XXX: Return of Xander Cage
XXX: Return of Xander Cage is a 2017 American action spy film directed by D.J. Caruso and written by F. Scott Frazier. The third installment in the XXX film series and a sequel to both XXX and XXX: State of the Union, it stars Vin Diesel in the title role along with Donnie Yen, Deepika Padukone, Kris Wu, Ruby Rose, Tony Jaa, Nina Dobrev, Toni Collette, Ariadna Gutiérrez, Hermione Corfield, and Samuel L. Jackson.
Released on January 20, 2017, in 2D, RealD 3D and IMAX 3D by Paramount Pictures, the film received mixed reviews from critics but was commercially successful, grossing over $346 million worldwide against a production budget of $85 million and subsequently becoming both the franchise's and Revolution Studios' highest-grossing film.
Plot
In Brazil, a satellite that had fallen out of orbit crashes on NSA Agent Augustus Gibbons who is attempting to recruit footballer Neymar for the Triple-X program, seemingly killing them both.In New York City, Xiang's team infiltrates a CIA office to recover "Pandora's Box", a device that can crash satellites as warheads. CIA Agent Jane Marke finds ex-operative Xander Cage, who faked his death and lives in the Dominican Republic. She persuades Xander to return and retrieve the device.
In London, Xander enlists his old friend Ainsley's help and tracks attackers to the Philippines. At an RAF outpost in Lakenheath, a Special Forces unit led by Paul Donovan is assigned to assist Xander, but he rejects them for his own team: sharpshooter Adele Wolff, DJ Harvard "Nicks" Zhou, getaway driver Tennyson "The Torch," and weapons expert Becky Clearidge.
The team finds Xiang and his teammates Serena, Talon, and Hawk. Xander meets Xiang in an underground nightclub on a remote island, where Xiang reveals that his team are also xXx agents recruited by Gibbons. Xiang says he stole Pandora's Box to prevent misuse, but Serena wanted to destroy it. Russian soldiers then raid the island. The group fights them off, while Xiang escapes with the device. Xander chases him to a nearby beach. Serena betrays Xiang, destroys the Box, and joins Xander, while Xiang escapes to regroup with Talon and Hawk.
After another satellite crash in the Olympic Stadium in Moscow, Marke determines that the device Serena destroyed was only a prototype. Xander discovers CIA Director Anderson is involved and possesses the actual Pandora's Box. Xander's and Xiang's teams race to reach Anderson first in Detroit, tracking the unique signal emitted by Pandora's Box, with Xander and Xiang reluctantly cooperate to fight Anderson's men. Xander confronts Anderson, who admits to causing the satellite crash that killed Gibbons, before Wolff shoots him dead. Xander reluctantly allows the CIA to arrest Xiang in an attempt to frame him for the Moscow attack, and they secure the box. En route back to headquarters, Marke announces that the CIA has shuttered the program and shoots Xander to keep it for herself. She then sends a hitman squad to eliminate the others to tie up loose ends. They join forces to fend off their attackers, assisted by former xXx operative Darius Stone.
Xander, saved by Becky's bulletproof vest, teams up with Xiang to fight Donovan and his men. Marke uses the box to send a satellite towards the warehouse, aiming to kill both groups. Donovan uses bionic gloves to punch equipment as Xander dodges. In a bathroom fight, Donovan punches the toilet, creating an opening for Xander to eject him. Xiang causes Marke to fall to her death and parachutes out with the box. After Serena reports Becky's failed signal stop, Xander crashes the plane into the satellite to protect everyone, then jumps out and lands safely. Xiang gives him the device, which he destroys by stomping. Darius arrives in Xander's old car, and they introduce themselves.
The team attends Gibbons' funeral, where Gibbons, who faked his death and is rebuilding the program, approaches Xander, now recruiting Neymar. Gibbons compliments Xander, who chooses to stay in service.
Cast
- Vin Diesel as Xander Cage, an extreme athlete turned xXx field agent who was believed to have died.
- Donnie Yen as Xiang, a xXx agent who heads a team trying to secure Pandora's Box
- Deepika Padukone as Serena Unger, formerly supported Xiang
- Kris Wu as Nicks, full name Nicky Zhou, a guy who supports Cage; he is also a DJ nicknamed "The Hood"
- Ruby Rose as Adele Wolff, a main sharpshooter who supports Cage
- Tony Jaa as Talon, supports Xiang
- Nina Dobrev as Becky Clearidge, former assistant of Gibbons and weapons specialist assigned by Marke to provide technical weapons and equipment support to Cage.
