With Mission Impossible: Fallout hitting theaters later this month, there has been much focus on the next batch of crazy stunts that Tom Cruise will be performing. But as impressive as Cruise’s willingness to put himself in danger is, he’s hardly the first major star happy to risk his life on a film set for the sake of our entertainment.
Hong Kong superstar Jackie Chan might have initially emerged in the 1970s as just another martial arts actor, but his incredible physical ability, comedic skills, and emerging talent as a director saw him quickly ascend to something far more than just another Bruce Lee clone. For more than a decade in the ’80s and ’90s, Chan delivered a run of incredible action classics, in which he performed some of the wildest stunts ever filmed.
This was an era before CGI and green screen, and with his legendary stunt team on hand to assist, Chan continued to push his body is a series of an increasingly dangerous ways. Broken bones and hospital visits during production became a commonplace occurrence. Chan often replayed the stunt scenes within his movies, usually in slow motion, to leave the audience in no doubt as to who was performing them.
These days, the 64-year-old has, of course, slowed down, but his legacy as one of cinema’s greatest action stars is assured. So with his latest movie, the sci-fi thriller Bleeding Steel, in theaters this weekend, we take a look at Jackie Chan’s greatest stunts.