Rapid Fire is a 1992 American action film directed by Dwight H. Little and starring Brandon Lee, Powers Boothe and Nick Mancuso.
Turned off from politics after witnessing the death of his father at Tiananmen Square in China, Los Angeles art student Jake Lo is lured to a party of Chinese pro-democracy activists.
When the agents at the safe house are revealed to be corrupt, Jake escapes through the window and encounters a young police detective named Karla Withers.
Both the lovemaking and the events of the raid are shown alternately as they occur in actual time, culminating with Serrano being murdered in his cell by one of Tau's henchman.
Dwight H. Little's work had attracted the attention of Steven Seagal, but his usual studio partner Warner Bros. was reticent to hire the director of Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, a horror film.
Seagal used a clause in his contract that enabled him to make one film for a different company, and set up Marked for Death at Fox, where Little was approved by studio boss Joe Roth.
[3] Director of photography Ric Waite and stage actor Basil Wallace, who played the main bad guy "Screwface" in Marked for Death, also returned.
[3] Fox's PR campaign for the film used the motto "Brandon Lee, the Action Hero of the 90s", which the actor found overly emphatic, as he considered Rapid Fire to be his first legitimate starring role.
[5][8] While comfortable with his father's legacy, Lee saw the film as a springboard to mainstream success, and hoped to one day transition to a broader acting career akin to those of Johnny Depp or Mel Gibson.
[3][8] During the shoot, he met Raymond J. Barry, a respected stage performer and dramatist, and expressed interest in starring in one of his plays to build up his credibility.
It performed solidly in rental stores, cracking the top 10 of the Billboard charts, which analysts described as uncommon for a film led by a martial artist.
[12] Although there were reports of heightened interest in Lee's movies following his death while shooting The Crow,[12] Rapid Fire spent seven weeks in the top 20,[13] the better part of it unaffected by the media attention surrounding his untimely demise.
[14] Stephen Hunter of the Baltimore Sun wrote that the film's fast pace, which he compared to video games, leaves Lee unable to show his charisma.
[...] In retrospect, what we should have done was combine the two villains and work our way up to one climactic scene.” He believes this would have given the film more emotional impact and possibly led to greater success.
[22] In 1995, Powers Boothe and Raymond J. Barry were reunited to support another martial arts actor, Jean-Claude Van Damme, in his vehicle Sudden Death.