''Rush Hour 3'' is a 2007 American buddy cop

action comedy film The action comedy is a film genre that applies to action films where humor plays a much more central role. While early films feature stuntwork and humor, academic Cynthia King wrote that the genre only came into its own as a mainstay of the Americ ...

directed by

Brett Ratner Brett Ratner (born March 28, 1969) is an American film director and producer. He directed the Rush Hour (film series), ''Rush Hour'' film series, ''The Family Man'', ''Red Dragon (2002 film), Red Dragon'', ''X-Men: The Last Stand'', ''Tower Heist ...

, written by Jeff Nathanson. It is the third installment in the ''Rush Hour'' franchise and sequel to ''

Rush Hour 2 ''Rush Hour 2'' is a 2001 American buddy cop action comedy film directed by Brett Ratner and written by Jeff Nathanson. A sequel to '' Rush Hour'' (1998), it is the second installment in the ''Rush Hour'' franchise and stars Jackie Chan and ...

''.

Jackie Chan Fang Shilong (born Chan Kong-sang; 7 April 1954), known professionally as Jackie Chan,; is a Hong Kong actor and filmmaker, known for his slapstick, acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, and innovative stunts, which he typically perf ...

Chris Tucker Christopher Tucker (born August 31, 1971) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. Tucker made his debut in 1992 as a stand-up performer on the HBO comedy series '' Def Comedy Jam'', where he frequently appeared on the show during the 1990 ...

Tzi Ma Tzi Ma (;) is a Hong Kong-American actor. He has appeared in television shows including '' The Man in the High Castle'' and '' 24'', and films including ''Dante's Peak'', ''Rush Hour'', ''Rush Hour 3'', '' Arrival'', '' The Farewell'', ''Tiger ...

and

Philip Baker Hall Philip Baker Hall (September 10, 1931 – June 12, 2022) was an American character actor. He is known for his collaborations with Paul Thomas Anderson, including '' Hard Eight'' (1996), ''Boogie Nights'' (1997), and ''Magnolia'' (1999). He also ...

reprise their roles from the previous films with

Hiroyuki Sanada Hiroyuki Sanada (; ; born 12 October 1960) is a Japanese actor. He has received numerous accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, a British Academy Television Award, a Japan Academy Film Prize, two Hochi Film Award ...

Youki Kudoh is a Japanese actress and singer. She won the award for best newcomer at the 6th Yokohama Film Festival for ''The Crazy Family (1984 film), The Crazy Family''. She also won the awards for best actress at the 16th Hochi Film Award and at the 199 ...

and

Max von Sydow Max von Sydow (; born Carl Adolf von Sydow; 10 April 1929 – 8 March 2020) was a Swedish and French actor. He had a 70-year career in European and American cinema, television, and theatre, appearing in more than 150 films and several television ...

joining the cast. The story centers on Inspector Lee (Chan) and Officer Carter (Tucker) tracking an assassin (Sanada) to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

to unravel a mystery about the Chinese triads. Announced on May 7, 2006, filming began on July 4 on location in Paris and

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. Released on August 10, 2007, the film received negative reviews and grossed $258 million worldwide against a production budget of $125–180 million.

Plot

Three years after the events of ''

'', Chinese Ambassador Solon Han, with

Hong Kong Police Force The Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) is the primary law enforcement, investigative agency, and largest Hong Kong Disciplined Services, disciplined service under the Security Bureau (Hong Kong), Security Bureau of Hong Kong. Pursuant to the one c ...

Chief Inspector Lee as his bodyguard, addresses the importance of fighting the Triads at the World Criminal Court in

, while

LAPD The City of Los Angeles Police Department, commonly referred to as Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), is the primary law enforcement agency of Los Angeles, California, United States. With 8,832 officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the th ...

