LAST BULLET is the third movie in the LOST BULLET (Balle Perdue) trilogy, the excellent French high-speed-car-chase-oriented action movie series produced for Netflix. The first one introduces actor/stuntman Alban Lenoir (“Gunman,” CASH TRUCK) as Lino, an genius mechanic and driver who goes to prison for ramming his car through the side of a jewelry store trying to get his brother out of debt. A cop named Charas (Ramazy Bedia) convinces his boss Moss (Pascale Arbillot) to let him recruit Lino to build cars for an elite “go-fast” task force chasing cross-border drug smugglers, but a corrupt member of the squad name Areski (Nicolas Duvauchelle, TROUBLE EVERY DAY) kills Charas and frames Lino for it. The title refers to the evidence that can clear Lino, which is lodged into the car he gets chased in. (That car makes a cameo appearance here, completely destroyed.)
LOST BULLET 2 is much more complicated, with Moss making an immunity deal with co-conspirator Marco (Sébastien Lalanne), Lino kidnapping him to exchange with Spanish cops, chased by cops including Yuri (Quentin D’Hainaut, “Heavy,” THE KILLER 2024) who work for corrupt chief of Narcotics Resz (Gérard Lanvin, MESRINE: PUBLIC ENEMY NO. 1), as well as falling in love with Areski’s ex-wife Stella (Anne Serra) and going to Spanish prison when he takes the fall for his much cooler former colleague/girlfriend Julia (Stéfi Celma) accidentally killing Marco.
I confess I didn’t remember much of this, even after Netflix autoplayed a TV style “previously on” recap of the first two movies, so I went and read the Wikipedia summaries before starting the movie. If you were considering rewatching the first two before this one I’d say it’s a good idea, though I did okay.
What’s immediately cool about part 3 is that its first 15 minutes are about Areski, bearded, renamed and living in exile in Germany. Life seems good with his little cabin and nice lady friend (Julie Engelbrecht, THE LAST WITCH HUNTER), but he still apparently does cross-border drug runs for Resz, who on this particular day turns against him. So we get a great motorcycle chase which includes a crazy shot where Areski causes another rider to rear end a van, busting all the way through it and ejecting through the windshield. Action movies are great, aren’t they? They are.
Then he rushes into his cabin and rudely ignores his lady’s questions as he gets out the go bag with the money and passports and guns. But his pursuers arrive before he can leave and he puts up a fight involving some clever contingency plans and the series’ traditional relentless fighting. What strikes me is that just by giving this guy an uphill battle and making him work for it we become attached to him like we would a protagonist. I don’t think it’s any kind of “actually from another perspective he’s in the right” type of comparison to Lino, but it does really make the story more compelling to put us in his perspective for a while before he returns to town. (Later there’s some backstory giving more context to his killing of Charas, without exonerating him.)
Lino also returns to France after a prisoner exchange. He plans to just get his Renault 21 and go work at a garage in Spain, so he doesn’t tell Stella he got out, he just goes to the homey Julia for help (and a hug). Later we find out Stella is pretty pissed about Lino going to prison for Julia. You don’t think about it but I suppose that could be seen as a form of cheating.
Stella is important because Areski calls her and she doesn’t give him up. Man, that lady is really in a bad position in this movie – two men who broke her heart, both trying to protect her, but it’s their shit that put her in danger.
This does a good job of economically introducing one new character, Sarah (Julie Tedesco), Julia’s young garage-owning, ride-pimping friend who kept one of the brigade’s cars. She’s a bespectacled cartoon nerd/hipster who sort of becomes Lino’s padawan learner. Fun to have on the team.
I really don’t have a complaint about this installment, but if I did, it might be that it doesn’t try to one-up the large scale fights that were highlights of the other two (part 1’s police headquarters escape being a 21st century classic). Fortunately it does have a more intimate knock down drag out between Areski and Yuri on a moving light rail train, with passengers recoiling pretty believably. They’re fighting with a knife and a gun so somebody could really get hurt. When the train stops all the passengers get off, and Lino catches up and gets on. There’s a great couple beats with the three of them standing there, then the doors closing, then the two corrupt cops momentarily putting their beef on pause to wail on Lino together.
