The interesting premise of Jet Li’s character in Unleashed raises questions about his age. In Unleashed (also known in some countries as Danny the Dog), Jet Li’s Danny is a martial arts prodigy who is held captive by the bloodthirsty Glasgow loan shark Bart and trained to attack Bart’s enemies like a wild dog on command. When Danny is separated from Bart and is taken in by Morgan Freeman’s character and his stepdaughter, he finally experiences kindness and must fight for his freedom when Bart returns.
Unleashed is often cited as Jet Li’s best English-language film, combining a powerful story of a young man rediscovering his freedom and humanity with some of the most intense and powerful martial arts fights of Lee’s career. Lee’s performance as Danny is also very touching, but the film also leaves some questions about Danny’s past unanswered, such as exactly how old he is. However, there are clues and some behind-the-scenes material about Danny’s age in the film.
RELATED:
Jet Li 10 Highest Grossing Movies With Their Plots
Jet Li’s Danny Is In His Mid-To-Late 20s In Unleashed
Behind the scenes of Unleashed,” Jet Li says that in his head, Danny is “about 10 years old,” which fits well with memories of Danny’s childhood. . In Danny’s gradually returning childhood memories, young Danny appears to be about 10 years old when Bart arrives, kills his mother, and kidnaps Danny. Bart is also noticeably younger in these flashbacks, which helps paint a picture of how long he held Danny captive. Considering the age difference between Danny and
Bart between the flashbacks and the tense Unleashed story, it seems like a good estimate that at least 15 years have passed since Bart first kidnapped Danny. Given this and Danny’s roughly 10-year-old age at the time, Danny would be somewhere around 20 years old when Unleashed begins. Overall, the best prediction for Danny’s age in Unleashed is somewhere between 25 and 28 years old.
How Danny’s Age In Unleashed Compares To Jet Li’s True Age
While Danny appears to be around 20 years old in Unleashed, Jet Li himself was slightly older than his character. Jet Li was 42 when Unleashed was released in 2005, and was in his 40s at the time of filming, according to production reports. While there is quite a significant age gap between Danny and Jet Li himself, Lee looked like he was the same age as Danny in Unleashed, give or take a few years. Lee’s performance as Danny in Unleashed is what really makes him convincing in the role, thereby making the age difference irrelevant.
In Unleashed, Danny is a young man who has been treated like an animal for most of his life, who has known only violence and who has never had the chance to truly grow up. Jet Li masterfully embodies Danny’s unbridled anger when Bart removes his collar, as well as Danny’s growing tenderness when Sam and Victoria accept him and show him love for the first time in his life. Unleashed combines heartwarming drama and incredible action better than any other English-language film directed by Jet Li. For this reason, Jet Li is entirely believable as a man much younger physically and mentally than he actually is in Unleashed.