Motorcycles have sometimes played an integral role in action movies, being a lead character as much as the actor him or herself. The live action Ghost in the Shell is no different. Starring alongside Scarlett Johansson is a futuristic rendition of Honda’s NM4 motorbike.

Launched in 2014, the Honda NM4 is used as the base model for the hero bike in the film. Itself a nod to the motorcycle used in another anime film, Akira, the NM4 is a feet forwards motorcycle powered by a 670-cc 8-valve parallel twin engine. For Ghost in the Shell, Honda provided sketches to the production team making the production bike fit better in the futuristic world depicted in the film.


Based on the internationally acclaimed Japanese manga, Ghost in the Shell is set in the near future and stars Scarlett Johansson as Major, the first of her kind, a human saved from a terrible crash, who is cyber-enhanced to be a perfect soldier devoted to stopping the world’s most dangerous criminals. Beat Takeshi plays her boss, Aramaki. The film is produced by Avi Arad, Ari Arad, Steven Paul, and Michael Costigan. Tetsu Fujimura, Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, Jeffrey Silver and Yoshinobu Noma are the executive producers. The film is directed by Rupert Sanders.

Ghost in the Shell will be released in more than 50 countries and territories on March 31. In the Philippines, it will be shown on March 29.

Meanwhile, fans can get closer look of the NM4-based vehicle at the 33rd Osaka Motorcycle Show from March 18 to 20 and the 44th Tokyo Motorcycle Show from March 24 to 26.