The Foreigner (2017 film)

The Foreigner is a 2017 action thriller film[2] directed by Martin Campbell and written by David Marconi, based on the 1992 novel The Chinaman by Stephen Leather. An American-British-Chinese co-production, it stars Jackie Chan, Pierce Brosnan, Michael McElhatton, Liu Tao, Charlie Murphy, Orla Brady and Katie Leung. The film follows a British-Nung Chinese man who seeks revenge for the death of his daughter.

The Foreigner
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMartin Campbell
Produced by
Screenplay byDavid Marconi
Based onThe Chinaman
by Stephen Leather
Starring
Music byCliff Martinez
CinematographyDavid Tattersall
Edited byAngela M. Catanzaro
Production
company
Distributed bySTX Entertainment
Release date
  • 24 September 2017 (2017-09-24) (Beijing)
  • 30 September 2017 (2017-09-30) (China)
  • 13 October 2017 (2017-10-13) (United States)
Running time
113 minutes[1]
Country
  • United Kingdom
  • China
  • United States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$35 million[2]
Box office$145.4 million[2]

The Foreigner was released in China on 30 September 2017, in the United States on 13 October 2017, distributed by STXfilms, and in the United Kingdom in December 2017 on Netflix. It grossed $145 million worldwide and received mixed reviews from critics, though the against type performances of Chan and Brosnan were praised.[3]

Plot

Ngoc Minh Quan, a widowed former Vietnam War special operations forces soldier, runs a Chinese restaurant called Happy Peacock Takeout in London with his business partner Lam and his teenage daughter Fan. When Fan is killed in a terrorist bombing, Quan seeks revenge. An Irish republican group calling itself the "Authentic IRA" claims responsibility. Quan takes to visiting Scotland Yard daily, asking for names of the bombers, but is told by police chief Commander Bromley that his repeated visits are diverting resources away from the investigation. Bromley advises Quan to be patient and warns him against going after the IRA. Undeterred, Quan takes matters into his own hands and next focuses on the Northern Ireland deputy First Minister and Sinn Féin politician Liam Hennessy, who speaks publicly about his status as a former Provisional IRA leader while condemning the attack. Quan purchases items to make homemade weapons and travels to Belfast, leaving the restaurant under Lam's control.

Quan seeks out Hennessy at his office but Hennessy claims to have no knowledge of the bombing or its perpetrators before ejecting him from the premises. Quan does not believe him, and first sets off a homemade bomb in Hennessy's building before leaving a fake explosive on Hennessy's car as warnings unless he gets the bombers' names. Hennessy tells his men to find Quan and stop him. Hoping to shore-up his career and influential political position, Hennessy tries to identify the culprits with help from his contacts and orders that known IRA weapons dumps be searched for missing explosives, but the Authentic IRA catches on and outwits him. Quan observes Hennessy seeing his mistress, Maggie, and photographs them kissing in a restaurant. Hennessy's men find Quan but he fights them off and escapes.

Quan then brings the fight to Hennessy, hiding in the trees outside his farmhouse and attacking it with more explosives. As Hennessy's henchmen attempt to track him in the forest, Quan uses traps to disable them but is shot in the shoulder and flees. Tending to his wounds, Quan recalls his escape from Vietnam in which his first two daughters were kidnapped and killed by Thai pirates. Hennessy also investigates Quan's background and discovers he was a former guerrilla fighter who was recruited by US special forces in Vietnam. After Quan ambushes Hennessy in his house, the latter contacts his nephew Sean Morrison, a former Royal Irish Regiment soldier, in the hope that Morrison's tracking skills can be used to stop Quan.

Hugh McGrath, one of Hennessy's old IRA commanders during The Troubles, arrives and asks Hennessy why his weapon dumps are being searched. Hennessy tells Hugh that the semtex used in the bombing came from one of his dumps. McGrath denies knowing anything and claims that everything was in order. McGrath then tells Hennessy that he believes the bombings should continue and tries to persuade Hennessy to think the same. Hennessy refuses, stating that his violent days are over and reveals that he secretly supports bombings, but only of financial targets that do not involve mass casualties. Angry, McGrath berates Hennessy, claiming that politics has made him soft and that he now only cares about his career rather than the IRA's cause. McGrath then leaves, but not before Hennessy threatens him saying if the bombers aren't caught, then he's going after him next.

