The Foreigner (2017 film)

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The Foreigner
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMartin Campbell
Screenplay byDavid Marconi
Based onThe Chinaman
by Stephen Leather
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyDavid Tattersall
Edited byAngela M. Catanzaro
Music byCliff Martinez
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release dates
  • 24 September 2017 (2017-09-24) (Beijing)
  • 30 September 2017 (2017-09-30) (China)
  • 13 October 2017 (2017-10-13) (United States)
  • 15 December 2017 (2017-12-15) (United Kingdom)
Running time
114 minutes[1]
Countries
  • United Kingdom
  • China
  • United States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$35 million[2]
Box office$145.4 million[2]

The Foreigner is a 2017

action thriller film[2] directed by Martin Campbell from a screenplay by David Marconi, based on the 1992 novel The Chinaman by Stephen Leather. A British-Chinese-American co-production, starring Jackie Chan, Pierce Brosnan, Michael McElhatton, Liu Tao, Charlie Murphy, Orla Brady, and Katie Leung. The film follows a London-based Chinese Nùng
man Ngoc Minh Quan who seeks vengeance for the death of his youngest daughter.

The Foreigner was released in China on 30 September 2017 by

Netflix original films
in the UK.

Plot

Ngoc Minh Quan, a 61 year-old

IRA splinter group dubbing itself the "Authentic IRA" claims responsibility. Quan visits the Scotland Yard daily for information. When Commander Bromley tells him he is hindering the investigation, Quan travels to Belfast
.

Quan visits Northern Ireland

Provisional IRA leader who claims to have renounced violence. Quan demands the names of the bombers, but Hennessy denies any knowledge, so Quan sets off a homemade bomb in Hennessy's building and leaves a fake explosive on Hennessy's car as a warning. Hennessy tells his right-hand man, Jim Kavanagh, and the rest of his bodyguards to locate Quan, take him out of the city, and “discourage” him from returning. He also orders IRA weapons dumps be searched for missing Semtex
. Hennessy's henchmen find Quan at the guesthouse he’s staying in, but he fights them off and escapes. Later, Quan photographs Hennessy kissing his mistress, Maggie Dunn, in a restaurant.

Quan then follows Hennessy to his farmhouse, attacking it with more bombs. As Hennessy's men scour the surrounding woods for him, Quan maims three of them with traps. When he tries to interrogate one of the injured, Quan is shot in the shoulder by Kavanagh and flees. Hennessy enlists his nephew Sean Morrison from New York, a former Royal Irish Regiment soldier and skilled tracker, to stop Quan. Morrison negotiates with Bromley that each IRA cell will change their code words; Bromley agrees on the condition that the police will take them down, not Morrison and his uncle.

Hennessy's old IRA commander Hugh McGrath shows up and confronts him about searching his dumps. Liam tells Hugh that four of them are missing ten kilos of Semtex. McGrath claims everything was in order. He tries to convince Hennessy to support more attacks. Hennessy reveals that he ordered the bombing of financial targets but also for civlians to remain unharmed. McGrath accuses Hennessy of caring more his position within the U.K government that the IRA’s cause. Hennessy warns McGrath to contact and call off the bombers or he will kill them both.

A

paratroopers will re-occupy Northern Ireland within two days. Hennessy learns that Morrison unintentionally leaked information during an adulterous dalliance with his wife, Mary. Meanwhile, Bromley notifies Hennessy that they’ve found the bomber’s identity and, after following McGrath’s car using satellite imagery, threatens to raid his farm unless the latter questions the former. Hennessy tortures McGrath into telling him where and who the terrorists are, which include Maggie, whose real name is Sara McKay. She was meant to serve as blackmail should he reject further violence. Hennessy learns that Mary masterminded the attacks because her brother was murdered by a UVF
death squad and hates both the British and her husband for allowing his killers to be jailed instead of assassinated. Hennessy executes McGrath and shares the information with Morrison.

Morrison eventually finds Quan’s forest hideout. Quan managed to subdue him, and Sean gives him the names of the killers and their location. After being released and returning to the farm, his uncle reprimands him for his actions. Hennessy tells Sean to bury McGrath and that after one last task, Morrison must return to New York.

Quan enters the bombers' London flat disguised as a gas man. He kills all of them except for Sara, who was wounded in the scuffle. Quan escapes before the SO15 and MI5 storm the complex. They torture Sara into disclosing the location of their next bomb, which is planted in a reporter's laptop to be detonated on a plane carrying British dignitaries to a conference. Airport police locate Ian Wood and throw the laptop into an air bridge, which explodes without any casualties. Mckay is executed to tie up loose ends. Davies, who was scheduled to be on the targeted flight, calls Hennessy to tell him she knows of his involvement, but having helped prevent the attack, he can remain as deputy First Minister, albeit under her control. She confirms that 5 pardons have been issued, including for Hennessy’s cousin, and instructs him to take the next morning flight back to London for debriefing. Meanwhile, Morrison kills Mary with a silenced pistol.

Quan confronts Hennessy at his hotel with a picture of him kissing Maggie. Quan forces Hennessy to post the photo on the Internet, publicizing his links to the Authentic IRA and ensuring the end of his political career. Quan returns to the restaurant.

Realizing Quan's role, Bromley decides not to take further action against Quan and keeps him under surveillance for the time being.

