During the course of the eighties Jackie Chan made several attempts to break into the US film market and show case his unique talent to American audiences. However, all of these movies failed both critically and at the box office. The US producers had a poor grasp of how best utilise his abilities and market him appropriately. Chan’s work up unto this point had been mainly comedy action movies, with liberal amounts of slapstick and Eastern humour. US film makers simply wanted to shoehorn his prodigious stunt and martial arts abilities into the standard US action movie formula of the time. It was a classic example of trying to mix oil with water and to this day, none of Jackie Chan's US films from this period can hold a candle to his Hong Kong based output. However, The Protector has an interesting production history and although far from a great film, had a impact upon Chan’s career.