Veteran stunt professional Brad Allan passed away on August 7, 2021, and he was among the best in the business. The work of the late Australian native as a stunt coordinator and second unit director will soon be seen in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the action scenes of which are already receiving extremely high praise, as well as the upcoming prequel in the Kingsman franchise, The King's Man. However, Allan's contributions to the action movie world, which many moviegoers are likely not even aware of, go back decades.
Allan first got involved in boxing and Karate at the age of ten, and later moved into gymnastics and other martial arts like Wing Chun, Tae Kwon Do, Hapkido, and contemporary Wushu. Following his time in competitive Wushu, Allan first met Jackie Chan when 1997's Mr. Nice Guy was filming in Melbourne, with Allan working on the film as a stunt man. After Allan's subsequent work on Who Am I?, he would officially join the Jackie Chan Stunt Team. While most of Allan's work in his career was in stunt work or stunt coordination, he appeared in one prominent on-camera role in 1999's romantic comedy Gorgeous, opposite his childhood hero Jackie Chan himself.
In Gorgeous, Allan portrayed a Western kickboxer named Alan, hired by a business rival of Chan's character C.N. to defeat him. Allan and Chan went head-to-head twice in the movie in true Jackie Chan fashion, with Allan's agility and kicking skills making him the breakout star of the movie. While Gorgeous remains the role for which Allan is most recognizable, he would later be instrumental in the action scenes of some of major Hollywood hits, and injected them with everything he learned from working alongside Jackie Chan.
Following Allan's continued work with Chan on movies like Shanghai Noon, Shanghai Knights, New Police Story, and numerous others, Allan moved into both performing and coordinating stunts and fight scenes on Western movies like Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Ninja Assassin, and Kick-Ass. Allan also developed a close relationship with director Edgar Wright (who penned a heartfelt editorial tribute in Empire after Allan's passing), helping craft the video-game-inspired fight scenes of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World with fight coordinator and frequent collaborator Peng Zhang, and later re-teaming with Wright on The World's End. Allan later lent his services to 2015's Kingsman: The Secret Service and its 2017 sequel Kingsman: The Golden Circle, which similarly brought an inventive spin on comedic martial arts into Hollywood action films.
Allan's most recent work on the kung fu-driven Shang-Chi has garnered praise for the film as having some of the best action scenes in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, while The King's Man carries over the DNA of its two predecessors. In Allan's transition from the East to the West, he brought the energy and fun of action scenes in Hong Kong movies to Hollywood, and he'd help create some of the best fight sequences the 21st century has seen. Scott Pilgrim in particular would go on to become a cult classic, while "the church scene" in Kingsman remains a legendary set piece. Action movie lovers around the world have mourned his untimely passing, but Brad Allan leaves behind a legacy of incredible work in action movies, including two on-screen Jackie Chan matchups, solidifying him as one of the modern greats in the craft of stunt work and cinematic martial arts.