Death Race 2

Death Race 2 is a 2010 action film directed by Roel Reiné as well as written by Tony Giglio, who co-developed its story with Paul W. S. Anderson. A co-production between Germany and South Africa, it is the prequel to Anderson's 2008 film Death Race (which is itself a prequel to 1975's Death Race 2000) and the second installment in the Death Race franchise. The film stars Luke Goss as Carl "Luke" Lucas, a convicted cop killer sentenced to life in a notorious private prison where he is forced to fight to the death live on the titular reality show in a bid for freedom. Fred Koehler, Tanit Phoenix, Robin Shou, Lauren Cohan, Danny Trejo, Ving Rhames, and Sean Bean appear in supporting roles; Koehler and Shou reprise theirs from Death Race.

Death Race 2 was developed rather as a prequel that tells the origin story of franchise protagonist Frankenstein sans the directorial involvement of Anderson (who stayed on as co-producer instead) and appearance of Jason Statham. Reiné signed on to direct and began shooting in Cape Town earlier in 2010. Universal Pictures released the film direct-to-video through its home entertainment division on January 18, 2011, although it set the earliest release date for the United Kingdom, December 27, 2010. The film garnered generally positive reviews. A direct-to-video sequel, Death Race 3: Inferno (2013), was also directed by Reiné.

Plot summary
Getaway driver Carl "Luke" Lucas attempts to rob a bank for crime boss Markus Kane. During the robbery, two officers coincidentally enter the building. Luke tells his accomplices to abort, but they refuse; Luke intervenes, but it results in the death of one of the robbers. Luke kills an officer and dumps off his accomplices to fulfill Markus's wishes. Luke is captured following a chase and sentenced to prison. Six months later, he is transferred to Terminal Island.

Terminal Island is a private prison controlled by Weyland Corporation, which hosts "Death Match", a televised pay-per-view competition where two dangerous convicts are forced to fight to the death or submission. The prisoners are given access to weapons or defense items to use during the fight by stepping on a marked plate in the arena. Death Match is hosted by September Jones, a former Miss Universe who lost her crown due to allegations of having a sexual relationship with the judges. She now works for Weyland Corporation owner R. H. Weyland to generate profit from the pay-per-view subscribers of Death Match. Luke meets Lists, Goldberg, and Rocco, as well as catches the attention of September after protecting the cowardly Lists from an attempted assault.

Luke rejects September's proposal that he fight in exchange for privileges in prison and spurns her sexual advances. In retaliation, September chooses Lists to fight in a Death Match against a physically imposing black opponent, Big Bill, from whom Luke protected him. Luke jumps over a barbed fence to fight for Lists and is briefly assisted by convict and ring girl Katrina Banks. A riot breaks out during the fight sparked by racial tension; convicts force their way into the arena, and some of them attempt to rape the female convicts. Katrina defends herself and helps the other women, who are then evacuated. When guards intervene, Luke surrenders. Markus, worried that Luke will trade information on his crimes for immunity, discovers his location at Terminal Island while watching Death Match. Luke is treated for his wounds and sparks up a conversation with Katrina, whom he thanks for assisting him.

Markus puts a $1 million bounty on Luke's head and convinces some of the prisoners to kill him. Meanwhile, September comes up with the idea of converting Death Match into a race-car match where the contestants will have to race each other in heavily-armed, armored vehicles over three days. Weyland likes the idea enough to incorporate freedom as prize to whoever manages to win five races in what he names "Death Race". Luke joins the race with a pit crew comprising Lists, Goldberg, and Rocco, during which other prisoners try to kill him to earn Markus's bounty. The female convicts are brought back to play navigator for each racer, and Katrina is paired with Luke.

After winning the first race, Luke is congratulated by Weyland, who brings in Katrina as a prize. Once left alone, Luke and Katrina briefly banter with each other and have sex. Later, Katrina is brought to Markus, who offers her freedom if she kills Luke within 48 hours.

During the second race, Luke intervenes in an altercation between two other racers and saves triad member 14K. As a result, 14K claims to be indebted to Luke. Later in the same race, Katrina informs Luke about Markus's offer. Luke ejects her from the car after discovering that it was sabotaged by one of their pit crew members. Defenseless, he gets blown up by Big Bill's heat-seeking missile; Big Bill's navigator fatally stabs her partner after he kills his own pit crew and grabs her by the throat. Katrina and Luke's pit crew fail to save Luke from the burning car, leaving him engulfed in flames. Unknown to everyone but September, Luke survives albeit badly burnt; she coerces him into joining the race in a mask under the moniker "Frankenstein".

As the last race begins, a triad assassin sent by 14K raids Markus's mansion and executes Markus as a favor to Luke. Lists kills Rocco (who tampered with Luke's car) and Luke kills September by running her over with his car, after which he races with the other competitors.

Cast
Additional members of the cast include Patrick Lyster as Warden Parks, DeObia Oparei as Big Bill, Hennie Bosman as Xander Grady, Joe Vaz as Rocco, Danny Keogh as Dr. Klein, Warrick Grier as Calin, and Tanya van Graan as Holly.

