Jackie Chan Goes Full ‘John Wick’ in Throwback Action Thriller ‘The Foreigner’ That’s Now on Streaming

Even in his later years, Jackie Chan can still take on a room full of bad guys and come out (mostly) unscathed. The action icon, who’s best known for his intense stunt work in the likes of Police Story, Rumble in the Bronx, and Drunken Master, is still kicking butt and taking names in the action genre. One of the actor’s more recent movies, which blends his intense style of physical action with the crime thriller genre, just landed on a new streaming platform. You’d be forgiven for not knowing about this film, as it released directly on Netflix back in 2017, even though it deserved the big screen treatment. However, nine years after it first debuted, The Foreigner has landed on a new streaming platform.

The Foreigner, which was originally a Netflix exclusive, is now streaming on Paramount+. The film paired Chan with another veteran actor, Pierce Brosnan. Directed by Casino Royale and GoldenEye‘s Martin Campbell, The Foreigner follows Chan as he seeks revenge for his daughter after she was one of many victims in a terrorist incident in the UK. The official synopsis reads:

Quan is a humble London businessman whose long-buried past erupts in a revenge-fueled vendetta when the only person left for him to love — his teenage daughter — dies in a senseless act of politically motivated terrorism. His relentless search to find the terrorists leads to a cat-and-mouse conflict with a British government official whose own past may hold the clues to the identities of the elusive killers.

The Foreigner might not be an action classic, like many of Jackie Chan’s best movies. But the film is one of the actor’s best modern offerings. Some more critical fans would argue it’s Jackie Chan’s last good movie, as he now mainly voices characters in animated movies and stars in low-budget action flicks that would have been dumped straight in the bargain bin during the Blockbuster era.

‘The Foreigner’ Is Jackie Chan’s Best Modern Movie

Jackie Chan’s career has three clear-cut eras: his Hong Kong cinema years, his mainstream American success, and his post-career low-budget action/animated movie era. The Foreigner is a black sheep hiding among the latter. The film scored good reviews from critics, holding a 66% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

However, audiences enjoyed the film even more, giving it a 72% rating. IMDb users agreed, as the film holds a 7.0 user rating. That’s head and shoulders above his other movies from the late 2010s, including The Iron Mask, Vanguard, and Bleeding Steel, which all hover around the 5/10 range.

‘The Foreigner’ Swaps Big Stunts for Intense Shootouts

Jackie Chan as Ngoc Minh Quan in The Foreigner

STX Entertainment

When you think of Jackie Chan, you think of the actor dangling off a helicopter, scaling down the outside of a building, or electrocuting himself in the name of action cinema. The Foreigner certainly isn’t that grandiose. However, in lieu of big stunts, Jackie Chan is armed and dangerous, and lets his inner John Wick loose.

As well as its clear-cut revenge narrative, where Chan works his way through henchmen to kill the one in charge, The Foreigner also features some great shootouts and hand-to-hand fights. It’s not often you see Jackie Chan opting for guns in his movies, but, in The Foreigner, he incorporates them into his always-tight action choreography. If you haven’t watched The Foreigner yet, you need to check it out now.