The Transporter (French: Le Transporteur) is a 2002 French English-language action-thriller film directed by Cory Yuen from a screenplay by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen.

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It is the first installment in the Transporter franchise and stars Jason Statham as Frank Martin, alongside Shu Qi, François Berléand, Matt Schulze, and Ric Young. In the film, Frank, a British mercenary driver living in France, finds himself involved in a people smuggling plot.The Transporter was inspired by the short film series The Hire. The Transporter premiered at the Regency Village Theatre in Los Angeles on 2 October 2002 and was first theatrically released in the United States on 11 October by 20th Century Fox, and in France on 23 October by EuropaCorp. It received mixed reviews from critics, with praise for its action sequences but criticism for its story. It grossed $43.9 million worldwide and was followed by the sequel Transporter 2 (2005).

The Transporter (2002)

Main article: The Transporter

Frank Martin (Jason Statham) is a highly-skilled driver known only as “The Transporter.” He will transport anything, no questions asked, always on time, and he is known as the best in the business. He strictly follows three rules when transporting: Rule Number 1: “Once the deal is made, it is final,” Rule Number 2: “No names,” and Rule Number 3: “Never open the package.” Frank inadvertently breaks his own rule, opens the package and finds a bound and gagged woman.

Transporter 2 (2005)

Main article: Transporter 2

Frank has been hired as the driver for a wealthy family, in Miami, Florida. Frank bonds with their young son, whom he drives to school every day. When the boy is kidnapped, Frank must again act in order to protect his young “package” and his family. Eventually, Martin unravels a scheme involving biological weapons and the nefarious Gianni Chellini. Martin is forced to remove a bomb from the bottom of his car by executing an aerial corkscrew manoeuver underneath a crane. The crane catches the bomb and Martin escapes unharmed.

Inspector Tarconi plays an even more prominent role in this film. It is established that he and Frank are now friends, and Tarconi goes as far as to lie to the police to cover for Frank.

Transporter 3 (2008)

Main article: Transporter 3

Frank has been pressured into transporting Valentina (Natalya Rudakova) the kidnapped daughter of Leonid Vasilev (Jeroen Krabbé), the head of the Environmental Protection Agency for Ukraine, from Marseille through Stuttgart and Budapest until he ends up in Odesa on the Black Sea. Along the way, with the help of Inspector Tarconi (François Berléand), Frank has to contend with the people who strong armed him to take the job, agents sent by Vasilev to intercept him, and the general non-cooperation of his passenger, who he realises is the package midway through the film. Despite Valentina’s cynical disposition and Frank’s resistance to getting involved, Frank and Valentina fall for each other, while escaping from one life-threatening situation after another.

The Transporter Refueled (2015)

Main article: The Transporter Refueled

In May 2013, at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, a new reboot trilogy was announced with EuropaCorp and China’s Fundamental Films co-producing and distributing the titles.[1][2] The films were to be budgeted between $30 million to $40 million each and at least one was planned to be shot in China.[3][4] Luc Besson will co-finance, distribute, produce and write all the films.[5] English actor Ed Skrein replaced Jason Statham as Frank Martin on the fourth installment of the series.[6] The fourth film, The Transporter Refueled, directed by Camille Delamarre, was released in the United States on 4 September 2015.