Jason Statham hasn’t died onscreen since 2007’s War, which quietly marked the end of one phase of his career. Jason Statham action movies come in all shapes and sizes, from the family-friendly thrills of the Fast & Furious saga to the R-rated grit of The Beekeeper. Intriguingly, one of the actors Statham has worked with the most is Jet Li.
An early Statham action movie was The One, where he plays a futuristic cop chasing two versions of Jet Li: one good and one evil. Other Jason Statham/Jet Li collaborations include the first three Expendables and 2007’s War. This action thriller has been all but forgotten, and cast the action legends as foes once again.
In War, Statham plays an FBI agent named Crawford, who bends the rules to chase down Li’s Rogue, the ᴀssᴀssin who murdered Crawford’s partner. War is a mediocre thriller that largely wastes a strong cast, though to its credit, it has a genuinely shocking twist involving Statham’s character and his link to Rogue.
War only grossed $40 million on a $25 million budget (via The Numbers), and while not a great movie by any stretch, its 14% Rotten Tomatoes score feels a tad unfair. The thriller is also notable for being the last time, to date, Statham has played a character who doesn’t survive the whole movie.
War Was The Last Time Jason Statham Played A Character Who Died
Statham lost this particular War
War initially seems like a clear-cut case of good vs evil, but that perspective shifts as the story unfolds. Crawford is revealed to have demons of his own, while Rogue has a secret vendetta mission he’s also pursuing.
Unlike the Fast & Furious saga where actors like Statham, Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson refuse to lose fights to each other, War has a clear winner in Jet Li’s Rogue. After a final showdown, Crawford learns the truth about Rogue, and after turning to save him from a sniper, the ᴀssᴀssin shoots Crawford in the back.
The sniper in War’s ending is played by Sung Kang, who Statham would later co-star alongside in the Fast & Furious series.
It’s all the more shocking now that War kills Statham off because he hasn’t died in a movie since. He’s survived two Megs, two Mechanics and four Expendables, and while he’s faked his death in movies like The Fate of the Furious, his characters always lives to fight another day.
In the above cases, Statham is always playing an unambiguous good guy, however. His War character is more morally compromised, so his fate isn’t totally unearned. Still, it was definitely a surprise back in 2007.
Jason Statham Rarely Dies Onscreen
The list of Statham’s onscreen deaths is a short one
War joined a select list of movies that were brave enough to actually kill Statham off. In fact, there are only five movies total where Statham doesn’t make it to the end credits, with two of those being villainous roles – another rarity for the action icon.
|
Every Jason Statham Franchise |
Number Of Entries |
Box Office Gross |
|---|---|---|
|
The Transporter |
4 |
$315,536,842 |
|
Crank |
2 |
$79,397,662 |
|
The Expendables |
4 |
$840,842,411 |
|
The Mechanic |
2 |
$202,077,028 |
|
The Fast and the Furious |
11 |
$7,321,468,458 |
|
The Meg |
2 |
$921,566,988 |
Statham’s first demise came with the little-seen thriller Turn It Up from 2000, where his gangster antagonist is sH๏τ and killed during the final shootout. Ghosts of Mars marked Statham’s first action role, and while he displays his punching and shooting skills, he still gets hacked to death by the тιтular ghosts in the finale.
In Cellular, Statham plays one of his rare villains. In that 2004 thriller, he is sH๏τ and killed by a detective played by William H. Macy. Statham’s next early exit was 2006’s The Pink Panther remake, where he played a football coach killed by a poisoned dart in the opening.
He also technically died in Crank, where his hitman falls to his death from a helicopter. Considering Crank 2: High Voltage reveals Statham’s Chev somehow survived, that no longer counts.
Jason Statham’s War Death Is… Confusing
War 2 probably isn’t coming anytime soon
What’s interesting to note about Crawford’s demise in War is how, well, odd it is. It looks like Statham’s protagonist is going to redeem himself by taking the sniper bullet for Rogue, but then Li’s hitman shoots him offscreen and, after some choppy editing, Crawford’s body hits the ground.
There’s no blood, visible bullet wounds, or really any signs that Crawford is even hurt. Crawford’s death is so anticlimactic it almost feels like the producers softened it in case War was a success, and sequel talks cropped up in the aftermath.
That never happened of course, and War has been largely forgotten. Statham wasn’t a big fan of the final product either, so even if a sequel was mooted, he might not have been interested.
War Marked The End Of The Vulnerable Jason Statham Action Hero
Death wouldn’t dare approach Jason Statham now
From the time Statham made his action breakthrough with The Transporter series, he tried to figure out his persona as a movie star. That’s why much of Statham’s early filmography during this time feels almost experimental, mixing genres like comedy (Mean Machine), action (Crank), drama (London) and even fantasy (In the Name of the King).
War feels like the end of the first phase of Statham’s career, where he was willing to play more vulnerable roles in his action movies. From War onwards, he’s largely played variations on the same kind of indestructible character.
Since War, Jason Statham has also largely stuck with action, with his most recent excursion outside the genre being the 2015 comedy Spy.
His characters win every fight, they never get seriously injured and they most certainly don’t die. Statham will flash a more sensitive side in movies like Safe or Wild Card – but he’s still going to come out on top without breaking much of a sweat.
Since War, Statham has also largely stuck with action, with his most recent excursion outside the genre being the 2015 comedy Spy. War is an interesting time capsule in one regard, marking the end of Jason Statham figuring out his screen image.
Source: The Numbers, Rotten Tomatoes
