Unleashed (2005 film)
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''Unleashed'' (french: Danny the Dog) is a 2005
action Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...
thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...
directed by
Louis Leterrier Louis Leterrier (; born 17 June 1973) is a French film director and producer. Best known for his work in action films, he directed the first two '' Transporter'' films (2002–2005), '' Unleashed'' (2005), '' The Incredible Hulk'' (2008), ''Clas ...
, written by
Luc Besson Luc Paul Maurice Besson (; born 18 March 1959) is a French film director, screenwriter and producer. He directed or produced the films '' Subway'' (1985), ''The Big Blue'' (1988), and '' La Femme Nikita'' (1990). Besson is associated with the ' ...
, and co-produced by
Jet Li Li Lianjie (courtesy name Yangzhong; born 26 April 1963), better known by his stage name Jet Li, is a Chinese film actor, film producer, Chinese martial arts, martial artist, and retired wushu (sport), Wushu champion. He is a naturalized Singapo ...
and Besson. It stars
Jet Li Li Lianjie (courtesy name Yangzhong; born 26 April 1963), better known by his stage name Jet Li, is a Chinese film actor, film producer, Chinese martial arts, martial artist, and retired wushu (sport), Wushu champion. He is a naturalized Singapo ...
,
Morgan Freeman Morgan Freeman (born June 1, 1937) is an American actor, director, and narrator. He is known for his distinctive deep voice and various roles in a wide variety of film genres. Throughout his career spanning over five decades, he has received ...
,
Bob Hoskins Robert William Hoskins (26 October 1942 – 29 April 2014) was an English actor. His work included lead roles in films and television series such as '' Pennies from Heaven'' (1978), ''The Long Good Friday'' (1980), ''Mona Lisa'' (1986), ''Who ...
and
Kerry Condon Kerry Condon (born 9 January 1983) is an Irish actress. She was the youngest actress to play Ophelia in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of ''Hamlet'' (2001–2002). She has since played Octavia of the Julii in ''Rome'' (2005–2007), St ...
, with action choreography by Yuen Woo-Ping. The film's setting and shooting location are
Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
.


Plot

Bart, a vicious
loan shark A loan shark is a person who offers loans at extremely high interest rates, has strict terms of collection upon failure, and generally operates outside the law. Description Because loan sharks operate mostly illegally, they cannot reasonably ...
residing in
Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
, uses his bodyguard, Danny, to violently attack non-complying customers. Bart has raised and trained Danny to be an
attack dog An attack dog (guard dog, patrol dog, or security dog) is a dog trained to attack a person on command, sight, or by inferred provocation. They are used to defend people, territory, or property. Attack dogs have been utilized throughout history ...
and uses a metal collar around Danny's neck to control him; once the collar is off, Danny becomes a skilled fighter who relentlessly attacks his target. Once on, however, the collar turns Danny docile and harmless, with him developing very little knowledge on how to act as a
socialized In sociology, socialization or socialisation (see spelling differences) is the process of internalizing the norms and ideologies of society. Socialization encompasses both learning and teaching and is thus "the means by which social and cultur ...
person. As the collar trick with Danny starts to fail due to its inherent limitations, a crime boss approaches Bart with a business deal, offering Bart a hefty money prize in exchange for Danny winning, and surviving, death matches held in an underground fighting ring. After Danny easily wins the first fight, however, Bart gets into a mishap with another mobster and is left for dead after a shooting. Danny survives and takes refuge in an antiques warehouse, where he passes out due to his injuries. Sam, a blind piano tuner, takes him to his home. Together with his stepdaughter Victoria, Sam treats Danny's wounds and warmly welcomes him to their family. Danny slowly learns to be a civilized man and abandons his violent nature, especially after Victoria removes his collar. He also curiously develops an interest in music and begins using scattered memories to try and remember his past, particularly his mother. Weeks later, Sam informs Danny about moving back to
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...
, where he and Victoria are originally from. He invites Danny, telling him they think of him as family, and Danny happily accepts. However, while out shopping alone, Danny runs into Bart's right-hand man Lefty, who reveals Bart is still alive. Lefty brings him back to Bart's compound, where Danny asks Bart if he knew Danny's mother. Bart denies knowing her and snaps a new collar back on Danny before taking him to the fighting ring. Danny refuses to fight, insisting he doesn't want to hurt people anymore, forcing a livid Bart to shove him into the pit. Danny initially struggles to defend himself against his four opponents but eventually defeats them all to save his own life; however, he refuses to kill them, much to Bart's chagrin. Bart drags Danny back to their compound and throws him into his cell. However, Danny sneaks out and looks through Bart's old photographs, finding one of a person who looks like Danny's mother. Danny angrily confronts Bart to demand answers, but Bart simply responds that his mother was a prostitute who is long gone. Danny manages to escape from Bart the next morning and goes back to Sam and Victoria, telling them where he was and what he has learned. With the two's help, Danny regains memories from his childhood past: his mother was a music student who offered herself to Bart to get money to pay for her lessons while hiding Danny from him at the time. It ended when Bart shot her to death when she finally defied him, and Bart has raised Danny ever since. Bart and a group of thugs arrive at Sam's apartment building to capture Danny. Danny hides Sam and Victoria in their closet and goes out to fight them off. Danny proceeds to confront and furiously beat Bart, causing Sam and Victoria to burst out and beg Danny not to kill; however, a defeated Bart orders Danny otherwise. Bart tells Danny he will always be an animal, to which Sam responds by smashing a flowerpot on Bart's head, knocking him unconscious. Sam, Danny, and Victoria embrace. Sometime later, Danny is with Sam at a piano recital at
Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...
, where Victoria is getting ready to perform. Realizing Victoria is playing what his mother played years ago, Danny sheds a happy tear.


