This page was created on May 10, 2005
This page was last updated on May 31, 2005

—Overview
—Photos
—About this Film pdf
—Spiritual Connections

Dial up modems will take a few moments

Directed by Louis Leterrier
Written by Luc Besson

Cast (in credits order)
Jet Li .... Danny
Morgan Freeman .... Sam
Bob Hoskins .... Bart
Kerry Condon .... Victoria
Scott Adkins
Andy Beckwith .... Righty
Christian Gazio .... Infirmier
Michael Jenn .... Wyeth
Vincent Regan
Silvio Simac
Carole Ann Wilson .... Maddy

Produced by
Luc Besson .... producer
Steve Chasman .... producer
Bernard Grenet .... line producer
Jet Li .... producer
Pierre Spengler .... co-producer

Original Music by Massive Attack , and RZA for additional music
Non-Original Music by
Georges Bizet ("Habanero" from Carmen)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (from "Sonata No.9")
Cinematography by Pierre Morel
Film Editing by Nicolas Trembasiewicz

MPAA: Rated R for strong violent content, language and some sexuality/nudity.
Runtime: USA:103 min
For rating reasons, go to FILMRATINGS.COM, and MPAA.ORG.
Parents, please refer to PARENTALGUIDE.ORG

Trailer A:
QuickTime, Hi-Res
QuickTime, Lo-Res
Windows Media Player, Hi-Res
Windows Media Player, Lo-Res

Trailer B - 'Broken 1':
QuickTime, Hi-Res
QuickTime, Lo-Res
Windows Media Player, Hi-Res
Windows Media Player, Lo-Res

Internet Trailer - 'Broken 2':
QuickTime, Hi-Res
QuickTime, Lo-Res
Windows Media Player, Hi-Res
Windows Media Player, Lo-Res

International Trailer:
Windows Media Player, Hi-Res
Windows Media Player, Lo-Res
Real Player, Hi-Res
Real Player, Lo-Res

6 International Clips (Extraits):
QuickTime/Windows Media Player/Real Player, Various

Japanese TV Spot:
Windows Media Player, Hi-Res
Windows Media Player, Lo-Res

Unleashed
Track Listing
1. Opening Title - Massive Attack
2. Atta' Boy - Massive Attack
3. P Is For Piano - Massive Attack
4. Simple Rules - Massive Attack
5. Polaroid Girl - Massive Attack
6. Sam - Massive Attack
7. One Thought At A Time - Massive Attack
8. Confused Images - Massive Attack
9. Red Light Means Go - Massive Attack
10. Collar Stays On - Massive Attack
11. You've Never Had A Dream - Massive Attack
12. Right Way To Hold A Spoon - Massive Attack
13. Everybody's Got A Family - Massive Attack
14. Two Rocks And A Cup Of Water - Massive Attack
15. Sweet Is Good - Massive Attack
16. Montage - Massive Attack
17. Everything About You Is New - Massive Attack
18. The Dog Obeys - Massive Attack
19. Danny The Dog - Massive Attack
20. I Am Home - Massive Attack
21. The Academy - Massive Attack
22. Baby Boy - Thea
23. Unleash Me - The RZA (featuring Prodigal Son and Christbearer of Northstar)

Unleashed, an action drama written and produced by Luc Besson (La Femme Nikita, The Professional), and directed by Louis Leterrier (The Transporter), headlines international martial arts superstar Jet Li (Hero), who is joined in the film by Academy Award winner Morgan Freeman (Million Dollar Baby), Bob Hoskins (The Long Good Friday), and Kerry Condon (Ned Kelly).

On and beneath the meanest streets of Glasgow, fiery gangster Bart (Bob Hoskins) is merciless with debtors, would-be rivals, and anyone else to whom he takes even a passing dislike. How does Bart maintain his chokehold? Through his unwitting enforcer Danny (Jet Li), who he has “raised” since boyhood. Danny has been kept as a near-prisoner by his “Uncle” Bart; trained to attack and, if necessary, kill. Danny knows little of life, except the brutal existence that Bart has so crudely and cruelly fashioned for him.

But when Danny has a chance encounter with soft-spoken blind piano tuner Sam (Morgan Freeman), he senses true kindness and compassion for the first time and experiences the transforming power of music. When a sudden gangland coup separates Danny from Bart and his mob, Danny is at last away from the underworld. He takes refuge with Sam and his spunky teenaged stepdaughter Victoria (Kerry Condon). Sam and Victoria open their home and hearts to Danny, who begins to envision a new future for himself. However, the mob will not give up its prize pupil so easily, and Danny must soon fight again, and fight back, to protect his new family and bury his troubled past.

Written for the screen by Luc Besson, the hit or miss director who brought us The Professional and The Messenger, respectively, Besson also turns out his best film in years. Jet Li plays Danny the Dog, who is raised by a ruthless master Bart (played by Bob Hoskins in his best role in years). He is called Danny the Dog because he is literally raised as though he were a dog, complete with a collar which controls Danny’s entire life psychologically. Bart is a debt collector, and when he removes Danny’s collar, Danny is trained to instinctually destroy on Bart's command. "Get 'em". But when Li’s character believes his master has been killed, he turns to the only other person he has ever known, a blind piano player named Sam (Morgan Freeman). Danny becomes part of a makeshift family, with Sam’s stepdaughter also along for the ride. But this is an action movie, so this family cannot live happily ever after just yet…

One of the reasons this film stands out will be clear to any action fan. The fight scenes are truly excellent. Choreographed by action legend Yuen Wo Ping, the fights reflect the character of Danny, and are shaped by their settings. The opening fight is just plain dirty. We see the ferocity with which Danny fights, swinging wildly, biting and kicking, reacting to his own injury with rage. Jet Li isn’t graceful in these scenes, his character is rabid. Another incredible fight takes place in a water closet which can’t even be four feet wide. A litmus test for quality fight scenes is also the “close up / shaky cam” factor…can you actually see what is going on? This film holds together the raw nature of its fights with camera work which actually allows the audience to see what Jet Li is doing, and that is always a plus.

Some hardcore action fans will likely be disappointed with this film, though, because it deals primarily with a subject ignored by most action films: family. The most central premise to the film seems to be this: Family stays together no matter what. Danny grows up seeing family as the man who feeds him when he does what he is ordered to do. He grows up a slave. Yet when Danny learns what true love is, through his new family of selfless soul searchers, he begins to grow up and stand up to the falsehood of his upbringing. Li does an impressive job of embodying this submissive and pathetic dog-like character who is made whole by the love of a true family.

An interesting idea which comes through in the film is the idea that family is defined more by the depth of relationship, the depth of love, than actual blood relation. There is no blood relation between Bart and Danny, yet Bart endoctrinates Danny with the idea that he cares about him, that he is Uncle Bart. Then Danny meets up with a black man and his adopted white daughter, again no blood relation. This group, the film asserts, is more of a family than the relationship between Bart and Danny. The difference is the sacrificial love displayed by the father and daughter which completes Danny and elevates him from his animal instincts into the higher faculties of humanity.

Unleashed offers its viewers quite a bit, and this raises the film far above traditional action fare. Besson takes a unique approach to storytelling, focusing in on the characters when he could have decended into action pap. Li creates an engaging character who displays his considerable martial arts talent, but also his endearing humanity. Finally it asks us some significant questions: What exactly makes a family a family? Are love and protection required to define a family? Is family really simply what you have always known, or who we are related to, or is there more to it? Danny finds freedom from slavery through sacrificial love, and finds his ultimate identity as a functioning member of a new family, loving and being loved.

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