Rush Hour 2

Rush Hour 2
	Film poster
Directed by	Brett Ratner
Produced by	Roger Birnbaum; Jonathan Glickman; Arthur M. Sarkissian; Jay Stern
Written by	Jeff Nathanson
Starring	Jackie Chan; Chris Tucker; John Lone; Alan King; Roselyn Sanchez; Harris Yulin; Zhang Ziyi
Music by	Lalo Schifrin
Cinematography	Matthew F. Leonetti
Editing by	Mark Helfrich; Robert K. Lambert
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release	August 3, 2001
Running time	90 minutes
Country	United States; Hong Kong
Language	English; Cantonese; Mandarin
Budget	$90 million
Box office	$347,325,802
Followed by	Rush Hour 3

Rush Hour 2 is a 2001 buddy cop film, starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker. It is the sequel to the movie Rush Hour (1998). Rush Hour 2 grossed US$347,325,802 at the world-wide box-office, becoming the 4th top grossing film of 2001 and by far, the most successful movie in the series.

Plot

Four days after the events of Rush Hour, LAPD Detective James Carter (Chris Tucker) is on vacation in Hong Kong, visiting his good friend Hong Kong Police Force Chief Inspector Lee (Jackie Chan) as he was asked to vacation with Lee after saving the Chinese Consul's daughter in Los Angeles. Carter is interested in having a good time; however, soon after he arrives, a bomb explodes in the United States Consulate General murdering two U.S. Custom agents in the process. Inspector Lee is assigned to the case, which becomes personal when it is discovered that it somehow involves Ricky Tan (John Lone), his late police officer father's former partner. Tan, who was suspected, but never proven, of having a role in Lee's father's death, is now a leader of the Triads the most deadly gang in all of China.

The United States Secret Service, led by Agent Sterling (Harris Yulin), and the Hong Kong Police Force soon get into a fight over the jurisdiction of the case. Sterling believes Ricky Tan is a minor player in a larger conspiracy and wants him left alone so he will lead them to the people in charge. Lee, believing Tan is actually the head of the operation, learns that Tan will be attending a dinner party on his yacht. Tan scolds his underling, Hu Li (Zhang Ziyi), who then leaves as Lee and Carter confront Tan. Tan claims that someone is trying to frame him. Hu Li suddenly appears and shoots Ricky Tan, and he falls off the boat. In the ensuing chaos, Hu Li escapes, and an angry Sterling holds Lee responsible for Tan's death, however since he can not prove it he simply orders him off the case. Carter is ordered to be flown back to Los Angeles for involving himself. However, Lee and Carter return to Los Angeles together, seemingly motivated by their desire to bring justice and meaning for their respective father's deaths in the line of duty.

On the plane, Carter tells Lee that every case has a rich white man behind it, and that the man is Steven Reign, a Los Angeles hotel billionaire. Carter says that he saw Reign on Tan's boat and that his calm demeanor during the shooting was suspicious. They set up camp outside the Reign Towers, pointing out a sexy Secret Service agent named Isabella Molina (Roselyn Sánchez), who Carter met and tried to seduce on Ricky Tan's yacht. After Lee watches Molina undress, and a few misunderstandings, Molina tells the two men that she is undercover, looking into Reign's money laundering of US$ 100 million dollars in superbills (high grade counterfeit US$ 100 bills).

Lee and Carter pay a visit to Carter's old friend Kenny (Don Cheadle), an ex-con who runs an illegal gambling parlor frequented by Asian criminals in the back room of his Chinese restaurant. He tells them that a usually broke customer recently came in to his establishment with a suspicious amount of hundred-dollar bills. Carter checks them out and confirms that they are Reign's counterfeits. They trace the money back to a bank friendly to the Triads, who are waiting for them and knock the two cops unconscious, with Molina looking on. Then they depart for Las Vegas. Lee and Carter wake up inside one of the Triads' trucks and escape. After finding out where they are, they realize that Reign is laundering the $100 million through the new Red Dragon Casino.

At the Red Dragon, Lee and Carter split up. Carter makes a big commotion and distracts the security forces while Lee runs into Molina. After convincing Lee she didn't sell them out, he attempts to infiltrate the back area to find the engraving plates (which were used to make the counterfeit money). However, Hu Li captures Lee, places a small bomb in his mouth, and gags him. She then takes him up to the penthouse, where it is revealed that Ricky Tan faked his death and, as Lee suspected, is in charge of the operation. After a few words, he departs, leaving Hu Li to do whatever she wants.

Molina then takes out a gun, reveals herself as a Secret Service agent and attempts to arrest Hu Li. In the chaos that follows, Hu Li kicks Lee out of a window and he falls out onto the casino floor. Molina and Hu Li then fight, and Molina sweeps the trigger for Lee's bomb out onto the casino floor. Hu Li finally manages to gain the upper hand and shoots Molina in the arm before jumping out onto the casino floor. After a frantic search, Carter and Lee end up together. Carter starts pulling the tape off of Lee's mouth. Lee manages to spit the bomb out seconds before Hu Li finds the trigger and detonates it. Carter then fights Hu Li while Lee heads to the penthouse to prevent Tan from escaping with the plates.

