Transporter
Franchise logo
Created byLuc Besson
Robert Mark Kamen
OwnerEuropaCorp
Films and television
Film(s)
Television seriesTransporter: The Series (2012–2014)
Audio
Soundtrack(s)

Transporter (French: Le Transporteur) is a French action thriller film franchise, comprising four films released between 2002 and 2015, and a television series. Jason Statham plays Frank Martin in the first three movies, a professional freelance courier driver for hire. Statham, an accomplished martial artist, performed many combat scenes involving Frank Martin by himself. This permits the franchise's signature Hong Kong-style fight scenes, choreographed by Corey Yuen. Chris Vance portrayed Martin in the sequel television series and Ed Skrein portrays him in the fourth film, a reboot.

Background

Frank Martin

Frank Martin is the protagonist of the films and television series. He is portrayed as a former Special Forces operative who was a team leader of a search and destroy unit, with a military background including operations "in and out of" Lebanon, Syria and Sudan, as well as a recipient of the Bronze Star in the first film. He retires from service after becoming fatigued and disenchanted with his superior officers, and use his skills as a private driver for hire while maintaining an apparently legitimate life living off of his army pension. Frank Martin operates in accordance with a strict code of conduct, and expects his clients to adhere to his rules.

The character is portrayed with varied backgrounds in different media installments of the franchise. In the television series, it was revealed that he was orphaned as a child, who enlisted in the British Army as an adult and later transferred to Special Air Service. In the film, The Transporter Refueled, his father Frank Martin Sr. is a former British spy, who retired to work on his relationship with his son.

Films

DVD set containing the first three films

The Transporter (2002)

Frank Martin (Jason Statham) is a highly-skilled driver known only as "The Transporter." He will transport anything, no questions asked, always on time, and he is known as the best in the business. He strictly follows three rules when transporting: Rule Number 1: "Once the deal is made, it is final," Rule Number 2: "No names," and Rule Number 3: "Never open the package." Frank inadvertently breaks his own rule, opens the package and finds a bound and gagged woman.

Transporter 2 (2005)

Frank has been hired as the driver for a wealthy family, in Miami, Florida. Frank bonds with their young son, whom he drives to school every day. When the boy is kidnapped, Frank must again act in order to protect his young "package" and his family. Eventually, Martin unravels a scheme involving biological weapons and the nefarious Gianni Chellini. Martin is forced to remove a bomb from the bottom of his car by executing an aerial corkscrew manoeuver underneath a crane. The crane catches the bomb and Martin escapes unharmed.

Inspector Tarconi plays an even more prominent role in this film. It is established that he and Frank are now friends, and Tarconi goes as far as to lie to the police to cover for Frank.

Transporter 3 (2008)

Frank has been pressured into transporting Valentina (Natalya Rudakova) the kidnapped daughter of Leonid Vasilev (Jeroen Krabbé), the head of the Environmental Protection Agency for Ukraine, from Marseille through Stuttgart and Budapest until he ends up in Odesa on the Black Sea. Along the way, with the help of Inspector Tarconi (François Berléand), Frank has to contend with the people who strong armed him to take the job, agents sent by Vasilev to intercept him, and the general non-cooperation of his passenger, who he realises is the package midway through the film. Despite Valentina's cynical disposition and Frank's resistance to getting involved, Frank and Valentina fall for each other, while escaping from one life-threatening situation after another.

The Transporter Refueled (2015)

In May 2013, at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, a new reboot trilogy was announced with EuropaCorp and China's Fundamental Films co-producing and distributing the titles.[1][2] The films were to be budgeted between $30 million to $40 million each and at least one was planned to be shot in China.[3][4] Luc Besson will co-finance, distribute, produce and write all the films.[5] English actor Ed Skrein replaced Jason Statham as Frank Martin on the fourth installment of the series.[6] The fourth film, The Transporter Refueled, directed by Camille Delamarre, was released in the United States on 4 September 2015.

