The Replacement Killers is a 1998 American action film directed by Antoine Fuqua in his feature directorial debut, from a screenplay by Ken Sanzel. It stars Chow Yun-fat, Mira Sorvino, Michael Rooker, Kenneth Tsang, and Jürgen Prochnow. The film follows an emotionally disillusioned assassin who is forced to settle a violent vendetta for a ruthless crime boss.
The film was a co-production between Columbia Pictures, Brillstein-Grey Entertainment, and WCG Entertainment Productions. It marked the American acting debut for Chow, as his previous film credits had been in Chinese-language productions. Filmmaker John Woo executive produced and choreographed the action sequences. The musical score was composed by Harry Gregson-Williams.
The Replacement Killers premiered in theaters in the United States on February 6, 1998, and grossed $39.5 million worldwide against a $30 million budget. It has a 38% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a consensus of "mixed reviews" on Metacritic.
Plot During an orchestrated drug bust at a marine loading dock, LAPD detective Stan Zedkov kills Triad lieutenant Peter Wei.
Looking to exact revenge for his son's death, Peter's father, Terence, sends for professional assassin John Lee. Paying off an old debt, Lee has already killed two targets for Wei, who now tells him that this third and final job will settle the obligation. However, Lee's conscience prevents him from completing his final assignment: to assassinate Zedkov's seven-year-old son Stevie before the detective's eyes.
Realizing that his actions will result in retaliation against his mother and sister, Lee prepares to return to China, enlisting the help of old friend Alan Chan, a monk in a local Buddhist temple, to make arrangements to have his family moved to a secure location. Infuriated by Lee's disobedience, Wei orders his head lieutenant, Michael Kogan, to lead the hunt for Lee, and has his people in China begin the search for Lee's family.
No longer able to use the Triad network to get out of the country, Lee searches for alternative means outside Wei's sphere of influence, and looks to skilled forger Meg Coburn for a new passport. Before she can finish the job, Wei's men storm Meg's office, destroying the computerized tools of her trade in the ensuing shootout. Lee escapes; Coburn is picked up by the police, unsuccessfully interrogated by Zedkov, and released as bait so the detective can see who tries to kill her. Meanwhile, Wei hires two skilled out-of-town contract killers named Ryker and Collins to take over the hunt for Lee and the Zedkov contract.
Lee finds Coburn when she returns to her destroyed office. Having been made aware that the Triads are involved, Coburn wants out, but Lee forces her to finish her original task of creating a forged passport. Traveling with Coburn, and with the two "replacement killers" in pursuit, Lee gets pictures from a photo booth and phones Alan, who offers the use of his passport. When Lee arrives at the temple, he discovers that Alan has been tortured to the point of death. Alan tells Lee that his family was moved to Canton—but he told his torturers they were in Shanghai. Lee has little more than 24 hours before his family is found. The monk gives Lee his passport before dying in his arms.
Holed up in a hotel, Coburn finishes altering Alan's passport for Lee. The two exchange stories, and Coburn becomes sympathetic to Lee. Feeling compelled to stop the killing of Zedkov's son before leaving the country, Lee forces one of Wei's men to reveal the plan, which is to kill Stevie while he and his father are at a movie festival inside a cinema. Lee and Coburn, who insists on helping, arrive barely in time to prevent Ryker and Collins from killing the boy, and Ryker is killed by Lee in the subsequent gunfight.
Concerned that Lee and Coburn will make their way back to his base of operations, Wei makes plans to flee the country and hunt down Lee's mother and sister himself. However, when two guards open the main gate for Wei and his entourage to leave in a limo, Lee is just outside. He launches a two-handed handgun assault while Coburn surfaces moments later, driving a truck through the melee, incapacitating Kogan, and later killing him. When Collins fires from a high perch on Lee and Coburn, Lee soon outflanks Collins, killing him from behind. Finally, Lee corners Wei on a fire escape platform. Though both men have emptied their guns, Lee is first to reload. Wei promises Lee that the boy and Lee's family will still die, but Lee replies, "Not in your lifetime", and kills him. Though Zedkov arrives before Lee and Coburn can get away, he lets them go, taking only their guns.
Coburn reluctantly bids goodbye to Lee at the airport, presenting him with one last gift, passports for his mother and sister.
Cast
Production
Filming
Production for the film began on February 10, 1997, in downtown Los Angeles. The first shoot was set in the historic Mayan Theater, refurbished as a trendy nightclub and cast with hundreds of extras for the film's opening scene.Stewart, Bhob (1998). Synopsis . AllRovi. Retrieved 2012-07-05. The eight-story, nearly condemned Giant Penny building in the middle of Los Angeles served as the location for a police station interior, a hotel room, and Meg Coburn's office. A chaotic gunfight was filmed amid the spray, brushes, and hoses of Joe's Car Wash, also in Los Angeles. A Chinatown-like streetscape of damp, narrow alleys and blinking red neon lights was created for the night-time finale, where Yun-Fat shot off 546 rounds of two-fisted shooting; the repetitive action left his hands blistered and shaking. More gunplay took place in a video arcade replicated at the original Lawry's California CenterYesteryear Remembered, Lawry's California Center, Yesteryearremembered.com (now the Los Angeles River Center and Gardens),LA Mountains.com, Los Angeles River Center & Gardens, Lamountains.com just north of downtown Los Angeles. Lee's tranquil Buddhist temple was fashioned under this same roof.