Detective James Carter is working as a traffic cop. Just before Han announces the whereabouts of Shy Shen, a semi-mythical individual of great importance to the Chinese mob, an

assassin Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden, secret, or planned attack, of a personespecially if prominent or important. It may be prompted by political, ideological, religious, financial, or military motives. Assassinations are orde ...

shoots him. Lee chases after and corners the shooter, but hesitates when he learns that the assassin is his childhood foster brother, Kenji, allowing him to escape just as Carter arrives having heard about the shooting over the police radio. Han is later hospitalized at UCLA Medical Center, having survived the assassination attempt, and Lee and Carter promise his daughter Soo Yung to find the person responsible. She insists they head to the local Kung Fu studio to retrieve an envelope Han left her, but they learn from studio master Yu that the Triads took Soo Yung's belongings and are heading to the hospital to kill Soo Yung and Han. Lee and Carter return to the hospital to intercept the

hitmen Contract killing (also known as murder-for-hire) is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or people. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of compensation, monet ...

who came to kill Han. After defeating them, Lee and Carter interrogate one of them who apparently only speaks French with the help of Sister Agnes, a French-speaking

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service and contemplation, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 5 ...

. For her protection, they take Soo Yung to the French Embassy, leaving her with the French ambassador and chairman of the World Criminal Court, Varden Reynard. Reynard and Soo Yung are nearly killed by a car bomb, so Lee and Carter go to

to investigate this case further. After a painful inspection from Parisian Commissaire Revi, Lee and Carter meet

anti-American Anti-Americanism (also called anti-American sentiment and Americanophobia) is a term that can describe several sentiments and po ...

taxicab driver George, and force him to drive them to a Triad hideout. While there, Carter meets stage performer Geneviève while Lee is tricked by mob assassin Jasmine, who claims to have information about Shy Shen, and Carter saves Lee from being killed. The pair tries to escape, but is ultimately captured by Kenji's men. They are taken to the sewers where Kenji promises to let them live if they leave Paris, but Lee refuses when Kenji cannot grant the same for Han and Soo Yung. Following a short struggle, he and Carter successfully escape. They recover and rest at a

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

, and Lee soon reveals his relationship with Kenji and decides to continue alone after declaring Carter as not his brother, in the same manner as Kenji. A disillusioned Carter leaves, but recomposes himself when he spots and follows Geneviève. Meanwhile, Reynard meets Lee and explains Shy Shen is not a person, but a list of Triad leaders and that Geneviève is Han's informant with access to the list. After locating Geneviève and saving her from being killed, the two flee with her to their hotel. They are attacked by Jasmine, but George rescues them. Geneviève reveals to Lee and Carter that the Triad leaders' names were tattooed on the back of her head and that she will be beheaded if the Triads capture her. Lee and Carter bring her to Reynard, who reveals he was working with the Triads. Kenji calls to inform Lee that he has captured Soo Yung and demands he turn over Geneviève. Lee arrives at the

Eiffel Tower The Eiffel Tower ( ; ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower from 1887 to 1889. Locally nicknamed "''La dame de fe ...

to make the exchange, with Carter disguised as Geneviève with a wig. Kenji challenges Lee to a sword fight, during which the two fall into a safety net. After Kenji's sword cuts the net, Lee tries to save him, but Kenji is touched by Lee's kindness and lets go, falling to his death and devastating Lee. Meanwhile, Carter single-handedly fights off Kenji's henchmen, manages to save Soo Yung, and defeats Jasmine by kicking her into an elevator wheel that bisects her. After escaping the remaining Triad members, Carter and Lee are confronted by Reynard, who threatens to kill Geneviève and frame them. However, George shoots Reynard from behind, killing him. As the police arrive, Revi tries to take credit for Lee and Carter's work, but they both knock him out with a double punch and leave with a victory dance to

Edwin Starr Charles Edwin Hatcher (January 21, 1942 – April 2, 2003), known by his stage name Edwin Starr, was an American singer and songwriter. He is best remembered for his Norman Whitfield-produced Motown singles of the 1970s, most notably the num ...

