| The Transporter | |
| Music: | Stanley Clarke |
| Cinematography: | Pierre Morel |
| Editing: | Nicolas Trembasiewicz |
| Runtime: | 92 minutes[1] |
| Country: | France[2] |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | $20.5 million[3] |
| Gross: | $43.9 million[4] |
The Transporter (French: Le Transporteur) is a 2002 English-language French action film directed by Louis Leterrier from a screenplay by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen. The film, which was inspired by the short film series The Hire, is the first installment in the Transporter franchise and stars Jason Statham, alongside Shu Qi, François Berléand, Matt Schulze, and Ric Young. In the film, Frank Martin, a British mercenary driver living in France, finds himself involved in a human trafficking plot.
The Transporter premiered at the Regency Village Theatre in Los Angeles on 2 October 2002 and was first theatrically released in the United States on 11 October by 20th Century Fox, and in France on 23 October by EuropaCorp. It received mixed reviews from critics with praise for its action sequences and Statham's performance. It grossed $43.9 million worldwide and was followed by sequels titled Transporter 2, Transporter 3 and Transporter 4.
Frank Martin is a highly skilled driver for less-than-legal jobs in southern France who follows three strict rules:
In Nice, Frank is hired as the getaway driver for three bank robbers, but they have brought a fourth man. Explaining that the extra weight will affect his precisely planned escape, Frank refuses to drive until, in desperation, the leader kills and abandons one of his men. After evading police in a high-speed chase, the leader offers Frank more money to drive them to Avignon, but he refuses; the robbers flee in another car, but are foiled by their amateur driving. At Frank's villa on the French Riviera, local Police Inspector Tarconi questions him about his black BMW 735i, seen at the scene of the robbery, but Frank has carefully disposed of all evidence.
Frank is hired to deliver a 50kg (110lb) package to Darren "Wall Street" Bettencourt. While changing a flat tire, Frank realizes the package contains a person; he violates his third rule in order to give the captive something to drink, and discovers a woman bound and gagged. She attempts to escape, but Frank recaptures her and is forced to subdue two policemen who spot them. Frank delivers her to Wall Street as promised, and is given a briefcase to transport. As Frank stops to buy drinks for the cops in his trunk, a bomb in the briefcase explodes.
A vengeful Frank returns to Wall Street's villa, killing several henchmen and stealing a Mercedes-Benz S-Klasse, only to find "the package" hiding in the back seat. He brings the young woman, Lai, to his home, where she discovers he is a decorated former special operations soldier. Wall Street visits one of his surviving men in hospital, killing him after discovering Frank is alive. Tarconi questions Frank about the bombing of his car, which Frank claims was stolen, and Lai supports his alibi by introducing herself as his girlfriend. Tarconi leaves, and Wall Street's men attack the house with missiles and automatic weapons, but Frank and Lai narrowly escape through an underwater passage to a nearby safe house where Lai seduces Frank.
Later, while being questioned at the police station by Tarconi, Lai accesses his computer to find information on Wall Street. She reveals that he is a human trafficker with 400 Chinese immigrants trapped in shipping containers, and Frank reluctantly agrees to help. They confront Wall Street at his office, where Lai's father, Mr. Kwai, is revealed to be his partner in crime. Tarconi arrives as Wall Street subdues Frank and accuses him of kidnapping Lai, and Frank is arrested.
Tarconi suggests Frank take matters into his own hands, posing as his hostage to allow him to escape police custody. Recovering a weapons stash from his boat at the harbour of Cassis, Frank tracks the criminals to the Marseille docks, where the containers full of people depart on trucks. Chased to a bus depot, Frank fights his way through the thugs in a motor oil-drenched melee before escaping into the water. He steals an old car and gives chase at dawn before it breaks down, then commandeers a small airplane and parachutes down to the highway.
After a lengthy fight on the moving trucks, Frank throws Wall Street onto the road to his death (in the American version, Wall Street is thrown out of the truck onto the highway), only to be held at gunpoint by Kwai. He marches Frank to the edge of a cliff, but Lai shoots her father to save Frank, as Tarconi and the police rescue the people from the containers.
The Transporter premiered in 2,573 theaters. With a production budget of $20.5 million, it grossed $25,296,447 in the United States and a total of $43,928,932 worldwide.
The film was cut to receive a PG-13 rating in the United States, and this version was also released in the United Kingdom and several other countries. Japan and France received the uncut versions. Certain sequences of violence were either cut or toned down for the PG-13 cut. These include:
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.
† indicates that the song did not appear in the film
The original score were composed by Stanley Clarke and The Replicant (for "Love Rescue" and "Transfighter").
The film was released on VHS and DVD on 15 April 2003, and on Blu-ray on 14 November 2006.
Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 54% based on 128reviews, with an average rating of 5.6/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "The Transporter delivers the action at the expense of coherent storytelling."[7] At Metacritic, the film received a weighted average score of 51 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[8] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[9]
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."[10] Roger Ebert wrote, "Too much action brings the movie to a dead standstill."[11] Eric Harrison, of the Houston Chronicle, said, "It's junk with a capital J. The sooner you realize that, the more quickly you can settle down to enjoying it."[12]