XXX was marketed as a James Bond style film for the new millennium and featured similar gadgetry, international schemes and intrigues, villain-sponsored take-over-the-world schemes backed up by doomsday devices, a female co-star / love interest, and outrageous stunts (as Roger Ebert put it, "Why blow up two cars when you can blow up twenty?").

XXX was written by Rich Wilkes, directed by Rob Cohen (who also directed Diesel in 2001's The Fast and the Furious), and produced by Neal H. Moritz for Revolution Studios. Stuntman Harry L. O'Connor was killed in an accident during filming.

A sequel was released in 2005, titled XXX: State of the Union, starring rap artist/actor Ice Cube and Willem Dafoe.

Plot summary

Tagline: A new breed of secret agent.

Vin Diesel stars as Xander "XXX" Cage, an extreme sports star that gets in trouble with the law. He's given a chance of having the charges against him dropped, by working as an undercover agent for NSA agent Augustus Gibbons (played by Samuel L. Jackson).

Betting XXX can succeed where other conventional spies have failed, Gibbons sends him to to infiltrate the Anarchy 99 - an underground Russian crime ring - undetected, using his natural athletic prowess and a whole lot of attitude.

As the story unfolds, XXX will have to stop the Anarchy 99's plans to unleash Ahab, a solar-powered robotic submarine which mission is to terminate the world's most prominent capital cities with chemical WMDs.

Cast and roles

Vin Diesel - Xander Cage
Asia Argento - Yelena
Marton Csokas - Yorgi
Samuel L. Jackson - Augustus Gibbons
Michael Roof - Agent Toby Lee Shavers
Richy Müller - Milan Sova
Werner Dähn - Kirill
Petr Jákl - Kolya (as Petr Jakl)
Jan Pavel Filipensky - Viktor (as Jan Filipensky)
Tom Everett - Senator Dick Hotchkiss
Danny Trejo - El Jefe
Thomas Ian Griffith - Agent Jim McGrath
Eve - J.J.
Leila Arcieri - Jordan King
William Hope - Agent Roger Donnan

Filming locations

Most of the movie is set in Prague, Czech Republic
Bora Bora, Tahiti, French Polynesia: final scenes

Soundtrack

The soundtrack is on Universal Records.

Disc 1-The Heavy Metal Side

Feuer Frei! - Rammstein
Bodies (Vrenna XXX Mix) - Drowning Pool
I Will Be Heard - Hatebreed
Millionaire - Queens of the Stone Age
Before I Die - Mushroomhead
Get Up Again - Flaw
Landing - Moby
Adrenaline - Gavin Rossdale from Bush
004 - Fermin IV
Technologicque Park - Orbital
Juicy - I Mother Earth