Death Race 2

Death Race 2 is a 2010 action film directed by Roel Reiné and written by Tony Giglio, who co-developed its story with Paul W. S. Anderson. The film, a prequel to Death Race—the 2008 prequel to Death Race 2000 (1975)—stars Luke Goss as Carl "Luke" Lucas, a convicted cop killer who is sentenced to life in a for-profit, maximum security prison, where he is forced to compete in the titular reality show to earn his freedom. Fred Koehler, Tanit Phoenix, Robin Shou, Lauren Cohan, Danny Trejo, Ving Rhames, and Sean Bean appear in supporting roles; Koehler and Shou reprise theirs from Death Race.

Death Race 2 tells the origin story of the franchise's protagonist Frankenstein without the directorial involvement of Anderson, who was retained as producer, or the appearance of Jason Statham. Reiné signed on to direct the project and filming began in Cape Town, South Africa, on February 13, 2010. He directed the 30-day shoot without a second unit, served as his own cinematographer, albeit uncredited, and opted for locations in which he could have a few sets going all at once, to manage the schedule and the $6–7 million budget. Paul Haslinger returned to score the film.

Universal Pictures released the film direct to video through its home entertainment division on January 18, 2011, with a United Kingdom release date of December 27, 2010. Death Race 2 earned $8.4 million in US home video sales and a mixed critical response. Reiné also directed a direct-to-video sequel, Death Race 3: Inferno (2013).

A gang robs a bank on behalf of crime boss Markus Kane. When two police officers unexpectedly enter the building, getaway driver Carl "Luke" Lucas urges his accomplices to abort the robbery, but they refuse. Luke intervenes, resulting in the death of one of the robbers. He then kills a police officer and abandons the remaining accomplices in order to complete Markus's plan. After a high-speed chase, Luke is captured, sentenced to life in prison, and eventually transferred to Terminal Island. Markus, convinced Luke will trade information for immunity despite Luke's vow of silence, orders his assassination.

Terminal Island is a for-profit maximum-security prison operated by the Weyland Corporation. One of Weyland's primary revenue streams is "Death Match," a televised, pay-per-view gladiatorial combat event in which inmates fight using weapons or improvised defensive gear. The spectacle is hosted by September Jones, a disgraced former Miss Universe now employed by Weyland.

Upon arrival, Luke befriends fellow inmates Lists, Goldberg, and Rocco. He draws September's attention after defending Lists from an attempted assault. September makes sexual advances toward Luke and pressures him to participate in Death Match in exchange for privileges, but he refuses. In retaliation, she selects Lists to fight Big Bill, the massive prisoner who attacked Luke earlier. Luke jumps into the arena to protect Lists, briefly aided by convict ring girl Katrina Banks. Racial tensions escalate, sparking a riot as prisoners flood the arena and attempt to rape the female inmates. Katrina fights back, and the women are evacuated. Guards regain control, Luke surrenders, and afterward he speaks privately with Katrina. Learning Luke is still alive, Markus places a $1 million bounty on his head.

Seeking greater profits, September launches a new event called "Death Race." Inmates can earn their freedom by winning five races over three days, driving heavily armed, reinforced cars. Female prisoners serve as navigators. Luke enters the race with Katrina as his navigator and Lists, Goldberg, and Rocco as his pit crew. Luke wins the first race and is congratulated by Weyland, who offer Katrina as his prize. Alone together, Luke and Katrina tease each other and have sex. Later, September places Luke in solitary confinement under the guise of protecting him from bounty hunters. Katrina is taken to Markus, who offers her freedom in exchange for killing Luke.

During the second race, nearly all competitors target Luke, except for triad member 14K, whom Luke previously saved. Katrina tells Luke about Markus's offer. Near the end of the race, Luke's car malfunctions due to sabotage. He ejects Katrina before the vehicle is struck by Big Bill's heat-seeking missile. Luke's pit crew and Katrina are unable to rescue him from the burning wreck. Meanwhile, Big Bill's navigator kills her partner after he murders his pit crew and attacks her. Unknown to everyone except September, Luke survives but is badly burned. September forces him to continue racing under a masked persona known as "Frankenstein."