America: The Motion Picture (2021)

Zebbie Gillese voices Frank Martin / Transporter in the 2021 Netflix original film America: The Motion Picture, in which he is depicted as the stagecoach driver of Benedict "Cosby" Arnold.[7]

Television

Transporter: The Series (2012-2014)

Transporter: The Series is a television series based on the Transporter films which premiered in 2012 on 11 October in Germany on RTL, and on 6 December in France on M6. Chris Vance took over the role of Frank from Jason Statham and was joined by Hungarian actress Andrea Osvárt, who played Carla, the leading female role in the series,[8] starring as a former Intelligence agent who organises his missions, and French actor François Berléand, the only returning actor from the film series, who reprised his role as Inspector Tarconi.[9]

The series was intended to premiere on Cinemax but they pulled out due to production problems. TNT picked it up and aired both seasons.[10]

Cast and crew

Principal cast

Character Original series Reboot film Transporter: The Series
The Transporter Transporter 2 Transporter 3 The Transporter Refueled Season 1 Season 2
2002 2005 2008 2015 2012-13 2014
Frank Martin
The Transporter
Jason Statham Ed Skrein Chris Vance
Inspector Marcelle Tarconi François Berléand   François Berléand  
Lai Kwai Shu Qi  
Darren "Wall Street" Bettencourt Matt Schulze  
Mr. Kwai Ric Young  
Gianni Chellini   Alessandro Gassman  
Audrey Billings   Amber Valletta  
Lola   Kate Nauta  
Stappleton   Keith David  
Jack Billings   Hunter Clary  
Max   Shannon Briggs  
Valentina Vasileva   Natalya Rudakova  
Johnson   Robert Knepper  
Leonid Tomilenko   Jeroen Krabbé  
Leonid's Aide   Alex Kobold  
Malcom Manville   David Atrakchi  
Flag   Yann Sundberg  
Ice   Eriq Ebouaney  
Frank Martin Sr.   Ray Stevenson   Mentioned
Anna   Loan Chabanol  
María   Tatjana Pajković  
Gina   Gabriella Wright  
Qiao   Wenxia Yu  
Arkady Karasov   Radivoje Bukvić  
Maissa   Noémie Lenoir  
Dieter Hausmann   Charly Hübner
Carla Valeri   Andrea Osvárt  
Juliette Dubois   Delphine Chanéac  
Caterina "Cat" Boldieu   Violante Placido
Jules Faroux   Mark Rendall
Olivier Dassin   Dhaffer L'Abidine
Zara Knight   Elyse Levesque

Additional crew

Crew member The Transporter
(2002)
Transporter 2
(2005)
Transporter 3
(2008)
The Transporter Refueled
(2015)
Director Corey Yuen Louis Leterrier Olivier Megaton Camille Delamarre
Producer(s) Luc Besson & Stephen Chasman Mark Gao & Luc Besson
Writer(s) Luc Besson & Robert Mark Kamen Luc Besson, Adam Cooper & Bill Collage
Composer Stanley Clarke Alexandre Azaria
Editor Pierre Morel Vincent Tabaillon & Christine Lucas-Navarro Carlo Rizzo & Camille Delamarre Julien Rey
Cinematographer Nicolas Trembasiewicz Mitchell Amundsen Giovanni Fiore Coltellacci Christophe Collette
Production company(s) Canal+
TF1 Films
EuropaCorp
Current Entertainment
Canal+
TPS Star
TF1 Films
EuropaCorp
Current Entertainment
Canal+
TF1 Films
EuropaCorp
Apipoulaï Prod.
Grive Productions
Current Entertainment
Canal+
TF1 Films
EuropaCorp
Belga Films
Relativity Media
Distributor 20th Century Fox Lionsgate Films EuropaCorp
Runtime 92 minutes 87 minutes 104 minutes 96 minutes
Release date 11 October 2002 2 September 2005 26 November 2008 4 September 2015

