A hilariously campy series of
martial arts films by
Jackie Chan, in which he plays a mercenary tasked with the retrieval of ancient treasures. Basically a slapstick version of
Indiana Jones. The movies are
Armour of God, and its sequel,
Armour of God 2: Operation Condor, would later released in the United States in reverse order with the second film released first as
Operation Condor and the first film released last titled
Operation Condor 2: The Armor of the Gods Direct to Video.
This film series provides examples of:
- Amazon Brigade: Used by the Big Bad in Armor of God
- Career-Ending Injury: This nearly happened to Chan while filming, when a stunt he was performing went wrong and he broke his head. As a result of vital surgery to have his skull plugged up, he has had partial hearing loss in one ear.
- Collapsing Lair: Happens at the end in both films.
- Combat Stilettos: Averted in Armor of God. One of the female assassins gets her heel stuck in a wooden catwalk. The next one up on the walkway removes her heels.
- Dragon with an Agenda: In Operation Condor, the Dragon betrays Adolf the minute he gets the gold.
- Heroic Sacrifice: In Operation Condor Adolf stays behind to enable the others to escape the exploding Nazi base
- HongKong Geography: The action zooms from Graz to Vienna to Graz in consecutive scenes. And then there's plenty of
California Doubling, of course. - Lighter and Softer: Operation Condor is far more comedic in tone compared to Armor of God, with less gore or onscreen deaths, plenty of slapstick moments in-between, and the stakes being a lot lower for the heroes.
- Love Triangle: In Armor of God, Jackie is Lorelei's ex and currently with Alan, although Alan worries she still has feelings for Jackie and Jackie is still bitter she chose Alan. Although they resolve it before the end of the first film.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": During an intense fight scene between Jackie and some Mooks, someone knocks over a giant bomb. Everyone freezes and stares as it rolls towards the wall...
- Matching Bad Guy Vehicles: In Armor of God 2, Jackie rides a motorcycle through several city streets and a dock, pursued by at least six cars, all very similar in appearance.
- Modesty Towel: In Operation Condor, one of the ladies goes through an entire action sequence while wearing one of these, and loses it several times.
- Nazi Gold: This is what everyone is after in Operation Condor.
- No MacGuffin, No Winner: The ending of both films has both the Armor of God and the Nazi Gold lost by both sides.
- Now What?: The second movie, which ends with Jackie and his crew escaping the Nazi base while Adolf and the mercenaries all died, and then they're cornered by Amon and Tasza before realizing the duo have no interest in their gold, begging for water after being stranded for days in the desert. Then the gang starts looking for a way out. Though the 2012 sequel which have Jackie returning confirms that yes, the did escape the desert, eventually.
- Obvious Stunt Double: If you watch the final battle closely, you might notice that in some shots the 'women' have very Chinese-y features. Apparently Jackie was not pleased with some of the fight choreography given by the women (this was not a dig at their gender, even professional fighters have difficulty keeping up with Jackie), so he dressed his own stunt team in costumes, wigs, and blackface, and substituted them in some of the more intricate shots. It helps that the women were already jacked, so it was easier to match their physiques.
- Outrun the Fireball: Used in both films.
- Re-Cut: The export version of Armor of God cuts nine minutes, including extended versions of the Losers performance at the beginning and the slapstick scene of Alan hiding in May's room. The export cut was later used as the basis for Dimension Films' version. The Dimension Films version of Operation Condor cuts fifteen minutes. Both films received entirely new scores for the dubs, which include some musical Anachronism Stew in Armor of God, where elements of drum and bass show up in a fight scene shot at least five years before that genre even got started.
- Religion of Evil: Practiced by the monks in the first Armor of God
- Ragnarök Proofing: The Nazi base in the second movie is filled with booby traps from the 1940s which are somehow still functioning. Which two mercenaries accidentally found out when they triggered a bunch of automated turrets which then rips them to shreds.
- Self-Destruct Mechanism: The Nazi base is equipped with one. The buttons are bright read and clearly labelled in German. Unfortunately the girls don't read German...
- "What Now?" Ending: The second movie, Operation Condor, ends with Jackie, his partners, and a couple of goons stranded in the middle of the Saharan desert, and trying to make their way out as the credits roll. Ultimately subverted when the third movie arrives in 2012 (two decades later), where it's revealed Jackie made it out after all.
- Worthless Yellow Rocks: The second-to-last gag of "Operation Condor" is Jackie and the girls being corralled by Amon and Tasza, the only survivors of the whole bunch, who having been left behind by the other bad guys are dying of thirst... so much that they toss away the sole remaining piece of Nazi Gold when the protagonists hand it over because what they want is water, dammit!