Cast

*
Jet Li Li Lianjie (courtesy name Yangzhong; born 26 April 1963), better known by his stage name Jet Li, is a Chinese film actor, film producer, Chinese martial arts, martial artist, and retired wushu (sport), Wushu champion. He is a naturalized Singapo ...
as Danny a.k.a. Danny the Dog *
Morgan Freeman Morgan Freeman (born June 1, 1937) is an American actor, director, and narrator. He is known for his distinctive deep voice and various roles in a wide variety of film genres. Throughout his career spanning over five decades, he has received ...
as Sam *
Bob Hoskins Robert William Hoskins (26 October 1942 – 29 April 2014) was an English actor. His work included lead roles in films and television series such as '' Pennies from Heaven'' (1978), ''The Long Good Friday'' (1980), ''Mona Lisa'' (1986), ''Who ...
as Bart *
Kerry Condon Kerry Condon (born 9 January 1983) is an Irish actress. She was the youngest actress to play Ophelia in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of ''Hamlet'' (2001–2002). She has since played Octavia of the Julii in ''Rome'' (2005–2007), St ...
as Victoria *
Vincent Regan Vincent Regan (born 16 May 1965) is a British film and television actor, best known for his roles in ''300'', ''Troy'', ''Unleashed'', '' Clash of the Titans'' and ''Lockout''. Early life Regan was born on 16 May 1965 in Swansea, Glamorgan, Wal ...
as Raffles * Dylan Brown as Lefty *
Tamer Hassan Tamer Hassan (born 18 March 1968) is a British actor. He is best known for his role as the leader of the Millwall firm, opposite Danny Dyer, in '' The Football Factory''. Hassan has also appeared in ''Batman Begins'', Declan O'Brien's '' Wrong ...
as Georgie * Michael Jenn as Wyeth * Jean-François Lénogue as Raffles thug *
Scott Adkins Scott Edward Adkins (born 17 June 1976) is a British actor, film producer, screenwriter, gymnast, and martial artist. He is best known for his role as the Russian prison fighter Yuri Boyka in the ''Undisputed franchise''. He has played Yuri Boy ...
as Swimming pool fighter * Silvio Simac (''uncredited'') as Swimming pool fighter * Mike Ian Lambert as The Stranger *Kazu Patrick Tang as Bart's Thug


Release

''Unleashed'' was first distributed in France as ''Danny the Dog'' on February 2, 2005.


Critical reception

''Unleashed'' received generally positive reviews. The film has a rating of 66% on
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
based on 131 reviews with an average score of 6.2/10. The critical consensus states: "Jet Li gets to emote in some emotionally awkward scenes, but the gritty fight sequences come through in what is Li's best English language film." The film also has a score of 58 out of 100 on
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
based on 31 reviews.
Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
of the ''
Chicago Sun Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...
'' gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, stating "The film is ingenious in its construction. It has all the martial arts action any Jet Li fan could possibly desire." In 2014, '' Time Out'' polled several film critics, directors, actors and stunt actors to list their top action films, and ''Unleashed'' was listed at 68th place on this list.


