Rush Hour 2
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Rush Hour 2 | |
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| Directed by | Brett Ratner |
| Produced by | Robert Birnbaum Jonathan Glickman Athur M. Sarkissian Jay Stern |
| Written by | Jeff Nathanson (Screenplay) Ross LaManna (Characters) |
| Starring | Jackie Chan Chris Tucker John Lone Zhang Ziyi Roselyn Sanchez |
| Music by | Lalo Schifrin Nile Rodgers Ira Hearshen |
| Cinematography | Matthew F. Leonetti |
| Editing by | Mark Helfrich Robert K. Lambert |
| Distributed by |  New Line Cinema |
| Release date(s) |  August 3, 2001 |
| Running time | 90 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $90,000,000 |
| Gross revenue | $347,325,802 |
| Preceded by | Rush Hour |
| Followed by | Rush Hour 3 |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Rush Hour 2 is a 2001 martial arts/buddy cop film starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker. It is the sequel to the movie Rush Hour (1998). It grossed US$347,325,802 at the world-wide box-office, [1] becoming the 4th top grossing film of 2001, and the highest-grossing martial-arts film of all time. [2]
Taglines:
Get Ready For A Second Rush!
The Mouth Of The West And The Hands Of The East Are Back!
Contents |
[edit] Plot
L.A.P.D Detective James Carter (Chris Tucker) is on vacation in Hong Kong, visiting his good friend Hong Kong Police Force Chief Inspector Lee (Jackie Chan). Carter is interested in having a good time; however, soon after he arrives, a bomb explodes in the American Embassy. Inspector Lee is assigned to the case, which becomes personal when it is discovered that it somehow involves Ricky Tan, his late police officer father's former partner. Tan, who was suspected, but never proven, of having a role in Lee's father's death, is now a leader of the Triads, the Chinese Mafia.
The United States Secret Service, led by Agent Sterling (Harris Yulin), and the Hong Kong Police Force soon get into a fight over the jurisdiction of the case. Sterling believes Ricky Tan is a minor player in a larger conspiracy and wants him left alone so he will lead them to the people in charge. Lee, believing Tan is actually the head of the operation, learns that Tan will be attending a dinner party on his yacht and confronts him there. Tan claims that someone is trying to frame him. Tan's underling, Hu Li (Zhang),suddenly appears and shoots Ricky Tan, and he falls off the boat. In the ensuing chaos, Hu Li escapes, and an angry Sterling holds Lee responsible for Tan's death, and orders him off the case. Carter is ordered to be flown back to Los Angeles for involving himself. However, Lee and Carter return to Los Angeles together, seemingly motivated by their desire to bring justice and meaning for their respective father's deaths in the line of duty.
On the plane, Carter tells Lee that every case has a rich white man behind it, and that the man is Steven Reign, a Los Angeles hotel billionaire. Carter says that he saw Reign on Tan's boat and that his calm demeanor during the shooting was suspicious. They set up camp outside the Reign Towers, pointing out a sexy Secret Service agent named Isabella Molina (Roselyn Sánchez), who Carter met and tried to woo on Ricky Tan's yacht. After Lee watches Molina undress, and a few misunderstandings, Molina tells the two men that she is undercover, looking into Reign's money laundering of US$ 100 million dollars in superbills (high grade counterfeit US$ 100 bills).
Lee and Carter pay a visit to Kenny (Don Cheadle), an ex-con known to Carter who runs an illegal gambling parlor frequented by Asian criminals in the back room of his Chinese restaurant. He tells them that a usually broke customer recently came in to his establishment with a suspicious amount of hundred-dollar bills. Carter checks them out and confirms that they are Reign's counterfeits. They trace the money back to a bank friendly to the Triads, who are waiting for them and knock the two cops unconscious, with Molina looking on. Then they depart for Las Vegas. Lee and Carter wake up inside one of the Triads' trucks and escape. After finding out where they are, they realize that Reign is laundering the $100 million through the new Red Dragon Casino.
At the Red Dragon, Lee and Carter split up. Carter makes a big commotion and distracts the security forces while Lee runs into Molina. After convincing Lee she didn't sell them out, he attempts to infiltrate the back area to find the engraving plates (which were used to make the counterfeit money). However, Hu Li captures Lee, places a small bomb in his mouth, and gags him. She then takes him up to the penthouse, where it is revealed that Ricky Tan faked his death and, as Lee suspected, is in charge of the operation. After a few words, he departs, leaving Hu Li to do whatever she wants.
Molina then takes out a gun, reveals herself as a Secret Service agent and attempts to arrest Hu Li. In the chaos that follows, Hu Li kicks Lee out of a window and he falls out onto the casino floor. Molina and Hu Li then fight, and Molina sweeps the trigger for Lee's bomb out onto the casino floor. Hu Li finally manages to gain the upper hand and shoots Molina in the arm before jumping out onto the casino floor. After a frantic search, Carter and Lee end up together. Carter starts pulling the tape off of Lee's mouth. Lee manages to spit the bomb out seconds before Hu Li finds the trigger and detonates it. Carter then fights Hu Li while Lee heads to the penthouse to prevent Tan from escaping with the plates.