In the penthouse, Reign opens the safe and takes the plates, running into Tan as he leaves. After Reign announces he is cutting their deal short and keeping the plates, Tan stabs him to death. Lee confronts Tan, taking a gun from Reign's body. Carter appears, having triumphantly (and accidentally) knocked Hu Li out. After a tense standoff, where Tan admits he killed Lee's father,Tan knocks the gun away from Lee in Carter's direction. As Tan manages to retrieve it, and before only seconds from shooting Carter, Lee kicks Tan out through the window, where he falls to his death outside landing on a parked cab. Hu Li then enters, holding a time bomb. Lee and Carter leap out of the window just as the bomb goes off killing Hu Li, the two slide on decoration wires with their jackets. The wires snap, and they swing into a sign for the casino. Their momentum swings them into the path of oncoming traffic. Through Lee's nimble skill and Carter's dumb luck, they narrowly escape being hit by three successive trucks.

Later, at the airport, Sterling thanks Lee for successfully solving the case. Molina says she would like to tell Lee something, and proceeds to kiss him for a short time, an event witnessed from afar by Carter. All three plan to go their separate ways; Carter to Los Angeles, Molina to New York, and Lee to Hong Kong. After Isabella heads for her flight, Lee and Carter say one last goodbye. Lee then gives Carter, who at first graciously declines, his father's police badge, stating that he can finally "let it go." In return, Carter gives Lee $10,000 that he won from gambling at Caesars Palace. Lee is more critical in his refusal of the money, but Carter is able to persuade Lee to take the money. After, Lee reveals that he has always wanted to go to Madison Square Garden and watch a New York Knicks basketball game. Carter tells Lee he could go for one more vacation and the two of them decide to take another vacation in the Big Apple, dancing off to Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough".

Trivia

Aside from Chan and Tucker no other characters or actors from the first film appear. However, on the DVD release of the film, a deleted scene featured Philip Baker Hall reprising his role of Captain Diel from the first film. Carter speaks with the Captain about his stay in Hong Kong and his involvement in the Triad case. Director, Brett Ratner states that while he would have loved to include the scene in the final cut (essentially giving Hall a cameo appearance), it did not advance the plot. Therefore, it was left out.
In the car, after Lee supposedly thinks that Carter is dead, he was listening to "I'll Be Missing You" by P. Diddy.
During the falling money scene, some of the prop cash blew out of a window. Bystanders thought the cash was real and kept it, some actually spending it. The fake cash was so realistic that the studio was prohibited from making it ever again.
The Red Dragon Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada owned by Ricky Tan (John Lone) and Steven Reign (Alan King) is actually the Desert Inn hotel and casino. There were red lights shined at the hotel to make it a scarlet color. Following the closure of the 50 year old Las Vegas Strip property in August 2000 by new owner Steve Wynn, the Rush Hour 2 production moved in and redesigned parts of the property as a Chinese themed casino/hotel for the movie. Shortly after the movie wrapped production in Las Vegas the buildings used in the film were imploded to make way for the new $2.7 billion dollar Wynn Las Vegas resort. Furthermore, the Red Dragon is the name of another movie that Brett Ratner directed, as well as the name of a real casino in Mountlake Terrace, Washington, USA.
Prop gaming chips were produced for the film, ranging in denominations from $1 to $1,000,000. These are much sought after by both film fans and gaming collectors.
Zhang Ziyi only speaks two words of English in the film, being her famous line "Some apple?", as she didn't know the language at the time of filming. Jackie Chan served as her translator on the set.
Zhang Ziyi's character's name, "Hu Li", means "fox."
Both Rush Hour films begin in Hong Kong and end in a United States airport.
In a chase scene, as Chris Tucker is running up the stairs, an old Chinese woman gets blocked by him, and she shouts "Step aside, Kobe!" with reference to Kobe Bryant. Tucker said on the Jay Leno show that during filming, many locals mistook him for Bryant.
In one of the outtakes Chris Tucker mentioned that the antagonist (Ricky Tan) will not be around for Rush Hour 3. Rush Hour 3 was released six years later on August 10, 2007.
In the scene where Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker went inside the business suite, there was a cameo of Ernie Reyes Jr as the worker and was being chased by Chan and Tucker.

Quotes

Carter: "Why the hell you didn't tell me you had a bomb in your mouth?"

Lee': "I did"

Carter: "No you didn't"

Lee': "I said "mmm!""

Carter: "What the hell is "mmm!"

Lee': "mmm, mmm. Boom!"

— Carter and Lee

Carter: Who got killed, Lee?

Carter: Who died, Lee?

Lee: You!

Carter: Detective Yu?

Lee: Not Yu, you!

Carter: Who?

Lee: You!

Carter: Who?

Lee: Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?

Carter: Don't nobody understand the words that are comin' out of your mouth man

Soundtrack

See the list of soundtracks

Cast

External links