Jackie Chan Movies

The Valley Of Peace and it’s inhabitants are under threat from a malevolent snow leopard, Tai Lung (Ian McShane). With everyone fearing for their very existences, the role of protector falls into the lap of the lazy, irreverent Po, (Jack Black) a panda more used to slacking off than facing great challenges. But it is Po who must master the ways of Kung Fu and ultimately face a showdown with the colossus that is Tai Lung…

Plot

In an anthropomorphic China, the Valley of Peace is protected by the Furious Five – Tigress, Monkey, Mantis, Viper, and Crane – a quintet of warriors trained in kung fu by the wise tortoise Master Oogway and his protégé, the red panda Master Shifu. One day, Oogway has apremonition that Shifu’s former pupil and foster son, the brutal and ruthless snow leopard Tai Lung, will escape from prison and return to the Valley. Shifu decides to hold a martial arts tournament so that Oogway may identify the legendary Dragon Warrior – the one master worthy to receive the Dragon Scroll, which is said to hold the secret to limitless power. Tai Lung had been denied the Scroll years earlier, causing him to decimate the Valley in retaliation and resulting in his imprisonment.

Po is a young giant panda and kung fu fanatic who works in his goose^[6] father’s noodle restaurant. Upon hearing of the tournament, Po tries to attend as a spectator, but his father directs him to take a push cart and sell noodles instead. By the time Po arrives, the gates are closed and the tournament has already started. Desperate to see the tournament, Po straps himself to a set of fireworks; he rockets into the sky and crashes into the middle of the arena just as Oogway is about to select the new Dragon Warrior. To the surprise of all, Oogway indicates that Po is the Dragon Warrior.

Unwilling to believe that a big fat clumsy panda can be the Dragon Warrior, Shifu attempts to berate and humiliate Po into quitting. He subjects Po to a grueling series of challenges and sparring matches against the Furious Five, culminating in a battle between Po and Shifu that ends with Po being thrown from the Jade Palace. Though the Furious Five despise him as an unqualified upstart, Po receives counseling from Oogway and refuses to quit. In time, he endears himself to the Five (except Tigress) with his impressive tenacity, culinary skill, and good humor, though he is still unable to grasp the basics of kung fu.

Meanwhile, as Oogway had foreseen, Tai Lung escapes from his prison and heads for the Valley. Sensing that his death is imminent, Oogway extracts a promise from Shifu that he will train Po and then disappears, ascending to heaven in a swirl of flower petals. Upon hearing that Tai Lung is coming, Po panics and tries to flee the Temple. Shifu refuses to let him go, insisting that he can change Po into the Dragon Warrior, but Po has lost all confidence and Shifu can not explain how he will turn Po into the Dragon Warrior. Hiding nearby and seeing this argument, Tigress leads the rest of the Furious Five to stop Tai Lung themselves. The next morning, Shifu discovers that Po displays impressive agility when he is motivated by food; using the promise of food as a reward, Shifu trains Po into a skilled warrior.

The Five confront Tai Lung over a long rope bridge, but he easily defeats them and sends them back to the Valley immobilized, carried by Crane, to inspire fear. Feeling that Po is ready to fight, Shifu gives him the Dragon Scroll, which he opens to reveal nothing but a blank, reflective surface. Shifu, despairing, orders Po and the Five to evacuate the valley while he prepares to delay Tai Lung for as long as he can. During the evacuation, Po finds his father who, in an attempt to console him, reveals that the long-withheld secret ingredient of his famous “secret ingredient soup” is nothing - except the belief that the soup is special. Po realizes this idea is the point of the Dragon Scroll and returns to face Tai Lung.