In the penthouse, Reign opens the safe and takes the plates, running into Tan as he leaves. After Reign announces he is cutting their deal short and keeping the plates, Tan stabs him to death. Lee confronts Tan, taking a gun from Reign's body. Carter appears, having triumphantly (and accidentally) knocked Hu Li out. After a tense standoff, where Tan admits he killed Lee's father, Lee knocks the gun away in Carter's direction. As everyone attempts to retrieve it, Lee accidentally kicks Tan out the window, where he falls to his death outside. Hu Li then enters, holding a bomb. Lee and Carter leap out of the window just as the bomb goes off, sliding on decoration wires with their jackets. The wires snap, and they swing into a sign for the casino. Their momentum swings them into the path of oncoming traffic. Through Lee's nimble skill and Carter's dumb luck, they narrowly escape being hit by three successive trucks.
Later, at the airport, Sterling thanks Lee for his work in the case. Molina says she would like to tell Lee something, and proceeds to kiss him for a short time, an event witnessed from afar by Carter. Lee and Carter plan to go their separate ways; Carter to Los Angeles and Lee to Hong Kong. After Isabella heads for her flight, Lee and Carter say one last goodbye. Lee then gives Carter, who at first graciously declines, his father's police badge, stating that he can finally "let it go." In return, Carter gives Lee $10,000 that he won from gambling at Caesars Palace. Lee is more critical in his refusal of the money, but Carter is able to persuade Lee to take the money. After, Lee reveals that he has always wanted to go to Madison Square Garden and watch a New York Knicks basketball game. Carter tells Lee he could go for one more vacation and the two of them decide to take another vacation in the Big Apple, dancing off to Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough".
[edit] Cast and characters
Main Cast
- Chief Inspector Lee
Jackie Chan - Detective James Carter
Chris Tucker - Ricky Tan
John Lone - Hu Li
Zhang Ziyi - Isabella Molina
Roselyn Sanchez
Supporting and Minor Characters
- Steven Reign
Alan King - Sterling
Harris Yulin - Captain Chin
Kenneth Tsang - Kenny
Don Cheadle - Versace Salesman
Jeremy Piven
[edit] Production
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- One of the girls in the car shown when Chris Tucker was on the streets was Maggie Q.
- On the DVD release of the film, a deleted scene featured Philip Baker Hall reprising his role of Captain Diel from the first film. Carter speaks with the Captain about his stay in Hong Kong and his involvement in the Triad case. Director Brett Ratner states in the DVD audio commentary that while he would have loved to include the scene in the final cut (essentially giving Hall a cameo appearance), it did not advance the plot and was left out.
- The Red Dragon Casino in Las Vegas owned by Ricky Tan (John Lone) and Steven Reign (Alan King) is actually the Desert Inn hotel and casino. There were red lights shined at the hotel to make it a scarlet color. Following the closure of the 50 year old Las Vegas Strip property in August 2000 by new owner Steve Wynn, the Rush Hour 2 production moved in and redesigned parts of the property as a Chinese themed casino/hotel for the movie. Shortly after the movie wrapped production in Las Vegas the buildings used in the film were imploded to make way for the new $2.7 billion dollar Wynn Las Vegas resort. "Red Dragon" is also the name of another movie that Brett Ratner directed, as well as the name of a real casino in Mountlake Terrace, Washington, USA.[3]
- Zhang Ziyi only speaks three words of English in the film, two of which being her famous line "Some apple?", (However, she is seen mouthing "Here's your package. You're welcome." while Lee and Carter are spying on Molina through the windows from the neighboring tower) as she didn't know the language at the time of filming. Jackie Chan served as her translator on the set.
- Zhang Ziyi's character name, "Hu Li", means "fox."
- Don Cheadle only agreed to appear in this movie under two circumstances: He gets to speak Chinese and pick a fight with Jackie Chan.
- The first two films in the Rush Hour series begin in Hong Kong and end in a United States airport.
- In a chase scene, as Chris Tucker is running up the stairs, an old Chinese woman gets blocked by him, and she shouts "Move aside, Kobe!" with reference to Kobe Bryant. Tucker said on the Jay Leno show that during filming, many locals mistook him for Bryant. (However, in the DVD audio commentary, Rattner states that Jeff Nathanson came up with that line shortly before the filming of that scene.)
- In the scene where Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker went inside the business suite, Ernie Reyes Jr appeared in a cameo as the worker who was chased by Chan and Tucker.
[edit] Cultural references
In the 2008 film Be Kind Rewind, Jerry (Jack Black) and Mike (Mos Def) remake their own version of this film, because Jerry erased all the VHS tapes at their video store.
[edit] Box office
Rush Hour 2 opened on August 3, 2001 in 3,118 North American theatres, and it grossed $67,408,222.87 USD ($21,619 per screen) in its opening weekend. It ended its run with $226,164,286.92 USD, making it the fourth highest-grossing movie of 2001 and the highest-grossing martial arts film of all time.[4]
The film's total worldwide box office take was $347,325,802 USD.[5]
[edit] Sequel
Because of development hell, Rush Hour 3 was not released until August 10, 2007—six years after Rush Hour 2. Rush Hour 3 did not receive the critical and commercial acclaim of its predecessors. [6] [7] A fourth installment in the series is in negotiations, however, and reportedly may be set in Moscow. [8]
[edit] References
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This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2008) |
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Rush Hour 2 at the Internet Movie Database
- Zhang Ziyi CSC: Rush Hour 2
- Zhang Ziyi: Rush Hour 2
- Rush Hour 2 at Rotten Tomatoes
- Rush Hour 2 at Metacritic
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