Taxi 2 () is a 2000 French action comedy film directed by Gérard Krawczyk and released in March 2000. Starring Samy Naceri, Frédéric Diefenthal and Marion Cotillard. It is the second installment in the Taxi film series. It is a sequel to Taxi, written by Luc Besson and directed by Gérard Pirès in 1999. It was followed by Taxi 3 in January 2003. Plot A Japanese minister of defence is traveling to Paris to sign a weapons contract between Japan and France, but first, he is visiting Marseille to view and rate the city police's anti gang tactics (using fake attacks on him). During the visit, however, he is kidnapped by a group working for the Japanese yakuza. Emilien (Frédéric Diefenthal) is determined to rescue the minister and detective Petra (Emma Sjöberg), his girlfriend who was also kidnapped, and restore the honour of his department. Once again, speed demon taxi driver Daniel (Samy Naceri) is called upon to save the day with his high speed driving skills. Also with the Peugeot, the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI is also featured as a star car driven by the Yakuzas. Cast Samy Naceri as Daniel Morales Frédéric Diefenthal as Émilien Coutant-Kerbalec Marion Cotillard as Lilly Bertineau Emma Sjöberg as Petra Bernard Farcy as Commissaire Gérard Gibert Jean-Christophe Bouvet as Général de division Edmond Bertineau Frédérique Tirmont as Mme Bertineau Tsuyu Shimizu as Yuli Édouard Montoute as Alain Trésor Ko Suzuki as Katano Yoshi Oida as Yuki Tsumoto Jean-Louis Schlesser as himself Production Development Production started immediately after the massive success of the first film in the theaters, but this time Besson wanted to up his share of the split with the production company ARP to 70/30 from 50/50. Lead of ARP and Besson's friend Pétin grit his teeth, as he had carried the first project, but he agreed. The director of the first film Gérard Pirès was replaced by Gérard Krawczyk, who detractors say was more controllable, but who responded back stating he did what he wanted without needing to respect the scenarios laid by Besson. Cameraman death On Monday, August 16, 1999, only two weeks into filming, Boulevard de l'Amiral-Bruix was closed to traffic for the length between Porte Dauphine and Porte Maillot. The Peugeot 406 had to come speeding out of the tunnel, head on to the springboard, jump over two AMX-30 tanks and land on a bed of boxes and