Jason, a Bruce Lee fan, sees his karate instructor/dad beaten by martial art thugs. They move to Seattle where, after humiliations, he trains with Bruce Lee's ghost so he can defend himself and others against thugs.
Follows Frank Dux, an American martial artist serving in the military, who decides to leave the army to compete in a martial arts tournament in Hong Kong where fights to the death can occur.
Director:
Newt Arnold
Stars:
Jean-Claude Van Damme,
Donald Gibb,
Leah Ayres
In a violent and corrupt prison, decorated cop Louis Burke must infiltrate the jail to find answers to a number of inside murders. What he finds is a struggle of life and death tied in to his own past.
Director:
Deran Sarafian
Stars:
Jean-Claude Van Damme,
Robert Guillaume,
Cynthia Gibb
Escaped convict Sam Gillen single handedly takes on ruthless developers determined to evict Clydie - a widow with two young children. Nobody knows who Sam is.
Director:
Robert Harmon
Stars:
Jean-Claude Van Damme,
Rosanna Arquette,
Kieran Culkin
A group of gentlemen of fortune visits a legendary "Lost City", located in Tibet. They plan to steal a priceless statue "Golden Dragon" during the martial arts tournament.
Director:
Jean-Claude Van Damme
Stars:
Jean-Claude Van Damme,
Roger Moore,
James Remar
Jason Stillwell, a Bruce Lee fan, is beaten numerous times and trains from the ghost of Lee. Jason then must use his newly acquired skills to save Seattle from a crime syndicate, whose top martial artist is the deadly Ivan.Written by
Albert Valentin <albval@hotmail.com>
The scene with Kurt McKinney doing two-finger push-ups was filmed with wires to hoist McKinney up and down. The trees in the background cover up the wire. See more »
Goofs
In the final fight, Ivan seems to lose all of his fighting skills as soon as Jason enters the ring. He drops his defense and allows Jason to beat him at will. See more »
Quotes
Scott:
Beat it, Brucey! Go home and play with your wooden dolly!
See more »
Crazy Credits
Jean-Claude Van Damme's character is Ivan, but in the ending credits, next to his name reads, "Karl Brezdin". See more »
Alternate Versions
There are two known versions. One version features an extra scene where Jason and Kelly go up to the top of the Space Needle but this version also deletes a few of the other scenes. It's also possible that this extra scene is only in the UK print of the movie. This would be to make up for the lost "feature time" from the censored and deleted action sequences. One version of this movie is 85 minutes and the uncut version is 95 minutes (but missing the Space Needle scene). See more »
No Retreat, No Surrender (1985) was a Seasonal Films production that was filmed in the United States. Corey Yuen was the director and Hoi Meng was the co-action director. This film marked the Western debut of future superstar Jean Claude Van Damme. This was also the first of three official No Retreat, No Surrender films.
A kid witnesses his dad being brutally beaten by a group of thugs and their new fighter, a big mean Soviet kick-fighter (J.C.V.D.) The kid does what anybody else would do if they saw their own dad nearly beaten to death, swear a blood revenge against those who put him in traction. There's one problem, the kid can't punch his way out of a paper bag and his fighting skills are virtually non-existence. What's a kid to do? Turn to a higher power! Will that be the stuff needed to beat down the mean Red fighter and avenge his father?
The fight scenes are realistic looking and bone crunching. The direction is real good and the acting is okay. A Hong Kong style movie made in America. J.C.V.D. is pretty scary and mean looking in his big debut. He'll make a bigger splash in his first true success Bloodsport.
If you enjoy old school kung fu movies where the son has to avenge his father with a blood oath, then this one's for you. Followed by No Retreat, No Surrender 2.
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No Retreat, No Surrender (1985) was a Seasonal Films production that was filmed in the United States. Corey Yuen was the director and Hoi Meng was the co-action director. This film marked the Western debut of future superstar Jean Claude Van Damme. This was also the first of three official No Retreat, No Surrender films.
A kid witnesses his dad being brutally beaten by a group of thugs and their new fighter, a big mean Soviet kick-fighter (J.C.V.D.) The kid does what anybody else would do if they saw their own dad nearly beaten to death, swear a blood revenge against those who put him in traction. There's one problem, the kid can't punch his way out of a paper bag and his fighting skills are virtually non-existence. What's a kid to do? Turn to a higher power! Will that be the stuff needed to beat down the mean Red fighter and avenge his father?
The fight scenes are realistic looking and bone crunching. The direction is real good and the acting is okay. A Hong Kong style movie made in America. J.C.V.D. is pretty scary and mean looking in his big debut. He'll make a bigger splash in his first true success Bloodsport.
If you enjoy old school kung fu movies where the son has to avenge his father with a blood oath, then this one's for you. Followed by No Retreat, No Surrender 2.