No Retreat, No Surrender (1986)

No Retreat, No Surrender is a 1986 martial arts film directed by Corey Yuen in his American directorial debut, starring Kurt McKinney and Jean-Claude Van Damme. The film was released in the United States on May 2, 1986. McKinney performs as Jason Stillwell, an American teenager who learns martial arts from the spirit of Bruce Lee. Stillwell uses these lessons to defend his martial arts dojo against Soviet martial artist Ivan Kraschinsky (Van Damme). It is the first film in the No Retreat, No Surrender franchise. The film was written by Keith W. Strandberg after being contracted by Ng See-yuen, the owner of Seasonal Film Corporation, to write a script for them, despite having never written a script beforehand.

Plot:

Jason Stillwell is a young karate student and Bruce Lee fanatic who trains in his father Tom’s dojo in Sherman Oaks, California. One night after a training session, the dojo is visited by members of an organized crime syndicate looking to take over all the dojos in the country. After refusing to join the organization, Tom’s leg is broken by a Soviet martial artist named Ivan “The Russian” Krachinsky, one of the boss’ hired thugs. A furious Jason tries to take revenge but is easily subdued by the Soviet. Tom discourages any further effort, telling his son that fighting is not the answer.

The Stillwell family relocates to Seattle, where Jason meets R.J. Madison and they become good friends. Jason reunites with his old girlfriend Kelly Riley, who lives in the neighborhood with her brother, Ian ‘Whirlwind’ Riley, the newly crowned U.S. National Karate Champion. Despite this, Jason has a hard time adjusting, as he and R.J. are constantly beaten and harassed by the local bullies led by an obese boy named Scott and arrogant martial artist Dean ‘Shooting Star’ Ramsay. After getting beaten up and humiliated by Scott and Dean at Kelly’s birthday party, Jason visits the grave of Bruce Lee and beseeches him for aid.

Box office:

No Retreat, No Surrender was released on May 2, 1986. The film was the eleventh highest grossing film on its opening week in the American box office grossing $739,723. With a budget of $400,000 The film grossed a total of $4,662,137 in the United States and Canada. The film sold 1.3 million tickets in the United States, and 395,013 tickets in France.

Casting:

Jean-Claude van Damme was cast as the Soviet villain Ivan Kraschinsky. On set, Van Damme performed a round house kick on Pete Cunningham which rendered him unconscious. Actor and martial artist Timothy Baker stated that while working with Van Damme during the action scenes on the set, the production manager and director Corey Yuen instructed him to not make contact with the other actors and stuntmen. Despite continuous warnings, Van Damme continued to do so with his kicks to Baker during filming. Other actors and martial artists claimed that Van Damme had not been reckless with his physical contact, including Ron Pohnel, who said, “His control wasn’t such as mine, but I had no complaints.”