XXX: Return of Xander Cage

Plot

An out-of-orbit satellite crashes in Brazil, killing NSA Agent Augustus Gibbons and footballer Neymar as Gibbons tries to recruit Neymar for the Triple-X program. In New York, Xiang’s crew breaks into a CIA office to steal Pandora’s Box, a device that turns satellites into warheads. CIA Agent Jane Marke tracks down Xander Cage, who faked his death and now lives in the Dominican Republic, and convinces him to recover the device.

In London, Xander gets help from his old friend Ainsley and follows the attackers to the Philippines. There, his team—sharpshooter Adele Wolff, DJ Harvard “Nicks” Zhou, driver Tennyson “The Torch,” and weapons expert Becky Clearidge—locates Xiang and his allies Serena, Talon, and Hawk. At an underground nightclub on a remote island, Xiang reveals that Gibbons recruited him and his team as xXx agents too. Xiang claims he stole Pandora’s Box to stop its misuse, while Serena wanted to destroy it.

Russian soldiers attack the island; the group fights them off, but Xiang escapes with the device. Xander chases him to a beach, where Serena betrays Xiang, destroys the Box, and joins Xander. Xiang flees to regroup with Talon and Hawk.

After another satellite crashes into Moscow’s Olympic Stadium, Marke realizes the destroyed device was only a prototype. Xander learns CIA Director Anderson has the real Pandora’s Box. Both Xander’s and Xiang’s teams race to Detroit, tracking the box’s unique signal, and reluctantly cooperate against Anderson’s men. Xander confronts Anderson, who admits to causing the satellite crash that killed Gibbons; Wolff shoots Anderson dead.

Xander lets the CIA arrest Xiang to frame him for the Moscow attack, and the box is secured. On the way back, Marke says the program is shut down, then shoots Xander to keep the box for herself. She sends a hit squad after the others, who join forces with former xXx operative Darius Stone to fight them off.

Production

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. 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.

Reception

xXx: Return of Xander Cage brought in $44.9 million domestically and $301.4 million internationally, adding up to a worldwide haul of $346.3 million on an $85 million budget. In North America, it opened alongside Split, The Founder, The Resurrection of Gavin Stone, and the wider release of 20th Century Women. Analysts predicted a debut between $16 and $20 million from roughly 3,651 theaters.

Thursday night previews from 2,536 locations earned $1.2 million. The film ultimately grossed $20 million in its first weekend, landing in second place behind Split’s $40.2 million and marking the second-best opening in the xXx series. Globally, its opening weekend reached $70.5 million, nearly matching the entire theatrical run of its predecessor, which made $71.1 million.

In China, Paramount tailored its marketing to highlight Donnie Yen, placing him ahead of Vin Diesel on some posters and sharing clips of his performance on Weibo. That strategy paid off: the film topped the Chinese box office in its opening weekend with $61.9 million. It crossed $100 million in just six days, with $22.2 million coming from Valentine’s Day alone, fueled by social media buzz around Yen’s performance.

Digital-focused marketing and Kris Wu’s popularity also contributed; his music video for a song on the soundtrack racked up 40 million views before the film’s release in China. The movie joined Terminator Genisys and Warcraft as the only Hollywood releases to earn $100 million in China without hitting that mark in the United States. China was its biggest market.

Critical response

Critically, the film holds a 46% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 147 reviews, with an average score of 4.9 out of 10. The site’s consensus notes that while it should please fans of the earlier installments, its many action sequences don’t compensate for a tired plot that doesn’t take the franchise or action fans anywhere new. On Metacritic, it scored 42 out of 100 from 25 critics, indicating mixed or average reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave it an average grade of A- on an A+ to F scale.