As the final race begins, a triad assassin kills Markus at his mansion as 14K's repayment to Luke. Lists fatally stabs Rocco for sabotaging Luke's car. Luke confronts September and runs her over, killing her. Fascinated by his new identity, Katrina asks Luke whether he has a real name. He replies that he does, and she smiles as they return to the race together.

Additional members of the cast include Patrick Lyster as Warden Parks, DeObia Oparei as Bill "Big Bill", Hennie Bosman as Xander Grady, Joe Vaz as Rocco, Danny Keogh as Dr. Klein, Warrick Grier as Calin, and Tanya van Graan as Holly.^[8]

Death Race 2 is a prequel to writer-director Paul W. S. Anderson's Death Race (2008), which itself is a prequel to Death Race 2000 (1975).^[9] The film was put into development by August 2009; Tony Giglio, Anderson's second-unit director on Resident Evil: Afterlife, wrote the script.^[10] Giglio described the prequel, which was tentatively titled Death Race: Frankenstein Lives, as "an origin film, in every sense", of the "Death Race" and the characters Frankenstein, Case, and Lists. Giglio conceived of the protagonist, Carl "Luke" Lucas, as a stark contrast to the Jason Statham character that headlined the previous film, saying: "He wasn't framed. He's not fighting to get out to save his children. He's a convicted cop killer. A guy who's worked for the [American] mob his whole life. A true anti-hero."^[11] Universal Pictures greenlit Giglio's script in November 2009.^[12] Neither Anderson nor Statham returned due to other commitments, although Anderson remained as producer with Jeremy Bolt and Mike Elliott.^[10][13][14] Dutch director Roel Reiné signed on to direct in December 2009, when he had just completed production of The Marine 2.^[15] The crew also included production designer Johnny Breedt,^[16] editors Radu Ion and Herman P. Koerts,^[17] and composer Paul Haslinger, who scored the previous film.^[18]

Reiné called the script for Death Race 2 "a really cool prequel to the Death Race world".^[19] He added a fight scene and a high-speed police chase to the bank heist sequence to establish Luke as a skilled fighter and high-performance driver prior to "Death Race",^[20] in contrast to the previous film,^[21] and to provide the film with "a spectacular chase to start with".^[22] He also incorporated different beats to the racing scenes, which he felt were derivative of those from the previous film.^[23] Likewise, Reiné pushed the producers to add slow, tender moments to the script to pause for character development and dramatic tension, and to temper the film's rapid pacing.^[24][25] Giglio's script, for example, originally had Luke being brought to fight in a "Death Match" as soon as he arrives in prison, whereas Reiné created a moment to sympathize with Luke as he sits in his cell contemplating his fate as a prisoner for life.^[26]

To facilitate his visual style for the film, Reiné lobbied Universal to serve as his own cinematographer and camera operator—particularly on the "A" camera—in lieu of working with a cinematographer typically commissioned by a studio.^[27] When Universal agreed, he was allowed to hire whom he described as a "really, really high-end" South African gaffer, John McKay, to "basically light the movie" as he shot everything;^[28] even so, McKay received sole credit as "director of photography".^[29] Because Universal wanted the film shot in high definition, Reiné opted for the Sony CineAlta F35 and the Phantom digital movie cameras. Upon performing a test shoot of the cameras, he found both produced desirable image qualities, had better shutter speeds, and could manage with quick hand-held movements.^[30]

