Jackie Chan has been making movies since 1962. Some of his earliest appearances were actually uncredited roles in some of Bruce Lee's movies, including Enter the Dragon. Despite being a legendary actor in China for years, it was 1995's Rumble in the Bronx that turned him into an international star.
Now with 141 acting credits to his name, as well as successful careers as a producer and businessman, there are certain tropes fans come to expect from Jackie Chan films and only Jackie Chan films.
Singer
It might not seem badass at first but putting yourself out there as a singer when your a renowned action star is a pretty badass thing to do. Jackie Chan actually has formal opera training and has released several albums of music. He also performs theme songs for many of his movies. Jackie is a successful action movies star and a successful musician.
Almost Always A Good Guy
Over the years of his career, Jackie Chan has worked extremely hard to always be a good guy in his films. This went so far that he actually turned down the role of Simon Phoenix in Demolition Man, among other villainous offers.
He has only played an outright villain once in Rumble in Hong Kong. Starting in the early 2000s, some of the roles he started playing were more anti-heroes than heroes, but still good guys nonetheless.
Slapstick Humor
Jackie Chan has always seen himself more as a comedian than as an action star. His heroes are actors like Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, which makes a lot of sense when you watch his movies. There's often a healthy dose of humor mixed into his fights. He's less concerned about looking like a legendary warrior and more concerned about making his fans laugh. Despite finding success as a martial arts film star, he has often chafed against being pigeonholed in that role.
Torture
Many Jackie Chan movies actually include him being tortured. Sometimes it's his characters' mentors putting him through the ringer, so much that it's a hellacious for him. Other times it's actual torture.
In Rumble in the Bronx, his enemies trap him in an alley and pelt him with empty liquor bottles, leaving him a bloody, beaten mess. It's an absolutely brutal scene, which is only enhanced by the knowledge that Jackie performs his own stunts.
Stiff Fights
To use pro wrestling parlance, Jackie Chan tends to work stiff. This means that when he hits someone, he hits pretty hard. The stunt team he works with in most of his movies actually wears padding so that the punches can look as legitimate as possible. That being said, Jackie is against fighting outside of the movies and has only been in one real fight in his life.
Props Galore
During his movie fight scenes, Jackie Chan is notorious for incorporating props into them. This isn't limited to convenient weapons lying around. In fact, the opposite is often true. It's more likely that Jackie would take a ski or a ladder into battle than a sword.
Using seemingly random objects in his fights makes them stand out from other similar films. There's nothing quite like seeing Jackie Chan take out a room full of people with an ottoman.
Gets His Butt Kicked
A big part of Jackie's in film fighting style is getting his butt kicked. Having worked with the iconic Bruce Lee early in his career, Jackie knew he wanted to be different. Where Bruce would take a punch and get angry, Jackie would take a punch and get hurt. This added to the realism of the fight scenes as well as the comedic tone Jackie constantly strives for. His reactions are priceless.
Incredible Stunts
Doing your own stunts is a badge of honor among some action filmmakers, Jackie Chan being one of the most notorious of them all. It adds a sense of realism to the movie, as well as a sense of tension for fans who know what he's up to.
Jackie has even gone so far as to establish his own stunt team that he uses in the vast majority of his movies, and he definitely leads by example. He's not going to ask anyone to jump off a roof he isn't willing to jump off himself.
Insane Outtakes
When you've been starring in action movies for decades and doing your own stunts, there are inevitably more than a few great outtakes to tack onto the film. Some actors might not be inclined to promote the moments that don't go right but Jackie Chan has leaned into them for years. Some of the best moments of his movies are the ones that don't go right.
Injuries, Injuries, and More Injuries
One of the things that the outtakes show off are his many injuries, which is to be expected when you do your own stunts. Rumble in the Bronx features a doozy when Jackie tries to make the jump from a bridge to a hovercraft and breaks his ankle. You can see the moment it happens in the movie. Jackie has reputedly stated that his most painful injury was actually caused by Bruce Lee, who accidentally hit him in the face with a pair of nunchucks.