At the Temple, Tai Lung confronts Shifu and demands the Scroll; when Shifu refuses, Tai Lung attacks him. In a furious battle, Tai Lung overpowers and nearly kills Shifu before an exhausted Po arrives. Tai Lung can hardly believe that the Dragon Warrior is a “big, fat panda”, but as Tai Lung battles Po to take the Scroll, Po uses a combination of his natural clumsiness, his body mass, and Shifu’s training to prove himself an unexpected equal. At one stage of the fight, Tai Lung gains the upper hand and opens the Scroll, but cannot comprehend its symbolic value. Po explains that “there is no secret ingredient” other than the warrior’s belief in himself, but Tai Lung fails to understand and attacks again. With the combination of his new revelation and his own natural resilience, Po counter-attacks with devastating effectiveness and finally defeats Tai Lung, destroying him with the secret “Wushi Finger Hold”.

The deeply impressed Furious Five accept Po as a kung fu master and their superior. Po returns to Shifu and finds him exhausted but alive, and finally at peace now that Tai Lung has been defeated and peace restored to the Valley. In a post-credits sequence, Po and Shifu are seen eating dumplings under Oogway’s favorite peach tree, where a peach seed Shifu had planted earlier has begun to sprout into a seedling.

Forbidden Kingdom, American teenager Jason (Michael Angarano), who is obsessed with Hong Kong cinema and kungfu classics, finds an antique Chinese staff in a pawn shop: the legendary stick weapon of the Chinese sage and warrior, the Monkey King (Jet Li). With the lost relic in hand, Jason unexpectedly finds himself transported back to ancient China. There, he meets the drunken kungfu master, Lu Yan (Jackie Chan); an enigmatic and skillful Silent Monk (Jet Li); and a vengeance-bent kungfu beauty, Golden Sparrow (Crystal Liu Yi Fei), who lead him on his quest to return the staff to its rightful owner, the Monkey King – imprisoned in stone by the evil Jade Warlord (Collin Chou) for five hundred years. Along the way, while attempting to outmaneuver scores of Jade Warriors, Cult Killers and the deadly White Hair Demoness, Ni Chang (Li Bing Bing), Jason learns about honor, loyalty and friendship, and the true meaning of kungfu, and thus frees himself.

South Boston teenager Jason Tripitikas (Michael Angarano) awakens from a dream of a battle between the Monkey King Sun Wukong (Jet Li) and heavenly soldiers amongst clouds. He is then shown to be a fan of kung fu films; posters cover the walls of his room, and his television displays the film Monkey Goes West (1966). After getting dressed, he visits a pawn shop in downtown Boston’s Chinatown to buy wuxiaDVDs. There, Jason converses with Hop (a prosthetics-laden Jackie Chan), the shop’s elderly owner, and, while exploring the shop, is drawn to a golden staff, which Hop tells him is to be delivered to its rightful owner.

On his way home, Jason is attacked by local bully Lupo (Morgan Benoit) and cronies, who force him to return to the pawn shop at night so that Hop will open the door, allowing the bullies to steal his money. Hop tries to attack the thieves with the staff, but is shot by Lupo. Hop, wounded, tells Jason that Jason must now deliver the staff to its rightful owner. Jason takes the staff and runs from the thieves. On top of a building, he is surrounded by the bullies, as Lupo fears that Jason will expose the shooting to the police and intends to kill him to ensure his silence. Before Lupo can shoot, Jason is pulled off the roof by the staff and falls backwards onto the asphalt.

When Jason wakes up, he is in ancient China, near a village which is soon attacked by armored warriors who notice his staff and try to take it from him. He is rescued by the inebriated traveling scholar Lu Yan (Jackie Chan), a supposed ‘immortal’, who is surprisingly alert and agile even when drunk. Later that night, seated in a teahouse, Lu Yan tells Jason of a legend of the Monkey King, who caused havoc at the banquet held by the Immortals on Five Elements Mountain celebrating the Jade Emperor’s forthcoming 500-year period of meditation. The Jade Emperor took a liking to the Monkey King and awarded him a heavenly title, much to the chagrin of the Jade Warlord (Collin Chou), who was the Emperor’s general. The Emperor then left the Jade Warlord to rule by Mandate of Heaven before retreating to his period of seclusion. The Warlord then challenged the Monkey King to a duel to display their fighting and magical abilities. After tricking the Monkey King into setting aside his magic staff Ruyi Jingu Bang, the Warlord changed him into a statue of himself, whereupon the Monkey King threw the staff beyond the Warlord’s grasp. Lu Yan ends the tale by stating a prophecy in which a person known as the “Seeker” will find the staff and free the Monkey King. Lu Yan and Jason are then attacked by the Jade Warlord’s soldiers, from whom they are rescued by Golden Sparrow (Liu Yifei), a young girl who refers to herself in the third person. She reveals that her family was murdered by the Jade Warlord, against whom she has therefore sworn revenge.

