Jackie Chan Has Broken Fewer Bones Than Fans May Have Realized
Stuntman and action star Jackie Chan became notorious in Hong Kong cinema and Hollywood for his death-defying stunts. Chan has performed every stunt himself without a double, leading to many injuries in his career. Multiple scenes from his movies became infamous because of their backstories. Fans will be surprised to learn that Chan has not broken an outrageous amount of bones. Throughout his extensive career, Chan has had more fatal lacerations and torn ligaments than broken bones.
Jackie Chan has appeared in over 150 movies
As a child, Chan nicknamed him Pao-pao, meaning “cannonball” in Chinese due to his explosive energy. The nickname is accurate as Chan is the most recognized action stars worldwide for his innovative fighting style and stunt work. His acting career started in the 1960s, appearing in minor roles. It was not until 1978 that he had a breakthrough with the movie Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow. The same year, Chan would reach stardom and mainstream success with the martial arts classic movie Drunken Master.
Chan continued to focus on his career in Hong Kong with movies like Police Story and its following installments. His big break into American cinema was with Rumble in the Bronx that developed a cult following. In 1998, he and Chris Tucker would star in Rush Hour and its franchise, becoming a staple in the buddy cop movie genre. Since then, Chan became a household name as an actions star and even tagged as a “living legend”.
‘Rumble in the Bronx’ stunt led to Jackie Chan’s broken ankle
Amongst the many movies Jakie Chan has starred in, he has fewer broken bones than other injuries. In total, Chan has roughly had 10 broken bones in his extensive career. According to Screen Rant, in Rumble in the Bronx, there is a scene where Chan jumps onto a hoverboard. In an end credit scene, it shows that Chan landed wrong, resulting in a broken ankle. Chan is known to continue his work so he customized a cast to look like a shoe so he could continue filming.
In Drunken Master, Chan took a high kick to the head during a fight scene resulting in his supraciliary ridge being smashed and breaking his eye socket. Chan would later break his sternum in Armour Of God 2: Operation Condor. In both First Strike and The Young Master, Chan broke his nose and would break various fingers in other movies like Project A.
Jackie Chan has suffered a couple of life-threatening injuries. One of his worst was in the 1997 movie Armour of God. Chan leaped off a cliffside onto a tree for a scene and got it right in one shot. Chan felt it was not good enough a redid it leading him to fall on his back and smash his head on a rock. The impact causes a shard of his skull bone to drive into his brain.
Jackie Chan has had more injuries and lacerations than anything else
Many fans believe that Jackie Chan must be some type of superhuman ability to survive his dangerous stunts and injuries. In the 1992 movie Supercop, Chan dislocated his shoulder and cheekbone. He would also dislocate his pelvis and suffer electrical burns, and various cuts in Police Story. The stunt scenes became one of Chan’s more popular ones.
In the scene, Chan leaps off a balcony and grabs onto a metal pole. He slides down four stories but the pole was wrapped in plugged-in Christmas lights. As he descended, the lights shattered and gave Chan second-degree electrical burns before crashing into a large pane of glass. For Police Story 2, Chan leaps across a series of buses and falls through a glass window leaving him with lacerations across his neck and body. To continue filming, Chan wore skin-colored bandages.
