Game of Death

"Bruce Lee challenges the underworld to a Game of Death."

1978 1h 41m CN

😐

6.4

MID

🥫

38%

ROTTEN

😬

METACRITIC

⭐

5.9

IMDB

★6.4TMDB · 768🥫38%Rotten Tomatoes●36Metacritic★5.9IMDB · 23,963

DramaActionThriller

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A martial arts movie star must fake his death to find the people who are trying to kill him.

“Bruce Lee challenges the underworld to a Game of Death.”

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Cast

Bruce Lee
Billy Lo
Gig Young
Jim Marshall
Dean Jagger
Dr. Land
Hugh O'Brian
Steiner
Colleen Camp
Ann Morris
Robert Wall
Carl Miller
Mel Novak
Stick
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Hakim

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Robert Clouse
Writers: Robert Clouse, Bruce Lee
Languages: Cantonese, English
Countries: United States of America, Hong Kong

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

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $0.8M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $50M — a 58.8× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

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

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Cantonese, English.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: United States of America, Hong Kong.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "Game of Death Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Robert Clouse, shot by Godfrey A. Godar. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

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

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Robert Clouse directs. Godfrey A. Godar behind the camera. John Barry scores. Alan Pattillo cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America, Hong Kong. Dialogue in Cantonese, English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $0.8M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Grossed $50M — a 58.8× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
348 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
4Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Cantonese, English.
5International production across 2 countries: United States of America, Hong Kong.
6Part of the "Game of Death Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
7Directed by Robert Clouse, shot by Godfrey A. Godar. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
8Original score by John Barry. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
9Editor Alan Pattillo shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
10Bruce Lee and Gig Young and Dean Jagger carry the top of the cast.
11Marketing tagline: "Bruce Lee challenges the underworld to a Game of Death.".
12IMDB entry: tt0077594 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
13Classified under 9 themes, including "martial arts", "sword fight", "revenge", "fighting".

The technical file

Cinematography: Godfrey A. Godar
Original score: John Barry
Editing: Alan Pattillo
Makeup / hair: Graham Freeborn
Stunt coordinator: Robert Wall
Runtime: 101 min · 1h 41m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $850,000
Box office: $50,000,000
Return: 5882% of budget
Original language: CN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Game of Death (1978)
Rotten Tomatoes: 38% 🥫 Rotten
Metacritic: 36/100
IMDB rating: 5.9/10 · 23,963 votes
MPAA: R

Part of

Game of Death Collection

Also by

Robert Clouse

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Community reviews

What people are saying

DanDare2017-05-30
★ 6/10
Billy Lo is a famous action martial arts film star who is being courted by a crime syndicate. After constantly rejecting their advances they try to kill him and fail. Lo fakes his own death and goes underground to get back at the criminal gang. Bruce Lee only half finished a version of this film before he died in 1973. Five years later director Robert Clouse who made Enter the Dragon with Lee completed the film. In order to do this, he used the existing footage with Lee, also used stock footage from previous Lee films and got a double and shot new footage with a new story line. The result is a choppily edited film despite getting Hollywood actors such as Dean Jagger and Gig Young as well as John Barry to do the musical score. In fact Jagger gets some awful dialogue. The new footage with the double is leaden and so are the action scenes. Only the Bruce Lee shot sequences bring the film to live.

Production companies