The Transporter

For other uses, see Transporter (disambiguation).

The Transporter
Film poster
Directed by	Louis Leterrier Corey Yuen
Written by	Luc Besson Robert Mark Kamen
Produced by	Luc Besson Stephen Chasman
Starring	Jason Statham Shu Qi François Berléand Matt Schulze
Cinematography	Pierre Morel
Edited by	Nicolas Trembasiewicz
Music by	Stanley Clarke
Production companies	Europa Corp. TF1 Films Production Current Entertainment Canal+
Distributed by	20th Century Fox (United States) EuropaCorp. Distribution (France)
Release dates	2 October 2002 (2002-10-02) (premiere) 11 October 2002 (2002-10-11) (United States) 23 October 2002 (2002-10-23) (France)
Running time	92 minutes
Countries	France United States
Languages	English French Chinese
Budget	$21 million
Box office	$43,928,932

The Transporter (French: Le Transporteur) is a 2002 French action thriller film directed by Louis Leterrier and Corey Yuen and written by Luc Besson, who was inspired by BMW Films' The Hire series.

The film stars Jason Statham as Frank Martin, a driver for hire – a mercenary "transporter" who will deliver anything, anywhere – no questions asked – for the right price. It also stars Shu Qi as Lai Kwai.

It is the first film in a series also consisting of Transporter 2 and Transporter 3. A television series premiered in 2012 on October 11 in Germany on RTL and on December 6 in France on M6.

Plot

Frank Martin (Jason Statham) is a highly skilled driver known only as "The Transporter." He will transport anything, no questions asked, always on time, and he is known as the best in the business. He strictly follows three rules when transporting: Rule No. 1: "Never change the deal", Rule No. 2: "No names", and Rule No. 3: "Never open the package."

Frank has been hired to transport some robbers from a bank heist. On delivery to their destination, they foist an extra man in the car so he refuses to drive until they decide to kill one robber. Later they offer new money on Frank to drive further from the city. He refuses the deal. The robbers escape in another car, and Frank leaves.

Frank returns to his villa, local police Inspector Tarconi (François Berléand) arrives to question Frank about the robbery. However, Tarconi has no concrete proof about the heist and leaves his villa.

Frank is then hired to deliver a package to an American gangster, Bettencourt (Matt Schulze). While changing a flat tire on the road in France, he notices that something is moving in the package. During the way, he opens the package and finds a bound and gagged woman. She manages to escape but he recaptures her and disables two policemen who spot them. He delivers the package as promised.

Bettencourt asks Frank to transport a briefcase. Frank accepts the job. On the way, he stops at a gas station to rest but the briefcase turns out to be a bomb that destroys Frank's car. Frank snaps and returns to Bettencourt's residence with a vengeance, dispatching several of his henchmen and then stealing a car to get away, only to find "the package" tied to a chair in the back seat.

Later on, he returns to his house, and unties the package who tells him that her name is Lai. The next day, Tarconi arrives and asks about Frank's car. Lai now says she is Frank's new cook and afterwards girlfriend and supports Frank's alibi. Tarconi leaves with no proof again. However, shortly after he leaves, missiles rain down on Frank's house, and Frank and Lai are barely able to escape the house, as it completely explodes.

At the police station, being questioned, Lai manages to sneak onto Tarconi's computer to access information on Bettencourt. Lai tells Frank that Bettencourt is trafficking two shipping containers full of Chinese people including her family, and is planning to sell them into slavery. Lai and Frank go to Betencourt's office and he reveals that Lai's father is the man responsible for the human trafficking. When Tarconi arrives at the office, Lai's father accuses Frank of kidnapping Lai. Tarconi has Frank arrested and locked up in the station.

At the station, Tarconi agrees to abet Frank's escape as his faux hostage. Frank then tracks the criminals to the docks, where they load the containers onto trucks. However, Frank is spotted and is forced to fight his way through the guards, failing to stop the trucks. He then steals a small airplane and parachutes onto one of the trucks. After getting out of the truck, Frank is then ambushed by Lai's father. However, Frank is saved when Lai shoots her own father. Afterwards, Tarconi arrives with the police and they rescue the people trapped inside one of the containers.

Cast

• Jason Statham as Frank Martin/The Transporter
• Shu Qi as Lai Kwai
• François Berléand as Inspector Tarconi
• Matt Schulze as Darren "Wall Street" Bettencourt
• Ric Young as Mr. Kwai

Releases

Theatrical release

The Transporter premiered in 2,573 theaters, grossing $25,296,447 in the United States and a total of $43,928,932 worldwide.

Cut and uncut releases

In the United States, the United Kingdom and several other countries, certain sequences of violence were either cut or toned down. These include:

• The fight on the bus, which included Frank using a knife.
• The final fight on the highway, where Frank fights Wall Street in the truck. In the original French version, Wall Street is crushed beneath the wheels of the truck after Frank throws him from it. In the US PG-13 version, he is simply thrown out of the truck and onto the highway.

The uncut fight on the bus can be seen in the "Extended Fight Sequences" on the North American DVD, but with no sound.

The Japanese region-free Blu-ray cut of this film has the original uncut French version of the film. It also has several special features and deleted scenes. However, it does not include the North American special feature of the uncut fight scenes (with no sound). The uncut version of Transporter 2 is also included in this special boxed set.

Soundtrack

1. Tweet – "Boogie 2Nite"
2. Nate Dogg – "I Got Love"
3. Fat Joe featuring Angie Martinez and Sacario – "Live Big (Remix)"†
4. Benzino – "Rock The Party"†
5. Knoc-Turn'al – "Muzik"
6. Angie Martinez featuring Lil' Mo and Sacario – "If I Could Go!"†
7. Tamia – "Be Alright"†
8. Missy Elliott – "Scream AKA Itchin'"
9. Gerald Levert – "Funny"†
10. Hustlechild – "I'm Cool"†
11. Keith Sweat – "One on One"†
12. Nadia – "Life of a Stranger"

† indicates that the song did not appear in the film

Home media

The DVD version was released on 23 October 2003. It included fifteen minutes of extended fight scene footage and a feature-length commentary. On 23 August 2005, the film was released again in a "Special Delivery Edition". This version included all the features of the original release plus a new behind-the-scenes documentary, a making-of featurette, and a storyboard-to-film comparison. The film was also released as a part of "The Transporter Collection", which featured the first two films in the series. A Blu-ray format was released on November 14, 2006.

Reception

Critical response

The Transporter has received mixed reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a score of 54% based on reviews from 124 critics and reports a rating average of 5.6 out of 10, with the reported consensus: "The Transporter delivers the action at the expense of coherent storytelling." At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 51 based on 27 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Manohla Dargis, of the Los Angeles Times, complimented the action, saying, "[Statham] certainly seems equipped to develop into a mid-weight alternative to Vin Diesel. That's particularly true if he keeps working with director Corey Yuen, a Hong Kong action veteran whose talent for hand-to-hand mayhem is truly something to see."

Roger Ebert took the opposite stance, stating, "Too much action brings the movie to a dead standstill."

Eric Harrison, of the Houston Chronicle, says, "It's junk with a capital J. The sooner you realize that, the more quickly you can settle down to enjoying it."

External links

• The Original Transporter Movie Site
• The Transporter at IMDb
• The Transporter at AllMovie