Unleashed (film)
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| Danny the Dog/Unleashed | |
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| Directed by | Louis Leterrier |
| Produced by | Luc Besson Jet Li |
| Written by | Luc Besson |
| Starring | Jet Li Morgan Freeman Bob Hoskins Kerry Condon |
| Music by | Massive Attack RZA |
| Distributed by | Rogue Pictures |
| Release date(s) |  May 13, 2005 August 19, 2005 May 12, 2005 |
| Running time | 102 min |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Unleashed (also known as Danny the Dog), is a 2005 action/thriller film, directed by Louis Leterrier. It is set in Glasgow, Scotland.
In terms of plot, Unleashed can potentially be read as a loose adaptation of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, both wherein British orphans are rescued from monstrous adoptive fathers by the kindness of old men, and earn their humanity in time to challenge the darkness of the underworld that they are pulled back into.
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[edit] Plot summary
Danny (Jet Li) is a Chinese orphan-turned-slave, with the mind and personality of a little child. Raised as a dog by a British loanshark, Bart (Bob Hoskins), Danny is trained to be an unstoppable, and uncaring, killing machine. Forced to wear a dog collar around his neck, Danny serves as the bodyguard and violent enforcer of his "master" but he is only effective when the dog collar is removed, otherwise he's as helpless as a child. He eventually is forced into the seedy world of pit fights where the only rule of combat is "kill or be killed".
When Bart's violent racketeering comes back to haunt him, an "accident" keeps him indisposed, freeing Danny to take the first steps towards attaining his humanity. When he encounters a blind piano tuner, Sam (Morgan Freeman), Danny is taken in and nursed back to health. When Sam's step-daughter, Victoria (Kerry Condon), enters the picture, Danny comes out of his shell to learn about humanity, and what it means to live for yourself.
But just as he's beginning to enjoy his new life, his old one comes calling back when his former cohorts find him. He is forced, though, with the newly burgeoning feelings of empathy, and a disgust with his former life, to fight once more to save everything he has found.
Tagline: Serve no master.
[edit] Main Crew
- Louis Leterrier - Director
- Luc Besson - Writer/Producer
- Yuen Woo-ping - Action Choreographer
- Jet Li - Producer
- Steve Chasman - Producer
- Pierre Morel - Cinematographer
- Nicolas Trembasiewicz - Editor
- Nathalie Cheron - Casting Director
- Suzanne Smith - Casting Director
- Jacques Bufnoir - Production Design
- Olivier Bériot - Costume Design
- Vincent Tulli - Sound Mixer/Supervising Sound Editor
Danny the Dog features a soundtrack by Massive Attack and RZA; see Danny the Dog (soundtrack).
[edit] Box Office
In its opening weekend in North America, the film grossed a respectable $10,900,901 ($5,570 per screen). However, Star Wars Episode III opened the next week, taking away much of Unleashed's target audience. As a result, box office plummeted by 62.2% in the second weekend, and the film's total gross wound up at an unexciting $24,537,621.
