History Film / TheForeigner2017

''The Foreigner'' is an 2017 British-Chinese action thriller movie directed by Creator/MartinCampbell starring Creator/JackieChan in his first film to receive a wide Western release since ''Film/TheKarateKid2010''. This is based on the novel ''The Chinaman'', written by Stephen Leather, which was written in 1992.

* PinballProtagonist: Other than kicking ass, Quan doesn't really do much to impact the plot. Hennessy was already investigating the bombing before Quan got involved. Hennessy got the list of the bombers and sent it to the UK government before Quan even got the list himself. [[spoiler:And the London police were already about to interrogate and/or kill the bombers when Quan snuck in and did it himself. Quan didn't even find out anything about the laptop bomb.]] Arguably the only thing Quan did that impacted the plot was [[spoiler:taking pictures of Hennessy and his mistress and getting them posted online.]] But any consequences of that would be after the movie ends.

** Quan is ex-special forces.

* TwoDecadesBehind: A ZigZaggingTrope. The film is set in 2017, yet Irish terrorists blowing up British streets haven't been an issue for over 20 years due to the peace accords signed in 1998 and the IRA disarming in 2005. The main reason is due to the fact that the novel the film is adapting, ''The Chinaman'', was originally published in 1992 when the Provisional IRA's bombing campaign was in full swing. Yet at the same time, the UK is facing massive security threats from Islamic terrorists, both foreign infiltrators and homegrown jihadists. At the time of the movie's release in October 2017, the UK had already suffered almost half a dozen major terrorist attacks that same year, including a bombing at an Music/ArianaGrande concert in Manchester that killed 22. The odd conclusion is that while the movie's politics and perpetrators are out of place, the overall plot is very current and applicable.

* BadassGrandpa: At age 63, Jackie is still quite a convincing ass kicker.
** Pierce Brosnan shares his age and his character has no trouble putting the hurt to people.

* StealthHiBye: Quan disappears suddenly when he is talking with Lam in his flat.

* HandshakeConfusion: When Quan and Hennessy first meet, the former goes for a bow and the latter a handshake.

* TwoDecadesBehind: A ZigZaggingTrope. The film is set in 2017, yet Irish terrorists blowing up British streets haven't been an issue for over 20 years due to the peace accords signed in 1998 and the IRA disarming in 2005. The main reason is due to the fact that the novel the film is adapting, ''The Chinaman'', was originally published in 1992 when the Provisional IRA's bombing campaign was in full swing. Yet at the same time, the UK is facing massive security threats from Islamic terrorists, both foreign infiltrators and homegrown jihadists. At the time of the movie's release in October 2017, the UK had already suffered almost half a dozen major terrorist attacks that same year, including a bombing at an Creator/ArianaGrande concert in Manchester that killed 22. The odd conclusion is that while the movie's politics and perpetrators are out of place, the overall plot is very current and applicable.

* BigBad: The film doesn't have a dedicated central antagonist; the bombers are largely characterized as having the same level of authority, [[spoiler:Hennessy set the plan in motion but didn't intend for people to die]], and [[spoiler:Mary]] acts on a combination of LetNoCrisisGoToWaste and being a ManipulativeBastard. By the trope's definition as the one who instigates the plot, however, there's [[spoiler:Hugh]]. Though it wasn't his plan, he's the one that contributed the explosives, he organizes the bombers, and he was the one who took the plan off track to suit his own agenda (thus making an enemy of Quan).

* AwfulWeddedLife: Liam and Mary Hennessy can't stand each other and apparently haven't been able to for years. [[spoiler:For good reason: Mary blames Liam for getting her IRA brother killed. Mary is eventually assassinated on Liam's orders after he finds out she betrayed him in multiple ways.]]
* BadassBoast: Duelling ones from Hennessy and Quan

* CultureClash: Quan offers twenty thousand pounds in cash to what appears to be a high ranking police officer for the names of the bombers only to be told: "That's not how we do things here."

* ElitesAreMoreGlamorous: Quan is a former special forces soldier trained by the Americans who served in Vietnam. Liam's nephew Sean is former British Special Forces

** When he infiltrates Hennessy's house Henessey finds his dog on the floor and accuses Quan of killing him. Quan says he only knocked him unconscious and sure enough the dog is up and fine in the next scene. [[spoiler: In the novel the movie was based on, [[SparedByTheAdaptation he did kill the dog.]]]]