The first half also features a tremendous car vs. motorcycle chase that reminded me of DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE when it went through a park and T2 when it went through an L.A. River type place. It’s longer than either of those classic chases without letting up, and there’s a bigger one later.
We’ve seen how accountability works in this world – corrupt cops ride until the wheels fall off, then make a deal with Moss to turn against their boss. Areski cuts a deal to be a witness against Resz, but they think Lino will interfere again, so Julia tries to get him to Spain. His real character growth is that he figures out they made a deal and seems disappointed but is genuinely going to get out of the way. Even more impressive, when Julia decides she needs him secretly helping he agrees without hesitation. Anything for Julia, even that.
She has to drive Areski to an airfield where the Germans will pick him up within a ten minute window, which they literally set a timer for. Lino says, “You know Narcotics has roadlblocks all over? They have a chopper too.” Lino and Sarah have 12 hours to montage together a ride – they soup up “a real beast” of an armored tow truck with spiked hubcaps and firework cannons on the back. And because ACABEHJ (all cops are bastards except hopefully Julia) Moss tells Resz what she’s doing and that she’ll call it off if he appoints her to a Ministry position. So he sends two response units to try to catch Julia. “Tomorrow, no matter what, there’ll be blood,” he says, and the game pieces are set with 35 minutes left in the movie.
I love that – just laying out an objective and a set of obstacles and then flooring it. You could say that makes it like a video game, but also it’s good screenwriting, good structure, good movie-making. Building the track and then letting it rip. Julia drives an armored SUV, crashing through road blocks, shot at by the helicopter, chased by cop cars and a semi, Lino following on GPS, trying to get them off her. As always in these movies there are many incredible, seemingly practical crashes of various vehicles that fly and spin through the air, skid and roll and get crushed and torn to shreds, spewing sparks and flames, and we see it from many perspectives, usually including a camera attached to the vehicle in question. As with part 2, the stunt coordinator is David Julienne, a stunt performer in such notable shot-in-France movies as TAXI, YAMAKASI, KISS OF THE DRAGON, FEMME FATALE, DISTRICT B13, 3 DAYS TO KILL, LUCY, TAKEN 3 and MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FALLOUT.
Of course there are twists and dramatic complications that rearrange the whole board, the biggest being (SPOILER) the repercussions of Resz deciding to having his guys kill Yuri to keep him out of the way. Does not achieve the intended objective!
Even as the story gets more involved, I really love the storytelling of director/co-writer Guillaume Pierret. Yes, he makes thrilling, propulsive action, but I also love the way he orchestrates scenes like the one where (spoiler) Moss notices a huge commotion outside her office, hears the news of how her plan has gone south and rushes outside exactly in time for the badass she betrayed to arrive and stare a thousand deadly laser daggers straight into her soul.
Lino’s not as close to Moss as Julia is, but he pulls up next and gets second dibs on driver’s seat evil eye. And oh wow, now I realize why he needed a tow truck. Way to think ahead.
This is being treated as a finale, and does seem to wrap up the story, but it also seems very open for another sequel, spin-off or even TV continuation (what with Sarah wanting to join the not-currently-existent “Brigade”). I’m open to that or whatever Pierret wants to do next. But no matter what future awaits we have right here an outstanding trilogy, highly recommended to all enjoyers of action and crime motion pictures.
May 14th, 2025 at 6:53 pm
This was terrific, a worthy conclusion to a fantastic trilogy of underseen action movies. I did wish there was another Lino vs a dozen cops fight (like in Part 1, when he’s escaping the police station, and in Part 2, when he’s kidnapping Marco), that would be my only misgiving. But the 1v1v1 fight on the bus was awesome in its own right.