Line #79 Film/XXxReturnOfXanderCage


1	[[quoteright:258:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/xxx_return_of_xander_cage_film_poster.jpeg]]
2	->''"Kick some ass, get the girl, and try to look dope while you do it."''
3	-->-- '''[[Creator/SamuelLJackson Augustus Gibbons]]'''
4
5	''xXx: Return of Xander Cage'' (or ''xXx: Reactivated'' in some countries) is a 2017 American action comedy film that marks the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin return of Xander Cage]], from the original ''Film/{{xXx}}'' film. It stars Creator/VinDiesel, Creator/DonnieYen, Deepika Padukone, Creator/KrisWu, Creator/RubyRose, Creator/TonyJaa, Creator/NinaDobrev, Creator/ToniCollette and Creator/SamuelLJackson. The plot revolves around a group of rogue xXx agents led by "alpha warrior" Xiang (Yen) trying to find a powerful weapon known as "Pandora's Box" that would control the entire world's military satellites, and the thought-to-be-long-dead original xXx, Xander Cage (Diesel), who is brought out of self-imposed exile by the CIA in order to stop him by recruiting a group of like-minded, thrill-seeking cohorts to fight with him.
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8	!!''xXx: Return of Xander Cage'' contains examples of:
9	* AccidentalAimingSkills: Becky picks up a gun when cornered and manages a few lucky shots her first two tries. On the third, as she grows confident, she drops the gun. It discharges and nails everyone remaining.
10	* ActionGirl: Adele and Serena. Becky later has her moments in the climax.
11	* AdvertisedExtra: Agent Gibbons. The trailers hyped him up to be one of the major characters in the film. [[spoiler:He only appears at the beginning and the end of the film when he is supposedly killed by the satellite. His scenes in the trailers? ''Those are the only scenes he has in the film itself.'']]
12	* AllAsiansKnowMartialArts: Played straight with Creator/DonnieYen and [[Film/OngBak Tony Jaa]]. Averted with Creator/KrisWu.
13	* ArmorIsUseless: Played straight with every single {{Mook}} on screen no matter how heavy the armor. Averted with Xander.
14	* ArrogantKungFuGuy: Xiang, as played by Donnie Yen.
15	* ArtisticLicenseSpace: A threefer in the opening sequence:
16	** When the satellite starts its kamikaze run, it comes to an abrupt halt, then near-instantly hurtles toward the surface. In order to change directions that fast, it would have to have a booster about as powerful as the one that put it in orbit in the first place.
17	** When the plasma sheath starts to appear, indicating that it's entering the atmosphere, it's still in low-orbit, nowhere near the atmosphere. After a cleverly-hidden time-skip brings it ''much'' closer to the planet, it's fully enveloped in plasma, when it should only just be hitting the upper reaches of the atmosphere by then.
18	** Throughout the whole sequence, the satellite's solar panels survive the sequence with no more damage than a few-dozen lost cells. Anyone who has a cursory knowledge of aerospace technology (or has played VideoGame/KerbalSpaceProgram long enough) knows that if a spacecraft or satellite enters the atmosphere with its solar panels or thermal radiators extended, nine times out of ten, the entire array will tear off all at once.
19	* AttendingYourOwnFuneral: [[spoiler: Gibbons shows up]] at a funeral near the end of the film, and comments on how surreal it feels.
20	* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler: Marke, considering that she was the one who crashes the satellite on Gibbons and tries to have Xander and his team killed right after he accomplishes his mission.]]
21	* BackFromTheDead: A throwaway line of dialogue in ''Film/XXxStateOfTheUnion'' stated that Xander had been killed by that film's BigBad on a mission in Bora Bora. Clearly, [[Main/ReportsofMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated reports of his death were greatly exaggerated.]]
22	* BackToBackBadasses: Adele and Serena are this in the most literal way imaginable during the final shootout, going GunsAkimbo on the mercs like they never did anything else in their lives.
23	* BadassCrew: Two of them -- Xander's and Xiang's. Not really surprising once you learn that [[spoiler:every single member is/was a xXx agent]].
24	* BadassDriver: Tennyson, although WordOfGod says they made him DrivesLikeCrazy to subvert most of the typical characteristics of this trope.
25	* BaitAndSwitch: The first scene of Adele has her in the African plains, looking down the scope of a sniper rifle at a lion. She adjusts her aim, looking ready to shoot...then slowly moves the scope to reveal her real targets: A trio of rich hunters ready to kill the lion themselves. She gives them wounding shots to let the lion have some fun.
