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 except Cannon and another police officer. Cannon and the officer manage kill a few henchmen, with Cannon killing Cougar's girlfriend in the process before Cougar's gang escapes. 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.
Chan starts at the back of the field, but muscles his way toward the front, despite a 30-second pit penalty and other distractions caused by Amy, but facilitated by the high number of retiring racers. He approaches and battles Cougar for the lead. During the final lap, both cars slide off the track into the gravel pit, facing each other as they struggle to get back on the road. Cougar gets out first, but Chan floors it in reverse before both cars cross the line in a photo finish. Chan wins the race during the spin back forward when his front end touches the finish line first. Cougar attempts to flee from the police, but Chan chases him around the circuit before sending him crashing violently off the track. Chan pulls Cougar out of the burning wreckage for the police to arrest him, and Cannon reveals that he and his team rescued Sai Mui. He then reconciles with Amy and kisses her.
Cast
Jackie Chan as Chan Foh To / Feng Jim / (Alfred Tung in the U.S. version)
Anita Yuen as Amy Yip / (Amy Ip in the U.S. version)
In Hong Kong, Thunderbolt grossed HK$46 million during its theatrical run,[4] equivalent to US$6 million.[3][1] 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."[5]
Overseas, the film grossed NT$3,115,000 (US$1,402,000) in Taiwan.[6][7] In China, the film grossed CN¥4 million in Beijing[8] and earned CN¥25 million (US$2,994,000) in distributor rentals across the country.[9] In Japan, the film grossed ¥334 million[10] (US$3.55 million).[11] In South Korea, it sold 521,121 tickets and grossed US$2.81 million.[12] In Spain (released 2000),[13] it sold 61,418 tickets,[14] equivalent to an estimated €245,672[15] (US$226,903). Combined, the film grossed an estimated US$16,982,903 in Asia and Europe.
Critical reception
Derek Elley of Variety called it light on plot but full of memorable stunts.[1] In a review for the Hong Kong Film Critics Society, Stephen Teo remarked that Thunderbolt was one of Chan's best films because "it pursues the action aesthetic all the way, never pausing long enough for dramatic frills" like some of the star's other works.[16]
In the United Kingdom, the film was watched by 1 million viewers on television in 2004, making it the year's ninth most-watched foreign-language film on television (below eight other Hong Kong action films).[17]
^Chinese Education and Society: A Journal of Translations. M. E. Sharpe. 1999. pp. 83, 86. Red Cherry with nearly 4 million yuan. This surpasses by far the results of imported action films, such as The Fugitive (2.2 million), Speed (3 million), and Thunderbolt (Pi li huo) (4 million). (...) Rumble in the Bronx and Thunderbolt were both "big films" and big productions, and both had Jackie Chan in the lead role, but the former made box office receipts of 6 million in Beijing, whereas the latter made only 4 million.
^Dian shi yue kan (in Chinese). 1996. p. 34. 其中拍电影《警察故事 IV 简单任务》《霹雳火》《红番区》等 4 部收入 1 亿(每部片酬 2500 万,不计分红) [Among them, four films including "Police Story IV: First Strike", "Thunderbolt" and "Rumble in the Bronx" earned CN¥100 million (CN¥25 million yuan per film, excluding dividends)]
