Film / Crank

aka: Crank High Voltage

"Fuck you, Chelios!"

Crank is a 2006 action film where Jason Statham, as a hitman named Chev Chelios, kicks everyone's ass. Chelios has been injected with a slow-acting poison that will eventually cause his body to shut down. His doctor is far away and his flight was delayed. If he runs out of adrenaline, he will die.

Followed by a sequel, Crank: High Voltage, in 2009. After the events of the first movie, Chev pursues his heart, which has been literally stolen by Chinese gangsters. He must electrocute himself to charge his artificial heart and prevent himself from dying. Hilarity Ensues.

Character tropes go on to the Characters Sheet.

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Crank provides examples of:

Both movies

• Bigger Is Better in Bed: Chev and his girlfriend make love on a turf. (Don't ask.) The racing horses jump over them and his girlfriend has a good look at...Well, her face says everything.
• Bilingual Bonus: Possibly for a German. An assonance between "El Huron" (The Ferret) and "whore" works much better there.
• Black-and-Gray Morality: Chelios himself is not a saintly protagonist, but the people he's up against are much worse. Borders on Evil vs. Evil in High Voltage, though.
• Black Comedy: A perfect example would be in the second movie, where an innocent bystander from the first movie gets therapy; cue ricocheting bullet hitting him in the head and his therapist puking her guts out into a garbage can. It helps that the two of them are both such utterly bizarre and cartoonish characters that you're not gonna be crying over it.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: A scene in the first movie has Chev reading the on-screen subtitles. In the second movie, he whistles along with the soundtrack early on and gives a middle finger to the audience during the ending.
• The Cameo:
  • Chester Bennington shows up a few times. The first of which is in the original movie, where he suggests the acquisition of epinephrine in order for Chev to stave off the poison.
  • Ron Jeremy and a whole group of porn stars in the second movie. Made even funnier when you hear in an interview with Brian Taylor that they never intended for Ron Jeremy to be in the movie, he just found out about it and showed up.
  • Lloyd Kaufman
  • Maynard James Keenan. He's walking the dog in the second movie.
  • Geri Halliwell (formerly known as Ginger Spice).
  • John de Lancie as a news reporter.
  • Sam Witwer briefly appears as a random mook.
• Cluster F-Bomb: FUCK YOU, CHELIOS! Even turns into a montage in the middle of the sequel.
• Deus Sex Machina: Chelios' problems can be solved momentarily by screwing or rubbing on little old ladies.
• Extremely Short Timespan: Both films unfold in less than 24 hours.
• Fanservice: The movies basically push the R rating as absolutely far as it will go, in terms of nudity and sex as well as profanity and violence.
• Gorn: The violence is pretty intense. Fingers get blown up, palms being impaled in sewing machines and bodies on fire... The list goes on.
• Homage: The whole series is basically one long video game.
• Humiliation Conga: While Chev is already a Butt-Monkey for most of what he goes through, each movie tends to contain at least one segment where he has to stop being badass for a while and just do some flat-out embarrassing things to stay alive.
• Living on Borrowed Time: Letting the adrenaline out keeps death at bay.
• Making Love in All the Wrong Places: In both movies, Chelios and his girlfriend have sex in public to keep him alive.
• Memetic Badass: Chev appears to be one of these in-universe, to judge from the other characters' reactions to him. On the downside, that's exactly the reason why the Triads stole his heart in the first place.
• No One Could Survive That!: Arguably the endings of both movies. The fact that Ricky Verona survived... um, sort of would probably also count.
• Passing Judgment: Jason Statham is having sex with his girlfriend in the middle of Chinatown. In public (long story). The passing judgment? A bus of attractive Japanese women who later comment on the news about his robustness and vigor.
• Pet the Dog: Chev's behavior toward his girlfriend, Eve, and arguably the doctor.
• Phrase Catcher: "Fuck you, Chelios!"
• Product Placement: Google Maps is used during transitions on occasion.
• Rasputinian Death: Chelios... twice. He gets better both times.
• Rated M for Manly: As a review on Cracked puts it: "If you piled all the guns in the world on one side of a room and Crank on the other, Crank would still be the manliest thing in the room."
• Rule of Cool: Very, very little in either film makes any sense, or has any kind of genuine believability. Fortunately, it doesn't need any, either.
• Running Gag: The Finger Gun. Whenever Chevs has it pointed to people they appear to die, except they were shot by someone else offscreen.
• Sequel Hook: In the first movie, where Chelios opens his eyes after seemingly have died for the eleventeenth time, and in the second movie, where he does it again.
• Throw-Away Guns: Chelios acts like an FPS protagonist, dropping guns and swapping them for whatever dead mooks are carrying when his current weapon runs dry.
• Why Won't You Die?: Chev Chelios will do anything to keep himself alive a little longer. Which frustrates his enemies to no end.
• Willing Suspension of Disbelief: And you're going to need it for both movies.

