The Transporter

The Transporter
The Transporter film poster
Directed by	Corey Yuen
Written by	Luc Besson Robert Mark Kamen
Produced by	Luc Besson Stephen Chasman
Starring	Jason Statham Shu Qi Matt Schulze François Berléand
Cinematography	Pierre Morel
Edited by	Nicolas Trembasiewicz
Music by	Stanley Clarke
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release dates	2 October 2002 11 October 2002
Running time	94 min.
Language	English
Budget	€20,900,000

The Transporter (French: Le Transporteur) is a Franco-American action / crime movie directed by Louis Leterrier and Corey Yuen. It was released in France on October 2, 2002 and in the United States on October 11, 2002. The Transporter stars Jason Statham as Frank Martin, who did most of his stunts in the movie. Actress Shu Qi plays Statham's love interest Lai Kwai.

Plot

The film begins with Frank Martin (Statham), in his black BMW E38 735i, alone in a parking garage, he proceeds to start his car and drive to the site of his deal. Martin arrives at a building as four armed, masked men emerge, carrying bags filled with money. The four men get into the car; however, Martin refuses to start the car because they have changed the deal, in which it was agreed that there would be only three men. The leader of the men threatens Martin, but due to Martin's car being coded, there is no other option but to shoot one of the men and push him out of the car. A lengthy car chase follows in which Martin's driving skill allows escape from the chasing police cars. At the end of the chase the men offer Martin more money to drive them further, but their offer is refused because "that was not the deal."

Frank is next seen at his home along the coast of Southern France, cleaning his car. His parole officer, Tarconi (Berléand), stops by to inquire if Martin knows anything about a police chase involving the same type car that he owns, that took place the previous day. Martin denies that he does and Tarconi leaves. Martin receives a call from a man who is "looking for a transporter", Martin agrees to meet. Martin meets the man in a bar, where he explains his three rules:

1. "Never change the deal"
2. "No names"
3. "Never open the package"

A deal is agreed upon. The day of the deal, Martin picks up the package, which is placed in his trunk, and sets off on his route. While on the road, Martin gets a flat tire. He opens the trunk, to retrieve his spare tire, and finds that the package is moving. He pushes the package out of the way, and fixes the flat tire. After eating at a rest stop, he returns to the trunk and, breaking one of his own rules, he opens the package. Inside he finds a girl(Qi) who is tied up and has tape over her mouth. He slits the tape and allows her to drink through a straw. He then removes the tape, she says that she "has to pee," and asks him if he wants her to do so in his trunk. He agrees to let her go into the woods, for one minute. After tying a rope around her neck, he lets her walk into the woods. After one minute passes, Martin follows the rope into the woods to discover that the girl has escaped. He quickly tracks her down, ties her up and carries her back to the car, only to find that two police officers looking at his car on the side of the road. He defeats them at hand-to-hand combat, ties them up and puts them both in the trunk, along with the "package."

Martin arrives at the destination and delivers the package to its recipient(Schulze). The recipient asks him if he would mind transporting something for him, Martin accepts the offer. On his way home Martin stops at a rest stop, on his way back to his car it suddenly explodes. Martin returns to the house of the recipient and beats up all of his henchmen. He then steals a car, only to discover that hiding in the backseat is the "package" girl. He takes her to his home for the night. He questions her and she tells him that her name is "Lai."

The next morning Tarconi stops by again, and finds Lai, who claims that she is "the new cook." He explains that the police have found Martin's car, which had been blown up the previous day, and that they were still trying to sort out the remains of the two police officers, who had both been killed. Martin claims that his car was stolen, Lai backs him up saying that she picked him up walking along side the road. Tarconni leaves, telling the couple that they are to come by the station later that day to explain the truth.

