April 7, 2021 marks Jackie Chan‘s 67th birthday. It’s a major milestone for anyone, but it’s somehow shocking to hear Chan is almost 70 years old. I’m not entirely sure why, but part of it is because he just always seems like he’s above aging. For most of his career, he’s flung his body off of things, under things, and through things for the sake of entertainment, and he does it better than anyone. He’s got the bruises and broken limbs to prove it, but he’s still sort of a super human. To commemorate, Twitter user dailylaney has posted a one-minute supercut of Jackie Chan’s unique style of jumping over things.
Most of the movies in this supercut are from Chan’s ’80s Hong Kong output. (There are one or two clips from the ’70s and ’90s also.) In context of the movies, these stunts are always impressive; in a single, solid minute, it proves the man just liked jumping up to balconies. Or catacombs or scaffolding; really anything with somewhere to plant a foot and somewhere else to grab.
Golden Harvest
A couple of years ago, I reviewed Police Story and Police Story 2 when they came to Criterion Blu-ray. I hadn’t seen either one, and I was absolutely floored by just how impressive Chan’s stuntwork was. Not that I didn’t know; I grew up in the age of Rumble in the Bronx, First Strike, and the Rush Hour movies. But in those first two Police Story films, he really honed his screen character, a regular guy forced to perform outrageous physical feats in the line of duty. Though not depicted in this supercut, the first P.S. movie has our man sliding down a pole covered in Christmas lights. It’s quite the thing.
Please ignore the horrible dubbing of this clip.
So happy birthday, Jackie Chan. You’re a beautiful wild man.
Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Twitter!
