| The Transporter | |
|---|---|
| Creator | Luc Besson |
| Original work | The Transporter (film) |
| Films and television | |
| Films | The Transporter Transporter 2 Transporter 3 |
| Television series | Transporter: The Series |
The Transporter is a French film series, comprising three films released between 2002 and 2008. Jason Statham plays Frank Martin, a professional freelance courier driver for hire. Statham is himself an accomplished martial artist, allowing him to do all the combat scenes involving Frank Martin himself. This permits the films' signature realistic uncut fight scenes, choreographed by Cory Yuen.
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In the first movie, Frank is hired to deliver a package to an American gangster known only as "Wall Street". Breaking one of his rules, Frank opens the package: it reveals a tied-up and gagged woman by the name of Lai. Initially, Frank simply delivers the package, however when Wall Street attempts to kill Frank, Frank returns to the delivery site. Frank injures many of Wall Street's henchmen and steals a car containing Lai. The next morning at Frank's house, an inspector turns up and questions their story. However, this works to their advantage, as they manage to discover the whereabouts of Wall Street while at the police station. Lai then explains that there is a shipping container full of people. However, at Wall Street's office, it is revealed that Lai has lied. After lots of action, and with the inspector's help, Frank succeeds in an attempt to retrieve a truck full of immigrants.
Martin is aided by a French Police inspector named Tarconi. Initially, Tarconi is assigned to investigate the path of destruction that Martin is leaving but ends up aiding in the recovery of the containers full of human slaves. Incidentally, although two slave containers are identified, Martin only recovers one at the end of the film.
Frank is working as the driver/chauffeur for a wealthy family, in the United States. Martin bonds with their young son, whom he drives to school every day. When the boy is kidnapped, Frank must again take action in order to protect his young "package" and his family. Eventually, Martin unravels a scheme involving biological weapons and the nefarious Gianni Chellini. Martin is forced to remove a bomb from the bottom of his car by executing an aerial corkscrew maneuver underneath a crane. The crane catches the bomb and Martin escapes unharmed. Frank debuts the Audi A8 W12 in this film.
Inspector Tarconi plays an even more prominent role in this film. It is established that he and Frank are now friends, and Tarconi goes as far as to lie to the police to cover for Frank. His cooking prowess is established as well.
Frank has been pressured into transporting Valentina (Natalya Rudakova) (by using a device which prevents him from moving 75 feet from his car or a bomb attached to him explodes which was unknowingly attached to him after a car crash) the kidnapped daughter of Leonid Vasilev (Jeroen Krabbé), the head of the Environmental Protection Agency for Ukraine, from Marseilles through Stuttgart and Budapest until he ends up in Odessa on the Black Sea. Along the way, with the help of Inspector Tarconi (François Berléand), Frank has to contend with the people who strong armed him to take the job, agents sent by Vasilev to intercept him, and the general non-cooperation of his passenger, whom he realizes is the package mid-way through the film. Despite Valentina's cynical disposition and Frank's resistance to get involved, Frank and Valentina fall for each other, while escaping from one life-threatening situation after another. Martin again drives an armored Audi A8 W12 in the film, as well as a BMX bicycle.
Transporter: The Series is an upcoming television series based on the Transporter films. Chris Vance is starring as Frank Martin.
| Frank Martin | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | The Transporter |
| Portrayed by | Jason Statham (films) Chris Vance (series) |
| Information | |
| Aliases | Driver The Transporter |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Transporting & Wheelman |
| Title | The Transporter |
Frank Martin is the protagonist and reluctant hero of the films and television series. He is portrayed as an former-special forces operator who was a team leader of a search and destroy unit. His military background includes operations "in and out of" Lebanon, Syria and Sudan. He retires from this after becoming fatigued and disenchanted with his superior officers. In simple terms, he got tired of seeing his best efforts turned to nothing by the same people paying him to do the job. So he puts his skills to action as a private driver for hire.
His country of origin is unclear - throughout the franchise, Statham seems to speak with a "mid-Atlantic" accent, mixing his own Estuary English accent with a European and also with perhaps a generic Appalachian American accent, suggesting he could be European, British or American, but who may have spent considerable time in another country.
In The Transporter, Frank Martin is shown to have received the Bronze Star.
Frank has already established a good reputation in his secondary, secretive line of work, all the while maintaining an apparently legitimate life. However he did manage to attract the suspicions of the police in France, where he had been living quietly in an old place on the coast.
Possibly through his military background, Frank is portrayed as having expertise with explosives, surveillance, hand to hand combat and evasive driving. Emphasis is given to his skills as an accomplished driver, able to conduct seemingly impossible maneuvers while retaining perfect control of his vehicle. Frank often engages in hand-to-hand combat, having to improvise using unconventional weapons against his opponents. Martin is also an accomplished sharpshooter.
Frank Martin carries out his business according to strict rules,[1] which he is loath to break, and expects his clients to adhere to them or face a breach of contract. His rules are:
While at first these rules may seem unnecessarily strict, their importance is illustrated when Frank is hired to transport three men but four arrive, no less fresh from a bank heist. Explaining to them that The Deal was for a precise number of passengers with specific weight and that fuel and suspension were specifically set to reach the destination, the gang is forced to remove their extra man or face being caught.
Frank's breaking of his own rules is the central theme in The Transporter.
Rules of the car:
and, in the third film,
Frank Martin maintains a uniform of sorts, consisting of a black suit, white shirt, and a black tie. Martin also puts great emphasis on precise timing and punctuality. He regularly maintains anonymity from his clients, going by the aliases Transporter, or more simply Driver.
In 2005, Director Louis Leterrier said that Frank Martin is "the first gay action movie hero", suggesting that the character comes out when he refuses a woman's advances by saying, "It's because of who I am." However, this appears at odds with Frank's heterosexual relationships in the first and third films, and his explicit statement in the third that he is not "the gay."
Frank Martin seems to prefer four-door cars, using a 1999 BMW 735i E38 and Mercedes-Benz W140 in The Transporter, a 2004 Audi A8 6.0 W12 in Transporter 2, and a 2008 facelifted Audi A8 6.0 W12 in Transporter 3. However, during a pursuit scene in Transporter 2 he drives a Lamborghini Murcielago Roadster.
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| Film | Release date | Box office (worldwide) |
|---|---|---|
| The Transporter | 2002 | $43,928,932 |
| Transporter 2 | 2005 | $85,167,639 |
| Transporter 3 | 2008 | $108,979,549 |
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