Photo : Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0
Synopsis
In Hong Kong, Inspector Chan Ka-kui takes part in an undercover operation to arrest crime boss Chu Tao. The bust turns into a shootout, then a chase by car and by double-decker bus. Chu Tao is released on bail, and Chan is assigned to protect Selina, his secretary and the prosecution's key witness, while his girlfriend May gets the wrong idea.
Why watch it
Chan's answer to Hollywood
Jackie Chan started Police Story after The Protector, directed by James Glickenhaus and meant to break him in America. He was unhappy with the result and took control: he co-wrote the script with Edward Tang, directed, starred and ran the stunts. Produced by Golden Harvest, the film opened in Hong Kong on 14 December 1985 and took 26.6 million Hong Kong dollars, third at the local box office that year. In his autobiography Chan calls it his best action film.
Three set pieces that became templates
The film rests on three big sequences. A car chase that runs straight through a hillside shanty town and flattens it. Chan hanging off a speeding double-decker bus by an umbrella. And the shopping mall finale in Kowloon, where the crew broke so many sugar-glass panes they nicknamed the film "Glass Story". There Chan leaps from a railing and slides down a pole wrapped in electric lights; he came away with second-degree burns to his hands, a back injury and a dislocated pelvis. The outtakes roll over the end credits, a habit he kept.
The Jackie Chan Stunt Team style
The fights do not follow one school. Chan, trained at the Peking Opera school, mixes boxing, acrobatics and props, and shoots wide so you can see the hits and falls are real. His stunt crew, the Jackie Chan Stunt Team, won Best Action Choreography at the 1986 Hong Kong Film Awards, where the film also took Best Film. Brigitte Lin and an early-career Maggie Cheung play the female leads.
A lasting influence
Critics rank it among the great action films (90% positive on Rotten Tomatoes). Bad Boys II borrowed the shanty town chase, Tango & Cash the bus stop, and Tom Holland named Chan as a model for the stunts in Uncharted (2022). Janus Films gave the film and its sequel a 4K restoration and a US theatrical run in 2019. The series continues with Police Story 2 (1988) and Police Story 3: Supercop (1992).
Where to watch
Availability checked on November 13, 2026.
Written by our monitoring agent from the sources cited.