# 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 $6–18 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 as well as generally positive reviews—many critics received it favorably over the previous film and praised its action scenes and supporting cast. Reiné also directed a direct-to-video sequel, Death Race 3: Inferno (2013).

## Plot summary

A gang robs a bank for the crime boss Markus Kane. When two police officers enter the building, getaway driver Carl "Luke" Lucas tries to convince his accomplices to abort, but they refuse. Luke intervenes, resulting in the death of one of the robbers. Luke kills an officer and abandons his accomplices to fulfill Markus's wishes. Following a chase, Luke is captured, sentenced to life in prison, and later transferred to Terminal Island. Markus orders a hit on him, convinced Luke will trade information about his crimes for immunity, even though Luke has vowed never to do so.
Terminal Island is a for-profit, maximum security prison controlled by Weyland Corporation. Among their sources of income is "Death Match", a televised pay-per-view, gladiator-style combat show with the prisoners as participants. The prisoners are given access to weapons or defensive items to use. Death Match is hosted by disgraced former Miss Universe September Jones, now a Weyland Corporation employee.
Luke meets Lists, Goldberg, and Rocco, and catches September's attention after protecting Lists from an attempted assault. September makes sexual advances and tries to tempt Luke to fight for prison privileges, but he rejects her. In retaliation, September chooses Lists to fight Big Bill, an imposing Black prisoner who attacked him earlier. Luke jumps into the caged arena to fight Big Bill, briefly assisted by convict ring girl Katrina Banks. Sparked by racial tension, a riot starts: prisoners force their way into the arena and some of them attempt to rape the female convicts. Katrina defends herself and the other women, who are then evacuated. Guards intervene and Luke surrenders; he then talks with Katrina. Realizing Luke is still alive, Markus puts a $1 million bounty on his head.
September launches an offshoot of "Death Match" that Weyland names "Death Race". To earn their freedom, prisoners must win five races driving heavily armed, reinforced vehicles over three days, and female convicts must play navigators for each racer. Luke enters the race with Katrina as his navigator, and Lists, Goldberg, and Rocco as his pit crew. After finishing in first place, Luke is congratulated by Weyland and offered Katrina as a prize. Once left alone, Luke and Katrina briefly tease each other and have sex. Later, September puts Luke in solitary confinement to protect him from prisoners and guards who wish to fulfill Markus' bounty. Katrina is brought to Markus, who offers her freedom in exchange for killing Luke.
During the second race, most of Luke's opponents go after him. The only exception is triad member 14K, whom Luke saved from another racer. Katrina tells Luke about Markus's offer. In the late stage of the race, Luke's car malfunctions, having been sabotaged. He ejects Katrina from the car before getting hit by Big Bill's heat-seeking missile. Katrina and Luke's pit crew fail to save Luke from the burning car. Big Bill's navigator fatally stabs her partner after he kills his own pit crew and grabs her by the throat. Unbeknownst to everyone but September, Luke survives albeit badly burned; she coerces him into joining the race in a mask under the moniker "Frankenstein".
As the last race begins, a triad assassin executes Markus in his mansion as 14K's favor to Luke, Lists fatally stabs Rocco for sabotaging Luke's car, and Luke reverses and runs over September, killing her. Intrigued by his new identity, Katrina then asks Luke whether he has a real name, and he replies, "Of course I do." She smiles as they return to the race.

## Cast

* Luke Goss as Carl "Luke" Lucas / "Frankenstein", a getaway driver convicted of killing a cop in a botched bank robbery and sentenced to life in Terminal Island
* Fred Koehler as Lists, Luke's autistic pit crew member; he previously played the role in Death Race$^{:4}$
* Tanit Phoenix as Katrina Banks, Luke's track and romantic partner
* Robin Shou as 14K, the leader of the triad prison gang; he previously played the role in Death Race
* Lauren Cohan as September Jones, a television producer who is the creator and host of "Death Race" and its precursor "Death Match"
* Danny Trejo as Goldberg, a Mexican-Jewish convict and prison mechanic who is a member of Luke's pit crew$^{:4}$
* Ving Rhames as Weyland, the founder of Weyland Corporation and owner of Terminal Island
* Sean Bean as Markus Kane, Luke's crime boss
Additional members of the cast include Patrick Lyster as Warden Parks, DeObia Oparei as 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.

