While filming Police Story, Jackie Chan nearly died performing a stunt that went wrong. The martial arts icon, who is known for doing most of his own stunts, has encountered numerous accidents in his long career on the big screen. Arguably one of his most scary stunts-gone-wrong happened in 1985, as the sequence in question easily could have resulted in the actor's death.
Stunt work has always been a part of Jackie Chan’s expertise in the movie business. In fact, Chan was a stuntman before he became an actor. In the early 1970s, he used his athleticism and background in kung fu to work on the stunt team in some of Bruce Lee’s movies, including Fist of Fury and Enter the Dragon. Later on, Jackie Chan became a martial arts star in his own right. Apart from making kung fu movies with intense, well-choreographed fight scenes, Chan also performed a great deal of acrobatic stunts that impressed audiences, such as his work in movies like The Dragon Lord, Project A, Armour of God, Rumble in the Bronx, and several more.
Chan experienced a lot of challenges while filming Police Story, a 1985 Hong Kong movie which saw the actor take on the role of a police inspector who has to contend with a powerful gang. At the end of the movie, there is a scene in which Chan’s character is chasing criminals in a shopping mall. As he is on a floor high above them, he jumps on a pole and slides down several stories to reach them. But this wasn’t just any pole: not only did Chan have to jump from a railing and catch the pole mid-air, but the pole itself was surrounded by decorative lights that Chan would break on his way down. While the visuals make for an exciting sequence, the stunt presented Chan with some understandable concerns about injuries, as he was worried that he could get shocked by the bursting electric lights. However, he was assured that the lights could be switched off if anything went wrong.
Despite the precautions that were taken to keep him safe, the stunt took a bad turn due to an error with the lighting, causing the pole to be heated to a high temperature. In a video Chan discusses just how dangerous the stunt was: not only were there no wires supporting him, but there wasn't even a safety net to catch him if he missed the pole (just a car full of candy for him to land in). Due to how hot the pole was, it would presumably be natural instinct for one to let go, or even loosen their grip, of the pole — but luckily, Chan held on regardless of the pain (perhaps because of the adrenaline). He reached the bottom safely and walked away with second-degree burns on his hands. Though his hands were injured by the stunt, Jackie Chan was still able to shoot scenes for Heart of Dragon in the same day.
This wasn’t the first nor the last time that Chan has been in danger because of a stunt. There was actually another notable incident that occurred during the shooting of Police Story, which was when he fell through a glass display and had to be hospitalized. Unfortunately, occasional accidents were bound to happen, given how many death-defying stunts Chan has shot over the years. They’re such an important part of the process for him that he even had his own Jackie Chan Stunt Team which worked with him from movie to movie for decades. Across several of his films, Chan has suffered a long list of injuries and has broken several bones. This would of course result in production delays, but it didn’t deter the actor’s resolve to keep doing his own stunts. This aspect of Jackie Chan’s movies has a lot to do what makes them so enjoyable and exciting for his fans.