xXx, pronounced "Triple X", is a 2002 American action film directed by Rob Cohen and starring Vin Diesel as Xander Cage, a thrill seeking extreme sports enthusiast, stuntman and rebellious extreme sport athlete-turned-reluctant spy for the National Security Agency who is sent on a dangerous mission to infiltrate a group of potential terrorists in Central Europe. xXx also stars Asia Argento and Marton Csokas.
The film received mixed reviews but was a financial success for the studios, grossing US$277,448,382 worldwide. It was followed by a 2005 sequel entitled
An NSA agent infiltrates a Rammstein concert only to be killed by Anarchy 99, an underground Eastern European group. After losing the third agent assigned to the mission, NSA operative Augustus Gibbons gets permission to run a project to find a person to infiltrate Anarchy 99, since conventional agents are too obvious to the group.
Xander Cage is a law-breaking, extreme sports enthusiast, with a propensity for rebellious behavior. After crashing California senator Dick Hotchkiss' car in response to the senator championing a ban of controversial video games and music, Cage's hideout is raided during a party by a SWAT team and he is tranquilized. Cage wakes up in a diner. He notices things are out of place and is not surprised during a fake robbery attempt. After Cage quickly foils the "robbery", Gibbons informs him that the whole scenario was part of a test and that he passed. Cage tells Gibbons that he's not interested and is once again tranquilized as he attempts to leave.
Cage wakes up in a U.S. Marine cargo plane along with two other criminal types similar to Cage. The cargo door opens and the group is dumped in Colombia and taken captive by a Colombian drug cartel after stumbling upon a cocaine plantation. The cartel leader, El Jefe (Danny Trejo), attempts to interrogate the three who, believing the scene to be another NSA setup, jokingly refuse to cooperate. As the drug lord begins to use torture, Cage realizes that the situation is real and frees himself and the others as the Colombian Army raid the plantation. As Cage attempts to escape, he is captured by camouflaged NSA agents.
The next morning, Gibbons says that exposing the Colombian drug cartel was another part of the test. Cage is given a choice by Gibbons: work for him or serve a lengthy prison term in Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary. He grudgingly chooses government employment and Cage goes undercover in the Czech Republic to find out more about "Anarchy 99". Their leader, Yorgi, is an ex-Soviet soldier who has a grudge against authority and society in general. Xander finds himself drawn to Yorgi's apparent girlfriend Yelena, and he negotiates a political asylum deal with Gibbons to secure a new life for her in the United States.
Cage learns that Anarchy 99 is a terrorist organization, planning a series of chemical weapons attacks on major cities by utilizing a high speed, automated seafaring and river-faring drone named Ahab, which is equipped with a device designed to travel to highly populated areas to deploy its missiles and then submerge in the ocean. The chemical weapon (referred to as "Silent Night") is made of everyday chemicals that are lethal in combination. Its formula has been missing since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. After killing millions the chemicals are designed to harmlessly disperse in water. Yorgi's goal is to bring civilization to an anarchic end, destroying the system that killed many his military comrades for no reason.
An agent-turned-criminal, Milan Sova, unaware of Yorgi's ultimate plans, finds Cage's methods extreme and defects in support of Yorgi. Yelena is forced to kill Sova and reveals that she is an abandoned agent of the FSB who was assigned to monitor Yorgi. Cage arranges an operation with Czech authorities to raid the remote castle Anarchy 99 uses as a base. Cage is briefly captured before the Czech police arrive, blowing up the mansion. In the ensuing chaos, Yorgi escapes with his right-hand man, Kirill, an expert sniper. Cage and Yelena follow them and Cage kills Kirill using a heat seeking rocket (due to the fact he's smoking a cigarette). After Cage shoots and kills Yorgi, he speeds along winding roads and parasails onto Ahab as it speeds down the Vltava River towards Prague. Cage finally destroys the drone and the chemicals on board.
Later, Cage is on vacation with Yelena in Bora Bora as agent Gibbons jokingly informs him that because of his actions, he has passed "The Test", the "Gibbons Test". He also says that he needs him for another assignment, as "something else has come up". Cage ignores this as he and Yelena go for a swim.
