Thank The Cannonball Run. Yes: If it wasn’t for Jackie Chan’s tiny role in the 1981 American action comedy, we probably wouldn’t have the greatest reason ever for sticking around through the credits of a movie. When the Hong Kong action star saw how Hal Needham ended the film with a bunch of comedy outtakes and bloopers, he decided to do the same for his own 1985 action-comedy by showing audiences exactly how dangerous and how real all his stunts were. The scene where he slides down a metal pole covered in light bulbs? That happened, and he walked away with the second-degree burns to prove it. But it was also one of the scenes that made this flick such an amazing blockbuster and reinforced his reputation as the king of action among American tape traders two years before it snuck out in the U.S., mistitled as Police Force. Catch the original and inimitable on the big screen, just like Hong Kong audiences did four decades ago, and realize that no one does it like Jackie. – Richard Whittaker
