96 Minutes (2026) is a Taiwanese thriller that wastes no time, plunging straight into crisis. The film opens inside a cinema hall, where A-Ren, a seasoned bomb disposal expert, is forced into an impossible choice. Three years later, that moment still lingers. A-Ren, his wife Xuang Xin, and his mother gather at the annual memorial for those killed in the devastating shopping mall blast. On their journey home, the past refuses to stay buried. Captain Li-Jie delivers grim news: there is a bomb on the train they’re riding.
What follows is a tense race against time—locating the device, attempting to neutralize it, and uncovering the person behind it. But the true conflict is internal. Once again, A-Ren is cornered by the same brutal dilemma that defined him years ago: deciding who can be saved and who must be sacrificed. Less concerned with the mechanics of catching a criminal, 96 Minutes is driven by moral uncertainty and emotional consequence. It’s a thriller about choices that leave scars, and a quietly bittersweet story of reckoning and redemption.
This article contains spoilers.
96 Minutes (2026) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
The film opens with a news story about Captain Li-Jie choosing to save people outside a tunnel rather than those inside, as that would result in fewer casualties, after two trains collided. Unfortunately, it was a difficult choice for Li-Jie to make. Currently, the cops evacuate a cinema hall as there is a bomb threat. Inside the theatre, A-Ren makes his way to the bomb. Li-Jie asks A-Ren to be sure of what wires he is cutting, as there is a threat to A-Ren’s life.
After evaluating the situation, A-Ren cuts one wire, and everything is fine. Next, A-Ren cuts another wire, which detonates the bomb in the cinema hall. However, the timer comes back up again. The next thing we know, there is a bomb blast in a shopping complex nearby. After the blast, A-Ren hugs his fiancée and a cop, Huang Xin, as he is relieved to see Huang Xin safe. It was said the man responsible for the bombing was Lai Bing-Cheng, who died in the blast.
Three years later, there is a yearly memorial for families who lost their loved ones in the blast. To this day, A-Ren is haunted by the bomb blasts. After the bomb blasts, A-Ren quit the police force as well. In the train, A-Ren and Huang Xin make their honeymoon plans. During this time, A-Ren is continuing to ignore Li-Jie’s calls. At the memorial service, A-Ren gets emotional. When Li-Jie asks to grab a bite after the service, A-Ren refuses to stay as he has a train to catch.
While returning home, there is another passenger, Liu Kai, in the same train as A-Ren, who is going through a rough patch with his wife, Ting-Juan. When Liu Kai visits the washroom, Li-Jie grabs A-Ren aside to discuss an important matter. They stop near the washroom, not knowing Liu Kai is there. Li-Jie says that he suspects there is a bomb on the train. The criminal is sending countdown messages starting from 96 minutes. The cops are unable to trace the number.
How and who detonated the bomb?
However, A-Ren does not want to help. A message from the criminal blackmailing the cops to reveal the truth about the shopping complex incident pushes A-Ren into action. They decide not to tell the passengers anything just yet. Liu Kai hears this conversation. In another train, a man (A-Hui) with a burned face and hands enters, making some people scared.
Soon after, Ting-Juan (also A-Hui’s sister) enters A-Hui’s train, taking A-Hui by surprise. In the first train, Huang Xin joins A-Ren and Li-Jie to find the bomb. The train crew is informed of the potential danger and asked to look for anything suspicious discreetly. Meanwhile, A-Ren’s mother gets a message saying A-Ren was not the hero who diffused the bomb.
After that, the sender asks A-Ren’s mom to meet him at carriage 3. During this time, Liu Kai approaches A-Ren and says he knows there is a bomb on the train. The cops now handcuff Liu Kai and discover that he is good at physics. Among Liu Kai’s belongings, they find a nightclub seal that shows only when there is a fluorescent light. The fact that Liu Kai knows about the bomb and is good with physics makes the cops suspicious of him.
Meanwhile, A-Ren’s mom gets a message to call a number. Just then, a phone starts to ring in a tea box. A man picks it up. Huang Xin arrives along with the others. The other passengers are asked to move. Under the tea box are the wordings, the double bombing case, secrets the police can’t reveal. While this is going on, Liu Kai gets a call from his wife, who asks him to call A-Hui. Furthermore, when Liu Kai brings up the bomb, Ting-Juan seems to know about it, as she is the one who placed it.
From the tea box phone, a man talks directly to A-Ren, asking to reveal the truth about the bomb case. There was an explosion in A-Hui’s train. Now, A-Ren meets his mom and discovers a message on her phone that says, “Thanks for detonating the bomb.” From train two, the crew calls train 1 to inform that the perpetrator has come forward, and it is none other than Ting-Juan. Ting-Juan reveals that there is another bomb in carriage 7 of train 2 in a red suitcase.
How does A-Ren convince A-Hui not to detonate the bomb?
The cops decide to evacuate the passengers in train 2 at the next station. From train 1, A-Ren tries to see the bomb situation with the help of the crew, while also asking Liu Kai (who lost his son in the shopping mall blast) to convince Ting-Juan to reveal who is asking her to do this. The timer on the red suitcase increases rapidly as the trains change pace. Since Liu Kai understands physics, he explains that both trains need to be moving at a certain speed for the timer to function normally.
This means both trains can’t stop at any station. In that panicked state, Huang Xin calms the passengers, and A-Ren’s mother befriends another passenger who lost his mother because of the bomb blasts. While A-Ren helps the crew on train 2 defuse the bomb, Li-Jie talks to Ting-Juan on the phone, explaining the situation. Now, Ting-Juan reveals that A-Hui is Xiao Kai’s (Ting and Liu Kai’s son) uncle, wanting to get revenge on cops.
