The Foreigner (2017 film)

2017 film by Martin Campbell

The Foreigner

Theatrical release poster

Directed by| Martin Campbell
Screenplay by| David Marconi
Based on| The Chinaman
by Stephen Leather
Produced by|

* Jackie Chan
* Wayne Marc Godfrey
* Arthur Sarkissian
* Qi Jian Hong
* Claire Kupchak
* John Zeng
* Scott Lumpkin
* Jamie Marshall
* Cathy Schulman

Starring|

* Jackie Chan
* Pierce Brosnan

Cinematography| David Tattersall
Edited by| Angela M. Catanzaro
Music by| Cliff Martinez

Production
companies

* STXfilms
* Sparkle Roll Media
* Wanda Pictures
* H. Brothers
* TMP
* Jackie and J J
* The Fyzz Facility
* Orange Corp.

Distributed by|

* Wuzhou Film Distribution (China)
* STX Entertainment (United States)
* Netflix (United Kingdom)

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

Language| English
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 restaurateur and ex-soldier who seeks vengeance for the death of his daughter.

The Foreigner was released in China on 30 September 2017 by Wuzhou Film Distribution, in the United States on 13 October 2017 by STX Entertainment, and in the United Kingdom on 15 December 2017 on Netflix. It received generally favourable reviews from critics with praise for its action sequences, musical score, and against type performances of Chan and Brosnan, but criticized its formulaic plot.[3] The film grossed $145 million at the worldwide box office and was one of 2018's top ten most-watched Netflix original films in the UK.

## Plot

[edit]

Ngoc Minh Quan, a widower and Vietnam War veteran, runs a Chinese restaurant in London. His only daughter, Fan, is killed in a terrorist bombing in Knightsbridge, and an IRA splinter group dubbing itself the "Authentic IRA" claims responsibility. Quan visits Scotland Yard daily for information. When Commander Bromley tells him he is hindering the investigation, Quan travels to Belfast to meet deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland and Sinn Féin political advisor Liam Hennessy, a former Provisional IRA leader who claims to have renounced violence, leaving the restaurant to his friend and partner Lam.

Quan contacts Hennessy and 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 orders his right-hand man, Jim Kavanagh, to locate Quan and get him out of the city, and the IRA weapons dumps be searched for missing Semtex. Hennessy's henchmen track Quan, 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 search for him, Quan maims them with traps before he is wounded when Kavanagh shoots him, forcing him to flee. Hennessy enlists his nephew Sean Morrison, 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. Hennessy's former IRA commander, Hugh McGrath, confronts him about the searches, accusing Hennessy of caring more about his position within the British government than the IRA's cause.

A double-decker bus is blown up, but no code word is given, creating distrust between Hennessy and Bromley. Hennessy learns that Morrison unintentionally leaked information during an affair with his wife, Mary. Bromley notifies Hennessy that they have found the bomber's identity and threatens to raid his farm unless the latter questions McGrath after they track him to his farmhouse. Hennessy tortures McGrath into telling him where and who the terrorists are, which includes Maggie, whose real name is Sara McKay. 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. Hennessy kills McGrath and shares the information with Morrison.

Morrison eventually finds Quan's hideout, but Quan manages to subdue him. Sean gives him the names of the killers and their locations. After Morrison is released and returns to the farm, his uncle reprimands him for his actions and gives him one last task before he must return to New York City.

Quan enters the bombers' London flat disguised as a gasman. He kills all of them except Sara, who is wounded in the scuffle. Quan escapes just before SO15 and MI5 storm the flat. They torture Sara into disclosing the location of the 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 the reporter and throw the laptop into an air bridge, which explodes without any casualties. Shortly afterwards, McKay is executed to tie up loose ends. British cabinet minister Katherine 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. Meanwhile, Morrison kills Mary, effectively eliminating the terrorist cell.

Quan confronts Hennessy with a picture showing him kissing Maggie. He forces Liam to post the photo online, publicizing his links to the terrorists. Quan returns to the restaurant and reunites with Lam. Realizing Quan's role, Bromley decides not to take further action against Quan and keeps him under surveillance for the time being.

