Ngoc Minh Quan, a 61 year-old widower and Vietnam vet, runs a Chinese restaurant in London. His only daughter, Fan, is killed in a terrorist bombing in Knightsbridge, and an IRA splinter group dubbing itself the "Authentic IRA" claims responsibility. Quan visits the Scotland Yard daily for information. When Commander Bromley tells him he is hindering the investigation, Quan travels to Belfast, leaving the restaurant in the hands of his friend and partner Lam.

Quan contacts deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland and Sinn Féin political advisor Liam Hennessy, a former Provisional IRA leader who claims to have renounced violence. Quan demands the names of the bombers, but Hennessy denies any knowledge, so Quan sets off a homemade bomb in Hennessy's building and leaves a fake explosive on Hennessy's car as a warning. Hennessy tells his right-hand man, Jim Kavanagh, and the rest of his bodyguards to locate Quan, take him out of the city, and “discourage” him from returning. He also orders IRA weapons dumps be searched for missing Semtex. Hennessy's henchmen find Quan at the guesthouse he’s staying in, but he fights them off and escapes. Later, Quan photographs Hennessy kissing his mistress, Maggie Dunn, in a restaurant.

Quan then follows Hennessy to his farmhouse, attacking it with more bombs. As Hennessy's men scour the surrounding woods for him, Quan maims three of them with traps. When he tries to interrogate one of the injured, Quan is shot in the shoulder by Kavanagh and flees. Hennessy enlists his nephew Sean Morrison from New York, a former Royal Irish Regiment soldier and skilled tracker, to stop Quan. Morrison negotiates with Bromley that each IRA cell will change their code words; Bromley agrees on the condition that the police will take them down, not Morrison and his uncle.

While cauterizing his wound, Quan remembers escaping from Vietnam by boat, the vessel being attacked by Thai pirates, his first two daughters being abducted, and being shot along with his wife and falling into the ocean. Hennessy receives documents from the British detailing Quan’s military record and the kidnapping and presumed rape and murder of said daughters.

Hennessy's old IRA commander Hugh McGrath shows up and confronts him about searching his dumps. Liam tells Hugh that four of them are missing ten kilos of Semtex. McGrath claims everything was in order. He tries to convince Hennessy to support more attacks. Hennessy reveals that he ordered the bombing of financial targets but also for civlians to remain unharmed. McGrath accuses Hennessy of caring more his position within the U.K government than the IRA’s cause. Hennessy warns McGrath to contact and call off the bombers or he will kill them both.

A double-decker bus is blown up, but no code word is given, creating distrust between Hennessy and Bromley. British cabinet minister Katherine Davies tells Hennessy that royal pardons that he sought for 40 IRA fugitives will only be considered if he hands over the bombers, otherwise British paratroopers will re-occupy Northern Ireland within two days. Hennessy learns that Morrison unintentionally leaked information during an adulterous dalliance with his wife, Mary. Meanwhile, Bromley notifies Hennessy that they’ve found the bomber’s identity and, after following McGrath’s car using satellite imagery, threatens to raid his farm unless the latter questions the former. Hennessy tortures McGrath into telling him where and who the terrorists are, which include Maggie, whose real name is Sara McKay. She was meant to serve as blackmail should he reject further violence. Hennessy learns that Mary masterminded the attacks because her brother was murdered by a UVF death squad and hates both the British and her husband for allowing his killers to be jailed instead of assassinated. Hennessy executes McGrath and shares the information with Morrison.

Morrison eventually finds Quan’s forest hideout. Quan managed to subdue him, and Sean gives him the names of the killers and their location. After being released and returning to the farm, his uncle reprimands him for his actions. Hennessy tells Sean to bury McGrath and that after one last task, Morrison must return to New York.

Quan enters the bombers' London flat disguised as a gas man. He kills all of them except for Sara, who was wounded in the scuffle. Quan escapes before the SO15 and MI5 storm the complex. They torture Sara into disclosing the location of their next bomb, which is planted in a reporter's laptop to be detonated on a plane carrying British dignitaries to a conference. Airport police locate Ian Wood and throw the laptop into an air bridge, which explodes without any casualties. Mckay is executed to tie up loose ends. Davies, who was scheduled to be on the targeted flight, calls Hennessy to tell him she knows of his involvement, but having helped prevent the attack, he can remain as deputy First Minister, albeit under her control. She confirms that 5 pardons have been issued, including for Hennessy’s cousin, and instructs him to take the next morning flight back to London for debriefing. Meanwhile, Morrison kills Mary with a silenced pistol.

