Bullet Points: Striking Rescue (2024)
If you were like me and missed out on Tony Jaa’s Striking Rescue last year, the good people over at Well Go USA have you covered with a Digital release coming on April 15th, followed by a Blu-ray release on May 13th.
In the meantime, you can check out my Striking Rescue review…
- Rage: The movie begins with a training montage of sorts as Bai An (Tony Jaa, Triple Threat) practices his strikes… landing elbows and knees and throwing punches until his fists bleed! Bai An is also reliving the horrific incident that took his wife and young daughter for him. Then we go right into Bai An’s quest for revenge… a quest that has him confront the man who pulled the trigger, known criminal and man about town, Kang. Bai An follows Kang to his lair, beats the crap out of all of Kang’s minions, then eventually gets his hands on Kang and he has one simple question… why did Kang kill his wife!? Kang says he was only doing what he was ordered to do, then he drops the name of prominent businessman He Yinghao. Kang goes on to tell Bai An, that he never dealt with Yinghao directly and instead would meet with his driver, Wu.
- Cyber Tracker: Bai An tracks down Yinghao’s driver, Wu, while he is waiting to pick up Yinghao’s daughter, Ting from school. When Ting makes her way to the car, Bai An walks in her direction and “accidentally” bumps into her, planting a tracking/listening device in her backpack… But while tracking Ting and her father as they make their way to the airport, Bai An soon finds out he is not the only one who is after Yinghao. Thanks to a mole on the inside of Yinghao’s organization, the caravan to the airport is ambushed on a secluded stretch of road… Yinghao is abducted and the same fate almost happens to Ting, but Bai An ends up getting involved rescuing the teen. Soon Ting finds herself suggesting a team up with the man who wants to kill her father!
- Blood Street: The unlikely combination of Bai An and Ting end up in some pretty rough places and going up against some pretty rough faces as they attempt to track down Yinghao. There is some motorcycle mayhem, Bai An has a balcony battle with a double axe wielding assassin, and then a bit later there’s a classic hallway fight… the adrenaline rush I was getting was off the charts. Eventually, Bai An and Ting learn that Yinghao is being held in the base of operations of Mr. Clay, a vicious drug dealer who is looking to take control of Yinghao’s logistics company, allowing him to move more product than ever. But Bai An has even more motivation to go after Mr. Clay, when Ting is snatched up and right alongside her father… which means an action finale that’s goal was seemingly to outdo all the previous action scenes in the film!
Striking Rescue probably deserves a spot in my physical media collection, as I can definitely see myself revisiting this down the line. Striking Rescue did a great job of keeping me guessing who the mole in the Yinghao organization was, while at the same time delivering a classic revenge tale, all of it fueled by the undeniable energy of Tony Jaa, who felt like a force of nature at times during the film.
Thank you once again to Well Go USA for delivering more action goodness in 2025! Feel free to thank me for these Bonus Bullet Points…
- Meta Quote: At one point in the movie, Bai An tells Ting to jump off a balcony to escape the baddies, her reply… “I cannot. I am not Tony Jaa!”
- Bastard Count: There was one “bastard” in Striking Rescue.
- If You Ever: …wanted to see Tony Jaa wearing a pink backpack, then Striking Rescue is the movie for you.