## Production
### Development and pre-production

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). The film was put into development by August 2009. Screenwriter Tony 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." Universal Pictures greenlit Giglio's script in November 2009. Neither Anderson nor Statham returned due to other commitments, although Anderson remained as producer with Jeremy Bolt and Mike Elliott. Dutch director Roel Reiné signed on to direct in December 2009, when he had just completed production of The Marine 2. The crew also included production designer Johnny Breedt, editors Radu Ion and Herman P. Koerts, and composer Paul Haslinger, who scored the previous film.
Reiné called the script for Death Race 2 "a really cool prequel to the Death Race world". 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", in contrast to the previous film, and to provide the film with "a spectacular chase to start with". He also incorporated different beats to the racing scenes, which he felt were derivative of those from the previous film. 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. 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.
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. 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; even so, McKay received sole credit as "director of photography". 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.
Casting began in November 2009. 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. 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. 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). 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. Reiné offered Rhames the role of a powerful tycoon over the phone, which he accepted and gave ideas about the character. Reiné approached Trejo about playing an inmate, despite what he perceived to be Trejo's hectic schedule working on big-budget films every year. 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.
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".

### Filming

With a $6–18 million budget, principal photography began on February 13, 2010, on location in Cape Town, South Africa. The film was a co-production between Germany and South Africa, and received tax breaks for filming in South Africa.$^{:6}$ Reiné directed the 30-day shoot without a second unit so that he could shoot independently. To manage the tight budget and schedule, Reiné said he opted for locations in which he could "at least have four or five sets going at the same time"; on each day he would split his time between interior and exterior sets, shooting scenes that were spread across different locations. The film was shot with two each of the Sony CineAlta F35 and Phantom digital cameras. Because of the weight of the F35, Reiné relied upon the Phantom when he would shoot handheld in addition to slow motion shots. Besides slow motion, Reiné incorporated 360-degree tracking shots as well as "handheld crane shot[s]" which he accomplished with wire work for a major "Death Match" sequence.
Prison scenes were shot in an abandoned cement factory near slums outside Cape Town.$^{:6}$ Scenes set in the Weyland Corporation headquarters were shot in the Cape Town International Convention Centre. 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. The scene where Luke undergoes a transformation into Frankenstein was shot in the hospital's kitchen area. Racing scenes were shot in the cement factory, among two or three other locations. Reiné said the police chase on the freeway, which ends at Cape Town's unfinished bridge, could not be shot until Sunday, between six and nine o'clock in the morning.
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. 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". Reiné said the other cars used in the racing sequences had to undergo repairs overnight, as they would often break down during the day. 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, during which he was also shooting crash sequences and wrecking and blowing up the cars.

### Stunts

Reiné made limited use of computer-generated imagery (CGI) to film driving stunts, influenced by his affinity for 1980s action films.$^{:5}$ Likewise, he eschewed stunt doubles in favor of having the actors stage their own fighting, which stunt coordinator Adam Horton described as "more street style, it's more rough, it's more cage fighting, UFC, like Pride".
For the police chase sequence, Shelby American loaned the production a Shelby Mustang GT500 Super Snake that they had to maintain in pristine condition. Thus, Reiné designed the sequence with Luke not hitting anything on his path, unlike the police. 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". 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. 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.
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". 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.

### Post-production

Editing lasted 9–10 weeks; Anderson and producers Jeremy Bolt and Paula Wagner oversaw the process. The editors' cut was two hours and thirty minutes; Reiné's cut was two hours. 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. 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. Reiné said that the film's 700 visual effects shots were largely the result of using green-screen compositing and wire removal.

## Release

Universal Pictures released Death Race 2 direct to video through its home entertainment division in the UK on December 27, 2010,$^{:1}$ and worldwide on January 18, 2011. 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. Universal released a double-feature collection containing Death Race 2 and Death Race on October 9, 2012. All four films in Universal's Death Race franchise were released in a collection on October 2, 2018.
According to The Numbers, as of June 2024, home video sales of Death Race 2 in the United States were $8.4 million, 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. In the same week, 50,000 Blu-ray copies were sold.

### Sequel

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.

