7) “I’m Here To Eat Chips And Kick Ass, And I’m All Out Of Chips” – The Big Boss (1971)
Ok, I know. It’s very clichéd and he doesn’t actually say this in the movie, but I just couldn’t resist. Thank you Roddy Piper and John Carpenter for immortalizing both bubble gum and this rockin’ quote.
Well, here it is, The Legend’s very first feature film. Surprisingly, for a Bruce Lee movie, there was very little action in comparison to the rest of his filmography. It focused more on the story arc of Bruce’s character Cheng, who begins to work at an ice factory with his cousins, who then begin to mysteriously disappear.
Now here’s the arc, Cheng at the beginning of the film took a vow to abstain from violence and conflict. So basically, we’re waiting for a good hour (maybe a bit less) before Cheng busts out and starts taking goons down once the dung hits the fan, but that’s all right, the build up just made it all the sweeter. Towards the end (no spoilers here), Cheng storms the compound of the titular character, and he does so as follows: walks towards the compound’s at least meter-high fence holding a bag of chips in one hand and his jacket in the other. He casually jumps the fence without any run up (now that’s pure awesomeness right there, and maybe a well placed trampoline) and is confronted by a few lackeys.
While munching on his snack, he calmly warns everyone to back off or else. Being stupid as they are, two of them approach Cheng holding knives, but before they can even blink, Cheng has thrown his bag of chips and jacket in both their faces and delivered a kick to each of their groins (or stomach, I couldn’t tell). As they fall, Cheng very coolly eats the last chip in his hand.
Sure, that trick probably wouldn’t work on anyone today, unless of course they had the speed behind them that Bruce did. But no one could ever deliver it as impeccably as this, period!
It’s one hell of a moment, coated in the gold of its simplicity.
