The Transporter (French: Le Transporteur) is a 2002 English-language French action-

thriller film directed by Corey Yuen and Louis Leterrier (who is credited as
artistic director on the film), and written by Luc Besson, who was inspired by BMW
Films' The Hire series. The film stars Jason Statham as Frank Martin, a driver for
hire—a mercenary "transporter" who will deliver anything, anywhere, no questions
asked—for the right price. It also stars Shu Qi as Lai Kwai.

It is the first installment in the Transporter franchise, succeeded by three

sequels, Transporter 2 and Transporter 3, The Transporter Refueled (a reboot), and
a television series.

Contents
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Releases
3.1 Theatrical release
3.2 Cut and uncut releases
3.3 Soundtrack[5]
3.4 Home media
4 Reception
5 References
6 External links
Plot
Frank Martin is a highly skilled driver/mercenary whose callsign is "The
Transporter". He strictly follows three rigid rules when transporting:

Once a deal is made, it is final

No names
Never open the package
At Frank's villa on the Mediterranean, local Police Inspector Tarconi questions
Frank about the black BMW that fled the scene of a robbery Frank was a getaway
driver for. However, lacking any real proof, Tarconi leaves. Frank is then hired to
deliver a package of 50 kilograms (110 lb) to an American, Darren "Wall Street"
Bettencourt, that is loaded into Frank's trunk. While changing a flat tire, Frank
notices the package moving. Realizing a person is inside, he violates his third
rule in order to give the person something to drink. He discovers a woman, tied up
and gagged. She attempts to escape but Frank recaptures her and returns her to the
trunk along with two policemen who spot them.

Frank delivers the package to Bettencourt as promised and agrees to another job,
transporting a briefcase. As he stops to buy drinks for the cops in his trunk, a
bomb hidden in the briefcase explodes. Out for vengeance, Frank returns to
Bettencourt's villa where he kills and wounds several henchmen. Frank then steals a
car (a Mercedes-Benz S-Klasse) to get away, only to find "the package" bound and
gagged in the back seat. He brings the young woman, whose named is Lai, back to his
house.

Bettencourt visits one of his surviving men in hospital in order to determine who
attacked his residence, before killing the man after discovering that Frank is
alive. The next day, Tarconi arrives and asks about Frank's car, which Frank claims
was stolen. Lai supports Frank's alibi by introducing herself as his new cook and
girlfriend. Tarconi again leaves with no concrete evidence. Shortly after,
Bettencourt's hitmen fire missiles and automatic weapons down on the house. Frank
and Lai barely escape to a nearby safe house.

While being questioned at the police station, Lai accesses Tarconi's computer to
find information on Bettencourt. Lai tells Frank that Bettencourt is a human
trafficker with 400 Chinese trapped in shipping containers, including her family.
Lai and Frank go to Bettencourt's office, where Bettencourt reveals that Lai's
father, Kwai, is also a human trafficker and Bettencourt's partner in crime. Kwai
arrives and his henchmen subdue Frank. When Tarconi arrives, Kwai and Bettencourt
accuse Frank of kidnapping Lai. Tarconi has Frank arrested and locked up in the
station.

Realizing Frank would not be constrained by search warrants, Tarconi agrees to aid
Frank's escape as his faux hostage. Frank then tracks the criminals to the docks,
where they load the containers onto trucks. However, Frank is spotted and forced to
fight his way through the guards, and fails to stop the trucks. He then steals a
small airplane and parachutes onto one of the trucks. After a lengthy fight, Frank
manages to kill Bettencourt and some of his henchmen, only to be ambushed by Kwai
once he gets out of the truck. However, Frank is saved when Lai reluctantly shoots
her father. Afterwards, Tarconi arrives with the police, and they rescue some of
the people trapped inside the two containers.

