I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action

Book by Chan Jackie

"Shantytown Stakeout," Police Story

As far as action is concerned, Police Story is my favorite movie I've ever made, a real whirlwind of slam-bang stunts and wild fights from beginning to end. To start things off right--that is to say, in an insanely exciting and dangerous way--Edward Tang King-sang and I scripted this opening sequence. My character and my fellow cops have been assigned to an undercover stakeout in an attempt to nab a notorious mobster. We set our trap along a winding mountain highway, taking up hidden positions throughout a rickety village of old tin and wood shacks. When our trap is sprung too soon, the dragnet turns into a disaster, as the gangsters try to escape by driving through the mountain village. Not "through" as in "zigzagging around the buildings," but through as in smashing into, over, and through the buildings. I quickly commandeer a car and begin a crazed chase down the slope after them. The car is smashed (as is the village), so I chase the crooks on foot. When they hijack a double-decker bus, I grab an umbrella, take a running leap, and hook its handle onto the rim of
an open window! Hanging desperately onto the umbrella, I try to pull myself into the bus, but am eventually thrown clear. Scrambling down to a lower part of the highway, I draw my pistol, order the speeding bus to stop...and it does, just inches away from my body.

"The Great Glass Slide," Police Story

This is where I finally put the drop on the gangsters once and for all. Of
course, I had to put the drop on myself in order to do it--literally.
After a glass-shattering fight inside a shopping mall, I spot my target
several floors below, on the ground level of an open atrium. The only way
to get down from my perch in time to do my policeman's duty is to take a
flying leap into the air, grab ahold of a pole wrapped in twinkling
Christmas lights, and slide a hundred feet to the ground--through a
glass-and-wood partition, onto the hard marble tile. We had to do this in
one take, so I crossed my fingers and prayed that I'd hit the stunt the
first time (and that I'd hit the ground softly). I made my jump, grabbed
the pole, and watched the twinkling lights crack and pop all the way down,
in an explosion of shattering glass and electrical sparks. Then I hit the
glass. And then I hit the floor. Somehow I managed to survive with a
collection of ugly bruises ... and second-degree burns on the skin of my
fingers and palms.

"Clock Tower Tumble," Project A

After a wild bicycle chase through Hong Kong's back alleys, I find myself
high in the air, dangling from the hands of a giant clock face. With no
other way to get down than fall, I let go--and crash through a series of
cloth canopies before smashing into the ground. I had to do this one three
times before I was satisfied with the way it looked. Trust me, I wouldn't
want to do it a fourth time.

"An Aerial Tour of Kuala Lumpur," Police Story III: Supercop

By this time, all of you probably know Michelle Yeoh from Tomorrow
Never Dies, the James Bond film. She resurrected her action career by
costarring with me in Supercop, my first film with Stanley Tong.
Michelle isn't a fighter; she never formally trained in martial arts,
beginning her career as a ballet dancer. But one thing you can say for her
is that she has the heart of a lionness. She did all of her own stunts in
Supercop, because she threatened to beat me up if I wouldn't let
her! Her most dangerous sequence in the movie was a scene in which she
rides a motorcycle up a ramp, into the air, and onto the roof of a moving
train. I have to admit that after I saw her do that stunt, I felt like I
had something to prove. That's why we added this sequence, in which I jump
from the roof of a building to a rope ladder swinging from the bottom of a
hovering helicopter. The crooks flying the chopper try to knock me off the
ladder by swinging me back and forth through the air and into buildings,
moving at high speed above the streets of Malaysia's capital. They don't
succeed--lucky for me. And the stunt looks almost as dangerous as it
really was--lucky for all you action fans out there.

"Going Down ..." Who Am I?

This scene was billed by my producers as the "world's most dangerous
stunt." They were probably telling the truth--although just about any
stunt is dangerous, if you do it wrong. (The stunt that nearly killed me
took place less than fifteen feet off the ground, after all.) Luckily, I
did it right. Eventually. Even though one of my stuntmen proved it could
be done (from a lower level, of course), it took me two weeks to get up
the nerve to try it myself. The sequence begins with me fighting it out
with some thugs on the top of a very tall building in Rotterdam, Holland.
After battling with them around the roof, and nearly falling off once or
twice, I finally take the quickest possible trip to the sidewalk
below--sliding down the side of the building, which is slanted nearly
forty-five degrees, all the way to the ground. Twenty-one stories. If I
ever have an amusement park, I'll be sure to turn this stunt into a ride.

"The Walls Come Tumblin' Down," Project A II

I saw Buster Keaton do this in Steamboat Bill, Jr., so of course I
had to do it too. After running down the face of a ceremonial facade
that's in the process of falling over, I narrowly escape being crushed by
standing in the right place at the right time--with my body going through
an opening in the facade as it crashes down right over me. It's all in the
timing.

"No Way to Ride a Bus," Police Story II

Another chase sequence--this time running along the tops of moving buses,
while narrowly dodging signs and billboards that pass overhead and around
me. At the end of the chase, I leap through a glass window....
Unfortunately, I chose the wrong window as my target, and instead of
hitting prop glass, I smashed through a real pane. Which left me in real
pain.

"Down, Down, and Away," Armour of God

I did this stunt just weeks after recovering from my near-fatal fall and
serious brain surgery. The show must go on. My character, Asian Hawk, is
racing to get away from angry natives (I've just stolen a priceless
religious artifact from them, so they have good reason to be angry). Over
a cliff I go ... landing on top of a huge hot air balloon, safe and sound.
I did this stunt by parachuting from a plane. Which didn't make it any
safer.

"Roller Boogie," Winners and Sinners

I'm not really the star of the "Lucky Stars" movies--I did the films
mostly because of Samo. (Well, it helped that the movies were box office
hits.) As a result, I don't get much screen time, which is fine, because
the rest of the cast is talented and hilarious. This scene gave me a
chance to shine, though--using the roller-skating skill I learned for
The Big Brawl in a chase sequence on a crowded highway. The wildest
part of the sequence has me rolling over a Volkswagen Beetle, and then
under an eighteen-wheeler truck rig. That's one way of beating rush hour
traffic.

"Cycle Thriller," Armour of God II: Operation Condor

We intended Operation Condor to be epic in every way: big fights,
big budget, and, of course, big stunts. There's a chase sequence toward
the beginning of the movie that stands as one of my best ever. After
racing through the streets of Madrid on the back of a motorcycle, I find
myself headed for the waterfront with nowhere to go but into the sea.
Luckily, I spot a cargo net hanging from a crane at the edge of the
docks--so I gun the engines and head full-speed toward the end of the pier
in a deadly game of chicken with my pursuers. They're forced to veer off
and crash into stacked piles of crates, while I ride my cycle off the pier
and into the air, leaping up to grab hold of the net at the very last
minute. What a waste of a good bike.