History Film / EnterTheDragon

* TheAce: Lee is leagues above nearly every other martial artist in the tournament. Only Han is able to even contest him through dirty fighting and the use of weapons, and Han himself was leagues above everyone else. Every other fight Lee gets into is a CurbStompBattle, and one of the more pivotal action scenes in the film is him kicking the asses of a small army. He's also shown to be clever, down-to-earth, spiritual yet streetwise, no stranger to bloodshed, and unshakably moral.

* BroomstickQuarterstaff: This is how the unimpressed mook that bears witness to Lee wielding nunchucks attempts to counter.

* CelibateHero: Unlike Roper and Williams, Lee doesn't indulge in any of the girls from Han's harem. The only woman he wants to deal with is the undercover agent who came ahead of him, only to get briefed, and after he finds her, there is nothing romantic about their interactions at all. As the opening sequence establishes, he's a monk.

* CulturedBadass: Lee starts the movie by winning a non-lethal bout against Creator/SammoHung; he then discusses Shaolin philosophy with his teacher.

* DeathByCameo: Creator/JackieChan was a stuntman and extra for the film before he became famous; he appears during the drug factory battle, where he has a short fight with Creator/BruceLee before his [[NeckSnap neck is snapped]]. He is also one of the guards who Lee hits with a staff (Jackie was accidentally hit in real life in this scene).

* DoesntLikeGuns: Han does not allow guns on his island because he had a bad experience with them. It would also make him vulnerable to assassination and provide an easy pretext for outside forces to perform a raid of his island.

* FinishingStomp: Lee finishes off O'Hara with a leaping, two foot stomp.

* GoodWeaponEvilWeapon: Lee uses a MartialArtsStaff, UsefulNotes/{{Eskrima}} sticks and ''nunchaku'' on occasion and [[BareFistedMonk his own style of martial arts]] the rest of the time, while Han's evilness is emphasized by his penchant for sinister-looking [[WolverineClaws claw]] [[ArtificialLimbs hands.]]

* GroinAttack: Lee's sister gives one to a mook in a flashback, Lee also delivers one to O'Hara during their fight, and Roper gives one to Bolo.

* KickThemWhileTheyAreDown: Lee kills O'Hara with a jumping stomp after being pushed too far by the latter's attempt to kill him with broken bottles.

** Shih Kien (Han) couldn't speak English, so he was dubbed by Keye Luke.

* UnknownRival: Oddly enough, Han notices and confronts Williams and Roper before he ever meets the protagonist of the movie. This is in spite of the fact that Lee was sent there for the specific purpose of bringing the villain down while the two minor characters were at the tournament for unrelated reasons.

** We're shown multiple times how scary O'Hara is...then he goes up against Lee, who barely breaks a sweat while wiping the floor with him.

** Roper has three of them: one comical-yet-serious one when Han reveals his opium ring, one when he sees [[spoiler:Williams' corpse]] (he slow motion mouths the words "Oh shit"), and a debatable third one when Han orders Roper to fight Lee. In the first two cases, Roper may be a con artist, but he draws the line at murder and drug trafficking; in the last, he has seen what Lee is capable of and doesn't want to mess with him. Also, he has no reason to fight Lee himself, as they certainly aren't enemies, and he's certainly, at that point, not going to do ANYTHING Han asks him to do, after what Han did to Williams.

* SaltAndPepper: Roper and Williams. Both are pretty even-tempered.

* MartialArtsUniform: Almost every martial artist on Han's island wears a gi, and they did so for pretty much the whole movie. Except Lee, who insists on wearing his Chinese-style clothes instead.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: For all of Han's villainy, he is dead serious about the tournament rules; not even [[TheDragon O'Hara]] is exempt. Han is visibly and audibly angered by his attempting to grab Lee's leg after being knocked down, and the last straw is when O'Hara attacks Lee with broken bottles. Once Lee has killed him, Han declares that "O'Hara's treachery has disgraced us" rather than being displeased at Lee killing one of his top men.

* TrappedByGamblingDebts: Subverted. Roper has built up some sizable gambling debts, which Han tries to use to persuade him to become his agent in America. [[ spoiler: Roper, however, refuses to join him when Han tries to get him to fight Lee to the death. (The fact that Han had just killed Roper's friend Williams may have something to do with that, as well as the fact that while he's a degenerate gambler who isn't afraid to take some cash from a dumb mark, he has lines he won't cross.)]]