Casting began in November 2009.^[14] On March 1, 2010, The Hollywood Reporter's Heat Vision blog reported that Luke Goss, Sean Bean, Lauren Cohan, Ving Rhames, Danny Trejo, and Frederick Koehler had joined the cast.^[31] Reiné said he was "so lucky" to get both Goss and Bean on board the project, as they were his top picks to play Luke and his boss, respectively.^[32] To persuade Bean to join the cast of a direct-to-video film like Death Race 2, Reiné had to ask Anderson to do it on his behalf; Bean had collaborated with Anderson on his feature directorial debut, Shopping (1994).^[33] Goss told Den of Geek he accepted the lead role because he was sold on the script, which he thought had a plot-driven story beyond the "fun" action set pieces.^[34] Reiné offered Rhames the role of a powerful tycoon over the phone, which he accepted and gave ideas about the character.^[35] Reiné approached Trejo about playing an inmate, despite what he perceived to be Trejo's hectic schedule working on big-budget films every year.^[36] Koehler and Robin Shou, according to Reiné, were both delighted to reprise their roles from the previous film; each was given more screen time than in the original.^[37][38]

Reiné said the production managed to locate almost all of the cars from the original film in the United States. They bought them back from collectors who had purchased them, although they had to rebuild two missing ones—a Dodge Ram and a Chrysler—"from scratch".^[39][b]

With a $6–7 million budget,^[a] principal photography began on February 13, 2010, on location in Cape Town, South Africa.^[43] The film was a co-production between Germany and South Africa,^[1] and received tax breaks for filming in South Africa.^[4]: 6 Reiné directed the 30-day shoot^[7] without a second unit so that he could shoot independently.^[44] To manage the tight budget and schedule,^[45][46] Reiné said he opted for locations in which he could "at least have four or five sets going at the same time";^[47] on each day he would split his time between interior and exterior sets, shooting scenes that were spread across different locations.^[47][48] The film was shot with two each of the Sony CineAlta F35 and Phantom digital cameras.^[49] Because of the weight of the F35, Reiné relied upon the Phantom when he would shoot handheld in addition to slow motion shots.^[50][51] Besides slow motion, Reiné incorporated 360-degree tracking shots^[52] as well as "handheld crane shot[s]" which he accomplished with wire work for a major "Death Match" sequence.^[53]

Prison scenes were shot in an abandoned cement factory near slums outside Cape Town.^[42][4]: 6 Scenes set in the Weyland Corporation headquarters were shot in the Cape Town International Convention Centre.^[54] A defunct hospital was used as the prison clinic, despite Reiné's complaints about its "disgusting" smell of dried human blood emanating from dirty towels "from 10, 20 years ago" in one of the rooms.^[55] The scene where Luke undergoes a transformation into Frankenstein was shot in the hospital's kitchen area.^[56] Racing scenes were shot in the cement factory, among two or three other locations.^[57][c] Reiné said the police chase on the freeway, which ends at Cape Town's unfinished bridge,^[60] could not be shot until Sunday, between six and nine o'clock in the morning.^[61]

According to Goss, he and Reiné decided some shots of his driving sequences would be filmed as he drove the cars, citing Bullitt (1968) as an influence.^[62] Reiné had trouble with the dilapidated Ford Mustang when shooting Goss' test drive sequence, saying it would either break down or not start at all, in which case he "had to push it for the next day".^[63] Reiné said the other cars used in the racing sequences had to undergo repairs overnight, as they would often break down during the day.^[64] He incorporated 20 percent of the unused second-unit footage from the original film because, unlike Anderson, he had only one week to shoot racing scenes,^[65] during which he was also shooting crash sequences^[65] and wrecking and blowing up the cars.^[66]

Reiné made limited use of computer-generated imagery (CGI) to film driving stunts, influenced by his affinity for 1980s action films.^[4]: 5 Likewise, he eschewed stunt doubles in favor of having the actors stage their own fighting,^[67][68] which stunt coordinator Adam Horton described as "more street style, it's more rough, it's more cage fighting, UFC, like Pride".^[69]

For the police chase sequence, the production was loaned a Shelby Mustang GT500 Super Snake^[70] that they had to maintain in pristine condition. Thus, Reiné designed the sequence with Luke not hitting anything on his path, unlike the police.^[71] Goss told Motor Trend that he asked Reiné and the producers for permission to let him do most of his driving with the Shelby, proving he could do so by performing "a J turn and some 360s".^[70] In addition to giving Goss basic lessons on driving the Shelby, the stunt drivers disabled its traction control and anti-lock braking systems to facilitate his stunts.^[70] On shooting the sequence, Goss stated:

