History Characters / BigTroubleInLittleChina

* MightyWhitey: Parodied. He's doing his best, but he's entirely in over his head and just wants to get his truck back.

* ActionHero: Averted. He tries to be all tough and macho, but everything just backfires on him. On the DVD Commentary, Creator/JohnCarpenter and Creator/KurtRussell said that Jack is a man who thinks he's the action hero, but really he's the sidekick.

* ElectiveBrokenEnglish: Though otherwise perfectly fluent in English, Wang has a backward CatchPhrase of "Nothing or double" that he and Jack clearly share as a mutual in-joke.

* MightyWhitey: As an alternative to FakeMixedRace, she's another parody of this trope like Jack, meaning she's just a white reporter who has immersed herself in Little China and fancies herself an expert on the place and the people who live there. Note that before she gets kidnapped, she keeps explaining to the other Chinese and Chinese-American characters stuff that they already know.

* WhoWantsToLiveForever: Subverted, as he DOES want to remain immortal, he just doesn't want to have to give up corporeality to do it. Marrying a green-eyed Chinese girl means he gets his corporeal body back but loses his magic and immortality, and sacrificing the girl to his demon means he gets to have both a physical body and godly power.

[[folder:Miao Yin]]

[[folder:Jack Burton]]

* ActionSurvivor: Jack's not an action guy despite his macho facade, and by the end is simply glad to be out of there. Despite this he leans more toward the badass side of this trope. He is brave, sort of competent, and Wang constantly asking for his help implies Jack has a bit of a reputation as a tough guy. He's just out of his element when dealing with magic.
* AllAmericanFace: A DeconstructiveParody of this. Burton sports a Creator/JamesDean pompadour and drawls like Creator/JohnWayne, but lives up to these iconic images of American masculinity with less than perfect aplomb. Overconfident and always slightly behind the information curve, his bombast sometimes pays off, but more often makes him the butt of a slapstick gag. For a light comic performance, Creator/KurtRussell walks a very precise tightrope, giving Jack a puppyish quality that redeems his made-in-America arrogance. The audience roots for him to succeed, and to be taken down a peg or two along the way.

* ButtMonkey: Most of the comedy in the movie happens at his expense, be it that he is over his head and doesn't understands what the hell is going on, or he is the most useless person on the battlefield.

* DidNotGetTheGirl: [[spoiler:He doesn't hook up with Gracie despite their chemistry. In an interesting variation, it's by choice. "Sooner or later I rub everybody the wrong way."]]
* TheDitz: The poor guy clearly doesn't gets how over his head he is a lot of the time. Leads him into FearlessFool territory.

* PlayingWithCharacterType: Being played by Creator/KurtRussell, you'd assume he's the ActionHero. As it turns out, he only thinks he's the hero, and he's an over the top parody of Russell's other roles like Snake Plisskin. The guy thinks he's a hero, but it's clear he's...not.
* PluckyComicRelief: Most of the comedy surrounding Jack is the fact that he is this amongst the main cast and doesn't really knows he is.

* SuperReflexes: About the one thing Jack legitimately has going for him is that his reaction time is pretty damn ''fast''. To wit, he catches the empty bottle Wang fails to cut in half right before it flies into his face, to Wang's surprise. Later on, [[spoiler:though he was likely helped by Egg Shen's Chinese formula, he caught his own knife thrown at him by Lo Pan and [[CatchAndReturn threw it back right between his all-powerful wizard's eyes]] faster than he could react.]]

* TrueCompanions: He is very loyal to Wang, and doesn't hesitate to help him out with rescuing Miao Yin.
* WrongGenreSavvy: Zig-zagged. Jack seems to have been waiting his whole life to be a larger-than-life action hero, obviously growing up on a steady diet of John Wayne films if the way his swagger sounds like is a clue, but not in a story like this. He spends most of the film a step behind the plot and is often humiliated, but he eventually ''does'' achieve all of his goals and becomes a hero.

[[folder:Gracie Law]]

* HelloAttorney: She is played by Creator/KimCattrall and a lawyer.

[[folder:Wang Chi]]

* ActionHero: He's clearly the hero of the story, given his martial arts skills and his classic goal of rescuing his fiancee.
* AllAsiansKnowMartialArts: Despite being just the owner of a restaurant, he is quite adept at Kung-Fu.

