The Hitman's Bodyguard
Short description
The Hitman's Bodyguard centres on Michael Bryce, a bodyguard whose reputation has slipped, and Darius Kincaid, a jailed assassin who has agreed to testify against a brutal Eastern European dictator before the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Because Kincaid is the target of assassins hired to stop him reaching the courtroom, Interpol brings in Bryce to escort him from England to the Netherlands. The two men have spent years trying to kill each other, so the assignment forces them into an uneasy partnership. Their methods and temperaments clash constantly, while the dictator's people do everything possible to prevent Kincaid from giving evidence. The film is an action comedy directed by Patrick Hughes from a screenplay by Tom O'Connor, and it followed Red Hill and The Expendables 3 in Hughes's filmography. Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson play the two leads, with Gary Oldman as the dictator, Salma Hayek Pinault as Kincaid's wife, Élodie Yung as an Interpol agent and Richard E. Grant as Seifert. Made for a modest budget, it was released in August 2017 and became a considerable commercial success, taking far more at the box office than its cost. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.9 from around 262,000 votes, and on TMDB it also stands at 6.9 from roughly 6,800 votes. Critics were less enthusiastic, and their rating of 5.2 trails the audience scores noticeably.
What's left behind the scenes
- An error occurred during a stunt involving two trams and cars, resulting in serious damage to one of the trams. The film crew received a substantial bill for its repair.
- Specifically for his role in this film, Gary Oldman learned to speak fluent Russian. He had no prior knowledge of the language.
- No scenes were filmed in The Hague. Moreover, there is no subway in The Hague. Footage of The Hague's rooftops was added during post-production.
- Samuel L. Jackson later admitted that he only signed on to star in the film because Ryan Reynolds would be in it.
- On the 91st minute, when Samuel L. Jackson's character is driving under the bridge, his car has headlights and a hood, even though they had fallen off earlier. When he drives out from under the bridge, the headlights and hood are gone again.
- Initially, it was intended to be a drama, but the script was urgently rewritten into a comedy over two weeks shortly before filming began. On March 9, 2016, it became known that Jeff Wadlow had left the project, and Patrick Hughes became the director.
- During the chase in Amsterdam (74th minute), Kinkade shows the killers the middle finger with his left hand, and in the next frame – with his right.
- In the original, Gary Oldman's character, Vladislav Dukovich, is a Belarusian dictator. In the Russian dub, the country was changed to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
- Jeff Wadlow was set to direct, but he left the project to work on the comedy "The Hitman's Bodyguard" (2016).
- The office of a large tour company in Amsterdam served as the prison where Sonia Kinkead was held. Window bars and evidence of intense police activity near the building were added to the footage during post-production.
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