Transporter 2

Transporter 2
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Louis Leterrier
Produced by	Luc Besson Steve Chasman
Written by	Luc Besson Robert Mark Kamen
Starring	Jason Statham Alessandro Gassman Amber Valletta Kate Nauta Matthew Modine Jason Flemyng
Music by	Alexandre Azaria
Cinematography	Mitchell Amundsen
Edited by	Christine Lucas-Navarro Vincent Tabaillon
Production company	Europa Corp. TF1 Films Production Current Entertainment Canal+ TPS Star
Distributed by	EuropaCorp. Distribution (France) 20th Century Fox (United States)
Release dates	August 3, 2005 (2005-08-03) (France) September 2, 2005 (2005-09-02) (United States)
Running time	88 minutes[1]
Country	France
Language	English
Budget	$32 million[1]
Box office	$85.16 million[1]

Transporter 2 (French: Le Transporteur 2) is a 2005 French action film directed by Louis Leterrier and produced by Luc Besson. It is the sequel to The Transporter (2002), and is followed by Transporter 3 (2008). The film stars Jason Statham, Alessandro Gassman, Amber Valletta, Kate Nauta, François Berléand, Matthew Modine and Jason Flemyng.

Jason Statham returns as Frank Martin, a professional "transporter" who delivers packages without questions. Set in Miami, Florida, he chauffeurs a young boy who is soon kidnapped. Frank tries to save the boy. It is during a heated gunfight in this installation of the series that Frank reveals a fourth rule, “don’t make promises you can’t keep”.

Plot

Frank Martin (Jason Statham) has relocated from southern France to Miami, Florida. As a favor, he becomes a temporary chauffeur for the wealthy Billings family. The marriage of Jefferson (Matthew Modine) and Audrey Billings (Amber Valletta) is under great strain due to the demands of his high-profile government job. Frank bonds with their son, Jack (Hunter Clary), whom he drives to and from elementary school in his new Audi A8 W12.^[2] Later, a somewhat drunk Audrey shows up at Frank's home and tries to seduce him, but he tactfully sends her home.

Frank prepares for the arrival of Inspector Tarconi (François Berléand), his detective friend from France, who has come to spend his holiday in Florida with Frank.

When Frank takes Jack for a medical checkup, he realizes barely in time that impostors have killed and replaced the doctor and receptionist. A lengthy fight erupts between villains, led by Lola (Kate Nauta), and the unarmed Frank; which results in the death of one of the fake doctors. Frank escapes with Jack. Just as they arrive at Jack's house, he receives a phone call. The caller informs him that he and Jack are in the sights of a sniper capable of penetrating the car's bulletproof glass. Frank is forced to let Lola into the car; they speed away with Jack, shaking off many pursuing police cars.

They arrive at a warehouse, where Frank meets Gianni (Alessandro Gassman), the ringleader of the operation. Frank is ordered to leave without Jack. He discovers an explosive attached to the car and succeeds in removing it prior to detonation. Jack is returned to his family after the payment of a ransom, but unknown to them and Frank, Jack has been injected with a deadly virus that will eventually kill anyone who the child breathes on.

Suspected by everyone except Audrey of being one of the kidnappers, Frank tracks down the remaining fake doctor, Dimitri (Jason Flemyng), with Tarconi's assistance. Frank pretends to infect Dimitri with the same virus, then lets him escape. Dimitri panics and hurries to a lab to get the cure, with Frank following behind. In his panic, Dimitri kills Tipov, another of Gianni's men, in his attempt to force the scientist in charge of the lab to give him the cure. Frank arrives and kills first another henchman, then Dimitri (after revealing the Dimitri wasn't infected after all); but when Frank refuses to bargain with him, the scientist hurls the only two vials containing the antidote out of the window into traffic. Frank manages to retrieve only one vial intact.

Frank sneaks back into the Billings home and tells an already ailing Audrey what is happening. He uses the antidote on Jack. Meanwhile, a coughing Jefferson, the director of National Drug Control Policy, addresses the heads of many anti-drug organizations from around the world at a conference; infecting all of them in the process.