Reception

Box office performance

Film Release date Box office gross Box office ranking Budget Ref.
North America Other territories Worldwide All time North America All time worldwide
The Transporter 11 October 2002 $25,296,447 $18,632,485 $43,928,932 #2,660 $21,000,000 [11]
Transporter 2 2 September 2005 $43,095,856 $42,071,783 $85,167,639 #1,701 $32,000,000 [12]
Transporter 3 26 November 2008 $31,715,062 $77,264,487 $108,979,549 #2,284 $40,000,000 [13][14]
The Transporter Refueled 4 September 2015 $16,029,670 $56,600,000 $72,629,670 #3,669 $22,000,000 [15]
Total $116,137,035 $194,568,755 $310,705,790 $115,000,000 [16][17]

Critical and public response

Film Rotten Tomatoes Metacritic CinemaScore
The Transporter 54% (128 reviews)[18] 51 (27 reviews)[19] B+[20]
Transporter 2 52% (122 reviews)[21] 56 (29 reviews)[22] B+[20]
Transporter 3 40% (115 reviews)[23] 51 (26 reviews)[24] B−[20]
The Transporter Refueled 15% (105 reviews)[25] 32 (24 reviews)[26] B−[20]

References

  1. "'Transporter' sequels announced at Cannes Film Festival". Digital Spy. 22 May 2013. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  2. "Cannes 2013: Transporter 4-6 Announced". Empire Magazine. 22 May 2013. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  3. "'Cannes: Three New 'Transporter' Films in the Works". The Hollywood Reporter. 19 May 2013. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  4. "New Transporter trilogy bound for big screen with parts 4 5 and 6 announced". Metro. 22 May 2013. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
  5. "Sequel Bits: 'Transformers 4', 'Expendables 3', 'Transporter 4-6', 'The Hobbit', 'Anchorman 2', 'Pacific Rim 2'". /Film. 21 May 2013. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  6. "Transporter 4 will star Ed Skrein in Jason Statham role". The Guardian. 10 February 2014. Retrieved 15 February 2014.
  7. McFarland, Melanie (30 June 2021). "Bro, say can you see? "America: The Motion Picture" shows we're not just dumb, we're drawn that way". Salon. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  8. Andreeva, Nellie (20 May 2011). "Cinemax's 'Transporter' Series Casts Male & Female Leads". Deadline Hollywood.
  9. Goldberg, Lesley (23 June 2011). "'Transporter': 'Lost's' Stephen Williams to Helm Pilot (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Los Angeles, California.
  10. Roxborough, Scott (8 April 2014). "MIPTV: 'Transporter' Series Reboot for TNT Heavy on Action". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  11. "The Transporter (2002)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  12. "Transporter 2 (2005)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  13. "Transporter 3 (2008) - Financial Information". The Numbers.
  14. "Transporter 3 (2008)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  15. "The Transporter Refueled (2015)". The Numbers. Retrieved November 24, 2015.
  16. "Transporter Franchise Box Office History". The Numbers.
  17. "Franchise: Transporter". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 25 December 2020.
  18. "The Transporter (2002)". Rotten Tomatoes. 13 September 2002. Retrieved 16 December 2023.
  19. "The Transporter Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  20. 1 2 3 4 Anthony D'Alessandro; Anita Busch (8 September 2015). "'Straight Outta Compton' Going for Four-peat". Deadline Hollywood. Transporter Refueled earned a B- CinemaScore on par with the third installment
  21. "Transporter 2 (2005)". Rotten Tomatoes. 2 September 2005. Retrieved 16 December 2023.
  22. "Transporter 2 Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  23. "Transporter 3 (2008)". Rotten Tomatoes. 26 November 2008. Retrieved 16 December 2023.
  24. "Transporter 3 Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  25. "The Transporter Refueled reviews". Rotten Tomatoes. 16 December 2023. Retrieved September 6, 2015.
  26. "The Transporter Refueled reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved December 16, 2023.
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