Rush Hour 2 is a 2001 martial arts/buddy cop film. This is the second installment in the Rush Hour film series. A sequel to the 1998 film Rush Hour, the film stars Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker who respectively reprise their roles as Inspector Lee and Los Angeles police detective James Carter. The film finds Carter and Lee embroiled in a counterfeit scam involving the Triads.
Rush Hour 2 was released August 3, 2001 and grossed $347,325,802 at the worldwide box-office,[1] becoming the 11th top grossing film of 2001 worldwide, and the highest-grossing martial arts film of all time.[2]
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 (John Lone), 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 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. Tan scolds his underling, Hu Li (Zhang Ziyi), who then leaves as Lee and Carter confront Tan. Tan claims that someone is trying to frame him. Hu Li 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 (Alan King), 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 did not 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 with a knife, killing him. Lee arrives and 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 Tan manages to retrieve it and is only seconds away from shooting Carter, Lee kicks Tan out of the window and he tumbles to his death, landing on a car. Hu Li then enters, holding a time 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 on 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".
Cast
Trivia
- The movie premiered on 26 July 2001 on a single Los Angeles to Hong Kong flight by United Airlines and the Hong Kong Tourism Board.
- In an interview, Brett Ratner admitted that the first part of the karaoke scene with Chris Tucker was not supposed to be filmed. Tucker refused to act like Michael Jackson with the cameras running. During takes, he went up as entertainment for everyone. Secretly, Ratner told the cameramen to film it but to not let Tucker notice them.
- Hu Li means "Fox" in Mandarin. The character Hu Li (played by Ziyi Zhang) was originally written for a man.
- Ziyi Zhang could not speak English, so she had to take direction via the combination of an interpreter and the director essentially performing "charades". Her character only says three English words in the movie: "Some apple?" and, later, "Out!"
- Ziyi Zhang could not speak English at the time of filming, so sometimes the director would tell her what to do and Jackie Chan would translate his directions for her.
- In an interview, Roselyn Sanchez said that Ziyi Zhang tried learning English from her, but tried to discourage her as she would have ended up speaking it with a Hispanic accent.
- On an episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Chris Tucker said that while he was filming this movie in Hong Kong, many locals mistook him for NBA star Kobe Bryant. In the film, while Tucker's character is running up the stairs, the old woman shouts "Move out of the way, Kobe" to him.
- The mural on the wall of the Heaven on Earth Massage Parlor was copied from one in Scarface (1983), which Harris Yulin and Brett Ratner appeared in.
- The girl-picking scene came from "Enter the Dragon" (1973), which Jackie Chan appeared in.
- The scene where Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker run around naked in the streets was inspired by a scene in The Accidental Spy (2001) which Chan made before this movie. Brett Ratner saw the film and decided to include a similar scene in this movie.
- The scene where Carter and Lee are running down the street naked in Hong Kong was an actual take; production could not block the street off for the shoot.
- Philip Baker Hall filmed a scene reprising his role of Captain Diel from the first Rush Hour movie but it did not make the final cut. It shows Carter talking to his captain on the phone in Los Angeles and Captain Diel reveals while Carter was in Hong Kong Diel was nominated to be the next Police Commissioner of the LAPD but Carter's interference with the Secret Service ruined Diel's chances of getting the job.
- During the boat party that Ricky Tan holds, the song "Tian Mi Mi" can be heard playing in the background. The same song was used in Year of the Dragon (1985), a movie which also co-starred John Lone.
- Seasickness helped Roselyn Sanchez feign a lack of enthusiasm for Chris Tucker's advances in the yacht sequence.
- When Chris Tucker is saying that Asians always panic and points out Godzilla films as a reference, he shouts "Hayaku! Hayaku!" This is actually Japanese, and it means "Faster! Faster!"
- The scene where Carter gets the kosher meal was originally scripted to have Carter ask if Lee "want some of my gefilte fish?" after the stewardess left. But Chris Tucker could not pronounce "gefilte", so the scene never made the final cut (outtakes of this scene are in the end credits).
- Don Cheadle agreed to do this movie only if he got to fight Jackie Chan and speak Chinese.
- Don Cheadle had a cameo appearance as an Carter's informant in a Chinese restaurant. Don Cheadle was from Brett Ratner's previous movie The Family Man (2000).
- Jeremy Piven had a cameo appearance as a Versace salesman. Jeremy Piven was from Brett Ratner's previous movie The Family Man (2000).
- The part of the "Red Dragon" hotel was played by the Desert Inn in Las Vegas, Nevada. The sign was changed to read "Red Dragon" and the lower half of the building was painted red for the filming of the movie. The hotel was closed at the time so evidence of the transformation remained for a while. The Desert Inn was demolished on 23 October 2001.
- The climax takes place in the Red Dragon Hotel. Red Dragon (2002) is Brett Ratner's next film.
