Brucesploitation starring the Bruce
In 1973, the martial arts community mourned the loss of an icon with the death of Bruce Lee, who passed on during production of his fifth film. Despite dying before filming wrapped, Golden Harvest managed to scrape together whatever existing bits of film, combined with new footage shot with various Fake Shemp(s), and release it as Game of Death, a movie widely promoted as "Bruce Lee's final film".
Final, they said. "Final".
In 1981, with the trend of "Bruceploitation" going on 8 years after Bruce's death, Golden Harvest managed to recover enough original footage starring Bruce from their archives to create yet another film, which would become Tower of Death - or Game of Death II in certain international releases.
Billy Lo (Bruce), a former disciple of the Shaolin Temple, is investigating the untimely death of his friend, Chin Ku (Korean kickboxer expert Hwang Jang-Lee from Drunken Master) and uncovers a conspiracy to assasinate martial arts experts from all around. Unfortunately before Billy could find out more, he's killed in the middle of attending Chin Ku's wake.
After Billy's demise, it's up to Billy's slacker younger brother, Bobby Lo (Kim Tai-chung, one of the many progenitors of the "Bruceploitation" Sub-Genre in the early 80s) to continue Billy's search. A search that leads Bobby to a literally bloodthirsty American martial artist named Lewis, a one-armed backstabbing kung-fu fighting assassin, and an inverted tower called the Palace of Death staffed by hordes of mooks in shiny silver jumpsuits.
Tower of Death contains examples of:
- Advertised Extra: Good luck finding a poster, DVD cover or trailer that doesn't proudly over-advertise Bruce Lee's presence in the film. The movie itself has Bruce's character, Billy, dying half an hour into the film.
- Affably Evil: Despite being the film's Hidden Villain and Big Bad, the few moments featuring Chin Ku and Billy seems to imply their friendship are genuine. In fact, when Bobby uncovers the truth behind Billy's demise and confronts Chin Ku over it, Chin Ku actually offers Bobby a chance to walk away, alive, on the grounds that Bobby is Billy's brother. Too bad Bobby's main priority is avenging his sibling.
- All Monks Know Kung-Fu: Deep in the Palace of Death's final chamber, before Bobby can face Chin Ku, he must face a monk who turns out to be one of the most fearsome fighters in the film.
- Beard of Evil: Come think on it, Chin Ku, with his "look I'm so sinister" 'stache (even in scenes before his true nature is revealed), is it really a surprise that he's the villain of the picture?
- Blood Lust: Lewis wouldn't hesitate to taste the blood of his defeated enemies, and is shown enjoying a bloody, raw steak when eating with Bobby.
- Bodyguarding a Badass: Lewis has a one-armed valet serving as a bodyguard, despite being an unbeatable and excessively savage fighter himself. This unfortunately ends up biting him hard later on. (see the next line)
- Bodyguard Betrayal: Lewis' valet and personal guard ends up being his killer. Plot twist!
- Bruce Lee Clone: One of the many, many examples of this trope portrayed by Kim Tai-chung. What's even better is that his character is the younger brother of Bruce's.
- Chair Reveal: How Chin Ku reveals himself to Bobby before their final confrontation.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him:
- Billy Lo dominates most of the first act... until the wake of Chin Ku's funeral, where in an attempt to prevent Chin Ku's coffin from being stolen, Billy ends up with a dart in his neck. Cue Bobby's entrance.
- Even more so for Lewis, which the film hypes as a "madman and almost-feral martial artist", and subtly implies to be the main villain. Except Bobby would uncover Lewis' corpse after spending a night at Lewis' place, with the valet as the killer.
- Establishing Character Moment: A two-in-one for the scene when Bobby meets Lewis for the first time. Lewis, with his valet, eagerly accepts Bobby's visit, but soon Lewis is challenged by a pair of brothers. Lewis then slowly and brutally defeats both men, killing one, and as the second tries ambushing Lewis the valet swiftly snaps his neck.
- Fake Shemp: Most of Billy's onscreen fights (as in, 90% of those) aren't filmed by the actor, since Bruce Lee is, well, too dead to be kicking ass. Instead a young and then-unknown Yuen Biao doubled for his action scenes.
- Faking the Dead: Chin Ku, the best friend of Billy Lo who died early in the film - he fakes his own demise, and hid himself in his casket for easy smuggling.
- Fan Disservice: When spending a night at Lewis' place, Bobby gets intimate with a member of Lewis' harem, a prostitute named Angel, only for her to be unexpectedly mauled to death by a lion released into the bedroom by the valet. With a lingering shot on her bloodied, naked corpse.