## Reception

Death Race 2 received generally positive reviews from critics, who highlighted the action scenes and supporting cast. IGN stated that it was a better version of Anderson's film, and Dread Central called it "easily watchable, better than Anderson's, never boring, and yet just as forgettable". While balking at the idea of prequels to remakes, Salon.com called Death Race 2 a direct-to-video follow-up that is "better than it has any right to be".
Screen Daily called the action scenes "nicely staged", and Salon.com said they measured up to those of director Roel Reiné's prior direct-to-video sequel film The Marine 2, crediting his "inability to just mail these things in" for the quality of the result. Den of Geek stated that the "Death Match" sequences were "more exhilarating" than the racing sequences, while Total Film called them one of the film's "guiltily enjoyable moments". Arrow in the Head stated that the "Death Race" was just as entertaining and intense as that of the original. By contrast, The A.V. Club and DVD Verdict both compared the race scenes negatively with Anderson's film. The judicial-themed DVD Verdict found Death Race 2 guilty of "running on empty", and The A.V. Club stated that it felt like the film was staffed entirely by second stringers, ultimately calling it "a total waste of time".
Den of Geek and Screen Daily, among others, named Luke Goss as a worthy successor to the prior film's star, Jason Statham. Total Film said Goss' unsettling performance carries the film "through its more face-palm moments and its videogame cut-scene narrative". DVD Talk credited him with "supply[ing] the picture with a minuscule sense of personality" in "a thankless role". In addition, Den of Geek, Heavy.com, and Fearnet credited Danny Trejo, Ving Rhames, and Sean Bean with keeping the film entertaining. According to The Record, the actors delivered "scenery-chewing turns". Exclaim!, by contrast, said that Trejo and Rhames' roles were "so modest and glazed over [that] one can sense the actors throwing their hands up and phoning it in". The Winnipeg Free Press deemed Goss and Lauren Cohan unworthy of Statham and his co-star Joan Allen. Total Film called the acting "awful" but stated that Bean at least "provides welcome respites from all the prison-based dullness". DVD Talk stated that the film's goal was not to portray good acting, but to show bloody violence, guns, and women as sexual objects, citing Cohan's "agonizing, cleavage-popping performance" in a promiscuous role as an example.
Cinematical and Screen Daily stated that Death Race 2's production values were remarkable for a direct-to-video release. DVD Talk described Death Race 2 as "a visually stimulating picture that keeps to basic ingredients", praising its stunts, "crisp cinematography", and willingness to fully take advantage of its premise "with a little more spunk" than its predecessor. IGN credited Reiné with making the film look slick and more expensive than its budget suggests on Blu-ray, while HorrorNews.net found the editing "top notch" and the soundtrack "pretty bad ass". Den of Geek said the film "still had moments of unfinished effects ... but, if anything, it added to the B-movie charm". ComingSoon.net called the production "pathetic". In the opinion of ComingSoon.net, Reiné abandoned plot for "tons of flashy slow-motion shots, multiple 360-degree pans and countless 'cool looking' inserts", and that "the effects look so terrible you'll cringe more than even laugh at how amateur it is". Exclaim! criticized the overuse of slow motion and the "horrible electronic soundtrack seemingly pulled from a decade-old Matrix clone, which grates more than entertain".
Many reviewers received Death Race 2 favorably over its predecessor, while Total Film found it to be "inferior to the original in every respect", and the Winnipeg Free Press deemed it unworthy of its "superior" predecessor, saying "this movie is no Death Race". The Daily Mirror was equally unenthusiastic about the prequel, calling it "a dream come true for petrolheads, although not quite so much for anyone else". Other reviewers considered it to be an entertaining, full-bore action film, notwithstanding issues with the narrative in terms of plot, character, and originality. According to Fearnet: "It's disposable, forgettable, and silly – but Death Race 2 is also quite a bit better than what normally passes for a 'DTV sequel'".

## Footnotes

* 1 2 While Reiné quoted the film's budget at less than 10 percent of its predecessor, various contemporary sources have reported conflicting estimates: $6 million or less (The Numbers), $7 million (The Hollywood Reporter), and $18 million (IGN).
* ↑ A similar exchange between Katrina and Luke is seen early in the film.
* ↑ The other rebuilt car Reiné refers to in the audio commentary as "Big Bill's car" was a Dodge Ram.
* ↑ Reiné told Dread Central that one of the locations for the racing scenes was the same one he shot the "Death Match" and prison yard sequences in; in the audio commentary, Reiné states the "Death Match" and the prison yard scenes were shot in the cement factory.
* ↑ Death Race 2 placed fourth on the DVD sales chart in its opening week, behind Takers, The Social Network, and Despicable Me.