the protector

Director: james glickenhaus

Actor: jackie chan,danny aiello,sandy alexander,victor arnold

Data Published: Sat Jun 15 1985

Genres: Action,Crime,Thriller

Key Words: assassination attempt,american,vietnam war veteran,slow clap,aerial camera shot

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089847/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Protector_(1985_film)

Description: The Protector is a movie starring Jackie Chan, Danny Aiello, and Sandy Alexander. Two New York City cops, Billy Wong and Danny Garoni, head to Hong Kong after the daughter of a rich businessman is kidnapped by the drug lord, Mr. Ko.

Plot: As noted above, Jackie Chan re-edited The Protector for the Hong-Kong and Asian markets, which involved filming an entire subplot, removing content he disapproved of, and dubbing the entire movie. Since the basic narrative is the same in both versions, and because the Hong Kong version uses much of the US footage, the following plot summary will simultaneously summarize the plots of both versions, where differences between the two versions will be noted. New York police officers Billy Wong (Jackie Chan) and Michael Alexander (Patrick James Clarke) are patrolling a new New York City neighborhood one night. After their patrol, they decide to have a drink at a bar in celebration of Wong's 10th year in America. Wong goes to the bathroom while Alexander orders another round. Outside, a gang plans to rob the bar, unaware of the cops inside. They charge in busting the door and start roughing up the customers and gathering them by the till. Wong, still in the bathroom, has heard the commotion. He shoots dead one of the gangsters who breaks into the bathroom, and Michael shoots another gangster before he can kill Billy, but is then shot by the two remaining gang members. Wong kills the third gangster, and the fourth gangster escapes. Alexander tells Wong in his last words "Get those fuckers, Billy." Billy chases the last gang member to the marina across town. The gangster commandeers a yacht, so Billy forces a marina at gunpoint to give him the keys to the fastest boat. The captain orders Billy to let the harbor police catch the thief, but Billy refuses and speeds off. He calls an air unit who arrives on the scene and hoist him a line. Billy grabs onto the line, and lets his speedboat run into the gangster's boat, destroying both and killing the gangster. Billy is scolded by his captain (Victor Arnold) for disobeying a direct order and for causing an explosion in the harbor, and is then demoted to crowd control. He goes to a fashion show party undercover, hosted by a Laura Shapiro, the daughter of a locally known gangster Martin Shapiro. At the party, he meets his new partner, Danny Garoni (Danny Aiello), who has also been demoted due to claims of police brutality. In the middle of the fashion show, masked gangsters armed with machine guns storm in and kidnap Laura Shapiro, and nobody knows why. They later learn that crime boss Harold Ko (Roy Chiao) and Martin Shapiro are suspected of smuggling drugs from Hong Kong to New York, and that Ko may have kidnapped Shapiro's daughter, Laura (Saun Ellis), and taken her to Hong Kong for ransom. The men get a lead – Shapiro's bodyguard Benny Garrucci(Bill "Superfoot" Wallace) has made several calls to a Hong Kong massage parlor. While investigating the massage parlor, Wong and Garoni get massages, but Billy notices that the masseuses are trying to kill them. Billy and Garoni fight off the remaining massage parlor employees, before they are cornered and held at gunpoint by the parlor manager. The manager questions them, revealing that he knows they are cops, and then threatens to kill them. However, Garoni and Wong overpower him and his men, and leave the parlor. Wong and Garoni go to see Lee Hing (Peter Yang) on his boat, and show him Tin Ho's coin to gain his trust. However, Hing is reluctant to give any information, noting that he retired. A man named Stan Jones (Kim Bass) gets on the boat, and warns Wong and Garoni they are being followed by the massage parlor manager and his men. Garoni, Jones and Wong easily get rid of the other gangsters, then Wong pursues the parlor manager to get more information, and almost catches him but fails. After witnessing this, Lee Hing agrees to help them, telling the cops to come back the next day after he gets information from various contacts about Ko. Wong and Garoni head back to their hotel, finding cash in a suitcase on the bed. Ko then calls them, telling them to take the money and leave Hong Kong at once. During the phone call, they are attacked by Ko's men, and the cops manage to kill them, but not before one of the gangsters sets off a grenade in a suicide attempt to kill them. They are taken to the police station in Hong Kong, where they are scolded by the Royal Hong Kong Police chief superintendent Whitehead (Richard Clarke) for the ruckus. Whitehead refuses to believe that Ko was behind the most recent attack, and tells the cops about Ko's charitable reputation in Hong Kong, informing them that at a press conference Ko will announce that all the winnings from a race horse he owns will be donated to charity. The next day, Garoni and Wong arrive at Ko's press conference (where Garucci is also present) and embarrass Ko by publicly showing the crowd his attempted bribe to