Crank High Voltage – Production Information
Part 2 of Jason Statham’s Hit Man Who Survives the Odds
Apr 15, 2009
Rugged hit man Chev Chelios (Jason Statham) finds himself in another life-threatening situation. In the first Crank film, Chev spent 24 hours doing whatever was necessary to keep his adrenaline racing in order to combat a deadly poison injected into his body. In the new sequel, Crank High Voltage, a Chinese mobster with evil intentions kidnaps Chev.
Overview of Crank High Voltage
The second Crank leaves exactly where the first film ends. The first shot in Crank High Voltage is the last shot in Crank in order to make the two stories appear seamless. Chev awakens three months later from his near-fatal drop from a helicopter unto the asphalt. He discovers that his nearly indestructible heart has been surgically removed by Chinese doctors, and replaced with a battery-operated device that needs regular jolts of electricity to function.
He escapes from his captors and runs for his life, meeting a Mexican gang boss (Clifton Collins, Jr.) and the head of the Chinese Triads (David Carradine) along the way. Chev visits a doctor (Dwight Yoakam) for advice, gets help from a friend (Efren Ramirez), and reunites with his girlfriend, Eve (Amy Smart). From there, he scours Los Angeles trying to find his original heart.
About the Production of Crank High Voltage
- The same writing-directing-executive producing team (Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor) from the first Crank returns for this second installment. They promise (in the production notes) that the action, sex, and comedy have been amped up in the sequel, in addition to twelve villains (instead of eight) as in the original Crank.
- The film shot April 28, 2008 through June 9, 2008 entirely in Los Angeles, using some of the seedier section of L.A. (not usually shown in movies) as a backdrop for Chev’s frantic attempts to reclaim his heart.
- Areas in the Port of Los Angeles, including industrial sections of Wilmington, San Pedro, and Long Beach served as locations. Other areas used for filming include East Los Angeles, Inglewood, and downtown Los Angeles, in addition to the Los Alamitos Race Course, which was used for a sex scene between Chev and Eve.
- Co-writer/co-director Neveldine, a skillful rollerblader, put the camera in peril by strapping on his blades and shooting scenes as he dodged between moving vehicles. He shot some of the most intense, fast-moving scenes this way.
- Altogether about 30 cameras (of different sizes and styles, and with different rigs) were used in order to give the film the look of a hard-core action film. The goal was to capture the “bullet time” look that keeps action moving and freezes it at the same time.
- Starring Jason Statham, Amy Smart, Clifton Collins, Jr., David Carradine, Efren Ramirez, Bai Ling, Dwight Yoakam, Reno Wilson, Joseph Julian Soria, Corey Haim
- Writers-Directors: Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor
- Run Time: 85 minutes
- Rating: R (for frenetic strong bloody violence throughout, crude and graphic sexual content, nudity, and pervasive language)
For more information about this film, read Fast Facts About the Cast of Crank High Voltage.
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