Cradle 2 the Grave

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 This article does not cite any references or sources. (March 2008)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.
For other uses, see Cradle to the Grave (disambiguation).
Cradle 2 the Grave

Cradle 2 the Grave film poster
Directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak
Produced by Joel Silver
Written by John O'Brien
Channing Gibson
Starring Jet Li
DMX
Mark Dacascos
Kelly Hu
Anthony Anderson
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release date(s) February 28, 2003 (USA)
Running time 101 min.
Language English
Budget US$25,000,000
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Cradle 2 the Grave is a 2003 action film directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak featuring world-renowned martial artist Jet Li and the rapper DMX.

Contents

[edit] Plot

The film begins with a group of thieves led by Anthony Fait(DMX) trying to steal diamonds from a high security building. Fait and one of his men Miles at a train station disguise themselves as railway mechanics, travel along the railway and get into a service tunnel which leads to a spot directly below the room of the building where the safe is stored. Another thief, Daria(Gabrielle Union) along with Tommy(Anthony Anderson) as her driver, goes to the reception area to distract the security guard who is monitoring the security cameras. Daria tries to seduce him to make him look away from the screens of the cameras, but as the guard is homosexual they change their plan and Tommy performs her originally planned role. As Fait contacts his employer, Christoph, the conversation is intercepted by a Taiwanese Intelligence agent Su(Jet Li) from the top of the Christoph's apartment. As he traces the call and locates the employer, he uses his own stunt of grabbing a handrail of the balcony, letting go and dropping to grab the one below to reach the employer's apartment. After a futile attempt to fight back Christoph, Su brings him down to the floor and manages to extract information regarding who he has hired and his phone number. Then he drives to the building where the robbery is still in progress and call the police.

Back at the building, the trio of thieves manages to get their hands on a large number of diamonds along with their real objective which is a group of black diamonds which later is revealed as plutonium-grade diamonds with electrons added to turn them into nuclear weapons. Shortly after, however they receive a phone call from Su informing them that their employer has betrayed them and warning them to leave the diamonds since the police are on their way. Fait, however, ignores this and they attempt a daring escape past a blockade of SWATs who have stopped all the trains and completely sealed the station. Fait takes Daria along one way of train tracks and Miles goes the other way by himself to reduce the chances of getting captured altogether. Miles, however, is intercepted by Su who believes Miles has the black stones. He demands for the stones but Miles fights back, who was no match for him. Su takes the bag of diamonds by force, which later is shown to contain none of Su's objectives. Fait and Daria manage to sneak onto the top of a halted train and after a rough ride along the railway to the next station they manage to escape.

At the San Francisco International Airport, Yao Ling, a man who hired the employer of the group of thieves at the diamond building arrives and is greeted by his henchmen. He is later revealed to be a friend of Su who worked with him for the government. However, he betrayed them and killed his entire team and almost killed Su as well. He is informed that Christoph has been attacked and was forced to give information to Su.

That night, the group of thieves gather again at their house for a debrief. Fait when he remembers that Christoph has sold them out, he goes over to his apartment, who appears to be dead. He then meets Su who he figures out that is the one who contacted him and that he is the one who attacked Miles. After a demand by Su for Fait to hand over the diamonds, they fight until Fait receives a phone call by Ling. He asks for the black diamonds, but Fait aggressively refuses and drives off. However, two of Ling's henchmen follow Fait until he figures out that he's being followed and lures them into a back alley where they confront each other. In the end, one of the henchmen has Fait in front of his pistol and demands again for the diamonds. The confrontation is interrupted by Su who teams up with Fait to put the henchmen out of action. Then, Fait receives a call from his friend Archie, who's office was raided by a several men asking for the stones. As Fait and Su race over to his office, and understands the situation, Fait receives another call from Ling, who has kidnapped Fait's daughter, Vanessa. Ling also has a chat with Su who refuses to give him the diamonds for the daughter. As Fait becomes angry at this, Su persuades him into working together.

The next day, Fait goes over to a man John "Jump" Chambers, who appears to be the man in possession of the black stones. Fait begs him to return the stones, saying that if he doesn't, Vanessa will die. Chambers, however, refuses and Su and Fait comes up with a robbery plan to steal the black stones again. Daria goes over to a nightclub owned by Chambers, where the manger is an old friend of Daria. She talks him into going over to his office to have a close chat, and distracts him by dancing seductively. Meanwhile, Tommy disguises as a technician who fools the security guard into leading him to the office of the same building where the diamonds are believed to be stored. He lets off three cans of gas to keep the security away from the office, while Fait and Miles jump onto the top of the building and break into the office through the window. However, security soon figures out what's going on and the thieves attempt an escape where Fait is captured. However, Fait manages to escape custody and rides off in one of the nearby bikes. After being chased by the police and the bike owner, he manages to escape with the rest of his gang.