A group of men arrive outside Martin's house, they proceed to destroy the house with gunfire, though Martin and Lai are able to escape via an underwater escape route. They swim until they reach another house where they make love. Later they go to the police station to see Tarconi, they tell him they went for a walk and the house had been destroyed when they had returned. Tarconi leaves and Lai uses his computer to track down her recipient who is Derren Bettencourt, but is only referred to as "Wall Street." They leave the police station, but Tarconi discovers that they had been searching for Wall Street.

Martin tries to walk away, but Lai protests that there are four hundred people being smuggled into the country by Wall Street, inside shipping containers, including her father and her sisters. Martin agrees to help her find him. They come to Wall Street's office, but Martin is surprised when Lai's father is revealed to be an accomplice in the smuggling. Martin is knocked out as Tarconi and the police arrive, unable to defend himself Martin is arrested. Tarconi questions Martin as to what is going on, Martin replies that people are being smuggled into the country and that if given the opportunity he could catch Wall Street and Lai's father. Tarconi agrees and they stage a hostage situation to get out of the police station and to the docks.

Martin continues alone and finds the shipping crates, in which the people are being smuggled. However, they are being moved and he has no choice, but to follow. Martin is discovered by Wall Street who tells his henchmen to kill him. After a lengthy hand-to-hand fight, Martin high jacks an airplane, he tells the pilot to fly over the trucks transporting the shipping containers. Martin skydives, landing on the containers and after a struggle to gain control of a truck, during which Wall Street is killed, he drives it off to the side of the road and stops it. Lai's father approaches him, holding a gun, and tells Martin to get out and walk. Martin follows these directions, the two have a conversation, during which Lai is heard yelling, which is cut off by a gunshot. As Lai's father aims his gun at Martin's chest, a shot is heard, though it is revealed that Lai has shot her father, and Martin remains unharmed. Tarconi arrives with the police, who open up the shipping container and free the captives within.

Cast

• Jason Statham as Frank Martin
• Shu Qi as Lai
• Matt Schulze as Darren "Wall Street" Bettencourt
• François Berléand as Tarconi
• Ric Young as Mr. Kwai
• Doug Rand as Leader
• Didier Saint Melin as Boss

The Car

In the film, Jason Statham's character Frank Martin specifically identifies the car as a "1999 Black BMW 735i". In the DVD commentary for the movie, however, Jason Statham indicates that the car was a one-off manual-transmission 1999 7-Series 750iL, with a V12 engine. At a stop Frank's BMW is destroyed by bad guys with a silver briefcase, that Wall Street had contracted for transport. Having returned to Wall Street's estate, Frank drives away with a Mercedes-Benz W140 as a compensation for his BMW.

Miscellaneous

• The character, Darren "Wall Street" Bettencourt was named after real life Entertainment Industry executive Darren Bettencourt.
• It has been widely suggested that Frank is also a character in the 2004 film Collateral. In the opening sequence of Collateral, a transporter, played by Jason Statham, drops a briefcase for Vincent, a hitman, although Collateral director Michael Mann denies this.
• One idea for the inspiration for The Transporter is said to be BMW Films The Hire series which features various BMW vehicles being used in numerous situations, driven by a professional transporter played by Clive Owen.
• Others have suggested that the character known as "Bean Bandit" from the Japanese Manga Gunsmith Cats by Kenichi Sonoda was an inspiration. However, while Frank appears to prefer European cars, Bean's preferred car is usually a classic American muscle car from the 1960s or 1970s such as the Ford Boss 302.
• The movie's title and opening credits slowly materialize on the screen amidst a brilliant array of lights, an apparent inside joke referring to the transporters depicted in the various Star Trek television series and movies, which had a similar visual effect.
• Prior to the movie, Statham already had a background in martial arts which enabled him to perform his own fight sequences.
• Movie errors include the BMW's missing side mirror reappearing in certain scenes, at the beginning. As well, his spare tire of a different style changes back to the original after his meal.

External links

• The Transporter at IMDb
• The Transporter at Rotten Tomatoes
• Scientific description of movie scenes on cisci.net