When Jackie Chan is on screen, he is either doing a death-defying stunt or fighting bad guys in creative and quirky ways. Be it climbing wooden scaffolding and dangling off of a wire in the middle of Las Vegas traffic in Rush Hour 2, or sliding off a glass building in Who Am I, the man risks it all to entertain the audience.
Chan performs all his stunts by himself, especially some of the most risky and dangerous stunts in his filmography. Most bloopers in his early films showed all the injuries the legendary actor received while performing the stunts. While the actor is usually prepared, he has one request to the director of Police Story 3: Supercop during the climactic sequence of the film.
Jackie Chan In The Police Story Series
Jackie Chan’s Police Story franchise put the actor on the map. It was the first film, Police Story that brought international attention to the star. Many critics and polls have ranked the action franchise to be among the best action films of all time. Chan himself considers the series to be among his best in terms of the stunts and action set pieces.
The franchise consists of seven films, which include four main films, a spin-off, and two reboots. Each film was known for its over-the-top action set pieces, which mostly involved Jackie Chan performing stunts that exponentially increased in risk and ridiculousness. The actor suffered many injuries during his time in the franchise, something that he has recounted multiple times.
One of his most memorable stunts includes Jackie Chan sliding down three floors from a pole covered with lights and crash landing on a glass pane in a mall. The stunt gave the action star second-degree burns on his palms, a back as well as a pelvis injury. However, the scene, that occurred in Police Story, is only the beginning of a string of ridiculously dangerous stunts.
Jackie Chan’s Fearful Stunt In Police Story 3: Supercop
The third film of the Police Story franchise, Supercop, saw Jackie Chan team up with legendary actress Michelle Yeoh. The Everything Everywhere All At Once star played Jessica Yang, an Interpol officer who wants to tackle Khun Chaibat, a drug kingpin. Supercop cemented Jackie Chan’s success in the American market when it was dubbed in English and released in 1996. The film earned over $34 million globally against a $900,000 budget.
One of the most memorable sequences in the film is the climactic sequence where Chan hangs off a helicopter and travels the city, eventually landing on a freight train where a fight takes place. It also features the iconic sequence of Michelle Yeoh riding a dirt bike over the train. However, Jackie Chan mentioned that he was extremely scared while performing the stunt. In an interview hosted by the Academy, he said,
“The problem is when we design, that’s for ‘Okay, next year we’ll do a movie. Okay, let’s sit down,’ and they talk about ‘Oh, we have an idea to jump down to a helicopter’…The difficult stunt is the jump…unless you have something stopping you. Otherwise, you swing. And after the swing, if I let go, then I would go to the street.”
He explained that there was only an apple box to save him in case he did not make it to the helicopter which was so far below that it looked like a tofu. He also said that the production crew had not blocked off any traffic before and the stunt ran the risk of Chan falling right into the traffic. However, Chan requested Director Stanley Tong for one particular safety net,
“I tell them, ‘When I shoot that moment, can you block the street? At least I die for myself, not die and cars keep going on.'”
The actor mentioned that the stunt went perfectly well and he was all fine in the aftermath. However, Chan did suffer a shoulder injury in a later part of the scene where the helicopter grazed his shoulder in an outtake.
Source: Oscars
