The Foreigner Information

The Foreigner is a 2017 action thriller film directed by Martin Campbell and written by David Marconi, based on the 1992 novel The Chinaman by Stephen Leather. The British-Chinese co-production stars Jackie Chan, Pierce Brosnan, Michael McElhatton, Liu Tao, Charlie Murphy, Orla Brady and Katie Leung, and follows a businessman who seeks revenge for the death of his daughter.

The Foreigner was released in China on 30 September 2017, in the United States on 13 October 2017, distributed by STXfilms, and in the United Kingdom in December 2017 on Netflix. It grossed $145 million worldwide and received mixed reviews, although critics praised the against type performances of Chan and Brosnan.

Plot

Ngoc Minh Quan runs a Chinese restaurant in London with his business partner Lam. When his teenage daughter Fan is killed in a clothing store bombing, he seeks revenge. The bombing is claimed by a group calling itself the "Authentic UDI/IRA". Failing to get the names of the bombers from Scotland Yard, Quan next focuses on the Northern Ireland deputy First Minister Liam Hennessy, who speaks publicly about his status as a former UDI (read: IRA) leader while condemning the bombing. Quan eventually leaves for Belfast and seeks out Hennessy, who claims to have no knowledge of the bombing or its perpetrators. Quan does not believe him and sets off a homemade bomb in Hennessy's office as a threat unless he gets the bombers' names.

Hennessy tries to identify the bombers with help from his contacts, but the rogue members catch on and outwit him. Quan observes Hennessy seeing his mistress, Maggie, and photographs them. Quan then brings the fight to Hennessy, hiding in the woods outside his Belfast farmhouse and attacking it with more explosives. As Hennessy's men attempt to track him in the woods, Quan uses traps to disable them, but is shot in the shoulder and flees. Hennessy decides to send for his nephew Sean, a Royal Irish Regiment soldier, after Quan in hopes that his tracking skills can be used to stop Quan for good.

As Quan cauterises the gunshot wound, he has flashbacks of his escape from Vietnam to Singapore by sea, where he and his wife lost their other two daughters to attacking Thai pirates. Hennessy receives files from the British government on Quan's true background: a former Vietnam War special operations forces soldier who was trained by the US Army.

After a second bombing on a double-decker bus, Hennessy negotiates with British politician Katherine Davies and promises the capture of the bombers in exchange for the pardoning of several of his former UDI comrades. Meanwhile, Hennessy receives intel on the bombers and relays the information to Sean and police. After a knife fight in the woods, Quan captures Sean, who names one of the bombers. Quan then lets Sean go. Hennessy interrogates his head enforcer McGrath, discovering that the true mastermind is Mary, Hennessy's wife, who also hired Maggie, who remains angry at the British for the death of her brother and resents Hennessy's working for them. Hennessy executes McGrath for his betrayal and for involving his wife and mistress, then orders Sean to execute Mary.

As police prepare to raid the bombers' hideout, Quan manages to enter the flat disguised as a handyman and single-handedly kills everyone but Maggie. Quan leaves just before the police raid the apartment and find a severely wounded Maggie. They torture her into disclosing the location of their next bomb, which has been planted in a laptop computer to be detonated on a plane. British police find and throw the laptop into an empty jet bridge, where it detonates without casualties. With the threat resolved, Maggie is executed to prevent any "loose ends". Hennessy gets a call from Davies, who tells him that she has learned of his involvement but that he will retain his position as a politician, though under her thumb.

Quan later confronts Hennessy and shows him the picture of Hennessy kissing Maggie, which is enough to throw public suspicion on Hennessy and his role in the bombings. Quan forces him to post the picture to the internet, telling him that he should be ashamed of himself and that the whole world will know that he is a terrorist. Meanwhile, Scotland Yard realizes Quan's role in the events and has him put under surveillance, but decides not to take any further action as thanks for his assistance.

Quan returns to his restaurant and Lam hugs and kisses him. Quan finally puts the past behind him and begins to heal.