Box office

In North America, ''Unleashed'' was released by
Rogue Pictures Rogue (originally Rogue Pictures) is an American independent production company founded in 1998 by Patrick Gunn and Matt Wall, originally started off as a genre film label of the Universal-affiliated independent film studio October Films and was ...
(which was a division of
Focus Features Focus Features LLC is an American film production and distribution company, owned by Comcast as part of Universal Pictures, a division of its wholly owned subsidiary NBCUniversal. Focus Features distributes independent and foreign films in th ...
). In its opening weekend in North America, the film grossed $10,900,901 which placed it third. It showed on 1,957 theaters for an average $5,570 per screen. The film grossed $24.5 million in North America and a further $26.3 million worldwide for a total of 50.9 million. This box office result surpassed Rogue's expectations of $18 million gross at the North America box office.


Soundtrack

The soundtrack was created by
Massive Attack Massive Attack are an English trip hop collective formed in 1988 in Bristol by Robert "3D" Del Naja, Adrian "Tricky" Thaws, Andrew "Mushroom" Vowles and Grant "Daddy G" Marshall. The debut Massive Attack album ''Blue Lines'' was release ...
. It was released under the name ''Danny the Dog'', in 2004 from
Virgin Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...
/
EMI Records EMI Records (formerly EMI Records Ltd.) is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British flagship label by the music company of the same name in 1972, and launched in January 1973 as the succ ...
. In 2005,
Virgin Records Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman. It grew to be a worldwid ...
re-released the soundtrack under the title ''Unleashed'', with two bonus tracks produced by
the RZA Robert Fitzgerald Diggs (born July 5, 1969), better known by his stage name the RZA ( ), is an American rapper, actor, filmmaker, and record producer. He is the ''de facto'' leader of the hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan, having produced most albums ...
. Neither version features the song "Aftersun", featuring vocals by Dot Allison, that appears in the end credits of the film. The classical piano solo played in several scenes of the film is
Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...
's Piano Sonata No.11 "Andante grazioso" while the song "Two Rocks and a Cup of Water" was played in one of the trailers to '' I Am Legend''. # "Opening Title" – 1:10 # "Atta' Boy" – 1:29 # "P Is for Piano" – 1:57 # "Simple Rules" – 1:20 # "Polaroid Girl" – 2:59 # "Sam" – 3:08 # "One Thought at a Time" – 4:23 # "Confused Images" – 1:59 # "Red Light Means Go" – 2:04 # "Collar Stays On" – 1:51 # "You've Never Had a Dream" – 2:46 # "Right Way to Hold a Spoon" – 3:19 # "Everybody's Got a Family" – 1:29 # "Two Rocks and a Cup of Water" – 2:32 # "Sweet Is Good" – 1:33 # "Montage" – 1:54 # "Everything About You Is New" – 2:25 # "The Dog Obeys" – 2:19 # "Danny the Dog" – 5:53 # "I Am Home" – 4:14 # "The Academy" – 1:45 ;Bonus tracks In 2005
Virgin Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...
released a new version of the album with two
bonus track An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records coll ...
s. #
  • "Baby Boy" – 3:28 (
    Thea Van Seijen The following is a list of Wu-Tang Clan's associated acts and affiliates, known as the Killa Beez, the Midwest Wasps, and the Wu Fam. At times, they are directly funded, supported, or produced by Clan members, are formed as extension groups origin ...
    ) # "Unleash Me" – 2:36 (
    The RZA Robert Fitzgerald Diggs (born July 5, 1969), better known by his stage name the RZA ( ), is an American rapper, actor, filmmaker, and record producer. He is the ''de facto'' leader of the hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan, having produced most albums ...
    feat.
    Prodigal Sunn Lamar Ruff, known professionally as Prodigal Sunn, is an American rapper, actor & film producer. He is a member of Sunz of Man and Wu-Tang Clan original affiliate. Biography Prodigal Sunn is an American Rapper, Actor, & Film Producer from Br ...
    & Christbearer of Northstar)


    References


    External links

    * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Unleashed 2005 films 2005 action thriller films 2005 martial arts films American action thriller films French action thriller films British action thriller films British martial arts films English-language French films Films directed by Louis Leterrier Films set in Glasgow American martial arts films Underground fighting films Albums produced by Neil Davidge Albums produced by RZA Rogue (company) films EuropaCorp films Films produced by Luc Besson Massive Attack albums Films set in New York City Films set in a movie theatre 2000s American films 2000s British films 2000s French films