26	* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: None of the heroes (especially not the women) gets anything worse done to them than some tousled hair, with the exception of [[spoiler:Tennyson]] who gets shot two times, but even that doesn't actually show.
27	* BigBad: Xiang, again. [[spoiler:Turns out this is not the case, as the real villains are [[BigBadDuumvirate The CIA Director and later Jane Marke]], while Xiang pulls an EnemyMine and eventually HeelFaceTurn to help Xander defeat both of them.]]
28	* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler:Darius Stone]] shows up to [[spoiler:help Xander's team kill the assassins hired by Marke]].
29	* BigNo: Donovan when [[spoiler:Xander sends him out of a bathroom stall to his death]].
30	* BittersweetEnding: The world is safe [[spoiler:and Augustus Gibbons is still alive ([[AndZoidberg as is Neymar]])]], but [[spoiler:the CIA has disavowed the Triple-X Program]]. Of course, Xander being as much of a rebel as he is, he's okay with it.
31	* {{BFG}}: Adele's custom sniper rifle is almost as long as she is tall, not to mention it has two scopes mounted in line. [[spoiler:Darius']] revolving grenade launcher is also worryingly big.
32	* BondOneLiner:
33	** After Xander disposes of [[spoiler:Donovan]], he quips, "It's gonna take two flushes."
34	** When Xiang sends [[spoiler:Marke]] to her death, he says, "Be sure to send a postcard." After escaping the plane and reuniting with his allies, Xiang quips, "The ground broke the fall."
35	** After [[spoiler:Darius]] [[BigDamnHeroes saves Xander and Xiang's crew from Marke's assassins]]: "Rock. Paper. Scissors. [[spoiler:[[NoKillLikeOverkill Grenade Launcher]].]]"
36	* BoomHeadshot: How [[spoiler:the CIA director]] bites it, courtesy of Adele. She also scores several more headshots over the course of the movie.
37	* BrickJoke:
38	** Xander's first encounter with Marke's [[TheDragon Dragon]] involves the threat that he'd flush the elite soldier down the airplane's toilet. Wanna guess what happens later on?
39	** After shooting Cage, [[spoiler: Marke]] talks about death being "the last big adventure. Send me a postcard." When [[spoiler: Marke]] stands over a wounded Xiang, he uses the exact same words [[spoiler: before causing Marke to fall out the airplane.]]
40	** In the prologue, Gibbons tries to recruit Neymar (playing as himself) to become the new xXx agent [[spoiler: before they both apparently got killed by the satellite crash]]. [[spoiler: At the end of the film, not only do both of them turn up alive, Neymar actually gets to become a new agent, much to his delight.]]
41	* CallBack: Several to the [[Film/XxX first movie]].
42	** Xander pulling off an over the top stunt just for fun, and to honk off the local policia.
43	** Xander's SherlockScan at the beginning.
44	** He's also still quite attached to his fur coat and explicitely demands its return before he gets going.
45	** After having had his way ''[[ThePornomancer with six beautiful women at once]]'', he quips "the things I do for my country".
46	** The one time he orders a drink, it's a raspberry soda.
47	** When the Russians show up, once again there are two guys named Ivan.
48	** There's a lengthy chase scene involving dirt bikes.
49	** Near the end of the movie, [[spoiler:Darius Stone]] shows up in the 1967 Pontiac GTO Xander utilized during his first mission. Even the headlights are still missing after they were blown out by the Stinger missiles behind them.
50	** Flying a plane on what has been described as a kamikaze mission, Xander repeats his CatchPhrase from the first film: "I live for this shit!"
51	** Once again, Agent Gibbons is supposedly [[spoiler: killed, only to return alive later in the movie, just like in the previous film. It's also a ShoutOut to ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'', as Samuel L. Jackson's character Nick Fury was also apparently killed but in turned out he was FakingTheDead and returned later in the film. Both Fury and Gibbons even attended their own funerals!]]
52	* CallingYourAttacks: invoked and played with. Xander names his targets after telling the Russian leader he will be first to die. Adele makes it happen.
53	* TheCameo: [[spoiler:Darius Stone]] pops up during the climcatic shootout, providing a BigDamnHeroes moment with a [[StuffBlowingUp grenade launcher]].
54	* CarFu: And Motorcycle-Fu.