After a second bombing on a double-decker bus, Hennessy negotiates with British politician Katherine Davies and promises the capture of the terrorists in exchange for pardoning of several of his former IRA comrades. Meanwhile, Hennessy receives intel on the bombers and relays the information to Sean and the police. Commander Bromley finds out that Hugh McGrath is the ringleader of the Authentic IRA and notifies Hennessy of the discovery. Hennessy tortures McGrath into giving him the identities of the bombers with Maggie among them, whose real name is Sara Mackay. Hennessy also discovers that the true mastermind of the recent Authentic IRA attacks is his own wife, Mary, who despises the British for the death of her brother and hates Hennessy for allowing his killers to be sent to prison rather than having them killed. In retaliation for his betrayal and for involving his wife and mistress, Hennessy fatally shoots McGrath. He also learns that Sean leaked information to Mary while having an affair with her. Sean finds Quan's hiding place in the forest. After a knife fight, Quan captures Sean, who names the terrorists and their location in London before Quan lets him go. When Sean returns to the farmhouse, Hennessy admonishes his nephew, tells him of a last task that he has for him after which he will have to depart to New York City and never return.

As the police and MI5 prepare to raid the bombers' London hideout, Quan enters the flat disguised as a handyman and kills everyone but Maggie. Quan leaves just before the police storm the apartment and find a severely wounded Maggie. They torture her into disclosing the location of their next bomb, which has been planted in a laptop belonging to a reporter whom Maggie seduced, and is to be detonated on a plane carrying several British dignitaries to an international conference in Rome. With only seconds to spare, British police throw the laptop into an empty jet bridge, where it detonates without casualties. With the threat resolved, Maggie is executed to prevent any "loose ends." Hennessy gets a call from Davies, who was scheduled to be on the targeted flight. She tells him that she has learned of his involvement with the bombers, but having helped prevent the last attack, he will be allowed to retain his position as deputy First Minister, albeit under her control. Sean visits Mary and executes her, thus eliminating the entire Authentic IRA cell.

Quan confronts Hennessy with the picture of him kissing Maggie, which is enough to throw public suspicion on Hennessy and his role in the bombings. He forces Hennessy to post the picture on the internet, publicly exposing his association with the Authentic IRA and destroying his political career. Quan returns to his restaurant in London and reunites with Lam. Scotland Yard realizes Quan's role in the events and has him put under surveillance; Bromley decides not to take any further action against Quan and keeps him as "observe and report only."

Cast

Production

On 5 June 2015 it was announced that Jackie Chan would star in the action thriller film The Foreigner, for STX Entertainment, and based on Stephen Leather's novel The Chinaman.[5] Nick Cassavetes initially signed to direct the film, which was adapted from Leather's novel by David Marconi, while Wayne Marc Godfrey was one of the producers.[6] The film is partially set in Walworth, London.[5] On 15 July 2015, Deadline reported that Martin Campbell was instead in talks to direct the film, while Relativity Media would finance.[6] Pierce Brosnan joined the cast alongside Chan in November. Brosnan previously starred in the 1995 film GoldenEye directed by Martin Campbell.[7] Co-stars Liu Tao and Chan attended the Shanghai Film Festival on 11 June 2016 to promote the film.[8]

Principal photography commenced in January 2016. The filming in London of a scene involving the explosion of a bus on Lambeth Bridge caused some alarm, as people were not aware that it was a stunt.[9] Scenes were shot at the Walters & Cohen designed Regent High School in Camden and on Churton Street in Pimlico on 18 February 2016.

Cliff Martinez composed the score.

Release

The Fyzz Facility produced, and is distributing, The Foreigner, in association with Sparkle Roll Media and Huayi Brothers, while STXfilms distributes it theatrically across the United States of America.

It was released on 30 September 2017 in China and 13 October 2017 in the United States. In the Philippines, the film was distributed by Viva International Pictures on 18 October 2017.[10] In the United Kingdom it was released in December 2017 on Netflix. A DVD and Blu-ray released in the United States on 9 January 2018 and 23 January in Canada and the rest of the world.