* TrappedByGamblingDebts: Roper has built up some sizable gambling debts, which Han tries to use to persuade him to become his agent in America. Roper, however, refuses to join him. (The fact that Han had just killed Roper's friend Williams may have something to do with that.)

* {{Deuteragonist}}: Roper. He gets his own story arc with Han completely independent from Lee's, and a pretty solid dose of CharacterDevelopment. John Saxon is billed right next to Bruce Lee in the opening credits, and it doesn't feel unjustified.

* BladeOnAStick: At one point, Han uses a spear against Lee.

* AmbiguousSituation: A lot of emotions cross Lee's face after stomping [[spoiler:O'Hara]] to death, going slowly from anger to anguish and looking at the verge of tears for a moment before finally composing himself. Is Lee simply very emotional about having [[spoiler:finally avenged his sister]], perhaps suddenly remembering all he lost? Is he momentarily shaken upon realizing that, [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone righteously or not, he has just killed a man]]? Or is he fine with the kill, it being just that [[TheseHandsHaveKilled it was the first time he killed someone]]?

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Han, who is a renegade from the same Shaolin temple that produced Lee. As one might expect, he puts up more of a fight than either of his badass main enforcers [[CoDragons Bolo or O'Hara]].

* EnterEponymous
* EpicMovie

* ActionGirl: Lee's sister, Su Lin, counts because of the trouble she gave TheDragon. (Creator/AngelaMao Ying would go on to be a martial arts star in her own right in Hong Kong.)

* AllThereInTheScript: Han's secretary/madame is named Tania, but the film doesn't reveal that until the end credits.

** Lee takes them from a clueless {{mook}} and demonstrates how to really use the nunchaku. Which is not how one really uses the nunchaku; it was just used to either strangle an enemy or go upside their head with it, like a western flail. All the fancy spinning and twirling was popularized by none other than Bruce Lee himself, who did it so spectacularly that everyone just assumed that's how you were supposed to use nunchaku.

* CelibateHero: Unlike Roper and Williams, Lee doesn't indulge in any of the girls from Han's harem. The only woman he wants to deal with is the undercover agent who came ahead of him, only to get briefed, and after he finds her, there is nothing romantic about their interactions at all.

* CoDragons: Bolo and O'Hara are Han's two top enforcers on the island. TheHero Lee fights O'Hara, with whom he has a deeply personal enmity, while {{Deuteragonist}} Roper fights Bolo immediately prior to the FinalBattle.

* DopeSlap: Lee repeatedly (but gently) does this to a Shaolin student while teaching him how to kick with feeling.
-->'''Lee''': How did that feel?
-->'''Lao''': Let me think...
-->'''Lee''': ''[slaps him]'' Don't think! Feeeeeel. ''[points to the sky]'' It is like a finger pointing a way to the Moon. ''[sees Lao looking at his finger and slaps him again]'' Don't concentrate on the finger, or you will miss all that heavenly glory.

* GenreRefugee: Williams is a {{Blaxploitation}} character in a martial-arts film.

* StatingTheSimpleSolution: Lee brings this very point up to Braithewaite, only for a hasty explanation that Han would never allow a gun to ever be brought to his home. Lee visibly rolls his eyes at this. This is because even though Bruce Lee was a martial arts master without equal at the time, he had absolutely no illusions on the firearms vs. martial arts debate and, playing a (sort of) secret agent in this movie, very much wanted to use one. But the producers nixed this idea, much to Bruce's annoyance.

* TheBrute: Bolo.

* BatterUp: The one Mook who survives [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxrmK9esHpc this]] CurbStompBattle responds to Lee's FightingWithChucks in this manner. ''Then'' it becomes a OneHitKO.

* BroomstickQuarterstaff: This is how the unimpressed mook that bears witness to Lee FightingWithChucks attempts to counter.

* FightingWithChucks: Lee takes them from a clueless {{mook}} and demonstrates how to really use the nunchaku. This display is enough to nonplus another mook, who grabs a stick and charges. Then he gets flailed.

* AntiClimax: The fight with O'Hara. Up to that point, O'Hara was built up as some sort of ImplacableMan who had CharlesAtlasSuperpower level strength and endurance (also, he was responsible for the death of Lee's sister) but Lee took him down with just a couple of kicks.

* ArtisticLicenseMartialArts: Many of the extras in the courtyard fighting scenes are wearing wristwatches. They would be banned at an actual martial arts contest.

