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After Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan became Hong Kong’s most famous film star and martial artist. Although Chan’s popularity in his hometown has dimmed somewhat in recent years (mainly because of
his political views) there was a time during the 80s and early 90s when he dominated both the Hong Kong and East Asian box office. Unlike Lee, who rose to fame off of his martial arts
prowess, Chan became famous primarily for his ludicrously dangerous stunts. The outtakes at the end of many old Jackie Chan movies, where viewers get to see stunts gone wrong, are sometimes
even more jaw-dropping than the successful takes. Whatever his political views, Chan can be credited with creating some of the best action movies ever. In celebration of his birthday, here
are five of his most dangerous stunts. Advertisement ARMOR OF GOD – TREE STUNT Let’s start with the one that almost killed him. A relatively innocuous stunt on paper, at least compared to
some of the ones later in this list, this required Chan to leap off the wall of a castle and onto a tree, then swing down through the branches. Although the first take went well, Chan did
not think he was fast enough. On the second attempt, disaster struck when the tree branch Chan had launched himself onto broke. As he hit the ground, his head smacked a rock, fracturing his
skull. POLICE STORY – SHOPPING CENTRE STUNT Chan suffered a wealth of injuries shooting this, one of his most popular and most dangerous films. His injury list includes a fractured finger,
burns to his hands, a deep cut on his forearm, electric shock, injury to his pelvic bone and broken vertebrae. More than one of these resulted from the climactic stunt of _Police Story_,
which required Chan to throw himself off a balcony in a shopping centre, grab a pole covered in light bulbs, slide down it and then drop off of it through a glass roof and onto a small
decoration house. Unsurprisingly, the cost of insuring Chan’s movies increased massively after this one. PROJECT A – CLOCK TOWER STUNT