## Cast

[edit]

* Jackie Chan as Quan Ngoc Minh
* Pierce Brosnan as Liam Hennessy
* Orla Brady as Mary Hennessy
* Dermot Crowley as Hugh McGrath
* Ray Fearon as Commander Richard Bromley
* Rory Fleck Byrne as Sean Morrison
* Michael McElhatton as Jim Kavanagh
* Charlie Murphy as Maggie Dunn / Sara Mackay
* Liu Tao as Lam
* Lia Williams as Katherine Davies
* Caolan Byrne as McCormick
* John Cronin as Denis Fisher
* Stephen Hogan as Christy Murphy
* Rufus Jones as Ian Wood
* Katie Leung as Fan
* Niall McNamee as Patrick O'Reilly
* Aaron Monaghan as Pat Nugent
* David Pearse as Billy McMahon

## Production

[edit]

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 Lambeth Bridge caused some alarm, as people were not aware that it was a stunt.[10] Scenes were shot at the 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

[edit]

The Foreigner was released theatrically in China on 30 September 2017 by Wuzhou Film Distribution and in the United States on 13 October 2017 by STX Entertainment.[11][12] In the Philippines, the film was distributed by Viva International Pictures on 18 October 2017.[13]

### Box office

[edit]

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

[edit]

In the United Kingdom, the film was released on 15 December 2017 on Netflix.[16] It became one of the UK's top ten most-watched 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

[edit]

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. 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."[20] 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."[21] 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."[22] Ignatiy Vishnevetsky for The A.V. 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."[23] 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."[24] The 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

[edit]

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

[edit]

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. ^ "The Foreigner Review: Jackie Chan goes the 'Taken' route in Revenge Thriller". 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. ^ "'The Foreigner': Review". 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

[edit]

* The Foreigner
* The Foreigner | STX
* The Foreigner at IMDb
* The Foreigner at the Hong Kong Movie DataBase

* v
* t
* e

Martin Campbell

Films directed|

* The Sex Thief (1973)
* Eskimo Nell (1975)
* Three for All (1975)
* Intimate Games (1976)
* Edge of Darkness (1985)
* Criminal Law (1988)
* Defenseless (1991)
* Cast a Deadly Spell (1991)
* No Escape (1994)
* GoldenEye (1995)
* The Mask of Zorro (1998)
* Vertical Limit (2000)
* Beyond Borders (2003)
* The Legend of Zorro (2005)
* Casino Royale (2006)
* Edge of Darkness (2010)
* Green Lantern (2011)
* The Foreigner (2017)
* The Protégé (2021)
* Memory (2022)
* Cleaner (2025)
* Dirty Angels (TBA)

Produced only|

* Black Joy (1977)
* Scum (1979)

* v
* t
* e

Jackie Chan

* Filmography
* Discography

Films|

| Films directed|

* The Fearless Hyena (1979)
* The Young Master (1980)
* Dragon Lord (1982)
* Project A (1983)
* Police Story (1985)
* Armour of God (1986)
* Project A Part II (1987)
* Police Story 2 (1988)
* Miracles (1989)
* Armour of God II: Operation Condor (1991)
* Who Am I? (1998)
* Jackie Chan: My Story (1998)
* Jackie Chan: My Stunts (1999)
* 1911 (2011)
* CZ12 (2012)
* The Diary (TBA)

|

Films written|

* Half a Loaf of Kung Fu (1978)
* Gorgeous (1999; also produced)
* Rob-B-Hood (2006; also produced)
* Little Big Soldier (2010; also produced)

Films produced only|

* Naughty Boys (1986)
* The Inspector Wears Skirts (1988)
* Rouge (1988)
* Story of Kennedy Town (1990)
* The Shootout (1992)
* Hot War (1998)
* Everlasting Regret (2005)
* Air Diary (2007)
* Legendary Amazons (2011)
* Dragon Blade (2015)
* Who Am I 2015 (2015)
* The Foreigner (2017)
* Bleeding Steel (2017)
* Wish Dragon (2021)

Television|

* Jackie Chan Adventures (2000-2005)
* episodes

Video games|

* Kung-Fu Master (1984)
* Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu (1990)
* Spartan X 2 (1991)
* The Kung-Fu Master Jackie Chan (1995)
* Jackie Chan Stuntmaster (2000)
* Jackie Chan Adventures (2001/2004)
* Jackie Chan J-Mat Fitness (2005)

Books|

* I Am Jackie Chan (1998)
* Never Grow Up (2015)

Related|

* JCE Movies Limited
* JJCC
* Jackie Chan Action Movie Awards
* Jackie Chan Stunt Team
* Looking for Jackie
* Traces of a Dragon
* A Tale of Three Cities
* Duang
* "Jackie Chan" (song)
* Charles and Lee-Lee Chan
* Joan Lin
* Jaycee Chan
* Willie Chan

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF

Other|

* MusicBrainz release group

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