Thunderbolt (1995)

Thunderbolt (Chinese: 霹靂火) (Piklik Foh) is a 1995 Hong Kong action sports film, starring Jackie Chan and directed by Gordon Chan. The action directors were Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung, and the action scenes were performed by the Jackie Chan Stunt Team. In early North American releases, the film was known as Dead Heat. Thunderbolt is set around the world of auto racing. The film is multilingual; characters speak Cantonese, English and Japanese interchangeably.

Plot.

Chan Foh To is a junkyard mechanic and a part-time race car driver who helps the Hong Kong Police Force in their crackdown on illegal street racing in the country. One night, while helping news reporter Amy Yip and Mr. Lam after their Mitsubishi FTO runs out of gasoline, Chan commandeers the car with Amy inside to chase after a speeding black Nissan Skyline GT-R R32 driven by the dangerous criminal driver Warner “Cougar” Kaugman. In the high speed car chase’s climax, Chan traps Cougar in a police roadblock and has him apprehended. However, due to a lack of evidence and a warrant for arrest, Cougar is immediately released from police custody. Chan continues to be harassed by Amy, who wants to do a cover story of him. After Chan fends off against Cougar’s thugs at his junkyard, Cougar is once again arrested when Chan provides a false testimony under the guidance of Interpol agent Steve Cannon. However, Cougar’s thugs raid the police station and spring him out of jail.

The thugs kill all but Cannon, who kills Cougar’s girlfriend before they get away. Cougar then destroys the junkyard and injures Chan’s father Chun Tung before taking his younger sisters Dai Mui and Sai Mui hostage to force Chan to race him in Japan. Chan and his racing team build him a yellow Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution III race car and prepare for his upcoming race, receiving permission from the police to drive it on the expressway. They arrive in Japan, where Chan storms into and destroys a pachinko hall owned by a yakuza gang before Cougar allows Dai Mui to reunite with her brother. Chan makes the starting grid at Sendai Hi-Land Raceway, but his car is destroyed in a collision. Feeling sympathy for Chan, Miss Kenya, the daughter of a Mitsubishi Motors executive, supplies him with two brand-new white Mitsubishi GTO race cars and a supply of Advan tires for the race.

Production.

Filming took place on several race track locations, including Japan’s Sendai Hi-Land Raceway and the Batu Tiga Circuit in Shah Alam, Malaysia.[citation needed] Variety estimated the budget at almost HK$30 million (US$3.9 million). Because Jackie had injured his leg during the shooting of Rumble in the Bronx, he was unable to perform some of the stunts. During the fight-scene at the pachinko hall in Japan, he was forced to use a stunt double for the wide-angle shots.

Box office.

In Hong Kong, Thunderbolt grossed HK$46 million during its theatrical run, equivalent to US$6 million. It premiered during a slump in Hong Kong cinema and, according to Variety, it and Rumble in the Bronx were “more than one-sixth of the combined gross of Hong Kong movies through the end of August.” Overseas, the film grossed NT$3,115,000 (US$1,402,000) in Taiwan. In China, the film grossed CN¥4 million in Beijing and earned CN¥25 million (US$2,994,000) in distributor rentals across the country. In Japan, the film grossed ¥334 million (US$3.55 million). In South Korea, it sold 521,121 tickets and grossed US$2.81 million. In Spain (released 2000), it sold 61,418 tickets, equivalent to an estimated €245,672 (US$226,903). Combined, the film grossed an estimated US$16,982,903 in Asia and Europe.