Cast
Jason Statham as Frank Martin
Shu Qi as Lai Kwai
François Berléand as Inspector Tarconi
Matt Schulze as Darren "Wall Street" Bettencourt
Ric Young as Mr. Kwai
Didier Saint Melin as Boss
Adrian Dearnell as Newscaster
Releases
Theatrical release
The Transporter premiered in 2,573 theaters. With a production budget of $20.5
million,[3] it grossed $25,296,447 in the United States and a total of $43,928,932
worldwide.[4]

Cut and uncut releases

The film was cut to receive a PG-13 rating in the United States, and this version
was also released in the United Kingdom and several other countries. Japan and
France received the uncut versions. Certain sequences of violence were either cut
or toned down for the PG-13 cut. These include:

The fight on the bus, which included Frank using a knife.

The final fight on the highway, where Frank fights Wall Street in the truck. In the
original French version, Wall Street is crushed beneath the wheels of the truck
after Frank throws him from it. In the US PG-13 version, he is simply thrown out of
the truck and onto the highway.
The uncut fight on the bus can be seen in the "Extended Fight Sequences" on the
North American DVD, but with no sound.

The Japanese region-free Blu-ray cut of this film has the original uncut French
version of the film. It also has several special features and deleted scenes.
However, it does not include the North American special feature of the uncut fight
scenes (with no sound). The uncut version of Transporter 2 is also included in this
special boxed set.

Soundtrack[5]
Tweet – "Boogie 2Nite"
Nate Dogg – "I Got Love"
Sacario featuring Angie Martinez and Fat Joe – "Live Big (Remix)"†
"Benzino – Rock The Party"†
Knoc-Turn'al – "Muzik"
Angie Martinez featuring Lil' Mo and Sacario – "If I Could Go!"†
Tamia – "Be Alright"†
Missy Elliott – "Scream AKA Itchin'"
Gerald Levert – "Funny"†
Hustlechild – "I'm Cool"†
Keith Sweat – "One on One"†
Nadia – "Life of a Stranger"
† indicates that the song did not appear in the film

Home media
The DVD version was released on 23 October 2003. It included fifteen minutes of
extended fight scene footage and a feature-length commentary. On 23 August 2005,
the film was released again in a "Special Delivery Edition". This version included
all the features of the original release plus a new behind-the-scenes documentary,
a making-of featurette, and a storyboard-to-film comparison. The film was also
released as a part of "The Transporter Collection", which featured the first two
films in the series. A Blu-ray format was released on 14 November 2006.

Reception
Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 54% based on
reviews from 127 critics and an average rating of 5.6 out of 10. The site's
consensus reads: "The Transporter delivers the action at the expense of coherent
storytelling."[6] At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100
to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 51 based
on 27 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[7]

Manohla Dargis, of the Los Angeles Times, complimented the action, saying,
"[Statham] certainly seems equipped to develop into a mid-weight alternative to Vin
Diesel. That's particularly true if he keeps working with director Corey Yuen, a
Hong Kong action veteran whose talent for hand-to-hand mayhem is truly something to
see."[8]

Roger Ebert wrote, "Too much action brings the movie to a dead standstill."[9] Eric
Harrison, of the Houston Chronicle, said, "It's junk with a capital J. The sooner
you realize that, the more quickly you can settle down to enjoying it."[10]

References
"The Transporter (15)". British Board of Film Classification. 4 November 2002.
Retrieved 24 December 2016.
"The Transporter (2001)". en.unifrance.org.
"The Transporter (2002)". JP's Box-Office. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
"The Transporter". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 10 October 2012.
"Transporter [Original Soundtrack] – Original Soundtrack". AllMusic. Retrieved 10
May 2020.
"The Transporter". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
"The Transporter". Metacritic. Retrieved 10 October 2012.
Dargis, Manohla (11 October 2002). "'The Transporter'". Los Angeles Times.
Archived from the original on 15 October 2002. Retrieved 1 May 2010.
Ebert, Roger (11 October 2002). "The Transporter". Chicago Sun Times. Archived
from the original on 3 August 2006. Retrieved 1 May 2010.
Harrison, Eric (12 November 2004). "The Transporter". Houston Chronicle. Archived
from the original on 14 January 2009. Retrieved 1 May 2010.
External links
Official Website
The Transporter on IMDb
The Transporter at AllMovie
The Transporter at Rotten Tomatoes