Tagline: Prepare for the next level.
Ice Cube replaces Vin Diesel in the lead role of a Gen-X James Bond prototype whose extreme sports skills and criminal record make him an effective and expendable secret agent. Samuel L. Jackson will return as NSA agent Augustus Gibbons, the handler of the incorrigible agent drafted to tackle unsavory thugs around the world.
In Revolution Studios’ bold new action thriller XXX: State of the Union, a follow-up to the blockbuster franchise film of 2002, the winds of political change are rumbling through the halls of the Capitol as a popular President is being targeted for assassination by a radical splinter group of dissenters deep within the United States government.
Only two people stand between anarchy and freedom: One of them, Augustus Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson), has just survived a hit on the National Security Agency’s top-secret headquarters and is on the run. The other, a decorated Special Ops soldier, Darius Stone (Ice Cube), sits under close guard in a military prison.
Gibbons once again finds himself in need of an outsider and Stone is his man. The new XXX agent must uncover the insurgents from within. It is the nation’s only hope to stop the first coup d’etat in American history.
In XXX: State of the Union, Samuel L. Jackson returns as Augustus Gibbons, the stalwart National Security Agency agent who guided operations in the original XXX. In this new franchise installment, Gibbons and gadget expert Toby Lee Shavers (Michael Roof), escape a deadly attack by unknown assailants on the NSA’s XXX underground operations center.
Gibbons suspects the killers were sent by a radical, covert faction within the government and is looking for a new special agent to smoke them out. This time, Gibbons wants an experienced, well-trained military type with street credibility, who can discover the source of the insurgency from within.
Unfortunately, the perfect man for the job is in jail. He is Darius Stone (Ice Cube) and is currently under lockup in a military prison for striking a superior officer. Gibbons aids in Stone’s daring escape from prison and convinces him to become a new XXX agent to stop the overthrow of the U.S. government.
At the White House, the centrist President Sanford (Peter Strauss ) butts heads with his radical Secretary of Defense, George Deckert (Willem Dafoe), a former general with past ties to both Gibbons and Stone. When Deckert attends a government gala, Stone impersonates a waiter in the hope of overhearing insider information. At the fete he meets Charlie Mayweather (Sunny Mabrey), the daughter of a Cabinet official who ultimately helps Stone escape.
Stone is also being pursued by FBI agent Kyle Steele (Scott Speedman), an ambitious up-and-comer who considers Stone a dangerous criminal. To aid him in his mission, Stone turns to two old friends from his days on the streets of Washington D.C.: Lola (Nona Gaye), a former flame who now owns a high-end car dealership, and Zeke (Xzibit), a renegade chop-shop operator with access to both weaponry and personnel.
When President Sanford is kidnapped after a brazen attack on the U.S. Capitol, Stone and his compatriots must unite to oppose one of the most formidable threats to American freedom ever mounted, led by an enemy with the ultimate in modern firepower and manpower at its disposal.
Production notes provided by Columbia Pictures.
XXX: State of Union
Starring: Ice Cube, Samuel L. Jackson, Scott Speedman, Peter Strauss, Sunny Mabrey
Directed by: Lee Tamahori
Screenplay by: Rich Wilkes
Release Date: April 29th, 2005
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sequences of intense action violence and some language.
Studio: Columbia Pictures
Box Office Totals
Domestic: $26,873,932 (37.8%)
Foreign: $44,148,761 (62.2%)
Total: $71,022,693 (Worldwide)