Rapid Fire

"Unarmed and extremely dangerous."

1992 1h 35m EN

😐

6.4

MID

★6.4TMDB · 268

ActionThrillerCrimeDrama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

College student Jake Lo is pursued by smugglers, mobsters and crooked federal agents after he witnesses a murder by a Mafia kingpin.

“Unarmed and extremely dangerous.”

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Cast

Brandon Lee
Jake Lo
Powers Boothe
Mace Ryan
Nick Mancuso
Antonio Serrano
Raymond J. Barry
Agent Frank Stewart
Kate Hodge
Karla Withers
Tzi Ma
Kinman Tau
Tony Longo
Brunner Gazzi
Michael Paul Chan
Carl Chang

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Dwight H. Little
Writers: Alan B. McElroy, Cindy Cirile, Alan B. McElroy
Languages: Cantonese, English, Italian
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

34 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: Cantonese, English, Italian.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Dwight H. Little, shot by Ric Waite. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Christopher Young. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Gib Jaffe shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Brandon Lee and Powers Boothe and Nick Mancuso carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Unarmed and extremely dangerous.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0105219 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Dwight H. Little directs. Ric Waite behind the camera. Christopher Young scores. Gib Jaffe cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in Cantonese, English, Italian.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

134 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
2Dialogue crosses 3 languages: Cantonese, English, Italian.
3Directed by Dwight H. Little, shot by Ric Waite. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Christopher Young. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Gib Jaffe shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Brandon Lee and Powers Boothe and Nick Mancuso carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "Unarmed and extremely dangerous.".
8IMDB entry: tt0105219 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

The technical file

Cinematography: Ric Waite
Original score: Christopher Young
Editing: Gib Jaffe
Production design: Ron Foreman
Costume design: Erica Edell Phillips
Makeup / hair: Dione Taylor
Stunt coordinator: Jeff Imada
Runtime: 95 min · 1h 35m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $10,000,000
Box office: $14,356,479
Return: 144% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Rapid Fire (1992)

Also by

Dwight H. Little

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Reb_Brown2018-04-03
★ 6/10
This ranks alongside KING OF NEW YORK as a spiritual not-quite-sequel to YEAR OF THE DRAGON. Let's put a few of the same characters in Chicago, with Raymond J. Barry in essentially the same role (though now even more overtly crooked and with the FBI) and swap out that Thai drug baron John Lone visited with Tzi Ma and now throw in Bruce Lee's son into the mix. Bring in horror director Dwight H. Little (fresh off his other successful action outing MARKED FOR DEATH) and see what we get? Well, the results are a bit of a mixed bag for sure. While the action sequences are largely okay, the plot doesn't really throw us any surprises. The romance between Brandon and a female police officer falls flat on its face and the surrogate father-son dynamic he has with grizzled cop Powers Boothe feels similarly forced and awkward. Also, why is a big Chinese drug shipment being brought in via the Port of Chicago when anywhere on the West Coast would be 1000x more convenient? Plot contrivances galore, plus a really goofy Tienamen Square flashback make for just a little too much dumb writing to take seriously. That said, Brandon Lee, though still a bit rough around the edges, is tremendously charismatic as the lead. His character seems very much a humanized fish out of water and his handling of the numerous martial arts sequences makes us lament his untimely passing that much more. Dwight's action highlights come near the start with a very John Woo inspired shootout in an art gallery and reach their crescendo mid-movie with a hapless gang of Italian wannabe mobsters turning their besieged restaurant HQ into a fortress. Nick Mancuso, the primary antagonist of the picture, really shines as a somehow likable pathetic wimp of a mob boss. He's a lot of fun to watch, and its unfortunate that his character leaves the film prior to the third act, which turns into a straight-up dig on John Woo with a very low-stakes cliched battle in a Chinese... laundromat / factory (???). Both Tzi Ma and Al Leong get in some quality martial arts time with Brandon, but it's still so much more fun to see him in a fisticuffs match with giant brute Tony Longo in that mid-movie restaurant scene. As it is, Rapid Fire has a lot of fun 80's/early-90's-style action in it and sits comfortably next to the likes of RAW DEAL and HARD TO KILL in terms of quality. Had it not been saddled with a lame script that plays its cards way too soon, it could have been a lot more. Leave it to Brandon's final film THE CROW to finally deliver the action goods to end up defining one of Hollywood's most tragically brief and promising careers.

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