Director Antoine Fuqua stressed to his team that the aim was to design a "Taxi Driver for the 1990s". In addition to physical training, Mira Sorvino, who had never handled a gun prior to this film, took weapons training to prepare for her role. Sorvino, who majored in Asian studies at Harvard, speaks Mandarin, and lived for eight months (1988–89) in Beijing, where she studied Chinese, taught English, and saw Chinese films, including Hong Kong action films. She felt The Replacement Killers brought her a step closer to her goal of making a film in Mandarin and working with a Chinese director. Prior to the start of filming, Sorvino had blown out her voice from screaming in reshoots of Mimic; Fuqua liked the effect and asked her to keep it, which required Sorvino to yell prior to each day's shoots to burn out her voice.
Themes The Replacement Killers explores assassination, violence and the influence of organized crime in modern society.Antoine Fuqua (Director). (1998). The Replacement Killers [Motion picture]. United States: Columbia Pictures.
Music Soundtrack The original motion picture score was composed by Harry Gregson-Williams. Alan Meyerson mixed the sound elements for the chorus, while Richard Whitfield edited the film's music. The soundtrack for the film was released on March 10, 1998, by the Varèse Sarabande music label.The Replacement Killers Original Motion Picture Score. Allmusic.com. Accessed: October 30, 2024.
Additional music In addition to the film score by Harry Gregson-Williams, several licensed songs were included on the soundtrack (although never officially released as a cd) including: "Keep Hope Alive" by The Crystal Method "Jaan" by Talvin Singh featuring Amar "Makes Me Wanna Die (The Weekend Mix)" by Tricky "Rocco" by Death In Vegas "Boom Boom Caw" by Brad "33" by Hed PE "Escape From The City Of Angels" by Ithaka (featuring Marta Dias)
Release The Replacement Killers premiered in cinemas on February 6, 1998, in wide release throughout the US, and had a five-week theatrical run.
Home media Following its cinematic release in theaters, The Replacement Killers was released on DVD and VHS by Columbia TriStar Home Video in the United States on July 1, 1998. Special features for the DVD included scene selections, the "Chow Yun-Fat Goes Hollywood" featurette, and the HBO special "Where the Action is". A VHS format edition was released on March 30, 1999.
On March 5, 2002, a Special Edition DVD was released. Features included digitally mastered audio and anamorphic video, widescreen presentation, audio in English 5.1 (Dolby Digital), Spanish, French, Portuguese, subtitles in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, and Thai, director's commentary, the HBO making-of "Where the Action Is", deleted scenes, alternate ending, the "Chow Yun-Fat Goes Hollywood" featurette, theatrical trailers, filmographies, animated menus, and scene selections with motion images.
A UMD version of the film for the Sony PlayStation Portable was released on August 9, 2005. The disc features DVD quality picture, languages in Chinese, English, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, and Thai, and viewing options for color and black and white.
An extended-cut DVD adding approximately 10 minutes to the film was released on April 25, 2006. Special features included the "Chow Yun-Fat Goes Hollywood" featurette, digitally remastered picture and sound, and the edited HBO special "Where the Action Is".
The widescreen hi-definition Blu-ray version of the film was released on September 11, 2007. Special features included HBO's making-of "Where the Action Is" and the "Chow Yun-Fat Goes Hollywood" featurette. A supplemental Video on demand viewing option is available as well.
Reception Box office During its February 6, 1998, US opening weekend, the film ranked second place, grossing $8,046,553 at 1,936 locations. The film Titanic came in first place during that weekend grossing $23,027,838. Its revenue dropped by 49% in its second week of release, earning $4,068,335. For that particular weekend, the film fell to sixth place still screening in 1,936 theaters. Titanic remained in first place grossing $28,167,947 in box office revenue. During its final week in release, The Replacement Killers opened in a distant 21st place with $131,727 in revenue. The film went on to top out domestically at $19,204,929 in total ticket sales through a 5-week theatrical run. For 1998 as a whole, the film would cumulatively rank at a box office performance position of 90. Worldwide, the film grossed $39.5 million in all territories.
Critical response Rotten Tomatoes reports that 37% of 38 sampled critics gave the film a positive review; the average score is 5.3 out of 10. The consensus summarizes: "Chow Yun-fat makes his dubious English-language debut in The Replacement Killers, a stylish but muddled knockoff of the Hong Kong shoot-em-ups that earned the star his international renown."The Replacement Killers (1998) . Rotten Tomatoes. IGN Entertainment. Retrieved 2012-07-05. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average out of 100 to critics' reviews, the film received a score of 42 based on 22 reviews, which it classifies as "mixed or average reviews".The Replacement Killers . Metacritic. CNET Networks. Retrieved 2012-07-05. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale.
"What I liked about the film was its simplicity of form and its richness of visuals. There's a certain impersonality about the story; Chow and Sorvino don't have long chats between the gunfire. They're in a ballet of Hong Kong action imagery: bodies rolling out of gunshot range, faces frozen in fear, guys toppling off fire escapes, grim lips, the fetishism of firearms, cars shot to pieces, cops that make Dragnet sound talky."—Roger Ebert, writing for the Chicago Sun-Times