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Jackie Chan has been a cultural staple for decades. His unique brand of comedic martial arts has taken him on a road very few have walked. Influenced by Bruce Lee, Charlie Chaplin, and Buster Keaton, he is not only a superb martial artist, stunt man, and actor, but he is known to put everything on the line for his artform. This includes his own life. One stunt in particular almost took Jackie Chan's life from him, and he never had a second thought. Executed to perfection, Jackie Chan's famous stunt from Police Story will forever be one of the most dangerous stunts he ever performed.
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This is Jackie Chan's infamous Project A stunt, where the iconic international performer fell
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three stories off an oversized clock face onto solid earth with no protective padding
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Jackie Chan survived this stunt. He also survived this stunt, and this one
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and unbelievably this one. However, today we're going to discuss the stunt that almost killed
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Jackie Chan. Born Chan Kong saying, the performer in question has appeared in American blockbusters
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influential martial arts films, and even transcended into the status of pop culture phenomenon
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And yet, one aspect of Chan's filmography that's not discussed nearly enough
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is how close he's come to death in the pursuit of his art
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and how that very close call might actually be the reason why he's so famous
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Yes, we all know Jackie Chan performs many of his own stunts, and trained for decades to be able to accomplish these superhuman feats
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His performances have an intrinsic kinetic athleticism that wouldn't be possible without the dedication to his craft
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But for the people outside of the industry, there seems to be a gap in the understanding
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of just how truly life-threatening many of Chan's attempted feats really are
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Jackie Chan first appeared in film at the age of eight in a project titled Big and Little Wong Tin Bar
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Released in 1962, the film was a modest success. However, its key contribution was to spark a passion
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in the young actor for filmmaking. From this day forward, Chan devoted himself
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to the twin passions of filmmaking and martial arts. After toiling away for years, Jackie Chan eventually crafted a journeyman career for
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himself in the martial arts cinema of Hong Kong. He appeared as both an extra and a stunt double in the iconic Bruce Lee films Fist of Fury
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and Enter the Dragon, among many other similar genre entries. However his big break came in 1976 when he received a telegram from Hong Kong producer Willie Chan who after being impressed with his stunt choreography offered him a leading
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role in a feature film. This eventually led to Jackie Chan developing his trademark comedic martial arts, stunt-forward
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style of filmmaking. Which brings us to the crossroads we're going to be discussing today, the time period when
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Jackie Chan was simultaneously starring in Heart of the Dragon during the day and directing
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and starring in Police Story at Night. The Lee's story represented a do-or-die moment in Chan's career
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He had cemented himself as a known commodity in the martial arts world, but that wasn't particularly known outside of Asia
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Not being satisfied with that, Chan set about learning English and partaking in a much more creative role in the projects he was involved in
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He knew a simple fact. If you wanted to be known on a global scale, you needed to be known in America
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He wanted to break into the Hollywood system. At this point in time, Chinese action films were not a major export
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So the only way to really break through and gain a wide international following
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was to go establish a following in the West. Chan was just coming off of a disappointing experience
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working with writer-director James Glickenhaus on the film The Protector. This had been Chan's second attempt at breaching the Western film market
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having just starred in a Chinese-American co-production, The Big Brawl. Both of these films had performed modestly at the box office
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and were received well critically. But neither had done what Chan needed
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given him a foot in the door to the Hollywood system. They were admittedly experiments
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They were largely Chinese casts with Western production companies and directors, the goal being to redub the pictures into English
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and hopefully gain a significant box office draw. Dad, are you okay
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Take it off him, Lazy. No, no! Regrettably, both The Protector and The Big Brawl
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did not cross over and capture the hearts and minds of American audiences They both fine films but didn have a big enough spectacle to overcome the language barrier for Western audiences Jackie Chan hoped that police story would be different He hoped that his ideas
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passions, and energy could make up for the failure of The Protector and The Big Brawl
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Ostensibly, he was trying to just will the film into being a success single-handedly. And you can
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feel that in every shot of the production. Jackie Chan is giving everything he's got in every single
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shot. Just look at his face here. The film centers on a Hong Kong detective, Kevin Chan
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Kakui, as he takes part in the largest undercover sting in recent memory. Police Story features
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wall-to-wall stunts, adrenaline-fueled action set pieces, and a go-for-broke approach to filmmaking that communicates the desperation and passion that Jackie Chan was feeling during the
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creation of the film. From his perspective, this was his last shot to really break into the American
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market, and that drive is inarguably manifested in the film's most iconic stunt. This now infamous
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sequence in Police Story was filmed with 15 different cameras. Each of them only had magazines
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capable of holding 15 feet of film, so when they started rolling, Jackie Chan knew he had to leap
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off of a seven-story mall banister, grab a metal pole, and write it down as quickly as possible
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Any hesitation or error would result in tens of thousands of dollars of film wasted
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and potentially Jackie's death. The sequence is so shocking, they replay it three times within the film
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from three different angles, just to communicate how impressive it truly is
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After Chan finished shooting the sequence, he was quickly whisked off to the set of Heart of the Dragon
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to continue his commitments there. On the drive over, he took a nap in the car, physically exhausted
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But satisfied he knew he got the shot that he needed to act as the climax to the fight sequence When he had woken up after arriving on set he reached out to open the car door but couldn He realized that he had been functioning off of pure adrenaline and didn notice how badly he was hurt After being rushed
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to the hospital and being quickly inspected by the medical staff there, it was uncovered that
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Chan had second-degree burns on his palms from the lights on the pole being plugged directly into
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the building's electrical supply, a broken seventh and eighth spinal vertebrae, a dislocated pelvis
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and severe bruising over his entire body. Despite getting up and walking away from this massive stunt
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the effects followed him for years. He went through surgery, physical therapy
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and a long recuperation period to heal from his stunt. It's no understatement to say that this very literally
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is the stunt that almost killed Jackie Chan. You might be asking yourself
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what did Jackie Chan mess up that he got injured so badly? Nothing
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He executed the stunt perfectly. This is just the cost of jumping seven stories
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and sliding down a pole laced with highly electrified lights. Ultimately, Police Story would be a blockbuster in both Asia and Europe
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It grossed close to $19 million, roughly the equivalent of $47 million in today's currency
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It won Best Film at the 1986 Hong Kong Film Awards and is generally considered the film that broke Jackie Chan out into the American markets in a meaningful way
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It wasn't necessarily the instant crossover he was hoping for, but it cleared the path for Supercop, Rumble in the Bronx, and the other Hong Kong American
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co-productions that cemented Chan as an international movie star. Chan's dedication to his craft and willingness to literally take his life in his own hands is the exemplar of just how
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dedicated he was to finding success in the film business. There comes a moment in every artist's
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career where they're presented with a question, how far are you willing to go to get what you want
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And for Jackie Chan, the answer came in the form of throwing himself off of a seven-story banister
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