's "

War War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

Cast

as Chief Inspector Lee, the head of Ambassador Han's security detail. *

as Detective James Carter. Carter is assigned to traffic duty at the beginning of the film as punishment for an unspecified offense when he gets drawn into the investigation of Ambassador Han's shooting. *

as Kenji, Lee's childhood foster brother who grew up together with Lee in an orphanage but later turned to a life of crime. *

as Varden Reynard, a corrupt head of the World Criminal Court who is secretly in league with the Triads. *

Yvan Attal Yvan Attal (; ; born ) is a French actor, scriptwriter and film director. Life and career Born in Tel Aviv, Israel, to History of the Jews in Algeria, Algerian-Jewish parents, he grew up in the outskirts of Paris. His acting debut was in Éri ...

as George Cabbie, a French taxi driver. *

as Dragon Lady Jasmine * Noémie Lenoir as Geneviève / Shy Shen, a French

burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.

performer who gets involved with the Triads after dating Kenji. * Zhang Jingchu as Soo-Yung Han, Ambassador Han's daughter. *

as Ambassador Solon Han, the Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. whom Kenji attempts to assassinate. *

Roman Polanski Raymond Roman Thierry Polański (; born 18 August 1933) is a Polish and French filmmaker and actor. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Roman Polanski, numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, three Britis ...

as Commissaire Revi (uncredited), a French policeman who assaults Lee and Carter at the airport and later attempts to take credit for their work. *

as Captain Bill Diel (uncredited), Carter's supervisor in the LAPD. *

Dana Ivey Dana Ivey (born August 12, 1941) is an American retired actress. She is a five-time Tony Award nominee for her work on Broadway, and won the 1997 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play for her work in both ''Sex and Longi ...

as Sister Agnes, a nun fluent in French who translates for Carter and Lee. * Henry O as Master Yu * Mia Tyler as Marsha * Sarah Shahi as Zoe (uncredited) * David Niven Jr. as British Foreign Minister * Sun Mingming as Kung-Fu Giant *

Julie Depardieu Julie Marion Depardieu (born 18 June 1973) is a French actress who has appeared in a number of successful films. Early life Born 18 June 1973 in Boulogne-Billancourt, she is the daughter of Gérard and Élisabeth Depardieu and the sister of the ...

as Paulette

Production

After the commercial success of the first and second films in the franchise, Tucker received a salary of $25 million, Chan received $15 million, Ratner $7.5 million, and Nathanson $3 million. In addition, Chan received 15% of the box office revenue as well as distribution rights in China and Hong Kong, bringing his total earnings to at least . The scene where Chan and Tucker fight the Kung-Fu Giant, played by Chinese basketball player Sun Mingming, is a parody of

Bruce Lee Bruce Lee (born Lee Jun-fan; November 27, 1940 – July 20, 1973) was an American-born Hong Kong martial artist, actor, filmmaker, and philosopher. He was the founder of Jeet Kune Do, a hybrid martial arts philosophy which was formed from ...

's ''

Game of Death ''Game of Death'' () is an incomplete Hong Kong martial arts film, of which portions were filmed between September and October 1972, and was planned and scheduled to be released by 1973, directed, written, produced by and starring Bruce Lee. Th ...

'', where Lee fights a taller black man played by NBA basketball player

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Kareem Abdul-Jabbar ( ; born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr. , April 16, 1947) is an American former basketball player. He played professionally for 20 seasons for the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Associatio ...

. The film subverts it by having a shorter

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

man, Tucker, fight a taller Chinese man played by a basketball player, Sun.

Release

The film was not screened in Chinese theaters in 2007, to make way for a larger variety of foreign films for that year, according to a business representative (the quota for imported films was 20 per year at the time).

Soundtrack

Lalo Schifrin Boris Claudio "Lalo" Schifrin (born June 21, 1932) is an Argentine-American pianist, composer, arranger, and conductor. He is best known for his large body of film and TV scores since the 1950s, incorporating jazz and Music of Latin America, Lati ...

composed the soundtrack, interspersed with hip hop and R&B music. Two soundtrack albums were released. An album of the hip hop and R&B music used was released on August 8, 2007, on CD and audio cassette from New Line Records and

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

. Another, containing Schifrin's original compositions for the film was released on the

Varèse Sarabande Varèse Sarabande is an American record label, owned by Concord Music Group and distributed by Universal Music Group, which specializes in film scores and cast recording, original cast recordings. It aims to reissue rare or unavailable albums, as ...

label.