Crank

• Auto Erotica: Eve performs oral sex on Chev all while they are being chased by Verona's thugs.
• Bulletproof Human Shield: Chev Chelios uses his friend's dead body as a shield.
• Camera Abuse: Chev wields a cleaver so hard it manages to dislodge the film from its sprockets.
• Cassandra Truth: Eve has a hard time believing her boyfriend is a hitman. And that he's been poisoned and needs a constant adrenaline rush in order to survive.
• Clothing Damage: Chev accidentally rips Eve's dress just before they have sex in Chinatown, which has the convenient effect of making her outfit much more Stripperiffic for the rest of the film.
• Car Cushion: Chelios's free fall in the final scene ends on the rooftop of a car which helps to explain his survival.
• Disney Villain Death: Played with. Both Chelios and Verona fall out of a helicopter. Subverted for Verona, since Chelios snaps his neck in mid-fall. Also subverted with Chelios himself, since he gets better in the second film.
• "Eureka!" Moment: Early, Chev remembers how his heart felt better when he smashed the TV and sped in his car (raising his adrenaline).
  I'm gonna have to kick some black ass.
• Harmful to Minors: A bus full of Korean schoolgirls witness Chelios and Eve having sex at the marketplace. One of them later gives an interview to the media where she sounds very impressed by what she saw.
• Ironic Echo: "Experiencing a little twenty-twenty hindsight right about now, ain't ya?"
• Jumping on a Grenade: One of the bad guys uses his bodyguard to save himself from the blast. The bodyguard sees this as an honor, maybe because he didn't notice the grenade and probably thought his boss pushed him down to keep him from becoming a bullet sponge.
• The Last Dance: Since he is screwed no matter what he does, during the climax he decides to assault the main villain's hideout and try to take as many crooks he can and get revenge.
• Noodle Incident: Much of the dialogue implies that it's not the first time Chev went into an adrenaline-fueled rampage. Special mention goes to his coke dealer Orlando implying that it's not the first time Chev fought with his gang on a coke rage.
  Chev: I know what I have to do... I'm going to have to kick some black ass.
  *Fight ensues.*
  Orlando: There he goes again.
• Police Are Useless: When evading the police in the hospital, they spend about 7 seconds "searching" the room he's hiding in before declaring it clear, all the while ignoring the conspicuous man-sized cabinet where he was actually hiding. Ends up zig-zagged when they aren't fooled by Chev's hospital gown disguise.
• Raging Stiffie: After taking a large epinephrine shot, he finds that he's got a "steel hardon", as described by his doctor.
• Unreliable Narrator: The creators mention in the commentary for the first film that everything that happens after Chev drinks the "plant shit" drug may not have actually happened, at least not the way the viewer sees it.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Chelios asks Verona this a couple of times. It would certainly have saved him a lot of trouble.
• Your Mime Makes It Real: Subverted during the final confrontation. Chev "fires" a Finger Gun to one of his enemies' lackeys, only for the guy to get a Boom, Headshot!. Turns out The Cavalry has arrived (one of them shot the guy) and is helping him because of an Enemy Mine situation.

Crank: High Voltage''

