The villains of xXx 2 track down Xander Cage and blow him up, leaving only the skin with his xXx tattoo intact. The End.
To coincide with the release of the latest Fast & Furious movie, I was going to review the xXx movies. The first one is completely un-interesting, and following the allegations against its director, I decided to shift focus to something that would not make me lose faith in humanity: the sequels.
There is not much to the original movie - it is about an extreme sports enthusiast who is press-ganged into becoming a secret agent. The movie was supposed to cement Vin Diesel as an action hero for the new millennium, but it would take about a decade for that status to be solidified - ironically, in a sequel to the franchise he abandoned for xXx.
xXx opened on Aug 9, 2002 in 3,374 theaters and grossed $44 million in its opening weekend. It grossed a total of $277.4 million worldwide. It got pretty average reviews - Roger Ebert gave 3 ½ stars out of 4 - and it was nominated for a Razzie Award for Most Flatulent Teen-Targeted Movie (it lost to Jackass: The Movie).
This movie was a hit and a sequel was on the way. Vin Diesel had signed on for a sequel before the first movie came out. Two different scripts were prepared for the film, and the one written by Simon Kinberg was selected; the other script featured a radically different plot set in East Asia.
Looking at Diesel’s career, I think he wanted to try a bunch of different things rather than franchises. At the time, Diesel said he did not want film two sequels back to back (he was in the middle of Chronicles of Riddick); he was also keen to film an epic about Hannibal, written by the scripter of Gladiator - I remember reading an interview in 2004 where he said he wanted to direct it.
To cut a long story short, Diesel did not return for xXx 2 and was replaced by Ice Cube. This left the filmmakers in a bit of a quandary.
"Guys we have a hit movie starring a fresh new movie star who made it unique because he was the centre of it. We need to publicise the sequel. How about we put out a short film killing off the one unique element this franchise had?"
CUT TO:
If you are wondering what the hell this is, it is a short film released with the Director’s Cut version of xXx. It was meant help publicise the release of xXx 2. I do not know who directed this short, but it does not matter. This is the equivalent of one of those tie-in comic books that they release to lead into the events of big blockbusters.
Xander Cage is played by Diesel’s stunt double Khristian Lupo, with audio of Diesel from the original movie - Lupo has also doubled for the Rock and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and according to IMDb was a stunt man on xXx 2
This is interesting and complete garbage.
It is interesting as a problem-solving exercise: I have seen a couple of movies where they have to cut around the fact that they do not have their movie star - the closest example to this I can think of is Stepfather III where the villain has to get plastic surgery to signal the transition to a new actor, but they did not have the original.
It is garbage because this scenario requires close-ups of Diesel - it is a one-sided conversation. Then they make out in a very uncomfortable scene, and then Xander runs into the building
xXx’s girlfriend gets captured, Cage realises he is in trouble and Ka-boom!
The fact that the only thing left is his neck tattoo is such a full stop on Vin Diesel's character - he is not coming back and he cannot come back.
Fundamentally, I do not think this short film was necessary - xXx 2 establishes the idea that xXx is a code-name for outsiders with xXxtreme skills who are employed/kidnapped by the government for xXxtreme missions. Does that go against the mythology of the first film? Sure, but I am not sure that we needed to see what happened to Xander Cage.
Final thoughts?
It is a good thing that this scene is not included in the movie. It would have been detrimental. I actually appreciate how singular the movie is, and I have no doubt if this movie came out now, with the obsession with interconnectedness, that scene would definitely be included in the film.
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