Rapid Fire (1992 film)

Rapid Fire
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Dwight H. Little
Produced by	Robert Lawrence
Written by	Cindy Cirile and Alan McElroy
Starring	Brandon Lee Powers Boothe
Music by	Christopher Young
Cinematography	Ric Waite
Editing by	Gib Jaffe
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	August 21, 1992 November 27, 1992 November 19, 1992 November 20, 1992 January 14, 1993
Running time	95 minutes
Country	United states
Language	English
Box office	Domestic: $14,356,479 Worldwide: $15,121,072

Rapid Fire is a 1992 action film starring the late Brandon Lee. Lee was reportedly in talks with 20th Century Fox about making Rapid Fire 2, prior to his death. School scenes were filmed at Occidental College in Los Angeles. Many of the fight scenes were orchestrated by Lee, which contain elements of his father's, Bruce Lee, Jeet Kune Do fighting style.

Plot summary

In Thailand, at a stick fighting competition, Antonio Serrano meets drug kingpin Kinman Tau (Tzi Ma). Antonio is a mafia drug distributor who wants to work with tau. After a disagreement, Tau cannot offer him a job. Tau goes into the competition and fights off two competitors. Tau walks up to Serrano and says "don't ask for what you can't take". Turned off from politics after witnessing the death of his father at Tiananmen Square in China, Los Angeles art student Jake Lo (Brandon Lee) is lured to a party of Chinese pro-democracy activists by a figure model from one of his art classes. While there, Jake witnesses Antonio Serrano (Nick Mancuso) killing party sponsor Carl Chang (Michael Paul Chan), who was an associate of Tau. Placed under protective custody by federal agents, Jake is brought to Chicago to testify against Serrano.

Stewart, an FBI agent, guides Jake to a house. The danger intensifies when two FBI agents shoot another agent. Jake fights them off and tries to escape through a bathroom window, but finds out its been glazed. He then gets a pitchfork through the glazing. One of the agents come in, and Lo kills him with the pitchfork. He pushes the body through the glazing and escapes through the window. While running under the train tracks, a cop named Karla Withers (Kate Hodge) tries to stop him while another cop comes. Lo sees the FBI agent who tried to kill him. He takes Karla's gun and puts it to her head. He tells the cop he did not do anything wrong before running away. It turns out nick works for Antonio. Lo calls Nick to meet tonight at a cul-de-sac, which is interfered by cops. When Lo goes there he sees a police car. Chicago cop Mace Ryan (Powers Boothe) comes out to say that if he still wants to keep breathing, he cannot move. But Nick tells him he is a traitor, but finds out the truth when Antonio's men come out.

Jake teams up with Ryan, who has been after Tau for 10 years. Karla turns out to be Ryan's partner and punches Jake in the stomach for what he did. Ryan uses Jake as bait to lure Serrano into giving details of his next big drug shipment. But the arrest of Serrano turns into a battle of bullets, fists, and feet. When the smoke clears, Serrano has been arrested. Soon Jake talks to Karla about his father. He eventually falls for her and a montage sequence ensues shifting between Jake and Karla having sex while Tau's henchman infiltrate the jail where Serrano is being held and kills him in his cell. This forces Ryan to use Jake once again as a pigeon. Posing as a worker, Jake is sent into the heart of Tau's industrial laundry operation to find out how Tau manages to process his imported opium without soiling any shirts. Jake succeeds, but he finds out tau has captured Ryan and Karla. Tau manages to run away. Jake fights with one of Tau's tougher henchmen (Al Leong), forcing Jake to kill his way to a confrontation with Tau on the tracks of the Chicago 'L', where Tau is electrocuted on the tracks, before being hit and killed by an 'L' train.

Cast

• Brandon Lee as Jake Lo
• Powers Boothe as Mace Ryan
• Raymond J. Barry as Agent Frank Stewart
• Kate Hodge as Karla Withers
• Tzi Ma as Kinman Tau
• Tony Longo as Brunner
• Michael Paul Chan as Carl Chang
• Al Leong as Minh
• Nick Mancuso as Antonio Serrano
• Jeff McCarthy as Agent Anderson

Critical response

Rapid Fire received mostly mixed reviews.

Box office

The movie debuted at No.3 at the box office.

Home media

After Brandon Lee's untimely death, movies such as Rapid Fire saw a surge in video sales.

External links

• Rapid Fire at the Internet Movie Database
• Rapid Fire at Box Office Mojo
• Rapid Fire Review at Obscurus Lupa Presents