The Protector (1985 film)

US version

A gang is attempting to steal computers from an 18 wheeler. One of the gang members remotely hacks a set of traffic lights, turning them to red, while other members of the gang rig chains to the back of the truck. They turn the light green again, and as the truck pulls away, the chains tear the door open. When the trucker goes to the rear of his truck to investigate, he is knocked unconscious by a gang member, who then whistles for his cohorts to steal the load. Meanwhile, New York police officers Billy Wong (Jackie Chan) and Michael Alexander (Patrick James Clarke) are patrolling the neighborhood. On the radio, a dispatcher says that a truck was stripped by their premises, so the cops check it out. As the trucker comes to, he sees that his cargo has been stolen. Michael radios in the crime, while Billy passes the driver his hat, saying, "Welcome to New York".

Later, the two cops are in a bar. Billy Wong goes to the bathroom while Michael Alexander orders another round. Outside, a gang plan to rob the bar, unaware of the cops inside. They charge in busting the door and start roughing up the customers and gathering them by the till. Billy, still in the bathroom, has heard the commotion. The gang forces the customers to stand by the register, while one member tries to open the locked bathroom. Gun drawn, he breaks down the door, but Billy has overhead everything and shoots the gangster four times before he can make the shot.

Michael pulls out his own gun, killing another gangster, but is then shot by the two remaining gang members. Billy leaps and fires, killing one gangster, sending him flying through the bar window. The fourth gangster escapes. Billy approaches Michael, who asks, with his dying words, that Billy find the last gangster. Billy chases the last gang member to the marina across town. The gangster commandeers a yacht, so Billy gets the keys to the fastest speedboat from the boat boy. The captain orders Billy to let the harbor police catch the thief, but Billy refuses and speeds off. He calls an air unit who arrive on the scene and hoist him a line. Billy grabs onto the line, and lets his speedboat run into the henchman's boat, destroying both.

After attending a ceremonial funeral held for Michael, Billy gets back to crowd control. He goes to a party undercover with his new partner, Danny Garoni (Danny Aiello), where they see Benny Garrucci (Bill "Superfoot" Wallace), one of the bodyguards to Martin Shapiro (Ron Dandrea). A kidnapping has taken place, and nobody knows why. They later learn that crime boss Harold Ko (Roy Chiao) may have smuggled Shapiro's daughter, Laura (Saun Ellis), to Hong Kong for ransom. The men get a lead – Garrucci has made calls to a massage parlor.

While investigating, they get massages, but Billy sees a reflection of his masseuse pulling out a knife so he jumps, kicking her in the face and throws a lamp at the other masseurs. Billy and Garoni fight off the remaining clientele, before getting questioned by the leader of the massage parlour.

They go to Lee Hing (Peter Yang), to cash in a coin. A man named Stan Jones (Kim Bass) gets on the boat, asking for supplies. Stan warns Billy and Garoni they are being followed and Billy goes to get information from the leader. The leader throws a knife at him and escapes onto another boat. Billy and Garoni head back to their hotel, finding cash in a suitcase on the bed. They are attacked by two men, but manage to kill them. They make their exit and are taken to the police station in Hong Kong.

Garoni follows Garrucci to a drug laboratory, while Billy sees Hing's tortured and murdered body on his sunken boat. They go to a Buddhist priest who tells them what they are looking for. Billy, Garoni and Stan go to the drug lab, and destroy it, saving Laura Shapiro in the process. Garoni is shot by Garrucci, and is held hostage unless Billy returns Laura to Ko.

They meet at the shipyard and Laura is held hostage along with Garoni. Billy fights with Garrucci and Ko's guards and is eventually about to kill Ko, but Garrucci comes after Billy with a cut-off saw. In the ensuing fight, Garrucci is electrocuted by trying to slice open Billy's head, but missing and hitting an electric panel that he smashed Billy's head on. Ko escapes in a helicopter, and Billy follows after him, but a guard blocks his way. Billy and the guard fight on a cargo lifter half-loaded with boxes, with Billy dodging them. Garoni goes outside with the gang and kills a sniper with a 6-shot 20mm cannon. Billy is shot at, but eventually makes it to the top of a crane and Ko's helicopter gets crushed when Billy drops the crane on the helicopter killing Ko .

With Ko dead and Laura Shapiro saved, Billy and Danny are given a NYPD Medal of Honor.

Hong Kong version

Even though the narrative is the same, the Chinese version has a subplot featuring Sally Yeh in connection to the coin and her uncle working at the massage parlour. A large number of scenes were cut to improve the pace of the film and to cut down on any instances of nudity. Fully dressed lab women were added as a replacement to give more logical sense for the Chinese version. A lot of swearing and American slang has been totally changed to make the story cohesive enough for the story to work for the Chinese audience.

Bill Wallace also has an extra scene outside the ice warehouse against Lee Hoi-san in which it sets him up as a formidable opponent against Jackie Chan later on in the warehouse. The final fight scene is re-edited to make it more of a Hong Kong style. Overall, the script has been cleaned up to make it compatible for Chan's audience, to make it distinctive enough from the US version.

Cast

Production

According to his book I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action, Chan broke his hand while filming a stunt scene.

Version comparison

The relationship between James Glickenhaus and Jackie Chan was, according to various sources, highly contentious for most of the production. Chan was appalled at the way Glickenhaus directed the fight scenes, feeling that his methods were sloppy and lacked attention to detail. At one point he offered to direct the fight scenes himself, but Glickenhaus refused. Things became so bad that Chan walked off the set, but was forced to return and finish the film by contractual obligation. However, when preparing the film for release in Hong Kong, Chan completely re-edited the film and shot new footage to both fit his style of film making and remove all content he found objectionable.

The following changes were made by Jackie Chan for the Hong Kong release of the film:

Scenes in the US

Massage parlour

Boat and dock area

Drug lab and warehouse

Changes to content

Reception

The movie had a mixed to negative reception when it was released in the United States in 1985.

In an interview by Hong Kong film expert Bey Logan with James Glickenhaus held before Chan achieved mainstream success with American audiences, Logan mentioned that many of his fans were disappointed with the movie. An unfazed Glickenhaus responded "Well, you know that's still the most successful Jackie Chan movie internationally and always will be because the American audience, the mainstream audience will never sit still for Jackie's style of action".

Andrew Staton who reviewed the movie agree with Jackie for a few reasons. Allowing Jackie to direct the action scenes is important because of his knowledge of movie making rather than the typical, slow prodding and predictable method that Hollywood used to at the time. Having nudity, especially at the drug lab makes no sense. Why do women working on melons don't dress the same as men in that scene is appalling. So it was deleted and replaced for the HK release for that reason. However, despite the flaws, Jackie's darker role as an actor, will be used in later Hong Kong films like "Heart of Dragon" and "Crime Story". Those later serious films, apart from the Lo Wei serious movies, will help establish Jackie that he's an all round actor and is not restricted to playing comedic roles.

John J Puccio comments that "Chan's charm is in precious little evidence and his martial-arts stunts are limited to a few jumps and spills. Without Chan's contributions, the film is nothing more than a clichéd, wannabe thriller". He points out that "The Protector" isn't just badly written; it's uniformly awful all the way around. The acting is mechanical; the action is gratuitous; the pacing is humdrum; and the background music is trite and redundant.

Box office

In North America, The Protector was a box office disaster, making only US $981,817. Chan's re-edited version grossed HK $13,917,612 in Hong Kong, a respectable sum, but significantly less than any of Chan's domestic films at the time.

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