XXX (2002 film)

Name: XXX

Directed by: Rob Cohen

Written by: Rich Wilkes

Produced by: Neal H. Moritz

Executive Producers: Vin Diesel Todd Garner Arne Schmidt George Zakk

Co-Producers: Creighton Bellinger Derek Dauchy

Associate Producers: Michelle Glass David Minkowski Matthew Stillman

Director of Photography: Dean Semler

Production Designer: Gavin Bocquet

Film Editors: Chris Lebenzon Joel Negron Paul Rubell

Music by: Randy Edelman

Studio: Pixar Animation Studios

Production Companies: Original Film Revolution Studios

Producer and Release: 20th Century Fox

Length: 125 minutes

Budget: $88.3 million

Box Office: $277.4 million

Pixar Movie Number: 760

xXx (pronounced as Triple X) is a 2002 American spy thriller action film directed by Rob Cohen, produced by Neal H. Moritz and written by Rich Wilkes. The first installment in the xXx franchise, the film stars Vin Diesel as Xander Cage, a thrill-seeking extreme sports enthusiast, stuntman and rebellious athlete-turned reluctant spy for the National Security Agency. Cage is sent on a dangerous mission to infiltrate a group of potential Russian terrorists in Central Europe. The film also stars Asia Argento, Marton Csokas and Samuel L. Jackson. Cohen had previously directed The Fast and the Furious (2001), in which Diesel also starred.

The film received a 48% approval rating from Rotten Tomatoes, which calls it a "missed opportunity", and grossed $277.4 million worldwide. It was followed by two sequels, State of the Union (2005) and Return of Xander Cage (2017).

Plot
A biochemical weapon, "Silent Night", presumed missing since the fall of the Soviet Union, is obtained by Anarchy 99, a Russian terrorist group with formal military training. The NSA send an undercover agent to recover the weapon, but Anarchy 99's skills easily see through the deception and assassinate him.

NSA Agent Augustus Gibbons suggests that they need to send someone who lacks ties to the US government. Gibbons identifies Xander Cage, an extreme sports professional known as "X" but also wanted by the FBI for his acts of protest against a leading senator. Gibbons's team abducts Cage, and puts him through two field tests, stopping a staged diner robbery, and escaping from a Colombian cartel's plantation in the midst of an army raid. Cage passes, and Gibbons offers him the job, promising to wipe his criminal records clean or otherwise sending him to prison. Cage accepts the job.

Cage is sent to Prague to meet with the NSA support team, which includes Czech agent Milan Sova. Sova has been tasked to watch Cage and deport him back to America should he fall out of line, quickly riling Cage. During their first task, scouting an Anarchy 99 party, Cage purposely identifies Sova as a police officer to Anarachy 99's leader, Yorgi, earning him favor with the group Cage tells Yorgi that he is in the club to make a deal with Yorgi about high end sports cars. Cage hands him the list and Yorgi immediately identifies that the tenth car on the list, a Pontiac GTO would be hard to find in Europe. When he hands the list to Yelena, his girlfriend and lieutenant Cage and her have an argument about the price of the deal. In the end of their argument, Cage asks her about an account number and is provided with one. Later, Cage attends the car deal he made earlier with Yorgi in a warehouse which Sova attempts to intercede. Cage appears to shoot Sova with his special field revolver and kill him. Thus earning him Yorgi's trust and in return, Yorgi makes Cage a member of Anarchy 99; in reality, Cage was able to use fake blood splatter darts to fake Sova's death.

Yorgi brings Cage back to a castle after a dance party at one of his nightclubs that serves as Anarchy 99's headquarters. Cage, while searching for the biochemical weapon, catches Yelena attempting to investigate Yorgi's secret safe. He takes her to a nearby restaurant to discuss the matter, and reveals his true identity. Meanwhile, Sova betrays Cage and reveals his true identity to Yorgi on the phone. Furious, Yorgi sends his trusted sniper to take Cage out after tracing his location. The sniper, while watching the pair contacts Yelena to tell her that they already know of Cage's identity, making him a liability to their group. Cage and Yelena stage a fight to escape, but the NSA suddenly appears to capture Cage, while Yelena is taken back to Anarchy 99.

