Honestly, most people saw the trailer for the movie with jackie chan and pierce brosnan and thought they were getting Rush Hour meets James Bond. You probably did too. It makes sense on paper. You have the world's most famous martial arts comedian and the suave guy who defined 007 for a generation. But when The Foreigner actually hit theaters in 2017, it wasn't a buddy-cop romp. Not even close. It was a bleak, rain-soaked, and surprisingly brutal political thriller that left a lot of audiences feeling like they’d just been punched in the gut. In a good way.
Most Jackie Chan movies are about the spectacle of the "how." How is he going to use that ladder? How will he climb that wall? In The Foreigner, the focus shifts entirely to the "why."
What Really Happened With The Foreigner
The story follows Ngoc Minh Quan, played by Chan, a humble London restaurateur whose life is shattered when his teenage daughter is killed in a politically motivated bombing. This isn't the "I'm too old for this" Jackie we're used to. This is a man who has lost everything and has zero jokes left in the tank. When he seeks justice from the British authorities and gets nowhere, he turns his sights on Liam Hennessy, a Northern Irish government official played by Pierce Brosnan.
Brosnan is essentially playing a dark, "what if" version of a reformed IRA leader. He’s powerful, he’s compromised, and he’s increasingly desperate as this "old man" begins to dismantle his life.
Director Martin Campbell, the same guy who gave us GoldenEye and Casino Royale, was the perfect choice for this. He knows how to ground high-stakes action in a way that feels heavy. When Quan starts setting traps and using his old special forces training—yeah, he has a "particular set of skills"—it doesn't feel like a superhero movie. It feels like a tragedy.
📖 Related: Break It Off PinkPantheress: How a 90-Second Garage Flip Changed Everything
Why the casting was a massive gamble
Let’s be real: casting Jackie Chan as a grieving, stone-faced father was a risk. For decades, his brand was built on a smile and a "don't want no trouble" attitude. In The Foreigner, he looks every bit of his 60-plus years. He’s slow, he’s tired, and his eyes are hollow.
Then you have Brosnan.
- He’s not the hero.
- He’s not exactly the villain either.
- He’s a man caught between his violent past and his comfortable present.
The dynamic between them is fascinating because they rarely share the screen. It’s a game of cat and mouse where the cat is a high-ranking politician and the mouse is a guy with a bag of fertilizer and nothing to lose.
The Action: Stripped and Brutal
If you came for the flips, you might be disappointed. The fight choreography is handled by the Jackie Chan Stunt Team, but it’s tailored for a man who is supposed to be aging and exhausted. The movements are economical. There’s a scene in a guest house that is probably the highlight of the film. It’s tight, messy, and lacks the "flow" of a typical kung fu flick.
👉 See also: Bob Hearts Abishola Season 4 Explained: The Move That Changed Everything
Instead of using a chair to do a backflip, Quan uses a chair to break someone's ribs as quickly as possible.
It’s worth noting that the film is based on the 1992 novel The Chinaman by Stephen Leather. The movie modernized the conflict, focusing on a splinter group of the IRA, which added a layer of grit that you just don't see in American-led action movies. It grossed about $145 million worldwide against a $35 million budget. That’s a massive win, but it’s funny how it’s rarely talked about in the "best of" lists for either actor.
What most people get wrong about this movie
A lot of critics at the time complained that Chan "isn't in the movie enough." They felt the political maneuvering in Northern Ireland took up too much space. But that's actually the point. The Foreigner is a dual narrative. One half is a dense political drama about the fragility of peace. The other half is a revenge thriller.
Without the politics, the revenge has no weight. Without the revenge, the politics are just men in suits talking in gray rooms.
✨ Don't miss: Black Bear by Andrew Belle: Why This Song Still Hits So Hard
The film also refuses to give you the "feel-good" ending you'd expect from a blockbuster. It’s cynical. It’s messy. By the time the credits roll, nobody has really "won." They’ve just survived.
How to watch it today
If you’re looking to revisit this movie with jackie chan and pierce brosnan, it’s frequently cycling through streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime.
Honestly, it’s aged better than most of the CGI-heavy action films from that same year. If you want to see what happens when two legends decide to stop playing the "hits" and actually try something difficult, this is the one.
To get the most out of your viewing, keep an eye on the subtle ways Chan uses his environment. Even though the comedy is gone, the "prop master" DNA is still there—it's just being used for guerrilla warfare instead of slapstick.
Next steps: 1. Check your local streaming listings for The Foreigner.
2. Watch for the stairwell fight scene—it's a masterclass in tight-space choreography.
3. Compare Brosnan's performance here to his later work in The November Man to see how he refined his "grumpy operative" persona.