Cast

• Jackie Chan as Ngoc Minh Quan, a former Vietnam War special forces operator turned London restaurateur, who looks for revenge after his daughter is killed in a bombing
• Pierce Brosnan as Liam Hennessy, the current Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland and a former UDI member
• Michael McElhatton as Jim Kavanagh, Liam's right hand man
• Liu Tao as Keyi Lam
• Charlie Murphy as Maggie/Sara McKay, Liam's mistress
• Orla Brady as Mary Hennessy, Liam's wife
• Katie Leung as Fan
• Ray Fearon as Commander Richard Bromley, head of the Metropolitan Police Service's Counter Terrorism Command
• Dermot Crowley as Hugh McGrath, the leader of a rogue UDI group
• Rory Fleck-Byrne as Sean Morrison, an ex Royal Irish Ranger/United Kingdom Special Forces soldier and Liam's nephew
• Lia Williams as Katherine Davies MP, a British minister and politician
• Pippa Bennett-Warner as Marissa Levitt
• Simon Kunz as Matthew Rice
• Roberta Taylor as Mrs. Taylor
• Rufus Jones as Ian Wood
• Niall McNamee as Patrick O'Reilly, a UDI member responsible for the 1st bombing which killed Quan's daughter
• Caolan Byrne as McCormick
• John Cronin as Denis Fisher
• Stephen Hogan as Christy Murphy
• Aaron Monaghan as Pat Nugent
• David Pearse as Billy McMahon
• Mark Tandy as Simpson
• Donna Bernard as Channel A news anchor
• Scott Sparrow as Daniel Barrie
• Sean Campion as Byaro Cary
• Sean Gleeson as Billy Makre
• Thusitha Jayasundera as Mira
• Jonathan Cullen as security expert
• Grainne Keenan as Beth
• Jane Thorne as Mrs. McAllister
• Stuart Graham as Inspector Donald Greig
• Yangmeizi Wang as Quan's wife
• David Annen as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
• Aden Gillet as Ross

Production

On 5 June 2015 it was announced that Jackie Chan would star in the action thriller film The Foreigner, for STX Entertainment, and based on Stephen Leather's novel The Chinaman. Nick Cassavetes initially signed to direct the film, which was adapted from Leather's novel by David Marconi, while Wayne Marc Godfrey was one of the producers. The film is partially set in London's Chinatown. On 15 July 2015, Deadline reported that Martin Campbell was instead in talks to direct the film, while Relativity Media would finance. Pierce Brosnan joined the cast alongside Chan in November. Co-stars Liu Tao and Chan attended the Shanghai Film Festival on 11 June 2016 to promote the film.

Principal photography commenced in January 2016. The filming in London of a scene involving the explosion of a bus on Lambeth Bridge caused some alarm, as people were not aware that it was a stunt. Scenes were shot at the Walters & Cohen designed Regent High School in Camden and on Churton Street in Pimlico on 18 February 2016.

This marked the first time in which Brosnan starred in a film directed by Martin Campbell since the 1995 film GoldenEye.

Cliff Martinez composed the score.

Release

The Fyzz Facility produced, and is distributing, the film, in association with Sparkle Roll Media and Huayi Brothers, while STXfilms distributes it theatrically across the United States of America.

It was released on 30 September 2017 in China and 13 October 2017 in the United States. In the United Kingdom it was released on December 2017 on Netflix. A DVD and Blu-ray released in the United States on January 9, 2018 and January 23 in Canada and the rest of the world.

Box office

The Foreigner grossed $34.4 million in the United States and Canada, and $111 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $145.4 million, against a production budget of $35 million.

In the United States and Canada, the film opened alongside Happy Death Day, Marshall and Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, and was expected to gross $10-15 million from 2,555 theaters in its opening weekend. It made $4.8 million on its first day, including $855,000 from Thursday night previews. It went on to open to $15.5 million, finishing third at the box office behind Happy Death Day and Blade Runner 2049.

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 62% based on 89 reviews, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The Foreigner adheres strictly to action thriller formula, but benefits from committed"?and out of character"?performances from its talented veteran stars." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 55 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A?" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it a 78% overall positive score.

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film three out of four stars and praised Chan's performance, saying: "It's the most dramatic role Chan has ever tackled, and he plays it with coiled intensity and raw emotional power." Clarence Tsui of The Hollywood Reporter also praised Chan, writing, "It's good to see Chan swapping his happy-go-lucky persona for two hours for some gravitas as a tragic rogue with a marked past."