Cast

Production

On 5 June 2015 it was announced that Jackie Chan would star in the action thriller film The Foreigner,[4] 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] Campbell was paid $2 million for the film.[7] Pierce Brosnan joined the cast alongside Chan in November. Brosnan previously starred in the 1995 film GoldenEye directed by Campbell.[8] Co-stars Liu Tao and Chan attended the Shanghai Film Festival on 11 June 2016 to promote the film.[9]

Principal photography commenced in January 2016. The filming in London of a scene involving the explosion of a bus on

Walters & Cohen designed Regent High School in Camden and on Churton Street in Pimlico on 18 February 2016.[citation needed
]

Cliff Martinez composed the score.[11]

Release

The Foreigner was released theatrically in China on 30 September 2017 by

Viva International Pictures on 18 October 2017.[13]

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.[14] 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.[15]

Home media

In the United Kingdom, the film was released on 15 December 2017 on

Netflix original films of 2018, with a 0.37% share of the total Netflix content consumed in the UK that year.[17]

The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the United States on 9 January 2018 and in Canada and the rest of the world on 23 January.

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 66% based on 127 reviews, with an average rating of 6/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "The Foreigner adheres strictly to action thriller formula, but benefits from committed—and out of character—performances from its talented veteran stars."[18] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 55 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[19] 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.[15]

The film was viewed positively by most critics.

Times of India gave a positive review of Campbell's direction and the film's suspense, stating that it can keep viewers "engrossed."[25]

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."[8] 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.[26]

Potential sequel

In January 2016, The New Yorker quoted Jackie Chan in-conversation with then-STX chairman Adam Fogelson as having suggested that a female character in The Foreigner who had been killed off in the script had been kept alive so-as to "save her for No. 2. Now the IRA goes after her—and that's the story." On said meeting with Chan and the concept of The Foreigner No. 2 sequel, Fogelson then remarked, “A few years ago, thinking about the sequel that way would be characterized as a lazy, greedy bastardization of the creative process. If you said that now, you'd be telling the entire world that they're wrong. Sequels have become a duty—a form of storytelling that, thanks to great television, audiences have grown accustomed to. You can aspire to create six two-hour movies that develop your concept across multiple resolutions—which makes movies easier to sell, and creates a more predictable business model. Half the films we'll say yes to will have sequelable potential."[27]

References

  1. ^ "The Foreigner". AMC Theatres. Retrieved 19 September 2017.
  2. ^ a b c d "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. ^ Hipes, Patrick (26 June 2017). "'The Foreigner' Trailer: Not Your Older Brother's Jackie Chan". Deadline. Retrieved 19 March 2023.
  5. ^ a b Busch, Anita; Fleming Jr, Mike (5 June 2015). "Jackie Chan To Star in 'The Foreigner' for STX Entertainment". Deadline. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
  6. ^ a b Fleming, Mike Jr. (15 July 2015). "Martin Campbell in Talks To Direct Jackie Chan in STX Action Film". deadline.com. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
  7. ^ "The Mogul of the Middle". The New Yorker. 4 January 2016.
  8. ^ a b Debruge, Peter (7 October 2017). "Film Review: 'The Foreigner'". Variety.
  9. ^ "《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).
  10. ^ "Movie's London bus explosion strikes fear of terror attack into public". The Guardian. 7 February 2016.
  11. ^ a b Nordine, Michael (7 October 2017). "The Foreigner' Soundtrack: Listen to an Exclusive Track From Cliff Martinez's Score". IndieWire. Retrieved 1 August 2023.
  12. ^ "The Foreigner (2017)". EntGroup. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
  13. ^ Lo, Ricky (14 October 2017). "Jackie goes dramatic". The Philippine Star. Retrieved 29 September 2019.
  14. ^ "'Happy Death Day' expected to unseat 'Blade Runner 2049' at the box office". Los Angeles Times. 11 October 2017. Retrieved 11 October 2017.
  15. ^ a b "Blumhouse Has Plenty To Smile About As 'Happy Death Day' Scares Up $30M+ Opening". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
  16. ^ Mohammed, Sagal (22 November 2017). "What's new on Netflix UK in December?". Glamour. UK. Retrieved 1 August 2023.
  17. ^ Statistical Yearbook 2019 (PDF). United Kingdom: British Film Institute (BFI). 2019. p. 112. Retrieved 26 April 2022.
  18. ^ "The Foreigner (2017)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 29 August 2020.
  19. ^ "The Foreigner reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  20. Rolling Stone
    . 11 October 2017. Retrieved 11 October 2017.
  21. ^ "'The Foreigner': Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. 11 October 2017. Retrieved 11 October 2017.
  22. Screen Daily
    . Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  23. ^ "Jackie Chan gets deadly serious in The Foreigner". The A.V. Club. 13 October 2017. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  24. ^ "The Foreigner". Chicago Reader. 12 October 2017. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  25. ^ "THE FOREIGNER MOVIE REVIEW". The Times of India. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  26. ^ Kenny, Glenn (12 October 2017). "Review: Jackie Chan Seeks Vengeance in 'The Foreigner'". The New York Times. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  27. ^ Friend, Tad (3 January 2016). "Annals of Hollywood: The Mogul of the Middle". The New Yorker. Retrieved 3 January 2016.

External links