
The Transporter
2002 · Film · 92 min
Part of The Transporter Collection
Directed by Corey Yuen, Louis Leterrier
Former Special Forces officer Frank Martin will deliver anything to anyone for the right price, and his no-questions-asked policy puts him in high demand. But when he realizes his latest cargo is alive, it sets in motion a dangerous chain of events. The bound and gagged Lai is being smuggled to France by a shady American businessman, and Frank works to save her as his own illegal activities are uncovered by a French detective.
2 positive7 neutralfrom 9 commenters
Where to watch
No streaming data for this title.
10 comments on Hacker News
More info on the Transporter. They tested it using rockets fire another transport truck at it.
https://www.twz.com/37156/new-nuke-transporting-tractor-trailer-tested-by-launching-another-semi-at-it-using-rockets
https://www.twz.com/14253/the-us-moves-nukes-in-booby-trapped-tractor-trailers-straight-out-of-an-action-movie
Movies I think I truly great I usually only watch once, sometimes twice. If a movie ends and I just sit there thinking to myself… “wow”… I will probably never watch it again.
Movies I watch over and over again are movies that I relate to in some way or find comforting. These are ones I’ve watched at least 5 times, and some I’d bet more than 30 times.
- Back to the Future
- Home Alone
- What About Bob?
- It Could Happen to You
- Matilda
- As Good as It Gets
- Office Space
- Cruel Intentions
- Boiler Room
- Finding Forrester
- Training Day
- Super Troopers
- 8 Mile
- The Transporter
- Elf
- Bad Santa
- Mean Girls
- Saved!
- Garden State
- V for Vendetta
- Thank You for Smoking
- Stick It
- Little Miss Sunshine
- Idiocracy
- Hot Rod
- Run Fatboy Run
- The Other Guys
- Wreck-It Ralph
To name a few.
So I watched John Wick yesterday evening, and unfortunately I didn't like it.
I didn't feel invested in the main character at all, let alone any of the other characters. Was it the camera work, or the editing, or the acting, or the way the story was told? I don't know. In any case as a result I found the whole movie extremely boring.
Someone here mentioned Kill Bill which in a way has a similar story and over-the-top fighting scenes. But I do love Kill Bill (even though I think the fight with the Crazy 88 would have been better if it were not as long). I also found movies like The Transporter or Taken entertaining (which I think are more or less in the same genre as John Wick).
Then what exactly is it that makes me like some of these movies but not John Wick? I'm afraid I don't have the answer to that.
Here's a list I stole from Quora: https://www.quora.com/What-films-have-the-lowest-average-shot-length-ASL
ASL 1.55 - Doomsday (2008) : 4052 shots over 105 minutes
ASL 1.72 - Transporter 3 (2008) : 3360 shots over 96 minutes
ASL 1.73 - Domino (2005) : 4046 shots over 116 minutes
ASL 1.83 - Quantum of Solace (2008) : 3198 shots over 98 minutes
ASL 1.84 - Crank: High Voltage (2009) : 2718 shots over 84 minutes
ASL 1.92 - Transporter 2 (2005) : 2524 shots over 81 minutes
ASL 2.01 - Band of Ninja (1967) : 3424 shots over 114 minutes
ASL 2.01 - Moulin Rouge! (2001) : 3594 shots over 120 minutes
ASL 2.03 - Gamer (2009) : 2502 shots over 84 minutes
ASL 2.03 - The 6th Day (2000) : 3418 shots over 116 minutes
ASL 2.08 - Hot Fuzz (2007) : 3304 shots over 115 minutes
ASL 2.10 - Dark City (1998) : 2982 shots over 104 minutes
ASL 2.15 - Armageddon (1998) : 4025 shots over 145 minutes
ASL 2.17 - The Transporter (2002) : 2420 shots over 87 minutes
ASL 2.17 - The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) : 2910 shots over 105 minutes
Which is why their heavy investments in making high quality films out of the first film for each character is the real key.
Click into each director of the phase 1 films. They were all multi-decade successes, with their biggest films fitting well with what they’re after.
Rudy, Swingers -> Iron Man
Transporter movies -> Hulk
OG Jumanji, October Sky -> Cpt America
They made big bets up front and it’s paid dividends, and then some.
Many movies do this too. Transporter 2 is a great example. In The Transporter all of the cars sustain significant damage. There were no vehicle brand deals. Audi provided the vehicles for Transporter 2. They didn't even get scratched.
Can an autonomous car beat the best version of Frank Martin in The Transporter series, let alone any of the Fast & Furious drivers?
Now we have the answer. It’s game over people! Even the fictional drivers in the movies have no chance against real world AI today.
This means in the future when an autonomous car or robot is chasing you — you may as well give up. You just better hope it doesn’t get cheap enough that someone can simply hire a swarm of robots or autonomous cars to kidnap people or incapacitate them or wreak havoc en masse (eg crashing into 10,000 gas stations at once).
Annihilation, Dark City, Riddick Chronicles, Babylon A.D., Guardians of The Galaxy, Fast and Furious, Hummingbird, Transporter, Crank, Hardcore Henry, Revolver, Lucy, Ghost in The Shell, Now you see me, Passengers, Transcendence, Maze Runner, Limitless...
I think we've had a good run; I also think it's easy to be biased and not see it because of some nostalgia-effect of sorts. If you are f.e. 30+ you might more easily dismiss a movie as Limitless or Lucy as uncredible; both are based on a common myth that we only utilize a low percentage of our brains capacity, as an example, so they are that: unrealistic. But I think that's an unfair comparison because of an inherent bias that when you think about a movie like The Matrix you don't see it with the same critical lens because you perhaps had less knowledge of the world in your earlier years. #JustAFewThoughts
Are robotic cars close to outperforming human drivers on short distances?
Watching Jason Statham movies like The Transporter and The Fast and The Furious sets a pretty high bar when it comes to fictional getaway drivers.
> You'd think with all the smart people that have put their minds to ads on the internet, there would be lightning fast, targeted ads that actually worked by now.
It's called Facebook Ads, and Google AdWords. Another name for what you seek is "product placement in movies". Yet another is PR.
For instance, looking at the trailer for the new Transporter, one has to wonder how much Audi paid to have that movie made.
And if you look closely at most journalism on the modern web, it is nothing but a thinly veiled ad for a thing.