Production
The development of a prequel to Paul W. S. Anderson's 2008 film Death Race (which is itself a prequel to 1975's Death Race 2000 ) was announced in August 2009, with screenwriter Tony Giglio tasked with expanding on Anderson's idea of an origin story for its main protagonist Frankenstein. Anderson did not return to direct the prequel (which had been tentatively titled Death Race: Frankenstein Lives) but stayed on as producer with Jeremy Bolt and Mike Elliott, nor did Jason Statham reprise his role as he was reportedly working on The Mechanic. On March 2, 2010, it was reported that director Roel Reiné had been shooting Death Race 2 on location in South Africa and Sean Bean had joined its cast of Luke Goss, Lauren Cohan, Ving Rhames, Danny Trejo, and Frederick Koehler. The film was a co-production between Germany and South Africa, enjoying tax breaks incentives for having been shot in the latter location.

Shooting lasted 30 days in Cape Town on a $6–18 million budget, with Reiné serving as camera operator on certain action scenes. An abandoned cement factory near the slums outside Cape Town was utilized to stand in for the prison. Newly-bought units of three of the cars (including a Ford Mustang) from the first film were repurposed as how they originally appeared for continuity, and Reiné staged the car stunts as realistic as possible.

Release
Universal Pictures released the film direct-to-video through its home entertainment division on January 18, 2011, although it set the earliest release date for the United Kingdom, December 27, 2010. Both the DVD and Blu-ray contain rated and unrated versions as well as bonus contents including featurettes on the cars, stunts and canonicity of the film, deleted scenes, and a feature-length commentary by Roel Reiné. According to The Numbers, home video sales for the film have totaled $8.4 million in the United States and Canada, with 218,000 ($4.04 million) DVD copies sold in its opening week, making it a decent debut for a straight-to-DVD release. In contrast, 50,000 Blu-ray copies were sold on the same week. Universal released a double feature collection comprising the film and Death Race on October 9, 2012. All four films in Universal's Death Race franchise were released in a collection on October 2, 2018.

Sequel
The worldwide reception to Death Race and its prequel successor prompted Universal to enter production on Death Race 3: Inferno, a direct-to-video sequel to Death Race 2 and the third installment in the Death Race franchise. Reiné returned to direct Inferno (which was shot in Cape Town, South Africa later in 2011), as did Luke Goss, Danny Trejo, Ving Rhames, Fred Koehler, Robin Shou, and Tanit Phoenix to reprise their roles from Death Race 2; Dougray Scott and Hlubi Mboya were cast in newly-added roles. The film was released on January 20, 2013.

Reception
The film garnered generally positive reviews upon its release. IGN said that while it was neither original nor guaranteed to please opponents of its "highly mediocre" Paul W. S. Anderson-directed predecessor, the film connected well with his as a prequel and delivered an ample helping of kinetic action. Contrarily, the Daily Mirror felt it was not as "highly enjoyable" as its predecessor, nor was it bound to please audiences who are sober or have no strong inclination toward genre elements such as "guns, girls and growling engines". Despite the criticism, many publications but Total Film and the Winnipeg Free Press said the film was better than Anderson's. While scoffing at the idea of "prequels to remakes", Salon insisted that the film was still "better than it has any right to be".

The action scenes were singled out by most for further praise, with their quality described as "solid" and "nicely staged". While finding nothing particularly surprising about the origins of "Death Race", Den of Geek wrote that "the fights we see [in "Death Match"] add a Running Man level of violence and excitement that, for me, were more exhilarating than when the film inevitably makes its transition to four wheels". Total Film also cited "the Beyond Thunderdome-style gladiatorial Death Matches" as some of the film's "guiltily enjoyable moments", but said the final racing scenes were "anti-climactic [and] akin to watching someone else's drunken game of Mario Kart". Even so, many publications but The A.V. Club, which found the film to be boring and "a total waste of time", felt it was an entertaining full-bore action romp, and DVD Talk called it "an intermittently entertaining actioner".

Screen Daily found the film well cast and IGN called the cast "pretty terrific", while Total Film said the performances were "awful". Luke Goss, whose performance in "a thankless role" was deemed satisfactory by DVD Talk, was considered by others to be a worthy successor to Jason Statham. Most reviews further praised the supporting cast, with Sean Bean, Ving Rhames, and Danny Trejo credited by some with adding entertainment value with what The Record deemed "scenery-chewing" performances. However, Den of Geek said the film limited Tanit Phoenix and Lauren Cohan to playing sexualized stock characters for the sole purpose of appealing to male audiences. "I think what's more of a shame, though, is that the female cast wasn't given the same attention as the male," wrote the website. DVD Talk commented that the whole point of the film is to show not acting prowess but bloody violence, guns, and women as sex objects, citing Cohan's casting in an "agonizing, cleavage-popping" role as an example of the latter.

IGN and Screen Daily found the film's production values spectacular for a direct-to-video release, while ComingSoon.net criticized them as shoddy. Den of Geek acknowledged that the film "still had moments of unfinished effects,... but, if anything, it added to the B-movie charm", and Fearnet said it was "quite a bit better than what normally passes for a 'DTV sequel'". DVD Talk wrote: "The most impressive aspects to director Roel Reine's film are the stunt work and crisp cinematography, giving fans of the first film another round of brutal races and beatings, only this time the picture appears to embrace its feral nature with a little more spunk." While ComingSoon.net said Reiné abandoned plot and basic storytelling for stunning visuals, others praised him as being capable of delivering a slick action film on a meager budget which, in Salon opinion, "will make him king of the straight-to-DVD sequels if he keeps this up".