As the crew member is about to defuse the bomb, A-Hui arrives and asks her to back off. If she does not, then A-Hui will detonate the bomb. Ting-Juan tries to reason with A-Hui, saying the other people on the train are innocent, just like Xiao Kai was. Nevertheless, A-Hui wants Li-Jie and A-Ren to reveal the truth. To save people, A-Ren agrees to tell everyone what really happened, even though Li-Jie tries to stop A-Ren.
A-Hui does a video call showing the passengers asking A-Ren to reveal the truth. On that fateful day, the cinema hall bomb was diffused. When the timer came on, the criminal called Li-Jie, asking him to make a choice. If the bomb is diffused, then a bomb will go off in the shopping centre. If not diffused, then there is a bomb in the pipelines that will detonate, causing the police officials to die. So, Li-Jie convinces A-Ren to diffuse the bomb. Still, A-Hui is not convinced A-Ren is telling the complete truth. So, A-Ren promises to meet A-Hui face-to-face and resolve the issue. In exchange, A-Hui should not detonate the bomb.
What was the criminal’s motive to plant the bombs?
This video goes viral, making everyone hate A-Ren. The repercussions are that A-Ren’s mother has to hear curses from other passengers. However, the man A-Ren’s mom befriended saves A-Ren’s mom. Li-Jie reveals that Lai Bing-Cheng was a scapegoat used and was not the real criminal in the bombings. The passengers on train 1 are panicked and want to get off.
When things go out of control, Huang Xin tells them that if they stop the train, then passengers on train 2 will die. Now, everyone calms down. The plan now is for both the train to meet so A-Ren can jump over and diffuse the bomb. At the same time, people on train 2 should jump off the train to save themselves. It’s time to execute the plan, and the passengers in train 2 jump off the train. Before bidding farewell, Huang Xin asks A-Ren to come back safely. The weather conditions are terrible, with high winds and heavy rainfall. Unfortunately, some passengers in train 2 did not jump off.
During this time, Ting-Juan fights A-Hui to take the detonator device. Now, A-Ren jumps off train 1 and misses the landing. Thankfully, Ting-Juan saves A-Ren. Inside train 2, A-Ren asks Ting-Juan to stay with the other passengers while he diffuses the bomb. Now, A-Ren receives a message from the criminal, warning him that if he stops the train, the bomb will go off. It seems to be the same situation as three years ago. After reading the message, A-Ren tries to diffuse the bomb, but A-Hui brings out a knife and fights A-Ren.
Meanwhile, passengers on train 1 are asked to evacuate after realising there is a bomb on it as well. As Huang Xin escorts the passengers out, Li-Jie goes alone to defuse the bomb on train 1. Just then, the criminal strangles Li-Jie while reminding him of the tunnel incident. It turns out the man is the husband of a woman who used to be a dancer. The woman was stuck in the tunnel, and the husband believes it was because of Li-Jie’s decision that his wife died.
96 Minutes (2026) Movie Ending Explained:
The plan was carefully done as the criminal saw A-Hui crying for his nephew, so the criminal used mind games to mess with A-Hui. In train 2, A-Hui stabs A-Ren multiple times. When A-Hui is about to fall from the train, A-Ren tries to save him. At this time, A-Hui realises the mistake he made. So, A-Hui hands over the detonator. Ting-Juan arrives, so A-Ren tells her that the detonator is fake.
In train 1, the criminal opens a suitcase, places a massive object in it, and starts the timer for the bomb. At this time, Huang Xin realises Li-Jie is dead. Just then, the criminal calls the cops’ phone and tells them that they will get to feel what he has felt like all these years. A choice needs to be made on which train passengers to save. Now, Huang Xin and A-Ren decide to move the passengers to the first carriage, let the bomb in train 2 explode, and diffuse the bomb in train 1.
The plan is in action. As A-Ren walks to the rear, he sees a struggling passenger and asks him to rush to the first carriage. Unfortunately, A-Ren is bleeding out and is unable to go any further. So, A-Ren bids farewell to Huang Xin on the call, asking her to diffuse the bomb on train 1. With a heavy heart. The bomb explodes in Train 2, killing A-Ren. The other passengers are all safe.
Huang Xin gives Lui Kai the nightclub seal, as she found it on Li-Jie’s body. So, Lui Kai finds the killer on the train and starts hitting him. The criminal asks Lui Kai to kill him as he has wanted to meet his wife in the afterlife. Fast forward to after the incident, Ting-Juan and Lui Kai visit Kai and A-Hui’s grave to pay their respects. They part ways from there. In a train station, the man A-Ren saved is with his girlfriend. Now, Huang Xin leaves a message to A-Ren saying the mission is completed.
In the end, A-Ren sacrifices himself to save many innocent lives. The whole situation unfolded because one man could not overcome losing his wife when Li-Jie decided to leave some people to die inside the tunnel. Back then, Li-Jie was appreciated for making tough choices. So the criminal planned the double bomb attack to prove to the world that the cops would choose themselves over the greater good. This proved to be correct when A-Ren decided to diffuse the bomb in the cinema hall, which resulted in an explosion in a shopping centre.
The reason for this was so A-Ren could save his fiancée, Huang Xin. However, the media commended Li-Jie, who was promoted, and A-Ren became a hero. The criminal could not tolerate it, so he planned the train bombings to put the cops through the same test. This time, A-Ren sacrifices himself to save innocent lives, turning the wrong he did in the past right. On the train, it also seemed the criminal died peacefully, knowing he would reunite with his wife in the afterlife. Lui Kai and Ting-Juan have definitely parted ways, only to come together to visit their son in the grave. Huang Xin is still in touch with her mother-in-law, and they seem to get along just fine.
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