12 Rounds (film)

''12 Rounds'' is a 2009 American action film directed by Renny Harlin and produced by WWE Studios. The cast is led by John Cena, alongside Aidan Gillen, Steve Harris, Gonzalo Menendez, Brian J. White, Ashley Scott, and Taylor Cole. The film was released to theaters in the United States on March 27, 2009.

Plot

A sting operation to capture arms dealer Miles Jackson goes awry when the FBI's inside man double crosses them. Miles rendezvouses with his girlfriend Erica Kessen, who has a getaway car. Officers Danny Fisher and Hank Carver are dispatched to help the FBI. They look at Jackson's record and see a surveillance video of him dancing with Kessen. An encounter with them at a traffic light leads to her death and Miles being taken away. Miles swears vengeance on Fisher.

One year later Fisher, now promoted to Detective due to his actions with Jackson, gets a phone call from Jackson, who has escaped from prison. Fisher runs outside the house looking for Jackson, and Fisher's car and house explode, throwing him to the ground. After Fisher recovers, Jackson says he is launching a game of revenge called "12 Rounds." The house, the car, and Phil, the plumber who came to fix a pipe were "Round 1." Molly Porter, Fisher's girlfriend is kidnapped by Jackson for "Round 2." For "Round 3," Fisher and Carver must follow a series of clues to locate the cell phone that Jackson calls, and for "Round 4" Fisher has to get to New Orleans Savings and Loan where a fire has broken out and extract two security deposit boxes within 20 minutes.

Carver has a lead on the man who helped kidnap Molly Porter and volunteers to look into that while Fisher continues with the game. FBI Agent George Aiken and Special Agent Ray Santiago work with them to get Porter back.

For "Round 5" one of the security boxes is a bomb and the other contains a clue to the next round. Fisher discovers and disposes of the bomb. The other box contains a hotel room key. The room is raided and found empty. For "Round 6," Fisher and the FBI go to the Monteleone Hotel to find Molly and Miles in a room, but when they arrived, Miles had only left on a video camera of the hotel a note that said "we are still here". After that, Danny talks to Willie; a hotel employee who knew where Miles was later. But at that moment, the security elevator stops and they finds a video recording with Molly (at gunpoint) saying that in 60 seconds the elevator will fall (telling Willie that what he does to her is not personal) and that (given that Wille is overweight) only one will survive. When Danny leaves the elevator, Willie falls and dies (still subtracting 5 seconds)

In "Round 7" Fisher follows a series of clues to a bus where he finds Porter on board, wearing a bomb underneath her jacket. He is handcuffed to a bar and is given an envelope with a phone number as the clue to the next round. The Feds try to get Jackson but he escapes with Porter. When Fisher is freed, he tells the Feds about the bomb, and just when a sniper shot trying to kills Miles, fail and everyone get out of the bus (including Molly and Miles). Carver shows up and tells Fisher he has located Jackson's henchman, Anthony Deluso.
In "Round 8" Fisher has to find the correct cell phone number that disarms bombs placed in different locations. Jackson answers and tells him that his call disabled Streetcar 907's brakes. In "Round 9" Fisher and Santiago slam their car into the transformer, shutting off electricity for the whole neighborhood. They run along the streetcar, clearing people out of the way until it can slow to a halt.

A mine planted by Jackson kills Carver and Deluso. Jackson says that Porter's bomb can only be disarmed by Fisher's fingerprint. He tells Fisher to pay a visit to Erica Kessen, so Fisher, Santiago, and Aiken start for the cemetery. Another detective, Chuck Jansen calls Fisher to tell him that the numbers in the envelope were rigged to the streetcar. Jackson had cameras monitoring the elevator shaft and set off the bomb five seconds early. Fisher realizes that Willie's death in the elevator episode was orchestrated by Jackson. Santiago does a check on Willie and finds he had a second job as a Homewood Security guard. They figure out that Jackson was leading them to take out the power because Homewood Security comes in to move the federally unprotected cash from the United States Mint in New Orleans. Jackson's grudge against Fisher was only a cover for his scheme to steal this money.

Aiken tells Santiago to lock down the Mint, while he and Fisher go after Porter. Fisher realizes that "Round 12" is a wild-goose chase, since Jackson needs Porter, a nurse, to help him escape. Jackson, dressed as a security guard, steals the cash. He uses Porter's ID card to get to a Medevac chopper on a hospital roof, transporting the money inside a body bag. Fisher and Aiken race to the hospital roof, where Aiken is wounded. Jackson activates the touch phone-bomb and throws the switch away. Porter and Fisher jump into a pool, while Jackson is left in the exploding helicopter. The movie ends with Danny and Molly leaving, with Molly wanting to go home, but Danny tells her about what happened to it.

Cast

* John Cena as Danny Fisher
* Ashley Scott as Molly Porter
* Aidan Gillen as Miles Jackson
* Brian J. White as Hank Carver
* Taylor Cole as Erica Kessen
* Vincent Flood as Detective Chuck Jansen
* Steve Harris as George Aiken
* Gonzalo Menendez as Ray Santiago
* Travis Davis as Anthony Deluso
* Kyle Clements as Dave Fisher
* Billy Slaughter as Technician
* Peter "Navy" Tuiasosopo as Willie Dumaine

Music

The score of ''12 Rounds'' was composed by Trevor Rabin, who had previously worked with director Renny Harlin on '' Deep Blue Sea'' and '' Exorcist: The Beginning''. He recorded his score with the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Eastwood Scoring Stage at Warner Bros. Studios.

Soundtrack

# "Feel You" – Crumbland
# "Ready to Fall" – Rise Against
# "12 Rounds Suite" – Trevor Rabin

Reception

Box office

The filmed opened at number seven at the box office, gaining an estimate of $1.75 million in its opening day and $5.3 million in its opening weekend. The film grossed $12,234,694 in the United States and Canada, and $5,045,632 in other territories, for a worldwide total of $17,280,326.

Critical response

''12 Rounds'' has received mostly negative reviews from critics. Some critics have noted the film's similarities to the 1995 movie ''Die Hard with a Vengeance''. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 30% based on reviews from 71 critics. The site's consensus reads: "Energetic but empty, ''12 Rounds preposterous plot hurtles along at a rapid pace, but can't disguise the derivative script." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 38%, based on 13 reviews. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of B−.

Rob Nelson of ''Variety'' wrote: "Heavy on stunts but light on plausibility, humor, surprise, visual ingenuity or psychological depth."
Nathan Rabin of ''The A.V. Club'' called the film "honest trash: It never pretends to be anything other than manic schlock" and gives it a grade C+.

Home media

''12 Rounds'' was released on DVD, Blu-ray Disc, and UMD with an unrated "Extreme Cut" of the film on June 30, 2009. In the first week, ''12 Rounds'' opened at #1 at the DVD sales chart, selling 208,936 DVD units translating to revenue of $3.1m. As of July 2011, 581,834 DVD units have been sold, bringing in $8,884,292 in revenue. This does not include Blu-ray Disc sales/DVD rentals.

Sequels

Randy Orton stars in a stand-alone sequel titled '' 12 Rounds 2: Reloaded''. The sequel was released in 2013. '' 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown'' starring Dean Ambrose was released in 2015.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:12 Rounds
2009 films
2009 action films
20th Century Fox films
2000s English-language films
American action films
Fictional portrayals of the New Orleans Police Department
Films about kidnapping in the United States
Films directed by Renny Harlin
Films scored by Trevor Rabin
Films shot in New Orleans
American police detective films
WWE Studios films
2000s police procedural films
12 Rounds films
20th Century Studios franchises
2000s American films