Box office

The Foreigner grossed $34.4 million in the United States and Canada, and $111 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $145.4 million, against a production budget of $35 million.[2]

In the United States and Canada, the film opened alongside Happy Death Day, Marshall and Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, and was expected to gross $10–15 million from 2,555 theaters in its opening weekend.[11] It made $4.8 million on its first day, including $855,000 from Thursday night previews. It went on to open to $15.5 million, finishing third at the box office behind Happy Death Day and Blade Runner 2049.[12]

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 65% based on 124 reviews, with an average rating of 5.99/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The Foreigner adheres strictly to action thriller formula, but benefits from committed—and out of character—performances from its talented veteran stars."[13] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 55 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[14] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported 78% of filmgoers gave it positive score.[12]

The film was viewed positively by most critics. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film three out of four stars and praised Chan's performance, saying: "It's the most dramatic role Chan has ever tackled, and he plays it with coiled intensity and raw emotional power."[15] Clarence Tsui of The Hollywood Reporter also praised Chan, writing, "It's good to see Chan swapping his happy-go-lucky persona for two hours for some gravitas as a tragic rogue with a marked past."[16] John Berra of Screen Daily praised the action sequences, Cliff Martinez's score and the direction, stating "Campbell's unfussy style works well with Chan’s choreography. The star’s willingness to look his 63 years makes the falls look like they really hurt and creates a sense of jeopardy when Quan finds himself outnumbered." He also observed that the film "never commits the cinematic sin of suggesting that terrorism is a threat than can be readily dispatched with a few one-liners."[17] Ignatiy Vishnevetsky for AV Club described the film as "good, lean cut of meat—in other words, a typical Martin Campbell movie, expeditious and cold-blooded in its cross-cut, cloak-and-dagger plotting and violence."[18] The Chicago Reader also commended the performances of Chan and Brosnan and called The Foreigner a "twisty, bracing political thriller, giving Chan room to display his dramatic ability."[19] The Times of India gave a positive review of Campbell's direction and the film's suspense, stating that it can keep viewers "engrossed."[20]

In more mixed reviews, Peter Debruge of Variety wrote "The Foreigner amounts to an above-average but largely by-the-numbers action movie in which Chan does battle with generic thugs and shadowy political forces."[7] Glenn Kenny writing in The New York Times stated Chan "doesn’t deliver the action pizazz here that he used to," criticised the plot as "convoluted" and felt that the use of the IRA as antagonists was outdated in relation to current events.[21]

References
  1. "The Foreigner". AMC Theatres. Retrieved 19 September 2017.
  2. "The Foreigner (2017)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  3. Giles, Jeff (12 October 2017). "Happy Death Day Is Familiar but Fun". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
  4. "Katie Leung Official CV". Curtis Brown Agency.
  5. Busch, Anita; Fleming Jr, Mike (5 June 2015). "Jackie Chan To Star in 'The Foreigner' for STX Entertainment". Deadline. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
  6. Fleming Jr, Mike (15 July 2015). "Martin Campbell in Talks To Direct Jackie Chan in STX Action Film". deadline.com. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
  7. Debruge, Peter (7 October 2017). "Film Review: 'The Foreigner'". Variety.
  8. "《普通人》成龙 、刘涛亮相上影节惹欢呼_娱乐_腾讯网". 腾讯网 (Tencent Network).
  9. "Movie's London bus explosion strikes fear of terror attack into public". The Guardian. 7 February 2016.
  10. Lo, Ricky (14 October 2017). "Jackie goes dramatic". Philstar.com. Philstar Global Corp. Retrieved 29 September 2019.
  11. "'Happy Death Day' expected to unseat 'Blade Runner 2049' at the box office". Los Angeles Times. 11 October 2017. Retrieved 11 October 2017.
  12. "Blumhouse Has Plenty To Smile About As 'Happy Death Day' Scares Up $30M+ Opening". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
  13. "The Foreigner (2017)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 29 August 2020.
  14. "The Foreigner reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  15. "The Foreigner Review: Jackie Chan goes the 'Taken' route in Revenge Thriller". Rolling Stone. 11 October 2017. Retrieved 11 October 2017.
  16. "'The Foreigner': Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. 11 October 2017. Retrieved 11 October 2017.
  17. "'The Foreigner': Review". Screen Daily. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  18. "Jackie Chan gets deadly serious in The Foreigner". AV Club. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  19. "The Foreigner". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  20. "THE FOREIGNER MOVIE REVIEW". Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  21. "Review: Jackie Chan Seeks Vengeance in 'The Foreigner'". The New York Times. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
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