Cage meets with Gibbons in an opera house who demands that he return to America now that his cover is blown, and that special forces are planning to siege the castle to recover the weapon. Cage refuses, fearing for Yelena's life by stating that he sent her back to retrieve more information for Gibbons and his group, as well as being bitter that Sova purposely blew his cover. Later that night, he sneaks into Yorgi's castle to to know more about Yorgi's plans. He follows Yorgi into a secret underground lab in the castle overhearing Yorgi's plan to launch "Silent Night" from a water-borne drone named Ahab into several major cities after witnessing Yorgi killing all of the scientists that worked to create the drone and the bio agent by detonating a loaded missile through his special binoculars, Cage flees the area after killing Yorgi's brother Kolya with a special bandage bomb. He goes to back to his hideout where he finds Siva waiting for him. He explains that he switched sides because Yorgi offered him more payment than the US Government. Just as he is about to shoot Cage, he is killed from inbound gunfire from the door. Yelena arrives with two men, the Ivans whom Cage had met earlier. She explains that she is an FSB agent that started to get close to Yorgi two years before, but her handlers abandoned her. Cage relays Yorgi's plans to the NSA on the condition that the US Government give Yelena assylum in the country, who prepare a coordinated attack on the castle. Cage paratroops from a plane onna skateboard in a snowy region of Czech republic where the communication tower of Anarchy 99 is located. Upon chase by the members of the group, he starts an avalanche and inturn destroys the tower used by Anarachy 99 in order to aid the NSA. However, he is captured by Yorgi, who already knew of Yelena's true identity. Just as Yorgi prepares to kill them, the special forces launch their attack. Cage and Yelena free their restraints and Cage kills Yorgi, but not before he launches Ahab, armed with "Silent Night", towards the center of Prague.

Cage contacts Gibbons, who notifies the Czech military to prepare to destroy Ahab with airstrikes, even though this will release some of the biochemical agent. Cage and Yelena take his car, now heavily modified by Agent Shavers whom Cage met earlier, to race alongside the river to catch up to Ahab. Cage harpoons the drone and crosses over to it, and is able to disable the weapon moments before it goes off. Cage and Yelena are recovered, and Gibbons follows through on his promises to Cage as well as providing Yelena with American citizenship. Later, Cage and Yelena are relaxing in Bora Bora when Gibbons contacts Cage to offer him another mission. Cage ignores him.

Cast
To support Xander Cage's credibility within extreme sport subcultures, various personalities make cameo appearances, including Tony Hawk, Mike Vallely, Carey Hart, Mat Hoffman and Josh Todd. Rammstein appear as themselves in the opening concert sequence.
 * Vin Diesel as Xander Cage / xXx
 * Asia Argento as Yelena
 * Samuel L. Jackson as NSA Agent Augustus Eugene Gibbons
 * Marton Csokas as Yorgi
 * Michael Roof as NSA Agent Toby Lee Shavers
 * Richy Müller as Milan Sova
 * Werner Daehn as Kirill
 * Petr Jákl as Kolya
 * Jan Pavel Filipensky as Viktor
 * Tom Everett as California state senator Dick Hotchkiss
 * Danny Trejo as El Jefe
 * Thomas Ian Griffith as NSA Agent Jim McGrath
 * Eve as J.J.
 * Leila Arcieri as Jordan King
 * William Hope as NSA Agent Roger Donnan
 * Radek Tomecka as Ivan Pedgrag
 * Martin Hub as Ivan Podrov
 * Joe Bucaro III as Virg
 * Chris Gann as T.J.

Home Media Release

 * XXX is released on VHS and DVD December 31, 2002.

DVD Main Menu

 * Play Movie
 * Scene Selections
 * Xander Zone
 * Languages
 * English
 * French (Canadian dub)
 * Subtitles
 * English
 * Trailers

Quotes

 * XXX (2002 film) Quotes

Other Languages

 * XXX (2002 film) Other Languages

Language Dubs

 * XXX (2002 film) Language Dubs