* HyperCompetentSidekick: Subverted. Jack's the main character, but Wang's got the more personal reasons for seeing Lo Pan vanquished, implying that ''he's'' the real hero.

* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: [[spoiler:How he kills Rain.]]

[[folder:David Lo Pan]]

An ancient Chinese sorcerer cursed by UsefulNotes/QinShiHuangdi to become a body-less spirit. He is now leader of a criminal syndicate in Chinatown.

* ArchEnemy: He seems to have some kind of personal grudge with Egg Shen. It's implied the two have fought before, with no conclusive victor.

* BeamOWar: He engages in one with Egg Shen during the climax. Then the beams create astral warriors which battle each other with swords. [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer Yes. This actually happens.]]
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: He wants to regain his mortal form. [[spoiler:He does, and Jack promptly puts a knife in his head.]]

* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette: A rare male example in his ghostly form. [[spoiler:He loses this upon becoming mortal again]].

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler:He likely would have killed Jack easily and won had he just blasted him with magic. Instead, he tries to kill Jack by throwing the latter's own knife at him, [[CatchAndReturn which Jack catches and hurls back to nail Lo Pan right between the eyes]].]]
** Possibly justified. [[spoiler:He'd completed the ritual far enough to regain a mortal body, but hadn't sacrificed Miao Yin; so he hadn't regained his powers just yet]]. See WhoWantsToLiveForever for more details.

[[folder:Egg Shen]]

A local tour-bus driver (and secret sorcerer) who is enemies with Lo Pan.

* SecretlyWealthy: He drives a tour bus and owns a shop full of random crap... at least to Western eyes. According to Wang he owns the entire city block that holds his businesses, and the things in his shop are priceless to people with a knowledge of the occult, which gives him significant influence in Chinatown.

[[folder:Eddie Lee]]

A maitre'd at Wang's restaurant.

* HiddenDepths: Is able to find out what happened to Wang's fiancee fairly easily.

[[folder:Margo Litzenberger]]

[[folder:Thunder]]

* CoDragons: He reports directly to Lo Pan alongside the other three Storms. It's worth noting that of the three, he's the one that personally accompanies Lo Pan when he tries to make off with Miao Yin.

* PhlebotinumOverload: Another interpretation of [[spoiler:his death. He might have been charging up for an all-out attack on the heroes, only to lose control of his powers and explode]].

[[folder:Rain]]

* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: [[spoiler:How he dies, courtesy of Wang throwing his sword at him while he's jumping towards him with no way to dodge in mid-air]].

[[folder:Lightning]]

* AwesomeButImpractical: Lightning's lightning bolts are extremely powerful and impressive, but very inaccurate. He hardly ever hits what he aims at on the first try.

* DragonTheirFeet: [[spoiler:After Lo Pan's death he's the last enemy that the gang encounters.]]

* AgeWithoutYouth: Seems to be part of the curse. See WhoWantsToLiveForever below.

* DistressedDamsel: Her role in the story.

* DistressedDamsel: Is kidnapped early in the movie.

[[caption-width-right:350: Look, I'm a reasonable guy, I've just experienced some very unreasonable things.]]

[[caption-width-right:350: I'm a reasonable guy. But, I've just experienced some very unreasonable things.]]

** "What is that--don't tell me!"

** "'Jack' what? I'm supposed to buy this shit? Come on, Dave, you've been around for ten thousand years and you still can't find one girl who will fit the bill? You must be doing something seriously wrong."
* BlatantLies: After Jack shoots a mook, he gets a horrified expression on his face. When Eddie asks if it's the first time he's ever "plugged somebody," Jack suddenly adopts a macho facade and says, "'Course not!" .

* NeverBareheaded: Unlike his two compatriots, Lightning is never seen without his massive basket-weave type hat.

* ActionSurvivor: Jack's not an action guy despite his macho facade, and by the end is simply glad to be out of there. Despite this he leans more toward the badass side of this trope. He is brave, sort of competent, and Wang constantly asking for his help implies Jack has a bit of a reputation as a tough guy. He's just out of his element when dealing with magic.

* MightyWhitey: As an alternative to FakeMixedRace, she's another parody of this trope like Jack, meaning she's just a white reporter who has immersed herself in Little China and fancies herself an expert on the place and the people who live there. Note that before she gets kidnapped, she keeps explaining to the other Chinese and Chinese-American characters stuff that they already know.