Transporter (French: Le Transporteur) is a French action thriller film franchise, comprising four films released between 2002 and 2015, and a television series. Jason Statham plays Frank Martin in the first three movies, a professional freelance courier driver. Chris Vance portrays Martin in the sequel television series, and Ed Skrein portrays him in the fourth film, a reboot.

Background

Frank Martin is the protagonist of the films and television series. He is portrayed as a former Special Forces operative who was team leader of a search and destroy unit, with a military background including operations "in and out of" Lebanon, Syria and Sudan, as well as a recipient of the Bronze Star. He retires from service after becoming fatigued and disenchanted with his superior officers, and uses his skills as a private driver for hire while maintaining an apparently legitimate life living off of his army pension. Martin operates in accordance with a strict code of conduct, and expects his clients to adhere to his rules. The character is portrayed with varied backgrounds in different installments of the franchise. In the television series, it is revealed that he was orphaned as a child, enlisted in the British Army as an adult and later transferred to Special Air Service. In the film, The Transporter Refueled, his father Frank Martin Sr. is a former British spy who retires to work on his relationship with his son.

Films

Original trilogy

The Transporter (2002)

Frank Martin (Jason Statham) is a British mercenary driver living in France known only as "The Transporter"; he will transport anything, no questions asked, always on time, and is known as the best in the business. He strictly follows three rules when transporting: Rule Number 1: "Once the deal is made, it is final," Rule Number 2: "No names," and Rule Number 3: "Never open the package." Frank inadvertently breaks his own rule, opens the package and finds a bound and gagged woman. As a result, he finds himself involved in a human trafficking plot.

Transporter 2 (2005)

Martin is hired as the driver for the wealthy family of politician Jefferson Billings in Miami, Florida. Frank bonds with his young son, whom he drives to school every day. When the boy is kidnapped, Frank acts in order to protect his young "package" and his family. Eventually, he unravels a scheme involving an international drugs cartel and biological weapons. Inspector Tarconi plays a more prominent role in this film. It is established that he and Frank are now friends, and Tarconi goes as far as to lie to the police to cover for Frank.

Transporter 3 (2008)

Frank is pressured into transporting Valentina (Natalya Rudakova) the kidnapped daughter of Leonid Vasilev (Jeroen Krabbé), head of the Environmental Protection Agency for Ukraine, from Marseille through Stuttgart and Budapest until he ends up in Odesa on the Black Sea. Along the way, with the help of Inspector Tarconi (François Berléand), Frank has to contend with the people who strong armed him to take the job, agents sent by Vasilev to intercept him, and the general non-cooperation of his passenger, who he realises is the package midway through the film. Despite Valentina's cynical disposition and Frank's resistance to getting involved, Frank and Valentina fall for each other, while escaping from one life-threatening situation after another.

Reboot

The Transporter Refueled (2015)

In May 2013, at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, a new reboot trilogy was announced with EuropaCorp and China's Fundamental Films co-producing and distributing the titles. The films were to be budgeted between $30 million to $40 million each and at least one was planned to be shot in China. Luc Besson will co-finance, distribute, produce and write all the films. English actor Ed Skrein replaced Jason Statham as Frank Martin on the fourth installment of the series. The fourth film, The Transporter Refueled, directed by Camille Delamarre, was released in the United States on 4 September 2015.

Television

Transporter: The Series is a television series based on the Transporter films which premiered in 2012 on 11 October in Germany on RTL, and on 6 December in France on M6. Chris Vance took over the role of Frank from Jason Statham and was joined by Hungarian actress Andrea Osvárt, who played Carla, the leading female role in the series, a former Intelligence agent who organises his missions, and French actor François Berléand, the only returning actor from the film series, who reprised his role as Inspector Tarconi. The series was intended to premiere on Cinemax but they pulled out due to production problems. TNT picked it up and aired both seasons.

Cast and crew

Principal cast

Additional crew

Reception

Box office performance

Critical and public response

Appearances in other media

Jason Statham made a small appearance in the 2004 film Collateral, credited as "Airport Man". Louis Leterrier, co-director of the 2002 action film The Transporter, interpreted Statham's scene as a portrayal of his Transporter character Frank Martin. Zebbie Gillese voices Frank Martin / Transporter in the 2021 Netflix original film America: The Motion Picture, in which he is depicted as the stagecoach driver of Benedict "Cosby" Arnold. In 2024, Statham starred in an advertising campaign of the new Volkswagen Transporter van. As a reference to his Transporter role, the commercial shows a package being delivered. "The Transporter needed" and later "The Transporter is back" is shown.