- Toni Collette as Jane Marke, CIA agent lead who brings in Cage for the job
- Samuel L. Jackson as Augustus Gibbons, founder of the xXx program and also NSA field agent who originally recruited Cage
- Rory McCann as Tennyson Torch, a getaway driver who supports Cage; he keeps a record of the number of times he drives a vehicle to crash into things
- Hermione Corfield as Ainsley, a close ally of Cage who lives in London.
- Tony Gonzalez as Paul Donovan, Special Forces operative working for Marke
- Michael Bisping as Hawk, supports Xiang
Production
Development
Following the release of xXx in 2002, director Rob Cohen revealed his plans to make it a franchise, but an "anarchistic" one with different settings in each film, without anyone from the original film returning except Vin Diesel as Xander Cage. Working on a sequel and planning as well a third and fourth film, Cohen had two scripts in development, one taking place in Southeast Asia and involving Malacca strait pirates and the other taking place in Washington, D.C., and involving the United States Secret Service. Diesel explained that one of the two scripts was written by Rich Wilkes and the other was written by an unnamed writer, but Wilkes' script was the one he wanted as it excited him the most. However, Diesel ultimately opted out from making a second xXx film, which was titled xXx: State of the Union, due to disliking the script, feeling that it "didn't feel xXx" for him.Although the character of Xander Cage was supposedly killed in the sequel to explain his absence, Vin Diesel announced in 2006 that he would be returning as Xander Cage in a sequel, entitled xXx: The Return of Xander Cage, with the character's death being retconned for the film. Initially, not only Diesel was set to return, but also Cohen. Diesel has said that the style and music will also be similar to that of the original film, more of what the fans want, with an emphasis on extreme stunts and with a heavy metal soundtrack. Joe Roth was in talks to produce. According to Cohen, he has also approached Sony, and "now we're writing a script with the guys who wrote Terminator 3 and Terminator Salvation. So we'll do another Xander Cage xXx. We'll bring it up to speed a bit and bring back the extreme sports guy who's drafted to be a spy." On June 10, 2009, Cohen dropped out of the production, instead moving to direct the action film Medieval. On August 26, 2009, SlashFilm announced that Ericson Core would be directing and production would start in early 2010.
In April 2010, it was revealed that the third film would be financed by Paramount Pictures instead of Sony, and would also be shot in 3D. Meanwhile, Rob Cohen had returned as director. Vin Diesel will produce, among others, while Gloria S. Borders, Scott Hemming, Ric Kidney and Vince Totino will serve as executive producers.
Casting
In January 2014, Vin Diesel confirmed work on a sequel tentatively titled xXx: The Return of Xander Cage. On August 23, 2015, Vin Diesel announced on his Instagram page that "While I was filming xXx, guys on set called me Air Diesel... The time to return has come. Filming starts December in the Philippines. #ILiveForThisShit...". On October 10, 2015, it was reported that director D. J. Caruso would direct the film. Diesel announced that UFC fighter Conor McGregor was cast in a role and that Jackson will be reprising his role as Gibbons. However, in April 2016 it was announced McGregor had dropped out of his planned appearance to focus on training and the UFC; he was replaced by Michael Bisping. On January 1, 2016, Twitch Film reported that Tony Jaa, Jet Li and Deepika Padukone were cast in roles. The following week, Nina Dobrev and Ruby Rose were also cast. Dobrev would be playing a witty and sarcastic techie, while Padukone would play a huntress who happens to be Cage's former lover. Rose would play a sniper. Andrey Ivchenko was confirmed to be another villain in the film, given that earlier reports revealed Li to be playing an adversary as well.It was rumored that Ice Cube, who played the protagonist Darius Stone in the second film in 2005, would reprise his role, which was confirmed in January 2017. On February 6, 2016, Caruso revealed on his Twitter account that Kris Wu had joined the cast, he also added that Wu would be playing a vital character. On February 12, 2016, reports brought in the news that Jet Li dropped out of the film and was replaced with Donnie Yen in the role of the main antagonist, Xiang. On June 3, 2016, it was revealed that Brazilian footballer Neymar joined the film's cast.