The Transporter (French: Le Transporteur) is a 2002 French English-language action-thriller film directed by Cory Yuen from a screenplay by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen. It is the first installment in the Transporter franchise and stars Jason Statham as Frank Martin, alongside Shu Qi, François Berléand, Matt Schulze, and Ric Young. In the film, Frank, a British mercenary driver living in France, finds himself involved in a people smuggling plot.
The Transporter was inspired by the short film series The Hire. The Transporter premiered at the Regency Village Theatre in Los Angeles on 2 October 2002 and was first theatrically released in the United States on 11 October by 20th Century Fox, and in France on 23 October by EuropaCorp. It received mixed reviews from critics, with praise for its action sequences but criticism for its story. It grossed $43.9 million worldwide and was followed by the sequel Transporter 2 (2005).
