Crank: High Voltage (2009)

Crank: High Voltage (alternately titled Crank 2: High Voltage) is a 2009 American action film written and directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor. It is the sequel to the 2006 film Crank, and stars Jason Statham, Amy Smart, Clifton Collins Jr., Efren Ramirez, Bai Ling, David Carradine, and Dwight Yoakam. The story follows ex-hitman Chev Chelios, who, shortly after surviving a deadly fall on the streets of Los Angeles, is kidnapped and has his heart stolen by Chinese gangsters who replace it with an artificial organ designed to keep him alive for an hour. Chev then sets out to find his heart while keeping himself electrically charged to stay alive. The film also features several cameo appearances of celebrities from various entertainment media. The film was released in the United Kingdom on April 15, 2009, two days prior to its North American release date, April 17, 2009. Critics were not given advance screening of the film; those who saw it upon release, however, praised Statham’s performance but criticized it as excessively violent, offensive, and visually unappealing.

Plot.

Chev Chelios lands in the middle of an intersection after falling out of a helicopter. He is scooped off the street by gangsters and removed from the scene. Chev wakes up in a makeshift hospital and sees doctors removing his heart while Johnny Vang watches. The doctors place an artificial heart in his chest. He wakes up later and escapes, noticing an external battery pack is attached to him. By interrogating a thug, he learns the location of Johnny Vang: the Cypress Social Club. Chev calls Doc Miles, who says that Chev has been fitted with an AbioCor artificial heart. Miles informs Chev that once the external battery pack runs out, the internal battery will kick in and he will have 60 minutes before it stops working. Chev crashes his car, destroying the external battery pack. After getting directions from a driver, Chev has the driver use jumper cables on him to charge the internal battery. At the club, Chev loses Vang but picks up a prostitute named Ria, who sends him to a strip club where Vang is hiding out. In the club, Chev finds Eve, who is now working as a stripper. A group of Mexican mobsters, led by Chico, show up looking for Chev.

After a gunfight, Chev learns that a mobster named “El Hurón” (“The Ferret”) wants to kill him, but he doesn’t find out why. Chev commandeers a police cruiser with Eve and another stripper. The stripper tells Chev that he should look at the Hollywood Racetrack for Johnny Vang. Along the way, Chev meets Venus, the brother of Chev’s deceased associate Kaylo. Wanting his help, Chev tells Venus that El Huron was involved in his brother’s death. At the horse track Chev begins losing energy again. Another call to Doc Miles informs him that friction will cause static electricity to power the internal battery. Eve arrives and has sex with Chev on the racetrack, which generates enough friction to charge the heart. Chev spots Vang and leaves Eve behind. Vang escapes, and Chev is about to be subdued by security when Don Kim picks Chev up in a limo. He informs Chev that there is a prominent leader in the Triads named Poon Dong, who was in need of a heart transplant and chose Chev’s to replace his. Chev kills Don Kim and his henchmen upon learning that Don Kim wishes to return him to Poon Dong for a reward. Meanwhile, Venus calls in Orlando to assist in tracking down El Huron.

Will There be a Mechanic 3?

Production.

After the modest success of Crank at the box office, its directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor were approached by Lionsgate Films to direct a sequel. Neveldine and Taylor refused, explaining that the idea “sounded ridiculous” and “kinda lame” as they had already “killed” its protagonist, Chev Chelios, at the end of Crank. According to producer Skip Williamson, the duo passed on the opportunity to direct because “they didn’t think they could toughen themselves” due to the “outlandishness” of the first film and would rather stay on as screenwriters. The duo later became interested to direct the finished script; Taylor explained that he and Neveldine “had fallen in love with [the script] and we were not going to let anyone else touch it”, believing no other director could direct it better than they. Taylor said the writing process was relatively “easier” on Crank 2 since the script picked up where the first film left off and adopted the same location and a few characters of the original. As such, Taylor saw the script as an opportunity to write Chelios’ dialogue in the way that matched Statham’s British vernacular, something he was unable to do on the first film since he had written the role specifically for an American actor before Statham was cast.

Box office,

Crank: High Voltage opened in 2,223 theaters in North America and grossed $6,963,565 with an average of $3,133 per theater and ranking #6 at the box office. The film ended up earning $13,684,249 domestically and $20,876,328 internationally for a total of $34,560,577.

Home media.

Crank: High Voltage was released via DVD and Blu-ray on September 8, 2009 in the United States. At the DVD sales chart, Crank opened at No. 2, selling 305,000 units which translates to $5,345,078 in revenue. As per the latest figures, 827,000 units have been sold, acquiring revenue of over $15 million. This does not include Blu-ray sales or DVD rentals. In Germany, the uncut DVD and Blu-ray was indexed on March 31, 2010.