- Fed to the Beast: The fate of any challengers attempting to dethrone Lewis. Who owns his personal lion farm. Go on, guess what their fates would be once Lewis is done with them.
- Giant Mook: After fighting off a room full of mooks in the Palace of Death's final chamber, Bobby needs to fight a hulking, muscular brute dressed in furs. Said brute tanks plenty of hits from Bobby until Bobby took him down via Diving Kick.
- The Ground Is Lava: Bobby Lo, while infiltrating the titular tower's final chamber, comes across a corridor whose floor is electrified. Seeing a mook fall on and getting vaporized instantly earlier, Bobby then formulates a way by tying two hooks together with rope, throwing a hook from one end to another in order to hang along the corridor's walls and climb to the other side. Halfway through the rope starts breaking, but Bobby made a jump before it snaps, as the rope's broken tip touches the floor it immediately burns up the entire rope like a lit fuse.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: The valet has the evil variety, a scary-looking gash that runs over his nose which makes him appear even more sinister despite his lack of an arm.
- Handicapped Badass: Lewis' one-armed valet, who is a very dangerous fighter on his own.
- Hidden Villain: Chin Ku being the true main villain isn't revealed until the last twelve or so minutes of the film, after Bobby had overcame most of the Palace of Death'ss obstacles.
- High-Voltage Death: The corridor leading to the final stage in the Palace of Death (a.k.a Chin Ku's personal chamber) has electrified floor panels. An unfortunate random mook gets thrown on it, and is instantly disintegrated alive.
- Hooks and Crooks: Bobby, in the second-to-last level of the tower, has to fight a room full of mooks armed with hooks attached to poles.
- It's All Upstairs From Here: Inverted - as Lewis describes it, the titular Tower of Death is an "Inverted Tower", with the Fan Yu temple serving as the base and each level containing an obstacle for anyone who descends into it.
- Neck Snap:
- The fate of the second brother who challenged Lewis. Trying to ambush the American In the Back, Lewis retaliates by flinging him aside, as the valet then twists the guy's neck with his legs.
- Bobby snaps the necks of a few mooks in the final battle.
- Panthera Awesome: Lewis, the crazed American expert fighter, keeps lions and tigers as pets in his personal farm, and when showing Bobby around he repeatedly mentions the magnificence of his feline pets.
- People in Rubber Suits: How the "lion" who ambushed Bobby is depicted. Rather laughably, too.
- Porn Stash: Bobby Lo has a collection of pornos which he hid among his martial arts training manuals.
- The "Fun" in "Funeral": Chin Ku's funeral and subsequent wake gets interrupted when a helicopter drops a claw, and steals the coffin containing his body. And that's All According to Plan - Chin Ku, inside said casket, is still quite alive, having ordering his minions to steal his casket and smuggle him out of the country.
- Red Herring: The moment Lewis is introduced, it seems like this fearsome, borderline feral fighter who savagely beats a challenger to death in front of Bobby, keeps lions as pets, enjoys tasting blood in his diet and keeps a personal harem of whores would be the true villain of the picture. Except he's not, while Lewis is savage, he's unceremoniously killed off before the final act. Chin Ku, the "deceased" friend of Billy Lo, is the true Big Bad of the picture.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Lo brothers appears to be this, with Bruce Lee's mature, level-headed older brother Billy as the blue and Tai Chung Kim's brash, over-confident Bobby as the red.
- Remember the New Guy?: Too bad Billy bites it over an hour before the end credits. But fear not, here comes Billy's younger brother, Bobby, which doesn't show up in any scenes alongside Billy at all, but is ready to continue where Billy had left off!
- Yes, this is what happens when filmmakers tries stitching together bits of footage involving Bruce Lee with another unrelated film to establish continuity.
- Stock Footage: Very blatant in several of Billy's scenes - for instance, early on when Billy converses with the Shaolin Temple's senior, that was recycled footage from Enter the Dragon.
- Suddenly Always Knew That: For the first act of the film when Billy Lo was alive, through Billy's dialogue the audience is led to believe that Billy's as-of-yet unseen brother, Bobby, is a lazy, incompetent martial arts trainee who prefers slacking over actually honing his skills, and that Billy is leagues better than Bobby. Come Billy's sudden death at the end of the first act, the audiences are introduced to Bobby and surprise, he's actually an expert kung-fu fighting badass whose skills are pretty much on par with Billy's. To the point of defeating Chin Ku, the Big Bad, AFTER taking out dozens and dozens of Chin's underlings.
