20 facts you might not know about 'Rush Hour'

Ross LaManna had a couple of credits to his name when he decided to pen a spec script that became Rush Hour. We’re talking the story on a TV movie and two episodes of a Titanic miniseries. He managed to sell his spec to Hollywood Pictures, a subsidiary of Disney. To date, it remains the one big moment of his career. Since Rush Hour, his only two credits are one episode of a Rush Hour TV show and a low-budget action film called Maximum Impact in 2017.

The original choice for the role of Detective Carter was Martin Lawrence. Given his success playing a cop in the buddy films Bad Boys, that was sensible casting. In the end, though, Lawrence would not remain on the project, leaving the role of Carter open.

After Lawrence was no longer attached, the search went out for somebody to play Carter. In the mix were Eddie Murphy, Wesley Snipes, and Dave Chappelle. None of them ended up in the role. Murphy turned down Rush Hour to make Holy Man instead.

Brett Ratner was already attached to direct Rush Hour when the search was on to find somebody to play Detective Carter. This was to be his second feature film, after the success of his debut movie Money Talks. The costar of that film? A rising actor named Chris Tucker. In the end, Rush Hour would end up reuniting Ratner and Tucker.

While it took a while for Ratner to land on his Carter, he knew who he wanted to play Detective Inspector Lee. Chan’s Hong Kong action movie Rumble in the Bronx had broken through in America in 1995, and Ratner wanted to make Chan a true co-lead in a buddy cop movie. Ratner went to South Africa where Chan was filming, pitched him on the role, and soon enough, Chan was in America meeting with Tucker.

Ultimately, the head honcho at Disney didn’t believe in Rush Hour. He was worried about the budget, and he was worried about Chan as the co-lead. Disney put the project in turnaround, putting it up for grabs. A few studios were interested, but New Line, who had produced Money Talks, ended up with the project.

Ratner was a big fan of Chan’s Hong Kong work. He wanted to pay tribute to it — or maybe make use of some good scenes audiences might not be familiar with. The director deliberately reused bits and action set pieces from Chan’s Hong Kong movies in Rush Hour.

Tucker is an actor who likes to improvise, and Ratner was willing to let that happen. On occasion, though, things would get away from the director. Apparently, Tucker’s improvs in his scene with John Hawkes’ Stuckey, the informant, made it hard for them to put together a coherent scene. Indeed, there are continuity errors in that scene born out of Tucker’s fervent adlibs.

Does the exterior of the Chinese Consulate look familiar? If so, you’re probably a fan of old-school superhero comedy. The exterior of the Chinese Consulate is also the exterior of Wayne Manor in the 1960s Batman TV show.

Foo Chow is indeed a real restaurant in Chinatown, and it was used in the movie to add some veritas. Evidently, the restaurant found the experience to be a pleasant one. Ever since Rush Hour filmed there, Foo Chow has had a sign letting people know the movie was shot in that locale.

When you see Detective Carter’s badge, he has an afro and a mustache. It’s an amusing sight gag, and one that was not part of the original script. In fact, the joke was added during post-production, and it was also done digitally as a result.

A rough cut of Rush Hour was shown to a test audience, and their main takeaway was that they wanted more Chan. As a result, Ratner and company went back to add some more fight scenes for the actor. The scene where Lee is fighting multiple bad guys in the final showdown was added, as was the scene with the large vase.

Rush Hour has a lot of action in it, and Lee has some formidable fists and feet. What he doesn’t have, though, is a body count. Among the 12 people killed in Rush Hour, only two are killed by our protagonists, and both of them are killed by Carter. Lee doesn’t kill anybody in the movie.

Disney’s concerns about Rush Hour proved unfounded. The movie debuted No. 1 at the box office domestically with a gross of $33 million. That basically made the budget back as is. All in all, it made $140 million domestically and $244.4 million worldwide.

Rush Hour was a success with audiences, but critics were lukewarm on it. One person who doesn’t like it? Chan himself. He has said he does not like the film, explaining, "I don’t like the way I speak English, and I don’t know what Chris Tucker is saying.” All in all, he expressed preference for his Hong Kong action films.

Speaking of Chan’s inability to understand Tucker’s fast-moving patter, apparently that was true even when they were meeting prior to filming. After their first conversation, Chan called his manager to say that he couldn’t understand the words coming out of Tucker’s mouth. This, of course, led to the most-famous line from the film series.

Speaking of critics, Rush Hour has a 60 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Also, you can credit the film for the creation of Rotten Tomatoes. No, really. Senh Duong, the founder of Rotten Tomatoes, had collected all of the reviews of Chan’s Hong Kong movies after they were released in the United States in anticipation of Rush Hour. He put them up online to start a website which became the Rotten Tomatoes we know today.

The Oscars had no interest in Rush Hour, naturally, but other award shows did. The MTV Movie Awards, for example, gave them four nominations. One of those nominations turned into a win, with Tucker and Chan taking home Best On-Screen Duo.

Rush Hour was a huge hit, so it in turn begat Rush Hour 2. Perhaps to appease Chan, the movie is largely set in Hong Kong. After that, they managed to get a Rush Hour 3 made as well, though this one may have been done begrudgingly by the stars. Tucker was paid $25 million for his role, while Chan got distribution rights in Asia. That feels like two actors having their arms twisted to show up a third time. There was also an attempt at a Rush Hour TV series on CBD in 2016, but it lasted all of one season and 13 episodes.

As Rush Hour 3 was about to be released, Ratner did speak of a hope to make a fourth film. The problem? Chan kept saying no. Then, in 2017, Chan reportedly agreed to be in a fourth film. However, since then things have gotten murky, and it seems like Chan may have lost interest.