55	* CastingGag: The use of Music/IceCube's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUgctVPA1VA Thank God]]" [[spoiler:for Darius Stone's BigDamnHeroes moment in the film]]. Natch.
56	* TheCharmer: Nicks special skill is being “fun to be around”
57	* ClothingCombat: Xiang, when between guns, uses his leather jacket as a weapon.
58	* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Both teams have one: Tennyson for Xander, Talon for Xiang.
59	* ColonyDrop: Pandora’s Box can cause satellites to be dropped out of orbit “like a goddamn tactical warhead”
60	* ContrivedCoincidence: Marke's plane just happens to fly a course that enables it to intercept [[spoiler:the satellite she sent crashing down on Xander's crew]], with an untrained guy at the helm.
61	* CountingBullets: Xander and [[spoiler: Xiang]] do this to one mook. They even stick out limbs to make the mook waste his ammo with the latter FlippingTheBird to trick him into wasting his last bullet.
62	* CurbStompBattle: [[spoiler:Darius Stone]] annihilates the remaining forces of [[spoiler:Marke's]] merc army in a matter of seconds.
63	* TheDragon: [[spoiler: Donovan.]]
64	* DiscOneFinalBoss: [[spoiler: Xiang, then Anderson. Marke is the [[BigBad true villain]].]]
65	* DisneyVillainDeath: [[spoiler: Xander kicks [[TheDragon Donovan]] out of a bathroom stall. Then Xiang ejects [[BigBad Marke]] out of her plane to her death.]]
66	* DistractedByTheSexy: Becky is not just a fangirl; she forgets entirely she's supposed to be explaining her job to Xander and not only propositions him, she tells him she can get whatever drugs he wants. She also takes her sweet time strapping him lovingly into his body armor.
67	-->'''Becky:''' My safe word is 'kumquat'.
68	* DrivesLikeCrazy: Tennyson is a former stunt pilot who's more or less directly stated to have made it his mission in life to cause as many car crashes as humanly possible. Therefore he appears incapable of driving any vehicle without destroying it and at least heavily damaging ''anything'' he comes across while he's at it.
69	* ElitesAreMoreGlamorous: [[WordOfDante Michael Bisping]] theorizes his character, Hawk, is former SAS while [[spoiler: Darius Stone]] is an ex-Navy SEAL.
70	* EnemyMine: [[spoiler:Xander and Xiang team up to stop Marke once she takes over as the BigBad.]]
71	* ExactWords: When Xander's crew arrives at the island where they assume Xiang is hiding out, Xander tells Tennyson to stay in the boat. Nicks' call for backup soon afterwards is then seemingly denied by Tennyson citing that very order, only for him to flatten an enemy soldier some minutes later - [[RefugeInAudacity with the boat, on land]].
72	* FakingTheDead: When Xander gets shot by [[spoiler:Marke]], it's pretty obvious he's just playing dead, given that an entire earlier scene was devoted to him getting strapped into a bulletproof vest by Becky. Seems he learned something from his mentor...
73	* FemaleGaze: Xander.
74	** The first stunt we see him doing gives us closeups of his shoulders, back and arms.
75	** After chasing Xiang on land and into the sea, he walks out of the water and removes his shirt, revealing all his muscles and ink.
76	** The scene with Becky helping him into his skin-tight flexible body armor.
77	** The scene where he and Serena are comparing tattoos.
78	* FiveManBand: Xander rejects Donovan and his men in favor of recruiting someone like him who he can trust. His core team throughout the film consists of Nicks (TheSmartGuy), Adele (TheLancer), Tennyson (TheBigGuy), and Becky (TheHeart, though initially settles for TheSmartGuy), with Xander as TheLeader and Serena as the team's SixthRanger after her HighHeelFaceTurn. [[spoiler: Though a true SixthRanger exists in the form of Darius Stone.]]
79	* FriendlySniper: Adele, at least as long as you're not a poacher.
80	* GamerChick: Adele has a ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' gamer tag in her bio.
81	* GangstaStyle: Adele again, whenever she isn't handling a sniper rifle.
82	* GunsAkimbo:
83	** Adele and Serena dual-wield pistols near the end of the movie.
84	** On the [=CIA=] plane, Xiang and Xander also have a pistol in each hand.
85	* GunKata: Xiang's appearance in the power chamber is loaded with this.
86	* GroinAttack: Xiang kicks one of [[spoiler:Marke's]] goons in the balls while sitting on the floor, followed up with a kick to the neck.
