Police Story 4: First Strike (1996)

This installment of Chan's Police Story series has our hero trying to locate a missing nuclear warhead.

Director:

Stanley Tong

Writers:

Greg Mellott, Elliot Tong

Stars:

Jackie Chan, Jackson Lou, Annie Wu

2 wins & 9 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jackie Chan	...	Insp. Chan Ka Kui
Jackson Lou	...	Jackson Tsui
Annie Wu	...	Annie Tsui (as Chen Chun Wu)
Bill Tung	...	'Uncle' Bill Wong
Yuriy Petrov	...	Col. Gregor Yegorov (as Jouri Petrov)
Nonna Grishaeva	...	Natasha (as Grishajeva Nonna)
John Eaves	...	Mark
Terry Woo	...	Uncle Seven
Kristopher Kazmarek	...	Cmdr. Korda (as Kristoff Kaczmarek)
Ailen Sit	...	Golden Dragon Club Member
Man-Ching Chan	...	Golden Dragon Club Member
Rocky Lai	...	Golden Dragon Club Member
Wai-To Chan	...	Golden Dragon Club Member (as Wai To Chan)
Brett Arthur	...	Hit Man
Mark French	...	Hit Man

Storyline

Jackie, a cop, participates in a sting operation on an international spy-ring. But when one of them (Tsui) gets away, Jackie is ordered to apprehend him. This leads Jackie all over the globe starting with Tsui's sister in Australia. The story follows him as he tries to stay alive and capture the villain.

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Plot Keywords:

frame up | hero | australia | tighty whities | man in underwear | 

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Taglines:

They thought they possessed the ultimate weapon. They hadn't counted on Jackie Chan.

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Comedy | Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for plentiful action/violence

Details

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

English Cantonese Mandarin Russian Ukrainian

Release Date:

10 January 1997 (USA)

Also Known As:

Jackie Chan's First Strike

Filming Locations:

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$5,778,933, 12 January 1997, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$15,318,863

Company Credits

Production Co:

Golden Harvest Company, Paragon Films Ltd., Raymond Chow

Technical Specs

Runtime:

107 min 83 min (USA)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital SDDS (US version)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The only Police Story film in the original quadrilogy that never received an American release by Dragon Dynasty. This is primarily due to Dragon Dynasty having the rights to the first two films via Fortune Star, and then using their previous Dimension Films cut of Supercop for the third. In fact, aside from Japan, New Line Cinema parent company Warner Brothers owns the international rights to the film.

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Goofs

In the snowboard scene, all the close-ups of Jackie show him snowboarding right-handed, but in all the long shots - including where he jumps onto the helicopter skid - he snowboards left-handed, with the opposite foot in front, suggesting that the long shots are of a stunt double.

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Quotes

Chan Ka Kui: [phone call] Uncle Bill! I'm calling you right now from Australia and I'm having a great time! I'm talking to you while enjoying my great view. Wow! Working for the FSB is great. I have a sauna, swimming pool, and jacuzzi. Oh, wait a second. My koala bear just came out.
Uncle Bill: [on the other end of the call] What? You mean in your hotel room? It's only a toy, right?
Chan Ka Kui: No. It's the real thing!
[hands the phone to the koala bear]
Chan Ka Kui: Say hi to Uncle Bill.
[takes the phone back]
Chan Ka Kui: He's too shy. Don't hang up.
Hong Kong Policeman: [...]

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Crazy Credits

Outtakes of the stunts that went wrong, injuries and funny scenes.

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Connections

Featured in The Rotten Tomatoes Show: The Book of Eli/The Spy Next Door/Fish Tank (2010)

User Reviews

Jackie Chan is licensed to thrill.

Part 4 of the Police Story series sees Jackie Chan's agile Hong Kong police inspector Chan Ka Kui become embroiled in James Bond-style international espionage after he is given the seemingly simple task of following beautiful suspect Natasha to Ukraine. When Natasha is abducted at the airport, Chan sets off in hot pursuit only to discover that she is involved with international arms dealers and the sale of a nuclear warhead.

First Strike was made in the mid 90s, a transitional period for Jackie Chan, who was priming himself for his big move to the US. In order to broaden the star's appeal with the Western market, this one has a much more international flavour than many of his earlier films, with the action skipping round the globe, from Hong Kong to Ukraine to Russia and, finally, to Australia. The film is also less focused on pure martial arts mayhem, with more in the way of straight forward Hollywood style stunt-filled action, but when the kung fu does happen it is extremely well handled, with Jackie displaying his usual athleticism, impeccable timing, and flair for physical comedy.

The rather messy plot and occasionally slow pacing prevents First Strike from being a bona fide Chan classic, but there is still plenty of inventive stuff to make this one a whole lot of fun, best bits being a wonderful fight scene in which Chan uses a stepladder as a weapon, an exhilarating ski chase down a mountain, some underwater shenanigans with sharks, and a scrap with two Russian man-mountains that involves Chan making a vertiginous leap onto a narrow ledge of a high-rise building.