The Foreigner (2017 film)

The Foreigner is a 2017 action thriller film 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 restauranteur 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. 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 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 the 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 tracked 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 U.K 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’ve found the bomber’s identity and threatens to raid his farm unless the latter questions McGarth after they tracked 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 for Sara, who was wounded in the scuffle. Quan escapes just 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 the reporter and throw the laptop into an air bridge, which explodes without any casualties. Shortly afterward, 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.

Production
On 5 June 2015 it was announced that Jackie Chan would star in the action thriller film The Foreigner, for STX Entertainment, and based on Stephen Leather's novel The Chinaman. 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. The film is partially set in Walworth, London. On 15 July 2015, Deadline reported that Martin Campbell was instead in talks to direct the film, while Relativity Media would finance. Campbell was paid $2 million for the film. Pierce Brosnan joined the cast alongside Chan in November. Brosnan previously starred in the 1995 film GoldenEye directed by Campbell. Co-stars Liu Tao and Chan attended the Shanghai Film Festival on 11 June 2016 to promote the film.

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. 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.

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. In the Philippines, the film was distributed by Viva International Pictures on 18 October 2017.

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.

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. 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.

Home media
In the United Kingdom, the film was released on 15 December 2017 on Netflix. 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.

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." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 55 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". 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.

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

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." 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.

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."