Frank drives to the house of Gianni, who has decided to inject himself with the remaining supply of antidote as a precaution. After dispatching Gianni's many henchmen, Frank has the archvillain at gunpoint. Gianni explains that a Colombian drug cartel is paying him to get rid of its enemies; and that Frank cannot risk killing him, for his death would render the antidote unusable (inconsistency: as Jack has the antidote in his body as well, Gianni could just have been killed at this or any later point in the movie). An armed Lola shows up, leading to a standoff. Gianni leaves Lola to deal with Frank; which results in Frank finally killing her by kicking her into a wine rack with sharp metal points.

Frank tracks Gianni, who is making an escape in his helicopter to a waiting jet. Using a Lamborghini Murcielago Roadster from Gianni's garage, Frank speeds to the airport and boards Gianni's jet by driving onto the runway and climbing onto the jet's nose gear. After killing the co-pilot; Frank gets into the interior of the plane and confronts Gianni, who pulls a gun on him. When they wrestle for it, a round kills the pilot and the plane crashes into the ocean. Frank incapacitates Gianni by paralyzing him (rendering him immobile while preserving the antidote in his system), then pushes his captive and himself out of the sinking plane. Boats converge to pick them up.

The Billings are given the antidote. When Frank visits them in the hospital, before entering their room, he sees them with Jack, who is joking with them. He silently walks back to his car, where Tarconi is waiting. He drops his friend at the airport. Alone, Frank receives a call from a man who needs a transporter.

Cast

Reception

Transporter 2 opened in the United States on September 2, 2005. During its opening weekend, the film grossed $16 million in the U.S. In total, it earned $43 million in the U.S. and $85 million worldwide.^[1]

The film received mixed reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a score of 52% based on reviews from 120 critics and reports a rating average of 5.4 out of 10, with the reported consensus: "A stylish and more focused sequel to The Transporter, the movie is over-the-top fun for fans of the first movie."^[3] At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 56 based on 29 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".^[4]

Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times awarded the film 3 stars out of 4 and called it better than the original. In a special to the The Los Angeles Times on the same day as the movie's US release, Director Louis Leterrier stated that Frank Martin was "the first gay action movie hero", suggesting that the character comes out when he refuses a woman's advances by saying, "It's because of who I am."^[5] This is contradicted by the plot of Transporter 3 where Frank Martin makes love to the woman character he is transporting, and they end up together in what seems a permanent relationship. Three days after the US theatrical release of Transporter 3, in which Frank Martin develops a heterosexual relationship, the writer of Leterrier's 2005 interview with the Times e-mailed Leterrier about his opinion of the third movie, which he did not direct. Leterrier seemed to backtrack, stating that after re-watching his first two movies, "they aren't that gay".^[6]

Soundtrack

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[7]
IGN	[8]

The soundtrack album for Transporter 2 was released in the United States on September 6, 2012 by TVT Records. It features sixteen tracks recorded by various artists, including the film score composed Alexandre Azaria. James Christopher Monger from Allmusic rated the album three stars out of five, citing Grand National's "Talk Amongst Yourselves", Anggun's "Saviour" and Mylo's "Paris Four Hundred" as the highlights of the soundtrack.^[7]

Track listing

Uncensored DVD and Blu-ray releases

In 2006, Louis Leterrier re-released an uncensored version of Transporter 2 on DVD. The uncensored release is roughly 25 seconds longer than the theatrical cut, and contains improved CGI, particularly during the car chase from the hospital as well as the private jet scene. This release also contains more violent footage and blood during the fight scenes, and contains more nudity in certain scenes with Lola. It is available in Japan (R2 NTSC), France and the UK (both R2 PAL), as well as Thailand (R3 NTSC). It is also available on Blu-ray Disc in France and Japan (both releases are region-free). The Blu-ray was temporarily banned in North America for legal reasons, but has since been re-released. The uncensored fight footage as well as a longer car chase scene was only featured as deleted scenes on the US DVD release. Also the deleted footage included the killing of the doctor.

Sequel

A 2008 sequel, entitled Transporter 3, was released in the U.S. on November 26, 2008. The film follows Frank Martin as he returns to France. It's the first film in the Transporter trilogy to be distributed by Lions Gate in the US and Canada while 20th Century Fox handled the United Kingdom distribution.

References

External links

• Transporter 2 at the Internet Movie Database
• Transporter 2 at the TCM Movie Database
• Transporter 2 at AllMovie
• Transporter 2 at the American Film Institute Catalog