The Protector/Fun Facts

From The Grindhouse Cinema Database

< The Protector

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  • Golden Harvest hired Director James Glickenhaus after his success with movies such as The Exterminator (1980), but rifts began to surface between Glickenhaus and Jackie Chan and his team during shooting. This would lead to Chan re-shooting sections of the movie for an alternate Asian release version of the movie.
  • The U.S. version is the first Jackie Chan movie to feature the word "fu-ck".
  • Jackie Chan's displeasure with the way this production went, would lead to him shooting his own Police movie Police Story (1985) to much success.
  • The Hong Kong version of the movie cut much of the random nudity from the U.S version, and toned down certain gore elements, while adding more martial arts action including major re-shoots and re-edits of the final fight scene, plus a whole new subplot featuring Sally Yeh from The Killer (1989), and an additional fight scene that has Bill Wallace fighting veteran Shaw Brother's villain Hoi-shan Lee on the Hong Kong waterfront.
  • The Japanese release of this movie also features Jackie Chan's trademark outtakes during the end credits, but does still feature the country and western closing song.
  • Apart from the New York City exterior shots and selected interiors, the majority of the movie was shot in Hong Kong, including the bar interior for the opening gunfight.
  • This movie was part of a fifty million dollar slate of movie production from Golden Harvest studios aimed at breaking into the Western market. Other movies included High Road to China (1983), Blade Runner (1982), and Megaforce (1982).
  • The Police Story film franchise was initially born out of spite from Jackie Chan's displeasure at how this movie turned out. Ironically, it was in this movie that Jackie's character, Billy Wong, was referred to as "Supercop" by his superior. This, in turn, ended up being the subtitle (and in the case of the U.S. release, the main title) of the third movie in the Police Story film franchise.
  • According to his book "I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action", Jackie Chan broke his hand while filming a stunt scene.
  • The "Manhattan Express" boat used by Jackie Chan was/is (as of 2014) owned by writer/director James Glickenhaus. A full scale prop model was blown up for the movie.
  • The pinball machine destroyed in the bar early in the movie is "Pinball Pool", released by Gottlieb in 1979. The other pinball machine is "Charlies Angels", released by Gottlieb in 1978.
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