As I brake, I know there's a stunt driver behind me that has to brake. He doesn't know exactly when I'm going to do it because I'm trying to find a line. The stunt driver is driving a police car, so he's chasing me in the story. He needs to get super close but I can't help thinking if I brake too dramatically—bang! I don't want to hit anyone, and not all of our drivers that day were stunt drivers. Some of them were told "keep your line, don't deviate" so that when I'm trying to find a line through, it wasn't choreographed. It was a little intimidating but a lot of fun.^[70]

An AOL Moviefone journalist who served as an extra wrote that Robin Shou was nearly killed on set when a rapidly descending metal gangway narrowly missed his head. The extra, Jason Newman, said a miscommunication between Shou and the stunt coordinators on his prison-fight sequence with Hennie Bosman led to the incident. Of this near-death experience, Shou stated he "has never been so shaken".^[6] According to Reiné, Shou told him that it was grueling to shoot the sequence because he and Bosman had to repeat their stunts several times to accommodate Reiné's desire for an excessive amount of camera coverage.^[72]

Editing lasted 9–10 weeks; Anderson and producers Jeremy Bolt and Paula Wagner oversaw the process.^[73] The editors' cut was two hours and thirty minutes; Reiné's cut was two hours.^[74] The opening sequence set in the prison yard—which originally ran 8–10 minutes—was edited to two minutes, yielding a final cut that runs one hour and forty minutes. Reiné credits the film's condensed version of the opening sequence to editing notes Anderson relayed during post-production.^[75] One of the cuts that was kept from editors Radu Ion and Herman P. Koerts's assembly footage was the seduction scene in the prison showers featuring Luke Goss and Lauren Cohan, which Reiné said was "really put together" and worked well together with Goss and Cohan's performances.^[76] Reiné said that the film's 700 visual effects shots were largely the result of using green-screen compositing and wire removal.^[77]

Universal Pictures released Death Race 2 direct to video through its home entertainment division in the UK on December 27, 2010,^[4]: 1 and worldwide on January 18, 2011.^[78] Both the DVD and Blu-ray contain R-rated and unrated versions of the film, and bonus material including featurettes on the cars, stunts, and canonicity of the film; deleted scenes; and a feature-length commentary with the director Roel Reiné.^[79][78] Universal released a double-feature collection containing Death Race 2 and Death Race on October 9, 2012.^[80] All four films in Universal's Death Race franchise were released in a collection on October 2, 2018.^[81]

According to The Numbers, as of June 2024, home video sales of Death Race 2 in the United States were $8.4 million,^[82] with 218,000 ($4.04 million) DVD copies sold in its opening week, making it a decent debut for a straight-to-DVD release despite being overtaken on the DVD sales chart.^[d] In the same week, 50,000 Blu-ray copies were sold.^[83]

Critical responses to Death Race 2 ranged from viewing the film as competent, fan-oriented action to dismissing it as a thin and poorly executed prequel.^[e] Mark Adams of Screen Daily described it as well-cast and engagingly action-packed, suggesting it delivered genre thrills despite its distribution prospects.^[84] Duncan Bowles of Den of Geek described it in strongly favorable terms, calling it "bloody" and "fun".^[5] Bob Calhoun of Salon.com similarly positioned it as better than expected for the format.^[13] By contrast, Keith Carman of Exclaim! argued that the concept had been stretched past its limits,^[85] and Brad Brevet of ComingSoon.net judged the filmmaking harshly, criticizing both the storytelling approach and the apparent production shortcomings.^[86]