87	* HeelFaceTurn: Serena, unsurprisingly. The buildup is so painfully obvious it doesn't even deserve a spoiler tag. [[spoiler:By the end of the movie, Xiang's entire crew is best friends with Xander's.]]
88	* HeroOfAnotherStory: Darius Stone, who has a cameo appearance, is the protagonist of ''Film/XXxStateOfTheUnion''.
89	* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: Tens of thousands of bullets are fired at the main cast. About five of them hit - two cause OnlyAFleshWound, the others are stopped by a bulletproof vest without even bruising the wearer. The rest of the protagonists don't even get grazed.
90	* ImprobableAimingSkills: Adele has no trouble putting a bullet in [[spoiler:the CIA director's]] head by shooting through a tiny opening between Xander's fingers that measures barely one square centimeter ''and'' is millimeters away from his bald head.
91	* IShallTauntYou: Xander works Marke's crew of Uber-macho and proud Marines into a quiet rage by indicating that none of them are worth his respect because they can't do the type of stunts Cage does for fun. As a result, they are taken by surprise when he [[spoiler: clips them all to a cargo drop with chute and jettisons them from the plane]] without warning.
92	* LeeroyJenkins: While under fire by mercenaries, [[TheBerserker Tennyson attempts to take them head on]], unarmed, but ends up getting shot in the shoulder and the ass and has to be rescued by Nicks.
93	* LightningBruiser: Xiang -- not surprising, considering he's played by martial-arts speed demon Donnie Yen. What is somewhat surprising is the fact that Xander manages to keep up with him, although that can be chalked up to the two of them never directly fighting each other.
94	* MacGuffin: Pandora's Box. [[spoiler: Once Xander and his team finally regain Pandora's Box, Xander promptly stomps on it in order to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands.]]
95	* MadeOfIron: Xiang crashes the top-secret intelligence meeting at the beginning of the movie by jumping from one skyscraper to the next, twenty meters far, thirty meters deep, through seven centimeters of bulletproof glass, without even getting a scratch. Many other instances occur to various characters over the course of the film.
96	* MaleGaze: The camera panning down from Ainsley's head to her feet in slow motion when she steps out of the pool certainly doesn't just serve to show the viewer that she's wearing an electronic tag.
97	* MemorialPhoto: [[spoiler: for Gibbons' funeral]] since the death in question did not leave a body...that those in attendance know of.
98	* MoreDakka: [[spoiler:Marke's]] mercs seem to have brought a dedicated ammo truck along for the final battle, judging by how they hose the heroes' cover with an unending hail of automatic weapons fire.
99	* MotorMouth: Becky is introduced as talking so fast that Xander has to tell her to take a breath.
100	* {{Omniglot}}:
101	** Xander can speak Spanish and Tagalog at the minimum.
102	** Xiang can speak Chinese and Tagalog.
103	* OneManArmy: All Triple-X agents are this as Xander proves. [[spoiler:Along with Xiang and Darius Stone]]
104	* OutrunTheFireball: In the climax, [[spoiler: Xander jumps out of a cargo plane in mid-air just before it kamikazes a satellite.]]
105	* PowerFist: Nicks is set up with a pair of those when the mission begins, but he never gets to use them aside from accidentally punching a hole in one of the plane's walls. [[spoiler: Marke's Dragon]] deploys them against Xander instead.
106	* PrecisionFStrike: From Becky after [[spoiler:she trips and drops her gun that starts going off and shooting some bad guys:]]
107	-->'''Becky:''' This is fucking awesome!
108	* PutOnABus:
109	** [[GadgeteerGenius Agent Toby Shavers]] doesn't appear in this film due to his actor, Michael Roof, committing suicide in 2009 and was replaced by [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute Becky]] in the film.
110	** A non-character example: The modified Smith & Wesson revolver from the last two films doesn't return in this film.
111	* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: Xander recruits a handful of them, including a sharpshooter and a hacker, and they are all like him.
112	* RammingAlwaysWorks: Tennyson’s solution to most problems. Xander even decides the best way to stop a falling satellite is to [[spoiler: ram a CARGO PLANE]] into it.
113	* RapidFireFisticuffs: Xiang chain-punches a Mook at one point.
114	* RefugeInAudacity: Xander negotiates with the crime lord running the Filipino island hideaway.
115	-->'''Xander:''' Okay, 22 1/2.\
116	'''Crime Lord:''' How you gonna do the half? \
117	'''Xander:''' ''[takes a gun out of his offering]'' 22, ''[breaks the gun in half over his knee]'' and 1/2.