- Saul Rubinek had a cameo appearance as a Red Dragon box man. Saul Rubinek was from Brett Ratner's previous movie The Family Man (2000).
- The fake cash used in the movie said "In Dog We Trust". Even so, some of it "escaped" from the set and eventually ended up in a few casinos in Las Vegas.
- Jackie Chan's favorite number is 32. The gangster's car has a license plate of 32 and when Lee spits the grenade onto the roulette table it lands on 32 when it explodes.
- Chris Tucker ad-libbed many different versions of his short speech to Hu Li at the end of their fight. Brett Ratner felt the speech was not working and told Tucker to call her a "bitch". Tucker refused to say the word and it took hours of convincing by Ratner before Tucker finally agreed.
- During the filming of the stunt where Lee and Carter jump from the top window of the Red Dragon hotel then slide down the wires of Chinese Lanterns, a real (i.e. not part of the movie) car chase took place on/through the set. Apparently, a carload of drunken tourists (the set was in Las Vegas) got into an altercation with a taxi driver, and the two cars began a chase that ran down the strip and onto the set, narrowly missing crew members, extras and an enormous crane which held a camera and crew. Fortunately no one was injured; the driver and passengers of the taxi were detained by police.
- There is a guy waiting for a passenger named "Freitag" on the airport, named after the film's producer, James M. Freitag. "Freitag" means "Friday" in German.
Reception
After being adjusted for inflation, Rush Hour 2 out-grossed its predecessor Rush Hour. This was due to the fact that it had a little more box-office longevity and lasted consistently within the domestic box-office top 10 for roughly two weeks longer than the first movie. [1] In addition, the hype surrounding the second movie helped it maintain high numbers for a longer period of time. After 50 days since its domestic release, Rush Hour was only #10 on the box-office charts while comparatively, Rush Hour 2 was still pulling in big audiences after 50 days in theaters and was the #2 grossing film domestically.[3]
At the time of its opening, Rush Hour 2 had the biggest opening weekend for a comedy of all-time, and the third best non-holiday opening in history.
Prior to its August 3rd release, Rush Hour 2 was premiered to the public on Thursday, July 26, 2001 on-board United Airlines Flight 1 from Los Angeles to Hong Kong renamed, “The Rush Hour Express.”[2] The Hong Kong Board of Tourism teamed up with United Airlines and New Line Cinemas in a campaign that offered both trailers for the movie for passengers on all domestic United flights during July and August reaching an expected 3 million people, as well as Hong Kong travel videos to inspire tourists to visit China where the movie was set. This promotion is thought to have aided greatly in the success of the film despite lackluster reviews from most critics.
Initial press screenings Rush Hour 2 indicated the possibility of an even higher grossing movie than the first and New Line Cinema therefore distributed it to 3118 screens across America, 480 more theaters than the first movie. Additional possibilities to the sequels bigger success than its predecessor point to its release date, 3rd of August which was approximately a month and a half earlier than the release date of the first movie (September 18). Summer releases have long outperformed openings during the other months of the year as movie goers are frequently out of school and have greater amount of time to hit theaters.
The film earned modest to good reviews, earning 52% on Rotten Tomatoes, earning it a 'Fresh' review, though only just. Although from the Top Critics it only received 44% earning it a 'Rotten' review. It earned a 48 out of 100 on Metacritic.com, which is considered a "mixed or average" film. Jay Carr of The Boston Globe said “It hasn’t got a brain in its body, but it’s fun to watch.” Dana Stevens of The New York Times said “The action and humor are enough to make an hour and a half pass quickly and pleasantly.” Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times said “Tucker's scenes finally wear us down. How can a movie allow him to be so obnoxious and make no acknowledgment that his behavior is aberrant?”
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 domestically, and the highest-grossing martial arts film of all time, excluding Kung-Fu Panda in 2008, because it is an animated movie whereas Rush Hour 2 is live action.[2]
The film's total worldwide box office take was $347,325,802 USD, making it the 11th highest-grossing movie of 2001 worldwide.[1]
Awards and Nominations
Rush Hour 2 earned a total of 27 award nominations and 10 wins, including an MTV Movie Award for Best Fight, a Teen Choice Award for Film-Choice Actor, Comedy, and 3 Kids' Choice Awards for Favorite Movie Actor for Tucker, Favorite Male Action Hero for Chan, and Favorite Movie.
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.[4][5] A fourth installment in the series is in negotiations, however, and reportedly may be set in Moscow.[6]
Soundtrack
A soundtrack containing hip hop and R&B music was released on July 31, 2001 by Def Jam Recordings. It peaked at #11 on the Billboard 200 and #11 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.
See also
References
External links
![Rush Hour 2 [Original Soundtrack]](http://content.answers.com/main/content/img/amg/pop_albums/cov200/dre800/e872/e872473wrwh.jpg)
