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 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 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

Ngoc Minh Quan, a widower and Vietnam Veteran, operates a London Chinese restaurant with his associate and friend Lam. His adult daughter and college student Fan loses her life in a terrorist bomb attack in Knightsbridge, leaving him grief-stricken and thirsty for revenge. An Irish republican group dubbing itself the "Authentic IRA" claims responsibility and gives UK authorities a previously used IRA code word. Quan visits Scotland Yard daily, wanting the names of the bombers. Commander Richard Bromley sympathetically tells Quan that he is hindering rather than helping the investigation. Bromley further advises Quan to exercise patience and strongly cautions him against contacting IRA affiliates. Undeterred, Quan takes the law into his own hands, zeroing in on deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland and Sinn Féin advisor Liam Hennessy, a retired Provisional IRA leader who claims to have renounced violence. Purchasing items to make homemade weapons, Quan travels to Belfast, leaving the restaurant in Lam's hands.

Quan first phones and then visits Hennessy at his office, but both times the minister denies knowing the perpetrators. Not believing him, Quan sets off a makeshift bomb in Hennessy's place of work before depositing an unarmed explosive in Hennessy's car as warnings. Hennessy orders Jim Kavanagh, his second-in-command, and the rest of his men to locate Quan, take him out of town, and “discourage” him from returning. Pressured by the British state and hoping to shore up his administration ahead of the Northern Irish Assembly elections, Hennessy tries to identify the culprits with help from his former IRA comrades. He orders all IRA weapons dumps to be searched for missing Semtex. Hennessy's bodyguards find Quan’s guesthouse but he beats them back and escapes. Quan later observes Hennessy with his mistress Maggie Dunn and photographs them kissing in a restaurant.

Quan then follows Hennessy to his farmhouse, holes up in the nearby forest, and uses additional explosives to attack it. As Hennessy's henchmen scour the woods for him, Quan maims three of them with traps. When he tries to interrogate one, Quan is shot in the shoulder by Kavanagh and flees. Mending his injuries, Quan remembers escaping from Vietnam by boat, during which his first two daughters were abducted, sexually assaulted, and murdered by Thai pirates. Hennessy also looks into Quan's past and discovers he was a CIA recruit who fought with the LRRP in Vietnam. After Quan ambushes and threatens Hennessy, the latter contacts his nephew Sean Morrison, a retired Royal Irish Regiment soldier and skilled tracker, from New York City in hopes of stopping Quan. Hennessey first sends Sean to London to negotiate with Bromley and strike a deal in which Hennessy will give each IRA cell new codewords, thereby allowing both of them to locate the bombers after their next attack. Bromley agrees, on the condition that the police will take them down, not him and his uncle.

Hugh McGrath, an old IRA buddy from The Troubles, arrives and asks why Hennessy is searching his dumps. Liam tells Hugh that ten kilograms of Semtex are missing from four of them. McGrath denies knowing anything and claims that everything was in order. He wants the attacks to continue and tries to persuade his friend to agree. Hennessy reveals that he secretly ordered the bombings, but only wanted financial institutions to be targeted and civilians to remain unharmed. McGrath angrily accuses Hennessy of caring more about his position within the UK government than the IRA's cause. Before the former departs, Hennessy demands that McGrath contact and call off the bombers, otherwise he will kill them both.

A second bombing occurs on a double-decker bus and no codeword is given, creating distrust between Bromley and Hennessy. British cabinet minister Katherine Davies tells Hennessy that Royal pardons for several of his IRA ex-comrades will be considered only if he immediately hands over the bombers. If not, British paratroopers will re-occupy Northern Ireland’s streets within two days. Hennessy soon learns from a henchmen named Murphy that Sean inadvertently leaked information to his wife Mary whilst having a dalliance with her. Meanwhile, Bromley identifies the Knightsbridge bomber as Patrick O’Reilly, and views security footage of Hugh McGrath meeting with him in a Dublin pub. He notifies Hennessy and, after tracking McGrath to it using GPS, threatens to raid his farm unless the former questions the latter for information. Hennessy tortures McGrath into divulging who and where the terrorists are with Maggie among them, whose real name is Sara McKay. The purpose of the affair was to link Liam to the bombers should he decide to reject further violence. Hennessy also learns that Mary is in league with the terrorists. She bitterly resents the British because her brother Patrick was murdered by a UVF death squad and hates her husband for imprisoning his killers instead of assassinating them. In retaliation for his betrayal and for involving his wife and mistress, Hennessy fatally shoots McGrath in the head. He then calls Morrison and shares the info, in case his nephew fails to defeat Quan.

After finding Quan’s hideout and losing a knife fight with him, Sean names the bombers and their location in London, specifying that O’Reilly planted the bomb that killed Fan, before Quan lets him go. Once Sean is back at the farmhouse, Hennessy chastises his nephew for his illicit deed. He tells him to bury McGrath in the pig pen, informs Morrison of one final task that he has for him, and that upon its completion Morrison must go back to New York.

As SO15 and MI5 prepare to assault the bombers's London safe house, Quan enters the flat disguised as a gas man. He kills all the men, strangling O’Reilly to death, severely wounds Sara, and exits the apartment just as a CTC unit burst in. They then torture McKay into disclosing the location of their next bomb, which has been planted in a laptop belonging to a reporter whom Sara seduced, and is to be detonated on a plane carrying British dignitaries to a conference in Rome. With only seconds to spare, UK airport police throw the laptop into an empty jet bridge, where it blows up without casualties. Wanting no “loose ends”, the counterterrorists execute McKay.

Davies, who was scheduled to be on the targeted flight, tells Hennessy over the phone that she has learned of his involvement with the bombers, but having helped prevent the last attack he can retain his position as deputy First Minister, albeit under her control. She also confirms that pardons for five IRA fugitives, including his cousin, have been issued and instructs him to fly back to London the next day for debriefing. Sean visits Mary and shoots her dead with a silenced pistol, eliminating the entire terror cell and removing any connection to Hennessy.

Quan confronts Hennessy in his hotel room with the picture of him kissing Maggie/Sara on his phone. Hennessy is forced by Quan to post the photo on the internet, publicizing his ties to the Authentic IRA and ensuring the end his political career. After telling Hennessy that the whole world will know of his crimes, Quan returns to his restaurant and reunites with Lam.

Scotland Yard determines Quan's role in the events and has him put under surveillance; on the basis that he thinks that they "owe this chap something", Bromley decides not to arrest 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,^[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.

Cliff Martinez composed the score.^[11]

Release

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]

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 I.R.A. goes after her—and that’s the story.” On said meeting with Chan and the concept of The Foreigner No. 2 sequel film discussed, 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

External links

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