them. The next day, Wong, Jones, and Hing's daughter Soo Ling Moon Lee visit Lee Hing to see what he found, while Garoni follows Garrucci. But instead, they see that Lee Hing has been killed and his boat burned. At a loss for information, Wong and Moon Lee visit a fortune teller. The fortune teller cryptically informs them that Garruci has come to Hong Kong to make an exchange for Laura Shapiro. But he warns them that if they interfere, there will only be death and betrayal. Meanwhile, Garoni follows Garruci to a shipyard, and deduces that it's Ko's drug lab with Laura Shapiro inside. Wong, Garoni and Jones go to the drug lab. They destroy it and save Laura Shapiro in the process. Garoni, however, fails to escape with them after he is shot by Garrucci, and is held hostage unless Billy returns Laura to Ko. Wong decides to leave Laura Shapiro with Superintendent Whitehead. Wong meets Ko and Garucci at the shipyard. He sees that Garoni is still alive, but then learns that Whitehead was on Ko's payroll the whole time, and is now holding Laura hostage (confirming the "betrayal" that the fortune teller cryptically warned about). As "one last piece of entertainment" for Ko, Garucci engages Wong in a one-on-one hand-to-hand fight, which Wong wins despite Ko's attempts to cheat and help Garucci. Then Wong dispatches Ko's guards and is eventually about to kill Ko, but Garrucci comes after Billy with a cut-off saw. In the ensuing fight, Garrucci is electrocuted by trying to slice open Billy's head, but misses and hits an electric panel instead. Jones and Soo Ling arrive to help untie Garoni and rescue Laura. Ko escapes in a helicopter, and Billy follows after him, but a guard blocks his way. Billy and the guard fight on a cargo lifter, where Wong prevails by eventually knocking the guard off to a long fall to his death. Garoni goes outside with the gang and kills a sniper with a 6-shot 20mm cannon. Wong eventually makes inside of a crane, and kills Ko when he drops the contents of the crane onto Ko's helicopter. With Ko dead and Laura Shapiro saved, Billy and Danny are given a NYPD Medal of Honor. The basic narrative of this version is the same as the US version. However, it begins to deviate after Garoni and Wong leave the massage parlour. Earlier in both versions, Wong mentions to Garoni that a Chinatown contact named Tin Ho gave him a coin as a "calling card". The day after he and Garoni investigate the massage parlor, Wong goes to a theater to look for a woman named May Fong Ho. However, the woman he is looking for goes by the name Sally, and Wong quickly deduces who she is among the dancers she's rehearsing with. Wong disturbs her during rehearsal by showing her Tin Ho's coin, but she denies having any friends from New York and tries to avoid Wong. Two men competing for Sally's affection try to fight Wong but are easily beaten before Wong pulls out his gun to end the fight. Wong and Sally then go to a restaurant, where she reveals that her father and another man were "partners" of Ko, until Ko killed her father. She changed her name in order to hide from Ko. She tells him to visit Lee Hing, the other partner of her father. However, unbeknownst to Sally and Wong, one of Ko's men has overheard the conversation. After this scene, the movie stays the same as the US version until after Ko's press conference. In the Hong Kong version, after the press conference, Garucci tells Ko's bodyguard that he will wire in the money after checking on Laura, and says that the Shapiro's refusal to pay Ko's last shipment was a simple "misunderstanding". He expresses his concern about Garoni and Wong's knowledge of their drug operation, and that he'd like to do something about it. Ko's bodyguard tells him to "come along tonight". Later that night, Lee Hing meets with his contact Wing (Hoi-Sang Lee) at a seafood warehouse to find information about Ko. Wing tells Hing that Laura is being held in shipping containers at the shipyard, and reveals that the shipping containers contain Ko's heroin factory. However, they are suddenly attacked by a group of men with ice picks and Benny Garucci. Wing easily beats up the rest of the men, but is overpowered and killed by Garucci in a fight. Later, Wong meets with Hong's daughter Soo Ling to meet with Ko and his contact. They arrive at the warehouse, but find both Hing's and Wing's dead bodies. Realizing that Sally may be in danger, Wong visits her at her house, where he later realizes that Sally's substitute maid was working for Ko, and planted a bomb under Sally's bed. Wong diffuses the bomb. Minutes later, the massage parlor manager arrives to warn Sally that Ko is coming after her. Sally reveals that the manager is actually her uncle, and "a family black sheep". It had been revealed in an earlier scene (also exclusive to the Hong Kong Version) that the manager had been "demoted to pimping" after failing to kill Lee Hing, Garoni, and Wong on Hing's boat, and that they are aware of Wong's visit with Sally. After the uncle arrives, more men working for Ko (this time with guns) arrive to kill them, but they fail and retreat. Sally's uncle tells Wong that Laura is being held at a shipyard in a container. Afterwards, Wong helps Sally and her uncle find his contact in the United States to build a new life and start over. After this scene, the movie is the same as the US version.