang in MENA

Bullet Train is a movie adaptation of the Japanese book “Maria Beetle” by Kotaro Isaka. While it had a cult following, not many had heard of it outside Japan. Empire Entertainment wanted to launch the movie in the region with a bang.

Project Scope

Objective: Non-traditional movie launch
Platform: Mobile VR (browser-based)
Entry: QR Code
Reward: Official movie merchandise

02 — The tension we challenged

Standard launches rely
on predictable promos

A standard movie launch usually means familiar media and predictable on-ground promos. But this film is built on momentum: constant pursuit, escalating stakes, and one object everyone is chasing, the silver briefcase.

The Insight

The film itself is an engine of pursuit. The marketing should mirror that energy — not describe it, but recreate it.

So we asked:

What if the audience did not just watch the chase, but joined it?

Bullet Train VR 360 VR Experience - Moviegoer Player reading his email

03 — The strategic reframe

Instead of advertising the story, we recreated the story’s emotional engine: the hunt

We designed an experience that made moviegoers feel like they had stepped into the movie world, with the urgency and adrenaline of being inside the action, not outside it.

This is the Define moment:

Taking the brief as given, then defining the real job to be done.

04 — The Idea

Transport moviegoers
into the action itself

The Bullet Train movie is an adrenaline-filled, non-stop action flick that any fan of action movies would enjoy. To help promote the movie, we transported moviegoers as if they were part of the action.

We set players on a quest to help the protagonist find the missing briefcase through an immersive VR game.

Experience Design

Format: Mobile VR — browser-based
Entry: QR Code scan
Quest: Find the missing briefcase
Reward: Official movie merchandise

Bullet Train VR 360 IRL Movie Experience

05 — What We Made

A phygital, movie-accurate
experience end-to-end

A phygital, movie-accurate experience that merged a physical environment with a digital quest.

A replica of a Tokyo bullet train station with a dystopian queueing moment
A recreation of the inside of the Bullet Train that players explored through mobile VR
A Mobile VR game that ran directly in a mobile web browser — no app download, minimal friction
QR-based entry so anyone could scan and play instantly
A “find the briefcase” quest built around identifying the correct luggage
Official movie merchandise as the reward for successful players

IRL Movie Experience

Physical set: Movie-accurate station replica
Digital layer: Browser-based mobile VR
Entry: QR Code — zero friction
Game mechanic: Luggage identification quest
Reward: Official merchandise

Players playing the Bullet Train VR 360 on their phones

This is the Deliver work:

Engineering the experience end-to-end so the idea lands flawlessly in the real world.

06 — How It Showed Up in the World

From physical set
to digital quest

Moviegoers entered a physical set inspired by the Bullet Train universe.
They scanned a QR code and launched the game immediately in-browser.
They played through the immersive mobile VR journey and tried to identify the correct luggage.
Winners walked away with official merchandise, turning participation into a memorable personal win.

CX Flow

1. Scan
2. Play
3. Win
4. Repeat