Quan confronts Hennessy at his hotel with a picture of him kissing Maggie. He forces Liam to post the photo on the Internet, publicizing his links to the Authentic IRA and ensuring the end of his political career. After telling Hennessy that the whole world will know of his crimes, Quan returns to the restaurant and reunites with Lam.

Realizing Quan's role, Bromley decides not to take further action against Quan and keeps him under surveillance for the time being.

On 5 June 2015 it was announced that Jackie Chan would star in the action thriller film The Foreigner,^[4] for STX Entertainment, and based on Stephen Leather's novel The Chinaman.^[5] 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.^[6] The film is partially set in Walworth, London.^[5] On 15 July 2015, Deadline reported that Martin Campbell was instead in talks to direct the film, while Relativity Media would finance.^[6] Campbell was paid $2 million for the film.^[7] Pierce Brosnan joined the cast alongside Chan in November. Brosnan previously starred in the 1995 film GoldenEye directed by Campbell.^[8] Co-stars Liu Tao and Chan attended the Shanghai Film Festival on 11 June 2016 to promote the film.^[9]

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.^[10] Scenes were shot at the Walters & Cohen designed Regent High School in Camden and on Churton Street in Pimlico on 18 February 2016.^{[citation needed]}

Cliff Martinez composed the score.^[11]

The Foreigner was released theatrically in China on 30 September 2017 by Wuzhou Film Distribution and in the United States on 13 October 2017 by STX Entertainment.^[11][12] In the Philippines, the film was distributed by Viva International Pictures on 18 October 2017.^[13]

Box office edit

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.^[2]

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.^[14] 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.^[15]

Home media edit

In the United Kingdom, the film was released on 15 December 2017 on Netflix.^[16] It became one of the UK's top ten most-watched Netflix original films of 2018, with a 0.37% share of the total Netflix content consumed in the UK that year.^[17]

The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the United States on 9 January 2018 and in Canada and the rest of the world on 23 January.

Critical response edit

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 66% based on 127 reviews, with an average rating of 6/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "The Foreigner adheres strictly to action thriller formula, but benefits from committed—and out of character—performances from its talented veteran stars."^[18] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 55 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".^[19] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported 78% of filmgoers gave it positive score.^[15]

The film was viewed positively by most critics. 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."^[20] 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."^[21] John Berra of Screen Daily praised the action sequences, Cliff Martinez's score and the direction, stating "Campbell's unfussy style works well with Chan’s choreography. The star’s willingness to look his 63 years makes the falls look like they really hurt and creates a sense of jeopardy when Quan finds himself outnumbered." He also observed that the film "never commits the cinematic sin of suggesting that terrorism is a threat than can be readily dispatched with a few one-liners."^[22] Ignatiy Vishnevetsky for The A.V. Club described the film as "good, lean cut of meat—in other words, a typical Martin Campbell movie, expeditious and cold-blooded in its cross-cut, cloak-and-dagger plotting and violence."^[23] The Chicago Reader also commended the performances of Chan and Brosnan and called The Foreigner a "twisty, bracing political thriller, giving Chan room to display his dramatic ability."^[24] The Times of India gave a positive review of Campbell's direction and the film's suspense, stating that it can keep viewers "engrossed."^[25]

In more mixed reviews, Peter Debruge of Variety wrote "The Foreigner amounts to an above-average but largely by-the-numbers action movie in which Chan does battle with generic thugs and shadowy political forces."^[8] Glenn Kenny writing in The New York Times stated Chan "doesn’t deliver the action pizazz here that he used to," criticised the plot as "convoluted" and felt that the use of the IRA as antagonists was outdated in relation to current events.^[26]

In January 2016, The New Yorker quoted Jackie Chan in-conversation with then-STX chairman Adam Fogelson as having suggested that a female character in The Foreigner who had been killed off in the script had been kept alive so-as to "save her for No. 2. Now the IRA goes after her—and that's the story." On said meeting with Chan and the concept of The Foreigner No. 2 sequel, Fogelson then remarked, “A few years ago, thinking about the sequel that way would be characterized as a lazy, greedy bastardization of the creative process. If you said that now, you'd be telling the entire world that they're wrong. Sequels have become a duty—a form of storytelling that, thanks to great television, audiences have grown accustomed to. You can aspire to create six two-hour movies that develop your concept across multiple resolutions—which makes movies easier to sell, and creates a more predictable business model. Half the films we'll say yes to will have sequelable potential."^[27]

• The Foreigner
• The Foreigner | STX
• The Foreigner at IMDb  
• The Foreigner at the Hong Kong Movie DataBase