The Protector: Why Jackie Chan Hated His Own Movie (And Why You Should Watch It Anyway)

Let's talk about the time Jackie Chan almost quit movies. Or at least, the time he realized Hollywood had absolutely no clue what to do with him. If you look at the 1985 flick The Protector, you aren't just looking at another "cop on the edge" movie from the Reagan era. You're looking at a fascinating, high-stakes collision between two guys who basically spoke different languages—not just literally, but cinematically.

Jackie was already a god in Asia. He was used to spending months on a single fight scene, obsessing over every frame. Then he meets James Glickenhaus, a New York director who loved grit, "Dirty Harry" vibes, and finishing scenes in a couple of takes. The result? A movie that Jackie Chan famously hated so much he went back to Hong Kong and made Police Story just to prove a point. Honestly, we should probably thank Glickenhaus for being so difficult, because without the frustration of The Protector, we might never have gotten the greatest mall fight in cinema history.

What Actually Happens in The Protector?

Basically, Jackie plays Billy Wong, a New York City cop who’s about as far from his usual "charming nice guy" persona as you can get. After his partner gets gunned down in a restaurant, Billy is paired with Danny Garoni (played by Danny Aiello). They get sent to Hong Kong to track down a kidnapped girl, the daughter of a wealthy businessman with ties to a drug lord named Harold Ko.

It sounds like a standard 80s setup, right? But the vibe is weird. Billy Wong is kind of a psychopath. He doesn't do "funny kung fu." He uses a massive .45 and blows people away. He’s stoic, he’s angry, and he curses. If you’re used to the Jackie Chan who uses a step-ladder or a refrigerator to beat up thugs, seeing him drop an f-bomb and blast a guy with a shotgun is a total trip.

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The Battle of Two Versions

Here’s where it gets interesting for film nerds. There isn't just one version of this movie. Because Jackie was so miserable with the final product, he actually bought the rights to re-edit the film for the Asian market.

The US Cut (The Glickenhaus Version)

This is the one most Westerners saw. It’s a "grindhouse" movie through and through. It’s got:

• Gratuitous nudity in a drug-processing lab (which feels very out of place for a Chan movie).
• Explosive, bloody squibs during gunfights.
• A much slower pace during the hand-to-hand combat.
• A very "New York" attitude.

The Hong Kong Cut (The Jackie Chan Version)

Jackie went back, cut out the nudity, trimmed the swearing, and—most importantly—re-shot a bunch of the action. He hired Sally Yeh to play a new character and added a whole subplot to make the story feel more like a traditional Hong Kong actioner. He also sped up the fight scenes. He felt the original fights were "sloppy" and "slow." If you watch them side-by-side, the HK version is undeniably more "Jackie," but it’s still a bit of a Frankenstein’s monster because the footage doesn't always match.

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Why the Friction Mattered

Jackie was used to being the boss. In Hong Kong, if he wanted to jump off a building ten times to get the right angle, he did it. Glickenhaus, on the other hand, had a "that’s good enough" approach that drove Jackie up the wall. There’s a story in Jackie’s autobiography, Never Grow Up, where he mentions how he felt they were trying to turn him into the next Bruce Lee or Clint Eastwood. He didn't want to be a stoic killer; he wanted to be the underdog who uses his environment to survive.

The director actually thought Jackie's style was too "cartoonish" for a gritty American thriller. It was a classic case of oil and water. They were both right in their own ways, but together, they just made a mess.

Is It Actually Any Good?

If you're a die-hard Jackie fan, The Protector is a must-watch purely for the "what if" factor. The finale at the Hong Kong shipyard is actually pretty cool. Jackie fights Bill "Superfoot" Wallace, a real-life karate legend. Even in the slower US cut, that fight has some weight to it.

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Is it his best work? Not even close. It’s a bit mean-spirited and lacks the "heart" of something like Project A. But it’s an incredible time capsule of a moment when Hollywood was desperately trying to figure out how to market an Asian superstar to a domestic audience and failing miserably.

Actionable Takeaways for Movie Buffs

If you want to dive into the world of The Protector, don't just stream whatever version is on a random site. Do it right:

1. Find the 88 Films or Shout! Factory Blu-ray: These usually contain both the US and Hong Kong cuts. Watching the US version first, then the HK version, is a masterclass in how editing and reshoots can change the entire soul of a movie.
2. Look for the Bill Wallace fight: Pay attention to the choreography. Even though Jackie was unhappy, his physical timing is still lightyears ahead of most 80s American action stars.
3. Watch "Police Story" immediately after: This is the best way to see what Jackie meant to do. He used the anger he felt on the set of The Protector as fuel to create his magnum opus.
4. Spot the cameos: Look for Roy Chiao (who was in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) and Moon Lee.

Basically, The Protector is the most important "bad" movie in Jackie Chan's career. It’s the film that taught him that if he wanted to conquer America, he had to do it on his own terms. It took another ten years and Rumble in the Bronx for him to finally pull it off, but the seeds of that success were planted right here in the grit of a 1985 New York alleyway.