• Acoustic License: Subverted from the first movie. Chelios left a long heartfelt speech on his girlfriend's voicemail as he was plummeting from a helicopter. We find out in the sequel that she heard none of it because his voice was far overpowered by the sound of rushing wind.
• And Show It to You: A rare survivor's example, when Chelios revives in time to see his original heart being removed.
• Ass Shove: Crosses into Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique at the beginning.
• Back from the Dead: Chelios. Several people openly comment on this.
• Behemoth Battle: The fight between Chev and Vang is a parody of this.
• Big Damn Heroes: An army of transsexuals called in by Venus and strippers by the Asian hooker save Chelios' ass.
• Black Comedy: The movie is entirely made out of this and intentionally offensive stereotypes.
• Bloodier and Gorier: While the first film was very brutal and gory enough, this movie just ramps it up even further with much more gruesome kills than ever before
• Breast Attack: During a shootout at a strip club, one of the strippers is shot sideways through both breasts, which proceed to leak saline and deflate as she screams. She shows up along with the rest of the strippers at the movie's climax, notably flatter and with a bandage around her chest.
• Celebrity Paradox: When an old woman is asked to describe Chev's appearance, she says he looked like "The teabag, you know, the Transporter fella." This seems to be a reference to Robert Knepper, who played the character "T-Bag" in Prison Break and starred in the third Transporter film with Jason Statham, Chev's actor.
• Continuity Nod: The first time Chev points his finger like a gun at someone's head and a bullethole appears, it had been planned out beforehand. When it happens again in the sequel, he stares at his hand with an expression that clearly says 'What the hell? It's happening on its own now?'
  • Even more true with the character of Venus. In a flashback in the second film, we see Venus and Kaylo who are shown at the dance party that Kaylo had been in the night before the events of the first film. When you go back to watch the same flashback scene with Kaylo in the first film, you can see Venus dancing next to him, wearing the same outfit.
• Country Matters: Chelios screams at a man: "MASSIVE HOMO CUNT!"
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Venus. "You killed my brother, motherfucker. Prepare to die."
• "Eureka!" Moment: Eve has one, complete with a graphic of a lightbulb appearing next to her head.
• Disposable Sex Worker: Played with: Chev (unintentionally) saves Ria from becoming one.
  • Played a bit more straight in the final battle: an army of prostitutes called by Ria and Venus gun down the various mooks, including a few hapless naked women and some of the prostitutes themselves.
  • A few strippers also die in the second action scene.
• Darker and Edgier: If you thought the first movie was very grisly and graphic, oh boy, just wait till you see this movie! This film has an even longer and more explicit sex scene than the first film, far more gruesome scenes of torture such as the nipple removal, and where Chev has his crotch shocked after he is captured by El Huron, as well as him having his heart removed and needing to be shocked repeatedly to keep his artificial one pumping up to the point where he is on fire by the end of the film. This makes its predecessor look G rated by comparison
• Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: Following his gunfight escape, Chev casually walks up to the last mook standing... whistling his own theme song.
• Face–Heel Turn: Don Kim is spared by Chev in the first movie and comes to his aid in the climax, but by the second movie he tries to cash in on a bounty on Chev.
• Girl on Girl Is Hot: Defied by eve when the red-headed stripper starts feeling her up in the back of the cop car. She's clearly not into it and eventually headbutts her to get her to stop.
• Hand Cannon: The number of Desert Eagles used is close to insane.
• Hilarious Outtakes:
  Statham: "I take it you're the faggot who's been hunting me all day?... (reads line) I'm sorry, the Ferret..."
• Hilarity Ensues: While the first movie is (somewhat) sane, the second one is so ridiculously over the top that it qualifies as comedy gold.
• Hollywood Tourette's: Subverted. Venus, who claims to have "full-body Tourette's" gets periodic full-body convulsions (in line with a very severe motor tic), but swears significantly less than the healthy but foul-mouthed Chelios.
• I Can't Hear You: Shockingly for a film like this, they show that the call Chev made to his girlfriend while falling out of a helicopter in the first film was completely unintelligible because of the wind rushing past him. It is possibly the only moment of 'realism' in either film.
• Immediate Sequel: Takes place one minute after the previous film ends when Chev after falling out of the helicopter is taken away by medics.
• Look Ma, I Am on TV!: The film had a guy flaunt Eve's panties to the camera.
• Lost in Translation: The Mook with the shotgun stuck up his ass is supremely confused when Chev asks what happened to his "Strawberry tart".
• Lyrical Dissonance: REO Speedwagon's "Keep On Loving You" is played as Chelios literally burns to a crisp.
• MacGuffin: Johnny Vang's red cooler until we find out it doesn't actually hold Chelios' heart and instead has something so disturbing that Chev looks at Johnny and says sincerely, "I am shocked to my core. You've got some deep problems, motherfucker."
• Made of Iron: The Chinese prostitute, who gets hit by a car and survives.
• Mighty Whitey and Mellow Yellow: Bai Ling's character (Ria) is determined to fulfill this trope after Chev accidentally saves her from a bad guy. Chev's lack of interest in her doesn't seem to matter.
  "He my Kevin Costner!"
• MST3K Mantra: Invoked in-universe. A news reporter (de Lancie) comments on the implausibility of someone (Verona) falling from the sky randomly being "bullshit". His words.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: How Chev defeats El Huron at the end.
• "Not If They Enjoyed It" Rationalization: His girlfriend wasn't exactly willing with the public sex at first... and promptly developed a fetish for it in the second movie.
• Now It's My Turn: Chev's electric heart starts running out when a bunch of cops hogpile on him... then one of them brings out a stun gun.
• One-Man Army: About 5 seconds after entering a whore house full of gangsters, every last one is tossed out a window or through a wall where a window isn't available.
• Product Placement: Of all things, the heart. Chev's artificial heart is an actual thing, and they used the real name and company. They changed it up a bit for the movie, obviously (the real one doesn't have external batteries, but does have recharger ports), but the fact that it survives all the crap Chev puts it through and comes out whole at the end could be considered the ultimate (albeit heavily fictionalized) endorsement.
• Random Events Plot: Very little in the film makes sense and mostly things just kind of happen at random. You can jump from the first 10 minutes to the last 10 and not miss much of the story.
• Riddle for the Ages: What was in Johnny Vang's cooler?
• Shout-Out:
  • There's a random giant rubber monster movie segment at one point.
  • The Chinese hooker calls Chev "her Kevin Costner" and says she'll be "like Whitney Houston."
• Unexplained Recovery: Chelios. One of the taglines is actually "He was dead... but he got better"
• The Unreveal: "What kind of sick freak carries something like that around in a box?"
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: We get the lovely scene of a woman puking directly onto the camera.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: What the hell was in Johnny Vang's cooler? It's probably for the best that no one found out...
• Wouldn't Shoot a Girl: Chev has little problem beating the shit out of and possibly killing cops, but merely threatens the lone female cop to make her keep her distance while he's recharging/escaping. The only time he actually does injury to a female is completely by accident, when he sets the Asian hooker on fire by hugging her while hallucinating... um, and on fire.
• Yellow Face: David Carradine as Poon Dong.
• Your Mime Makes It Real: Chev points his finger and a guy's head explodes... although this time there's no cavalry providing support. The dumbfounded expression on Chev's face shows this came as a surprise to him too.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: "This is not my fucking pumper!"

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