Thunderbolt (1995)

In order to release his kidnapped sister, sports car mechanic Jackie Chan has to beat a super-criminal street racer.

Director:

Gordon Chan

Writers:

Gordon Chan, Hing-Ka Chan

Stars:

Jackie Chan, Anita Yuen, Michael Wong

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jackie Chan	...	Chan Foh To
Anita Yuen	...	Amy Yip
Michael Wong	...	Steve Cannon
Thorsten Nickel	...	Warner 'Cougar' Kaugman
Yuen Chor	...	Uncle Tung / Foh's father (Alfred's father in US version) (as Yun Chor)
Hoi-Yan Wu	...	Dai Mui (Daphne in US version) (as Daisy Wu Oi-Yan)
Chung-Han Man	...	Sai Mui / May (Sammi in US version) (as Man Chun-Han)
Yûzô Kayama	...	Coach Mirakami (as Kayama Yuzo)
Kenya Sawada	...	Saw (as Sawada Kenya)
Ken Lo	...	Kong (as Houi-Kang Low)
Chi Wah Wong	...	Mr. Lam (as Tze-Wah Wong)
Kar Lok Chin	...	Coach's Assistant (as Ka-Lok Chin)
Corey Yuen	...	The Doctor (as Cory Yuen)
Marie Eguro	...	Miss Kenya (as Eguro Mari)
Kam-Cheong Yung	...	Cheong, mechanic (as Peter Yung Kam-Cheong)

Storyline

Jackie plays Foh, an expert mechanic who has returned from Japan after a master course at Mitsubishi Motors. He runs a small business in Hong Kong along with his father and two sisters. In his spare time, he also helps the police out by checking cars that have been illegally upgraded. One night, psychotic street racing driver Warner Krugerman, aka Cougar, speeds past Foh and the cops. Foh gets into a car and stops Cougar heroically. Cougar lands in jail, but breaks out eventually. He gets revenge on Foh by trashing his business and kidnapping his sisters. The only way Foh can get his sisters back is by racing cougar in Japan. He now must retrain himself in race car driving so he can be at his best to race Cougar.

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Plot Keywords:

car | mechanic | jail | race car | hong kong | 

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Taglines:

Oddsen kan inte bli mycket högre än så här

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Genres:

Action | Comedy | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese English Japanese

Release Date:

5 August 1995 (Hong Kong)

Also Known As:

Thunderbolt

Filming Locations:

Hong Kong, China

Box Office

Budget:

HKD 2,000,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Golden Harvest Company, Paragon Films Ltd.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Jackie Chan suffered an injured ankle while filming Rumble in the Bronx a year before, so stunt doubles were used for most of the fight scenes in Thunderbolt.

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Goofs

In the US version, you can read on the opening credits "A JACKIE CHAN FILM", but at the end of them, Gordon Chan appears with the director credit.

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Connections

Referenced in The Tuxedo (2002)

User Reviews

Great set-pieces ruined by direction

One of the most important things in a Jackie Chan movie is the direction. It is important for us, the viewer, to be able to clearly see what's going on. If we can't then we might've just rented a generic Steven Seagal-type martial arts movie because the fights in those movies are completely incomprehensible as well.

So then. This movie has some great car-chases and relevant crashes, it has some amazing fight-scenes and a few really cool stunts. Most of it is completely lost due to crap direction. We get slow-motion photography at totally inappropriate moments (in one case even during the middle of a fight) and occasionally we even get an effect that shows 6 frames per second instead of 24. The fact that the camera is always about 5 inches away from the action doesn't help matters.

All in all, it would've been a great movie if it was possible to figure out what was happening on-screen. Pity.