* BondVillainStupidity: Han actually captures Lee at one point, after Lee has defeated dozens of guards and made his intentions to sabotage Han's operation all too clear. But unlike how he handled Williams, Han doesn't kill Lee immediately. Instead, he tries to get Roper to fight him to the death, apparently to set some kind of example (he calls it "edification") and also perhaps to test Roper's loyalty. However, Roper refuses (not really to Han's surprise) and chaos ultimately ensues. Chaos that Han could have easily prevented had he killed Lee (and Roper) when he had the chance.

* CelibateHero: Unlike Roper and Williams, Lee doesn't indulge in any of the girls from Han's harem. The only woman he wants to deal with is the undercover agent who came ahead of him, and after he finds her, there is nothing romantic about their interactions at all.

** When Roper is caught in an armbar, instead of using a martial arts technique to get out of it, he opts to simply bite his opponent's leg. Humorously, any grappler knows that this would only land you a broken arm rather than a hold escape.

** Lee vs O'Hara. We're led to believe that O'Hara will put up a reasonable fight, being TheDragon and all. Instead, he doesn't even get the courtesy of getting a punch in (well, he gets a kick, but Lee is just too quick for him).

* EverybodyWasKungFuFighting: The film ends with a massive kung fu battle. On one side you have Han's army of martial arts students, trained to kill mercilessly with their bare hands. On the other side you have...a bunch of vagrants and runaways, kidnapped from the streets of Hong Kong and freshly released from Han's dungeons. And Bruce Lee. The two sides appear to be about evenly matched.

* FightingWithChucks: Lee takes them from a clueless {{mook}} and demonstrates how to really use the nunchaku. Which is not how one really uses the nunchaku; it was just used to either strangle an enemy or go upside their head with it, like a western flail. All the fancy spinning and twirling was popularized by none other than Bruce Lee himself, who did it so spectacularly that everyone just assumed that's how you were supposed to use nunchaku. On the other hand, this display is enough to nonplus another mook, who grabs a stick and charges. Then he gets flailed.

* GrievousBottleyHarm: O'Hara is getting destroyed by Lee, and in frustration grabs a bottle from an on-looker and smashes it. In the scene where he actually breaks it, he ends up with a very tiny stem of the bottle in his hand, with very small jagged edges to act as a weapon. In the next scene cut, he is threatening Lee with a more visually appropriately broken bottle. Of course, it still doesn't do him any good...

* HandWave: The reason Lee doesn't gets a gun from Interpol when they offer him any equipment and no guns are ever seen on the island is a complicated issue regarding weapons ownership legalities in British territorial waters and Han having survived a prior assassination attempt. Lee can only show ([[EnforcedMethodActing not entirely fictional]]) annoyance at hearing that explanation.

* LotsOfLuggage: Roper brings several rickshaws worth of luggage with him on his way to the tournament. This also may be a subtle dig at the baggage of his backstory, as he essentially joins the tournament to get out of the USA and avoid mafia bill collectors that are starting to get violent about his debt to them.

* MartialArtsUniform: Almost every martial artist on Han's island wears a Gi, and they did so for pretty much the whole movie. Except Lee, who insists on wearing his Chinese-style clothes instead.

* MenOfSherwood: The imprisoned Black Robes in the FinalBattle; Han slashes one of them.

* NervesOfSteel: Lee naturally. Roper and Williams also exhibit this trait, but Lee's definitely the one that shows it the most. [[spoiler:Among his exploits, Lee slaps a cobra on the head just to piss it off so he can use it to scare the mooks out of the radio room. Then he enters the room with zero regard for the venomous snake he put in there, and while sending out the radio signal, makes an annoyed face and seems put out that he has to step on said snake to get it to leave him alone long enough to finish his message and leave. Then, he simply exits the room and leaves it to slither around Han's underground lair.]]

'''Williams:''' Man...you come right out of a comic book. ({{Subverted}}, though, in that [[spoiler:Han beats Williams to death]].)\\

* PunchedAcrossTheRoom: In the scene where Lee kicks O'Hara off his feet and into a crowd of spectators, one of the stunt men was bowled over with such force that he broke his arm. Jackie Chan got knocked out by a glancing blow from Bruce's nunchuk. Jackie admits it was his own fault: he wasn't on his mark, and would have been fine if he'd been where the fight choreography required him to be. Bruce was so horrified after the scene, he helped Jackie up and hugged him, apologizing profusely. Jackie admitted that he hammed up how much pain he was in because he didn't want Bruce to stop hugging him. He claims it's one of the greatest things that has happened to him in his entire career.