** The British police officers who [[spoiler:arrest Maggie torture her for information on her group's latest bomb plot and then execute her in cold blood.]]

* MistakenNationality: Everyone believes Quan is Chinese - he's South Vietnamese, and possibly half-Chinese, but it doesn't stop people from referring to him as "the Chinaman".

** Though Quan argues against Hennessy's comparison he does feel a similar connection to Sean when they fight. Sean gives him one of the hardest matches in the film [[spoiler:and the names of the bombers]] and after that he and Quan have a calm chat. Quan subtly notes the similarities between them, Sean was a soldier in Afghanistan serving the British whilst he himself was Irish much like how Quan was in Vietnam serving the Americans.

* OneSteveLimit: Averted. Sean is the name of Hennessy's [[TheDragon Dragon]], and also one of his men. This is Ireland, of course, so the aversion is {{justified}}.
* PetTheDog: When Quan infiltrates Hennessy's farm the first time he assaults and knocks out 2 guards. He makes a point to check their pulse afterwards and when he leaves them tied up he keeps them out of range of the bomb he sets.
* PinballProtagonist: Other than kicking ass, Quan doesn't really do much to impact the plot. Hennessy was already investigating the bombing before Quan got involved. Hennessy got the list of the bombers and sent it to the UK government before Quan even got the list himself. [[spoiler:And the London police were already about the interrogate and/or kill the bombers when Quan snuck in and did it himself. Quan didn't even find out anything about the laptop bomb.]] Arguably the only thing Quan did that impacted the plot was [[spoiler:taking pictures of Hennessy and his mistress and getting them posted online.]] But any consequences of that would be after the movie ends.

* RightHandVersusLeftHand: The police want to catch the terrorists. Liam wants to take care of them internally so that they don't

* WesternTerrorists: The terrorists are Irish.

* ElitesAreMoreGlamorous: Quan is a former special forces soldier trained by the Americans who served in Vietnam. Liam's cousin Sean is former British Special Forces

** When he infiltrates Hennessy's house Henessey finds his dog on the floor and accuses Quan of killing him. Quan says he only knocked him unconscious and sure enough the dog is up and fine in the next scene.

* OneSteveLimit: Averted. Sean is the name of Hennessy's [[TheDragon Dragon]], and also one of his men. This is Ireland, of course, so the aversion is {{justified}}).

* AwfulWeddedLife: Liam and Mary Hennessy can't stand each other and apparently haven't been able to for years. [[spoiler:Mary is eventually assassinated on Liam's orders after he finds out she betrayed him in multiple ways.]]

** Quan's cause is just, but his methods are downright frightening.

* RightForTheWrongReasons: [[spoiler:At the end, Quan assumes that because he identified one of the bombers as Hennessy's mistress, he must have been behind the whole thing. As it turns out, Hennessy ''was'' the one who planned to use bombings to leverage pardons for his fellow IRA members out of the British government, he just never intended for them to target innocents. But even so, he had no idea who any of the bombers were, and his mistress got with him solely so that the extremists would be able to blackmail him if he turned on them.]]

* NotSoDifferent: Both Quan and Hennessy have much in common. Both were fighters in a past war that resulted in the deaths of many of their loved ones, resulting in them doing whatever they can to keep their remaining family safe.

* CoDragons: Hennessy has two main enforcers. Sean, his main agent in the field and the one who's sent out to do his wet-work operations. Jim, his main enforcer within his local forces and his right hand. At different points in the film both are sent after Quan directly and tend to give him more of a fight than the other mooks.

* AdaptationalNationality: In the novel, the titular "China Man", Nguyen Ngoc Minh, is actually Vietnamese who gets mistaken for Chinese and has served with the Viet Cong before defecting to the US side. In the movie, Jackie's character, Ngoc Minh Quan, is [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoa_people Chinese Nuang]] who served with the US Special Forces during the Vietnam War.

* ElitesAreMoreGlamorous: Quan is a former special forces soldier trained by the Americans who served in Vietnam.