118	* RogueAgent: [[spoiler: The entire xXx organization is rogue by the end of the film.]]
119	* RuleOfCool: The one and only thing this film runs on.
120	* SceneryPorn: The Dominican Republic sure has some breathtakingly beautiful islands and beaches.
121	* SherlockScan: Just as in the first film, Xander figures out he's been set up as a test when a stranger leaves him a bag containing a bomb in a village square and he's surrounded by armed men. Xander punches one and then spins, firing the rifle to reveal it's full of blanks. He then relates to Marke how he figured this was a test by looking at the various people around him: A teenager is wearing expensive headphones rather than the cheaper knock-offs; a young woman is running to catch a bus that won't leave for two hours; a "cop" paid for a drink with foreign currency; and the man who left the bag struck up a conversation with Xander somehow knowing he spoke English.
122	* ShoutOut:
123	** During Neymar's cameo in the beginning of the film, his Suicide Squad-esque character bio pops up with one of the details being 'thinking that he's being recruited into The Avengers'. Not surprising, considering [[Creator/SamuelLJackson who]] [[ComicBook/NickFury is]] [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse recruiting him.]]
124	** The team's CoolPlane, a large black military cargo plane full of electronics and other hardware for high-level undercover agents, bears a lot of similarities to Coulson's Bus from ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD''.
125	*** Becky ''does'' look a lot like Simmons...
126	** The entire funeral scene at the end of the movie is basically yet another shout-out to the Avengers, specifically to the end of ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'' - see the CallBack entry above for details. Anyone else noticing a pattern here? [[spoiler:Not to mention Gibbons' glasses now having a blacked-out lens over his left eye.]]
127	* SmugSnake: Marke. Watching her attitude fall completely flat with Xander and his cronies provides some of the movie's best (dialogue) moments.
128	* SpyFiction: Martini mixed with an energy drink. WordOfGod confirms this film was made as a response to Stale Beer spy movies
129	* {{Squee}}: Becky's reaction to meeting Xander face to face.
130	* StrategySchmategy: Tennyson is so much of a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} that when put into a hairy combat situation, his course of action boils down to "I have no idea what to do, so... wait. I ''have'' an idea, and it feels crazy enough to work, so let's give it a shot!" [[spoiler:It nearly gets him killed to no effect other than risking the life of one of his crewmates in the process.]]
131	* StuffBlowingUp: It's a xXx movie, so... yeah. All over the place.
132	* TestosteronePoisoning: In fine xXx tradition. Especially noticeable during Xander's interaction with Marke's Dragon.
133	* ThrowTheBookAtThem: In a possible TakeThat to ''Literature/TheBourneSeries'', a Mook tries to attack Hawk with a book who chides him for it.
134	-->'''Hawk:''' [[LampshadeHanging You fight me with a book?]] Here you go brother. [[PunctuatedPounding Chapter One.]] ''[hits mook with the book]'' Page One. ''[hits him again]'' Shit Happens. ''[hits him one more time]''
135	* TookALevelInBadass: Becky spents most of the final battle freaked out and cowering in cover under her equipment case. That is, until she finds herself alone and cornered by an approaching merc, with another (dead) merc's submachine gun in arm's reach. Cue TheresNoKillLikeOverkill. She then goes from terrified to utterly excited in the blink of an eye.
136	* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The first and last trailers completely spoil [[spoiler:Xander and Xiang teaming up in the second or third act and Darius Stone showing up to assist the team.]]
137	* UnexplainedRecovery:
138	** The film never explains how Xander survived his supposed death in the 2005 sequel.
139	** Nor does it explains how [[spoiler: Agent Gibbons and Neymar survived the satellite crash at the beginning of the film, looking none the worse for wear]].
140	* VitriolicBestBuds: When Xander initially meets Marke, he openly dismisses the idea that he and Gibbons were ever friends, but when faced with the man directly responsible for Gibbons' death, after [[spoiler:Wolff shoots the man in the head, Xander states "That's for talking smack about my friend Gibbons"]].
141	* YourMom: Talon uses this as a comeback at Hawk's bitching at one point.
142	* ZergRush: The mercs sent by [[spoiler:Marke]] to silence Xander's crew just keep coming no matter how many men they lose. They appear to be less than a dozen when they show up, but by the end of the shootout at least a hundred must've been killed and there are still several active squads in the field.

Context Film / XXxReturnOfXanderCage