10 Things You Didn’t Know About No Retreat, No Surrender

No Retreat, No Surrender is often credited as a groundbreaking film. The movie combined Hong Kong style action with the very American story of young Jason Stillwell taking down a crime syndicate’s plot to take over martial arts schools around the country. Did I mention that Jason gets some help from the ghost of Bruce Lee?

Thanks to Kino Lorber, fans of this one of a kind martial arts flick can enjoy the film in high definition glory and also enjoy some extra features including an interview with the star of the movie Kurt McKinney and a commentary track with the man who wrote the No Retreat, No Surrender screenplay, Keith W. Strandberg.

And now thanks to those extra features, I present to you 10 Things You Didn’t Know About No Retreat, No Surrender…

1. Although it was released in 1986, No Retreat, No Surrender was actually produced in 1984. This would explain the breakdancing scene because breakdancing in movies was HUGE in 1984.

2. The script was originally titled Ring of Truth and was a staggering 220 pages long, but screenwriter Keith W. Strandberg changed the title to No Retreat, No Surrender after he heard the Bruce Springsteen song, No Surrender.

3. Shooting of the movie took place over 36 days. Only 7 of those days were actually done in Seattle where the movie is set. All the Seattle footage was shot by the second unit team.

4. Tae-jeong Kim (or Kim Tai Chong as he was credited), who played the ghost of Bruce Lee, only spoke Korean. This forced the producers to have to dub the voice of the Sensei Lee character.

5. No Retreat, No Surrender was the first movie script Strandberg ever wrote. Prior to the movie his only professional writing experience was writing for various martial arts magazines.

6. Strandberg actually had a small role in the film as one of the guys in the bar parking lot who beat up Jason’s father Tom Stillwell (played by Tim Baker). Strandberg was the guy in the black t-shirt and is credited as Keith Strange. This began a trend and Strandberg would have a small role in all the films he wrote going forward. Some of the other movies Strandberg wrote include Superfights and The King of the Kickboxers.

7. Hundreds of fighters showed up for the No Retreat, No Surrender casting call. The response was greater than anyone expected and there were more hopefuls than there was time to audition. Strandberg was sent out to check the line for anyone he felt needed to be seen. Strandberg selected three fighters from the long line, one of which was Jean-Claude Van Damme. Van Damme would play the pivotal role of Ivan the Russian in the movie.

8. When Jason Stillwell (Kurt McKinney) is training with the sandbags and he kicks one so hard that the bag breaks, that was 100% legit. The bag was not supposed to break.

9. Jean-Claude Van Damme had a legit moment too when he knocked out Peter “Sugarfoot” Cunningham during their fight scene.

10. Kurt McKinney and Jean-Claude Van Damme were both set to star in No Retreat, No Surrender 2. Van Damme backed out first and when Kurt McKinney called him to find out why, Van Damme told Kurt due to the filming taking place near the Cambodian border, Van Damme feared their money would be stolen and they’d be butt raped by Cambodian pirates. Kurt McKinney followed Van Damme’s lead and did not return for the sequel.