The film stars Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, Lola Forner, Benny Urquidez and José Sancho.
Thomas and David are Chinese cousins who run a fast food van in Barcelona and practice martial arts in their spare time.
Later that night, while at the van serving food, they inadvertently discover Sylvia is a pickpocket who pretends to be a prostitute to rob her patrons, and protect her from one of them.
The following day, unknown men try to kidnap Sylvia but are accidentally frustrated by Moby, who previously crashed his car against hers (actually stolen from an Italian neighbor).
One day, the unknown men return and try to kidnap Sylvia at the same time Moby finds her, leading to a chase in which the Chinese trio manage to thwart her pursuers thanks to their quick thinking and their van's gadgets.
In his deathbed, the count confessed it and begged his wife to find Gloria and Sylvia, intending to leave them his sizable inheritance to keep it off the hands of his wicked brother Mondale.
Thomas submits his opponent after an extraordinarily tough fight, while David also manages to knock out his with a jar, and together join Moby to defeat Mondale in the style of the Three Musketeers.
The final scene of the film shows Sylvia reunited with her family, although she asks Thomas and David to keep her in their payroll as a summer job.
[2][3] The three action stars, Yuen, Chan and Hung, are long time best friends and had been Peking Opera School colleagues in their youth.
The film also features cameo appearances from fellow Lucky Stars Richard Ng and John Shum as mental patients in the hospital attended by the father of Yuen's character.
At one point in the final battle between the pair, a spin-kick performed by Urquidez is so quick that the resulting airflow extinguishes a row of candles.
In comparison to Hong Kong, the Spanish authorities were very cooperative in allowing the use of locations for filming, even for car chases and fight scenes.
[18] Combined, the film's total estimated box office gross in East Asia was approximately US$13,084,714, equivalent to US$38 million adjusted for inflation.
[23] David Poplar of The Digital Fix rated it 8 out of 10, describing it as a "vintage Jackie Chan slapstick comedy featuring some astonishing choreography".
[20][25][26] The climax leading up to that, involving Thomas climbing a Spanish castle to rescue Sylvia (with the help of Moby and David) and fighting enemies along the way, has been compared to Bruce Lee's Game of Death (1972).
Unlike the majority of Chan's later films, the standard DVD release of Wheels on Meals does not contain the usual outtakes over the final credits.
features the film with 5 different alternate audio track mixes in both English and Cantonese as well as extras that interview Yuen Biao, Stanley Tong and Sammo Hung.
The arcade game laid the foundations for the beat 'em up genre,[28][29] and inspired Super Mario Bros. (1985),[30] Street Fighter (1987),[31][32] the French film Kung Fu Master (1988),[33] and the Red Ribbon Army saga in the manga and anime series Dragon Ball.