Many reviews treated the film as an extension of the 2008 remake and judged it by how well it met direct-to-video expectations for the franchise.^[f] Peter Hall's AOL Moviefone review described continuity with the earlier film as the central selling point, presenting the prequel as delivering the same mix of action, violence, and vehicular mayhem for viewers who liked the remake, while advising others to skip it.^[88] Bowles also addressed the reputation of direct-to-video sequels, arguing that the production and casting quality exceeded the low expectations that category can carry.^[5] In a more skeptical review, Scott Weinberg of Fearnet advised recalibrating expectations and characterized the release as a low-budget project designed to maintain revenue, though he still allowed that it could be entertaining on its own terms.^[89] Carman, meanwhile, presented the film as further evidence of a franchise being overextended.^[85]

Reviewers who responded positively emphasized the volume of action and carnage, often highlighting the staging of fights, crashes, and practical effects work.^[g] Adams praised the production design and the way the action beats were staged, presenting those elements as the film's main strengths.^[84] Bowles singled out the "Death Match" sequences as a standout, arguing that their violent spectacle could be more exhilarating than the later pivot to car racing.^[5] Calhoun highlighted the emphasis on stunts and pyrotechnics, describing much of the excitement as coming from practical, on-the-ground filmmaking rather than purely digital escalation.^[13] Horrornews.net's review similarly credited the third act with delivering an action-heavy finish, pointing to editing choices and stylized inserts as features that helped sell the onscreen television-show concept.^[90]

Criticism frequently concerned pacing and narrative construction, with several critics arguing that the film delays or dilutes its central race premise.^[h] The A.V. Club's assessment complained that the first race arrives only about an hour into the runtime, placing the emphasis on backstory that the review found tedious.^[2] Carman raised a closely related objection, writing that the film spends so long on setup that the signature weaponized cars arrive late, after which the plotting accelerates toward an ending he found rushed and thinly motivated.^[85] Brevet criticized the film's narrative economy from the opposite angle, arguing that the core story did not justify the running time and that the director Roel Reiné's reliance on slow motion and flashy visual flourishes came at the expense of coherent progression.^[86]

Reviewers also split on performances and production values, with Luke Goss singled out for relative warmth by some reviewers while others faulted the filmmaking or underused cast.^[i] Adams said that Goss lacked Jason Statham's physical presence but still presented the film as satisfying action-adventure entertainment.^[84] Bowles wrote that he initially needed time to warm to Goss in the lead, then credited him with bringing humility and warmth that worked with the film's occasional comic touches.^[5] Horrornews.net likewise praised Goss's screen presence while suggesting the film missed some of the earlier entry's star-powered energy.^[90] On the negative side, Carman argued that the film failed to capitalize on its supporting cast,^[85] and Brevet criticized the production bluntly, including a complaint about effects-driven imagery that he found unconvincing.^[86] Home-media oriented reviews could be sharply separated between disc quality and film quality: David Johnson of DVD Verdict praised the Blu-ray presentation while concluding the film itself was "a waste of everyone's time",^[87] and R. L. Shaffer's IGN Blu-ray review labeled it "good" despite a dismissive description of the underlying material.^[79]

Universal filmed a sequel, Death Race 3: Inferno, in Cape Town, South Africa, in late 2011. Reiné and screenwriter Tony Giglio returned for the sequel, as did Luke Goss, Danny Trejo, Ving Rhames, Fred Koehler, Robin Shou, and Tanit Phoenix, alongside series newcomers Dougray Scott and Hlubi Mboya. Universal 1440 Entertainment released Death Race 3: Inferno direct to video on January 22, 2013.^[91][92]

• Reiné, Roel (director) et al. (2010). Cheating Death: The Stunts of Death Race 2 (featurette). United Kingdom: Universal Studios Home Entertainment.
• Reiné, Roel (director) (2010). Death Race 2 (DVD) (audio commentary). United Kingdom: Universal Studios Home Entertainment.
• Smith, Brian (interviewer); Wixson, Heather (interviewer) (January 28, 2011). Death Race 2 – Premiere Coverage (interview). Dread Central.

• Death Race 2 at IMDb
• Death Race 2 at the Internet Movie Cars Database
• Death Race 2 at Rotten Tomatoes