Meanwhile, Su and Archie go to Archie's club where he knows of a regular member who works for the nightclub and knows exactly where the diamonds are in the office. Due to the fact that the club does not allow in any guests, Su is forced to enter as a fighter in the club's fighting ring. While the duo is searching for the informant, it becomes Su's turn to fight in the ring. During the fight, Archie finally finds the man they're looking for, by the ring he is wearing. Su gives up fighting and tries to leave, but one of the officials forces him back in and challenges him into a fight, causing the rest of the fighters to rush into the ring to challenge Su. One by one, Su manages to defeat them all and goes over to the parking lot where Archie has the informant in his car with a cattle prod at his head. They manage to find out where the stones are-in the pool surrounding the large orb in the fountain.

That night, Su and the gang return to the nightclub to find the diamonds. The office however, was attacked and the stones have already been stolen by Ling. The gang goes back to Fait's house where they try to figure out what to do next. Back at the hideout where Ling's gang is holding Vanessa, she manages to find a cell phone in the van she is locked up in and calls her father. Just before the cell phone runs out of battery, they get just enough information to find out where she is. They appeared to be at an aerodrome where they are soon holding a demonstration to show a group of buyers the power of the black stones.

The gang race to the aerodrome as the auction for the stones is in progress. Tommy and Archie break through the warehouse's gate with Archie's stolen tank. Shortly after, Vanessa manages to break out of the van and this provides momentary distraction for one of Ling's men to arm a machine gun mounted onto a corner of the building. As Fait chases after another one of Ling's men who is chasing Vanessa, the shootout causes the buyers to run back to their helicopters and in the chaos, Su intercepts Ling and his sidekick and lover Sona. He makes Sona fight Su first, and she manages to hold a gun into Su's face. However, she is intercepted just in time by Daria, who handles Sona and Su races over to stop Ling, who is trying to escape in one of the buyer's helicopters. As Su hangs onto helicopter's landing gear, Ling commands the pilot to retract them. As Su is barely hanging onto the helicopter, he shouts at Archie and Tommy to shoot the helicopter down. Archie manages to shoot the cannon into the helicopter's tailplane and the helicopter crashes into one of the hangars, but Ling survived. Soon he is challenged by Su who eventually puts one of the sample nuclear warheads in Ling's throat and strikes his neck to make it detonate which vaporises Ling's body. Su finally retrieves the black stones who later plans to destroy them. Nearby, Fait rescues Vanessa and defeats Ling's henchman.

As the police arrives at the scene, Su states that he will do everything he can to pardon Fait and the gang walks off after shouting their gang's name as the credits roll.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Errors

In the display of the plutonium, they say that they create isotopes not by adding neutrons but by extracting protons. This would not create an isotope but a completely different element.

[edit] UFC Cameos

There is a scene involving an underground cage fighting competition. Several of the combatants are successful mixed martial artists from the Ultimate Fighting Championship, including Tito Ortiz, Chuck Liddell, and Randy Couture. Vale Tudo Kickboxing champion Hector Echavarria also appears in the cage match.

[edit] Soundtrack

Cradle 2 the Grave
Soundtrack by various
Released February 18, 2003
Genre Hardcore Rap
Label Bloodline/Ruff Ryders/Def Jam/Warner Bros.

The soundtrack's first official single was X Gon' Give It to Ya.

DMX teamed up with Eminem and Obie Trice to record a song called "Go to Sleep", which is a diss record aimed towards Ja Rule and Benzino.

[edit] Track listing

  1. X Gon' Give It To Ya - DMX
  2. Go To Sleep - Eminem, Obie Trice and DMX
  3. What's It All For - Bazaar Royale
  4. Follow Me Gangster - 50 Cent, Tony Yayo and Lloyd Banks
  5. Stompdash - C.N.N. and M.O.P.
  6. Do Sumptin' - Comp
  7. My Life (Cradle 2 The Grave) - Foxy Brown and Althea
  8. Fireman - Drag-On
  9. Drop Drop - Joe Budden
  10. I'm Serious - Clipse
  11. Right/Wrong - DMX
  12. It's Gon' Be What It's Gon' Be - Jinx Da Juvy
  13. Hand That Rocks The Cradle - Big Stan
  14. Won't Be Coming Back - Baby, Mannie Fresh and Lac
  15. C2G - Fat Joe and Youngn' Restless
  16. Focus - Kashmir
  17. Slangin' Dem Thangs - Profit
  18. Off The Hook - Jinx Da Juvy
  19. Getting Down - DMX, Big Stan and Kashmir

[edit] Box Office

The film debuted at number one at the North American box office, grossing US $16,521,468 in its opening weekend. However, this accounted for a hefty 47.6% of its total US $34,712,347 gross.

The film's worldwide gross stands at US $56,489,558,which was seen as a disappointment considering the marketing hype.

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Preceded by
"Daredevil"		 List of Box Office #1 Movies
March 2, 2003		 Succeeded by
"Bringing Down the House "