Gun-toting Jason Statham and scantily-clad Jessica Alba don’t do too much to dissuade typecasts in the latest trailer for The Mechanic: Resurrection.
The duo team up for the sequel to Statham’s 2011 action thriller, itself a remake of Charles Bronson’s 1972 original.
Alba plays the action star’s old flame, who is kidnapped in order to blackmail Statham into pulling off three ‘impossible’ hits.
‘The principal I represent has an offer for you,’ the Courier – played by Rhatha Phongam – tells him. ‘Each death must look like an accident… your specialty I believe.’
The trailer opens with Statham pulling off one of these hits, which for something that is supposed to look like an accident is incredibly elaborate and even more conspicuous.
After scaling to the top of a skyscraper, he climbs along the underside of an enormous overhanging glass bottomed pool jutting out off the roof above the city.
He then drills a hole in the bottom just as his target dives in for a swim, sending tens of thousands of gallons of water and one arms dealer onto the pavement below in what the coroner will presumably decree an accident.
‘You have 36 hours to eliminate all the targets from this list – or they will eliminate me,’ Alba tells Statham via FaceTime, after she is grabbed from the idyllic beach retreat by a team of mercenaries.
‘They’ appears to be one Riah Crain – played by Sam Hazeldine – an international arms dealer who wants his nearest three rivals taken care of.
‘I’ve been waiting too long to get even with you,’ he menacingly informs him.
A helpful digital portfolio reveals that one of Riah rivals is Tommy Lee Jones doing his best Ringo Starr impression – his profile even reveals he is ‘Britanian’ by birth.
But instead of eliminating him, it looks like Jason and Tommy team up.
‘I wanna help you avoid an accident,’ Statham tells him after breaking into his home.
‘What do you have in mind?’ Jones asks. ‘You’ll have to die,’ he replies with a grin.
Alba meanwhile is no helpless damsel, as she is seen beating up one of her armed guards before swimming away from the camera as it lingers on some gratuitous bikini shots.
‘I’ve spent my whole life setting people up to die,’ Statham tells her. ‘Let’s set you up to live.’
Mechanic: Resurrection explodes into cinemas on August 26.
