A lavish trip through Europe quickly unfolds into a race against time to solve a murder aboard a train. When an avalanche stops the Orient Express dead in its tracks, the world’s greatest detective — Hercule Poirot — arrives to interrogate all passengers and search for clues before the killer can strike again. A film by Kenneth Branagh, starring Penélope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Judi Dench, Johnny Depp, Josh Gad, Derek Jacobi, Leslie Odom Jr., Michelle Pfeiffer, and Daisy Ridley.

A mystery film based on the novel of the same name by Agatha Christie. MURDER on the ORIENT EXPRESS is considered to be one of the most popular novels ever written, and it remains one of Agatha Christie’s most popular works. It was first published in 1934 and has since sold over 100 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling novels of all time.

Hercule Poirot is a fictional Belgian detective created by British writer Agatha Christie. Poirot is one of Christie’s most famous and long-running characters, appearing in 33 novels, two plays, and 51 short stories published between 1920 and 1975.

In 1934, world-renowned detective Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) must return to London for a case, fresh off solving a theft at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. His friend Bouc (Tom Bateman), director of the Simplon Orient Express, secures him a bunk on the three-day train journey.

The other passengers include: American widow Caroline Hubbard (Michelle Pfeiffer), American businessman Edward Ratchett (Johnny Depp), his English manservant Edward Henry Masterman (Derek Jacobi), his secretary Hector MacQueen (Josh Gad), Russian Princess Natalia Dragomiroff (Judi Dench), her German maid Hildegarde Schmidt (Olivia Colman), Hungarian diplomat Count Rudolph Andrenyi (Sergei Polunin), his wife Countess Elena (Lucy Boynton), physician Dr. John Arbuthnot (Leslie Odom Jr.), governess Mary Debenham (Daisy Ridley), Spanish nurse Pilar Estravados (Penélope Cruz), car salesman Biniamino Marquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), and university professor Gerhard Hardman (Willem Dafoe).

Edward Ratchett, who has recently received threatening letters, offers to hire Hercule Poirot as his bodyguard, but Poirot declines. That night, Poirot hears strange noises coming from Ratchett’s compartment and sees a figure in a red kimono scurrying down the hallway. An avalanche derails the train, stranding the passengers in the snow.

The next morning, Edward Ratchett is found murdered, stabbed a dozen times. Hercule Poirot and Bouc immediately begin their investigation to uncover the murderer among the passengers.

As one of Agatha Christie’s most famous novels, Murder on the Orient Express has been adapted several times for film and television, including a critically acclaimed and commercially successful feature film in 1974 that won Ingrid Bergman an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

However, the latest adaptation features many dull moments, leading audiences to question the necessity of another remake. The second half of the film falls short of the first, and the ending is disappointing given the 107 minutes we had to endure.

MURDER on the ORIENT EXPRESS was theatrically released in the United Kingdom on 3 November 2017, and in the United States on 10 November.