Reception

Box office

''Rush Hour 3'' opened on August 10, 2007, and grossed $49.1 million in its opening weekend. Brandon Gray of

Box Office Mojo Box Office Mojo is an American website that tracks box-office revenue in a systematic, algorithmic way. The site was founded in 1998 by Brandon Gray, and was bought in 2008 by IMDb, which itself is owned by Amazon. History Brandon Gray ...

noted: The film grossed $258 million worldwide.

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, ''Rush Hour 3'' has an approval rating of 17% based on 157 reviews, with an average rating of 4.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "''Rush Hour 3'' is a tired rehash of the earlier films, and a change of scenery can't hide a lack of new ideas." Todd Gilchrist of

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

Movies said, "A movie that not only depends on but demands you don't think in order to enjoy it." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film has a score of 44 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is an American market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts from the data. Background Ed Mintz, who ...

gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale. Desson Thomson of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'', giving it three and a half stars out of five, said "at the risk of eternal damnation on the Internet, I admit to laughing at – even feeling momentarily touched by – ''Rush Hour 3.''" Christian Toto of ''

The Washington Times ''The Washington Times'' is an American Conservatism, conservative daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It covers general interest topics with an emphasis on Politics of the United States, national politics. Its broadsheet daily edit ...

'' said, "The Rush job should put the franchise down for good."

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

of the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...

'' was slightly more positive giving the film two stars and saying, "...once you realize it's only going to be so good, you settle back and enjoy that modest degree of goodness, which is at least not badness, and besides, if you're watching ''Rush Hour 3'', you obviously didn't have anything better to do, anyway."

James Berardinelli James Berardinelli (born September 25, 1967) is an American film critic. His reviews are mainly published on his blog ''ReelViews.'' Approved as a critic by the aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, he has published two collections of reviews of movies on ...

of ''ReelViews'' gave the film one-and-a-half stars out of four, and said the movie was dull, uninspired and redundant. In 2025, during an interview with

BuzzFeed BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet mass media, media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John Seward Johnson III, John S. Johnson III to ...

, Jackie Chan expressed his disappointment with the film in comparison to its two predecessors, stating the following:

"You know what, the first one: little money, little time. We shot it like, 'Go, go, go, go!' The second one: a lot of money, a lot of time. The third one: too much money, too much time. Too much money is no good."

Home media

The film was released on December 26, 2007 by

New Line Home Entertainment New Line Home Entertainment (formerly known as New Line Home Video) was the home entertainment distribution arm of the film production studio of the same name, founded in 1990. It was responsible for the distribution of all New Line Cinema the ...

,The DVD release date of ''Rush Hour 3'' varies, as it was seen in

Wal-Mart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores in the United States and 23 other ...

stores on December 22, 2007, while in advertisements for other stores it was not scheduled for release until December 26. on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

and

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

. As of March 30, 2008, it made $80.75 million in home video rentals, making it the top rental of 2007. As of 2018, the film has grossed in American DVD sales.

Sequel

Tucker said in 2019 that he, Chan, and the studio were all interested in a sequel. In December 2022, Chan said that he was in talks to star.

Notes

References

* Text was copied from Rush Hour (franchise)#Future at Wikipedia, which is released under
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA 3.0) license

External links

* * * * {{Authority control 2000s American films 2000s buddy cop films 2000s martial arts comedy films 2000s police comedy films 2007 action comedy films 2007 comedy films 2007 films 2007 martial arts films American action comedy films American buddy comedy films American buddy cop films American martial arts films American police detective films American sequel films Films directed by Brett Ratner Films produced by Roger Birnbaum Films scored by Lalo Schifrin Films set in 2000 Films set in Los Angeles Films set in Paris Films shot in California Films shot in Los Angeles Films shot in New York City Films shot in Paris Films with screenplays by Jeff Nathanson New Line Cinema films Rush Hour (franchise) Triad films