* ToWinWithoutFighting: Lee describes his fighting style to an Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy as "the art of fighting without fighting," then proceeds to demonstrate it by tricking him into boarding a tiny row-boat which Lee then kicks out, causing it to be dragged behind the ship.

* TruthInTelevision:
** In RealLife, Bruce Lee was once put into an armbar during a sparring session, and his opponent asked what he'd do in this situation. Bruce responded, "Why, I'd bite your leg, of course." In the film, Roper does this in his fight with Bolo.
** People who visit UsefulNotes/HongKong in the decades after the film will notice how much the city has changed since then.

** In the opening fight scene, Lee defeats his opponent via a crucifix submission.

* SimpleSolutionWontWork: During the [[InfoDump debriefing]] concerning [[BigBad Han]], his secret island lair and the possibility he's using it as a drug lab, and the martial arts tournament Han has organized which [[NotJustATournament he's being asked to use to infiltrate the island and find evidence]], [[TheHero Lee]] asks [[DaChief Braithwaite]] why he cannot bring along a gun and [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim maybe shoot Han]] when he's offered any equipment he wishes. Braithwaite immediately shoots it down by mentioning that Han's island is located right in the China/Hong Kong border which would make any gunfire that is not performed by the police a legal nightmare, plus Han is paranoid of people bringing guns to said island because of a NoodleIncident. So fists it is.[[note]]Lee's ticked-off reaction at hearing that explanation is partially Creator/BruceLee being actually angry at the fact he was hired to play a lead in a [[FollowTheLeader James Bond-copycat film]] but not allowed to use a gun.[[/note]]

* BrickBreak: O'Hara does this to a board with a standing punch right in front of Lee. Lee's response: "Boards don't hit back." It turns out that [[CurbStompBattle O'Hara doesn't either]].

* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: [[spoiler:Mr. Han meets his end when Lee kicks him into a spear that Han had earlier hurled at him during an early part of their final duel, which also makes this a case of HoistyByHisOwnPetard]].

* GoodWeaponEvilWeapon: Lee uses a SimpleStaff, UsefulNotes/{{Eskrima}} sticks and ''nunchaku'' on occasion and [[BareFistedMonk his own style of martial arts]] the rest of the time, while Han's evilness is emphasized by his penchant for sinister-looking [[WolverineClaws claw]] [[ArtificialLimbs hands.]]

* AsYouKnow: Why Lee suggests guns for his mission, Braithwaite says this while explaining that the possession of a firearm is a serious offence.

The film's story centers around Lee, a Shaolin monk and martial arts master, who is approached by Braithwaite (Geoffrey Weeks), a member of an international intelligence organization that wants Lee to become an undercover agent. The organization has been investigating a man named Han (Shih Kien), a former student of Lee's master, who lives in an island fortress and oversees a criminal empire that has its hands in kidnappings, drugs, and prostitution. Braithwaite's organization "know[s] everything, but can prove nothing", so they recruit a reluctant Lee to infiltrate Han's island during a martial arts tournament held there once every three years and gather evidence that will uncover his crimes. Other central characters of the film include fellow martial artist Williams (Jim Kelly), martial artist and unlucky gambler Roper (Creator/JohnSaxon), and another undercover agent named Mei Ling (Betty Chung). Though the heroes don't often cooperate with each other directly, they each individually work to uncover the secrets of Han's underground operation, risking the deadly penalties imposed by Han and his MadeOfIron bodyguard O'Hara (Robert Wall).

* AfroAsskicker: Williams is the UrExample; he is a black man with an afro and serious martial arts skills.

* TheAggressiveDrugDealer: Turns out that Mr. Han can afford his private island fortress and ThugDojo by making cocaine in a laboratory concealed within said island and selling it (he even invited Roper in the hopes that he would become his agent in his planned expansion to the States)...and abducts women from the streets of Hong Kong, getting them forcibly hooked on the cocaine in order to "create demand."
* AllThereInTheScript: Han's secretary/madame is named Tania.

* TheBully: Parsons abuses some poor kid on the boat carrying oranges and tries to goad Lee into a fight. He gets humiliated twice - first by Lee while demonstrating "the art of fighting without fighting" and by Williams in the tournament.

* CelibateHero: Unlike Roper and Williams, Lee doesn't indulge in any of the women on the island; the only one he deals with is the undercover agent who came ahead of him.

