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Police Story 3: Supercop (), released as Supercop in the United States and also known as Jackie Chan's Supercop, is a 1992 Hong Kong action film directed by Stanley Tong. It is the third installment in the Police Story series, with Jackie Chan, Maggie Cheung and Bill Tung reprising their roles from the first two films, and Michelle Yeoh introduced as a new co-lead alongside Chan.
In Supercop, series protagonist Chan Ka-kui (Chan) is selected as Hong Kong's "supercop" to work undercover with elite Chinese policewoman Jessica Yang (Yeoh) and take down a drug cartel. It is the last film in the series to feature Cheung, and the first not directed by Chan, although he returns as action director and is now also a producer.
Chan, Tung and Tong would return for the direct sequel First Strike (1996), which would conclude the original series before two reboots in 2004 and 2013; Yeoh would also receive her own spin-off film Supercop 2 in 1993, again directed by Tong.
On the way, they pass through Ka-Kui's supposed home village, and Panther insists that Ka-Kui visit his family there. He does not actually know anyone in the village, but is pleasantly relieved to be greeted by undercover police posing as his family, with Yang as his sister. After a confrontation with local police - who are unaware of the undercover operation - in a restaurant, Ka-Kui and Yang (who is also a skilled martial-artist) escape after a big fight, which concludes with Yang faking the killing of a policeman. This secures Panther's trust in the pair.
In Hong Kong, Chaibat welcomes Ka-Kui and Yang to his luxurious hide-out. He takes them with him to a big opium grower's fortified compound in the Golden Triangle military camp of Thailand, for a meeting of big-time heroin traffickers. During the meeting, Chaibat's gang attack from outside while Ka-Kui and Yang protect him inside. In a huge gun battle, Chaibat's gang kill the rival traffickers and their guards, and smash up the compound. The grower survives, but will now sell only to Chaibat at Chaibat's price.
In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Chaibat's wife, Chen Wen-Shi, is sentenced to death for drug trafficking. Chaibat needs to get her out of prison, as only she knows the codes to his Swiss bank account, and will not reveal them unless freed. Chaibat brings his gang, now including Ka-Kui and Yang, to Kuala Lumpur to stage a jailbreak.
A new difficulty arises when Ka-Kui sees his girlfriend May, a tour guide, in Kuala Lumpur leading a party of Hong Kong tourists. After seeing Ka-Kui accompanying Yang at the luxurious hotel where Chaibat's gang are staying, May jealously confronts Ka-Kui, nearly blowing his cover. Later, Ka-Kui gets May alone and explains the situation. She manages to prevent him from inadvertently blowing his own cover, but is then overheard recounting the tale to a co-worker by one of Panther's men. Chaibat takes May hostage, and forces Ka-Kui and Yang – their cover now blown – to help free Chen as ransom.
Chen's jailbreak is successful, but May's release turns sour when Chaibat pushes her from his helicopter. May survives, and a furious Ka-Kui and Yang pursue Chaibat and his men over the roads, rooftops (where Ka-Kui and Yang defeat Panther and his partner), and skies of Kuala Lumpur. Atop a moving train, Chaibat is killed when his helicopter collides with a bridge and lands on him. Yang and Ka-Kui recapture Chen, with the trio collectively saving themselves from falling beneath the moving train. Chen decides to tell Yang and Ka-Kui the password to Chaibat's bank account. The two partners argue whether Hong Kong or China will get the money.
Exterior scenes were filmed in Hong Kong Island, Shanghai and Kuala Lumpur. Interior scenes were shot in Kuala Lumpur.
In one scene of the film, Michelle Yeoh and a crewman were almost killed when she jumped onto a car while Jackie Chan was driving and accidentally slipped off the side. Chan grabbed Yeoh and attempted to lift her back onto the car while a crewman also jumped onto the car to help, but Yeoh slipped from Chan’s grasp and both Yeoh and the crewman fell into incoming traffic, prompting the entire crew to rush to help. Yeoh was almost run over but escaped with only minor injuries, while the crewman was knocked unconscious but recovered a few minutes later. The shot is included in the outtakes of the film.
According to his book I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action, Chan dislocated his cheekbone during a stunt scene.
Among the changes was the addition of a new score composed and conducted by composer Joel McNeely. Tom Jones' rendition of "Kung Fu Fighting" plays over the end credits, followed by a song specially written and performed for the film by the band Devo, entitled "Supercop".
This release was cut by approximately 10 minutes. These cuts include:
In the United States, the film was screened in 1993 at the Hogg Memorial Auditorium in Austin, Texas, along with the original Police Story, with both films well-received among Austin audiences at the time. After the North American success of Rumble in the Bronx, Police Story 3 received a wide release in North America on 25 July 1996. Opening at 1,406 theatres, it grossed US$5,503,176 ($3,914 per screen), on its way to a total gross of US$16,270,600 from ticket sales.
In France, the film sold 61,402 tickets in 1994, equivalent to an estimated () in gross revenue. (2026). 9789289457095, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. . ISBN 9789289457095 In Italy, the film sold 2,385 tickets in 1997, equivalent to an estimated () in gross revenue. In Spain (released 1999), it sold 61,402 tickets, and 1,100 tickets in Romania, equivalent to an estimated () in gross revenue.
Combined, the film grossed an estimated from the worldwide box office.
James Berardinelli of website ReelViews wrote: "As is usual in a Chan film, the end credits (which show out-takes of failed stunts) are one of Police Story 3s highlights. There are more laughs in this hilarious three-minute sequence than in the whole of Kingpin. I can't think of a better reason to stay through the entire movie. Ultimately, the closing montage points out one of the chief differences between Chan's stylized, fast-paced films and those of his American counterparts: this is action with a smile, not a grimace".
In the Washington Post, Richard Harrington said: "Chan seems to have met his soul mate in Khan Yeoh's, Asia's top female action star. Like Chan, Khan does her own fighting and stunts. Unlike the Hollywood action contingent, Chan and Khan don't rely on cinematic trickery. Theirs are not special effects, just spectacular ones. Connoisseurs will find Chan's helicopter-train chase far riskier, more exciting and more believable than its mates in and The Living Daylights".
Furthermore, in 2009, director Quentin Tarantino named Police Story 3 as one of his favorite films of the past seventeen years. He said that Supercop features the "greatest stunts ever filmed in any movie ever". In 2016 during a roundtable discussion, when asked which movie scene he would love to save for the last of humanity to see, he named the final scene of the movie as his choice. In 2014, Time Out polled several film critics, directors, actors and stunt actors to list their top action films. Supercop was listed at 75th place on this list.
The mission "Wrong Side of the Tracks", in which the player must follow a train from a dirt bike, was taken from the scene in which Jessica Yang (Michelle Yeoh) follows the train on a similar dirt bike.
The film briefly appears in a scene in British police comedy film Hot Fuzz in which Danny Butterman sees the film in a supermarket's bargain bin and reads it while Nicholas Angel pursues a shoplifter.
A soundtrack containing alternative rock and hip hop song was released on 30 July 1996 by Interscope Records. It peaked at #133 on the Billboard 200.
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