The Jade Warlord, learning that his men have seen the staff, sends the young white-haired witch Ni Chang (Li Bingbing) to retrieve it in exchange for the elixir of immortality. When Jason wakes the next morning, he is attacked by a person dressed in white clothes, who takes the staff from him. Jason, Lu Yan, and Sparrow follow the man’s trail to a temple. There, Lu Yan meets the Silent Monk (Jet Li), who refuses to give him the staff. The two fight until the Silent Monk realizes that Jason is the staff’s prophesied Seeker and joins the protagonists in their quest to free the Monkey King.

As the four travel to Five Elements Mountain, Lu Yan and the Silent Monk teach Jason kung fu. After crossing a desert, they encounter Ni Chang and her henchmen. After a fight, the four manage to escape with the staff; but Lu Yan is mortally injured by Ni Chang’s arrow. The protagonists take refuge in a monastery, where they find out that the Jade Warlord’s elixir of immortality will heal Lu Yan, who reveals he is not immortal. Jason, desperate to help Lu Yan, goes alone to the Warlord’s palace to exchange the staff for the elixir.

At the palace, Jason learns that the Jade Warlord has promised the elixir to Ni Chang in exchange for the staff; but given that Jason has brought it, he is commanded to fight Ni Chang to the death, earning the elixir by his victory. Although Jason has developed proficiency in martial arts, holding his own against the Witch, the more experienced Ni Chang eventually overwhelms him. The Jade Warlord taunts Jason for his foolishness, preparing to decapitate him. Jason is saved by the Silent Monk and Sparrow, who arrive while Lu Yan is carried behind them by monks from the monastery. The Silent Monk duels the Jade Warlord to protect the staff while Sparrow fights Ni Chang. During the fight, Jason seizes the elixir and throws it to Lu Yan, who drinks it and becomes immortal, regaining his vitality. Lu Yan then fights Ni Chang on a balcony. The Silent Monk is mortally wounded during his battle with the Jade Warlord and throws the staff to Jason. Jason takes the staff and shatters the Monkey King’s statue form, freeing him from his imprisonment. The Silent Monk dies of his injuries and becomes a golden hair, revealing him to be a magical human familiar created by the Monkey King immediately prior to his imprisonment. The fight between the Monkey King and the Jade Warlord begins.

After a long battle, Lu Yan dispatches Ni Chang by making her fall from the top of the mountain. Sparrow tries to kill the Jade Warlord with her magical jade dart, but is fatally wounded when he deflects it. Jason later kills the Jade Warlord with the dart when the Monkey King shoves him toward Jason. The Jade Warlord then falls into a lava pit that he created earlier and disintegrates. Jason then attends Sparrow, who thanks him in first person before dying. He is subsequently praised by the newly returned Jade Emperor for fulfilling the prophecy. As his reward for his courage, Jason chooses to be returned to his native time and place.

Jason then wakes in 21st-century Boston at the very moment and location of his earlier fall. He is attacked by Lupo, but defeats him, frightens off the other bullies, and alerts the police. Hop survives his wound and reveals, to Jason alone, that he is immortal.

Before Jason leaves the scene, he sees a girl who is the reincarnation of Golden Sparrow, and who coincidentally works in a souvenir shop named Golden Sparrow. Jason, surprised but delighted to see her, speaks with her briefly and goes home, where he practices his kung fu on the roof with a staff as the Monkey King begins his Journey to the West.