** Lee's response when a mook harasses him about not doing the morning routine in uniform. Said mook promptly leaves wordlessly.

* DopeSlap: Lee repeatedly does this to a Shaolin student after teaching him how to kick with feeling.

* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Han will [[spoiler:torture your best friend to death and then show you his corpse]], not out of sadism but because he ''wants you to join him'' and would rather you be fully aware of the depravities you'll be party to as his ally. Needless to say, Roper doesn't go for it.

* LotsOfLuggage: Roper brings several rickshaws worth of luggage with him on his way to the tournament. This also may be a subtle dig at the baggage of his backstory, as he essentially joins the tournament to get out of the USA and avoid mafia bill collectors that are starting to try to break pieces of him due to the fact he has owed a lot of money for a long time.

** There were about a dozen or so people on that boat. Parson decided Lee was the best one to pick a fight with. (Really, though, he was lucky; Lee was content to just play a joke on him, while Williams and Roper would have more likely whooped him.)
** Both Roper and Williams are introduced beating up groups of men who thought they'd be easy pickings: gambling debt collectors for Roper, racist cops for Williams.

* EvilPlan: Han has a long running one involving drug and SexSlave trafficking. He uses the tournament to recruit new talent.

* IntimidationDemonstration: O'Hara breaks a board with his fist in an intimidating fashion. Lee is not impressed.
-->"Boards don't hit back."

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Roper is a conman but he has limits. He wants nothing to do with Han's operation, and he genuinely respects Lee and [[BashBrothers teams up with him]] during the FinalBattle.

* LeaveHimToMe: After Roper [[spoiler:declines to fight Lee, and Han sends Bolo after Roper, Lee steps forward to take up the fight by Roper waves him back and takes on Bolo himself. It's not as one-sided a fight as Lee and O'Hara, but Roper shows he's got game and dispatches Bolo pretty quickly.]]

* NotJustATournament: The hero participates in the tournament, but was actually sent there to uncover evidence about the tournament organizer's criminal activities.
** Said tournament is also being used by the BigBad as way to scout for new talent.

* BlackIsBiggerInBed: Subverted. Williams is among the martial arts contestants offered some feminine "company" for the evening from Han's PaidHarem. He picks out four of them, and then apologizes to the rest of the girls that, um, he's "a little tired" this evening.

* BondVillainStupidity: Han actually captures Lee at one point, after Lee has wiped out dozens of guards and made his intentions to sabotage Han's operation all too clear. But unlike how he handled Williams, Han doesn't kill Lee. Instead, he tries to get Roper to fight him to the death, apparently to set some kind of example (he calls it "edification") and also perhaps to test Roper's loyalty. However, Roper refuses (not really to Han's surprise) and chaos ultimately ensues.

* CardCarryingVillain: Han freely admits to Roper that his business is all about corruption.

-->'''Williams:''' Man...you come right out of a comic book.

* DeadGuyOnDisplay: [[spoiler:Williams]]. Roper sees him and damn near soils himself.

* DopeSlap: Lee does this to a Shaolin student after teaching him how to kick with feeling.

* DuelToTheDeath: Several - Lee vs. O'Hara, Williams vs. Han, Roper vs. Bolo and Lee vs. Han.

* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Han will [[spoiler:torture your best friend to death and then show you his corpse,]] not out of sadism but because he ''wants you to join him'' and would rather you be fully aware of the depravities you'll be party to as his ally. Needless to say, Roper doesn't go for it.

* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Han tries to recruit Roper into his organization, playing on Roper's debts in America, then directly after showing his whole drug lab and plans, shows Roper the hanging body of Williams' who is a close friend of Roper, and seems to accept Roper joining despite Roper doing so while clearly full of rage at his friend's death. Unsurprisingly, this comes back to bite Han badly.

* LeftHanging: Roper [[spoiler: helps Lee save the day in the end, but after the dust has settled, he's still on the run from the mob in the USA, and he still owes them a lot of money that he can't pay. I suppose it's possible that Roper may take his new friend Lee back to the U.S. with him and let Lee straighten out his gambling debts.]]

--> '''Lee:''' You have offended my family, and you have offended the Shaolin Temple.

--> '''Williams:''' Man...you come right out of a comic book. ({{Subverted}}, though, in that [[spoiler:Han beats Williams to death]].)

--> '''Lee:''' Boards don't hit back.