Thunderbolt



Thunderbolt (1995) is one of the last Jackie Chan films I haven’t seen. From what I read Chan himself isn’t very proud of this one, which may be why it took so long to come out on U.S. DVD even though New Line acquired it back in 2000. It’s not an awful movie, but you can see where Chan may not feel it fits in with his usual idiom.


Those flashbacks to Cannonball Run can be a bitch.

I think the intention of Thunderbolt was to appeal directly to Jackie’s Japanese fandom. The movie starts with Foh (Chan) doing some sort of advanced training with automobiles (all Mitsubishis, of course) in Japan. Then, without explanation, we see him sometime later working with his family (his father and two teenaged sisters) at an automobile repair shop in Hong Kong. An international criminal/street racer named Krugman is terrorizing the city, and Foh is along for one of the stings as the guy who will drive the tow-truck. Things go wrong, and Foh ends up in pursuit of Krugman in a car he commandeers from a pretty young reporter, played by Anita Yuen. Later Foh is encouraged to lie about what happened by an Interpol agent (Michael Wong) because for some reason the Hong Kong police have no grounds to keep Krugman in jail otherwise. Even so, Krugman escapes jail in a big John Woo-esque shootout and attacks Foh’s family with a giant crane. (If this film didn’t star Jackie Chan, that might seem weird.) Then just to keep the plot moving, Krugman kidnaps one of Foh’s sisters and challenges Foh to a race in Japan.


"Give me my quarter back!"

No doubt about it, the plot is silly. The highlight of the movie is definitely the extended fight scene in… Well, let’s see if you can guess which Japanese setting there would likely be a fight scene in? Your choices are a bath house, a ramen restaurant, and a Pachinko parlor. If you’re a Jackie Chan fan you should have said “pachinko parlor,” because of the large amount of breakable glass present. This is one heck of a pachinko parlor, with multiple levels and trampolines hanging from the ceiling. In any case, it’s a great fight scene. There is quite a bit of doubling of Chan during the fights and stunts in Thunderbolt. In fact, some is really obvious:


Not Jackie, but an incredible simulation.

Presumably Chan was hurt at the time, though I’m not sure how. Some sources say he was still recovering form the ankle injury he got while filming Rumble in the Bronx (1996), though that came out after Thunderbolt. It is possible, I suppose, that Rumble in the Bronx was being filmed at the same time. In fact there is one scene in Thunderbolt that looks like it was filmed in America or Canada, like the other film.

The biggest let down for me was the final race. It isn’t very exciting. The street race at the beginning is pretty good, but the final race is presented in a rather matter of fact manner. In fact, I think it’s supposed to look like a the way racing is presented on Japanese TV, complete with an overlay telling us how long the cars take in the pit. At the very end both drivers go off the course, and basically the whole race up to that point is voided as Jackie and Krugman restart from full stops to finish the last 100 yards or so. That's like a race across the universe between Superman and the Flash ending with them both crawling to the finish line! (If you recognized that scenario from World's Finest issues #198-199, "Race to Save the Universe!" please report to nearest sports bar for the atomic wedgie you so obviously deserve.)

Posted: Sun - February 19, 2006 at      

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