Already a huge star back East, Jackie Chan hoped that Rumble in the Bronx would be his big breakout vehicle with American audiences. Supposedly taking place in the volatile northern borough of New York City, the movie is notorious for filming almost exclusively in Vancouver, Canada. This becomes patently obvious to even the most naïve filmgoer, when scenes contain large, snowcapped mountains poised in the background of sanitized streets. 

Since this movie was almost entirely photographed in Canada’s British Columbia, I thought I would do a little something different with his post. While I usually focus on how the location was found, along with a little history of the area, I thought it would be fun to also guess what part of New York these scenes were supposedly taking place. This of course, is all conjecture, but I thought it would be an intriguing way of chopping our way through this silly action film. KA-POW!

 

Arriving in New York

The movie opens with a boilerplate helicopter shot of the Statue of  Liberty.

 

It’s followed by an image of the old JFK airport tower and international terminal.

 

Next, the action switches to the Vancouver Airport where the principal actors exit onto the upper level.

 

It’s followed by another standard New York aerial shot, this one featuring the Brooklyn Bridge and the Lower Manhattan skyline (which has more or less remained the same).

 

We then get a POV shot of the two characters driving south on Fifth Avenue, starting at 58th Street in Manhattan.

 

They continue south, approaching the two-way 57th Street.

 

This is followed by the only part that was filmed in the actual Bronx; a brief second-unit shot of the elevated IRT at the intersection of Westchester Avenue and Southern Boulevard.

 

Aside from a few stock shots of the Manhattan skyline that will get sprinkled throughout the movie’s runtime, this quick opening sequence is the only part that contains footage of the actual Big Apple. Of course, it’s all second-unit shots, none of which features any of the principal actors.

Identifying all the Manhattan locations was pretty easy, including the POV driving shot on Fifth Avenue which showcased the famous Tiffany’s jewelry store on the corner of E 57th.  When it came to the Statue of Liberty “before/after” image, it’s quite fascinating to see the big explosion of skyscrapers that have arisen over the last couple decades behind Lady Liberty in Jersey City.

Finding the one authentic Bronx location was also a pretty easy task since I spent many years living in and biking around the borough. I almost immediately recognized the distinctly curved El tracks on Southern Boulevard that are adjacent to a wide open intersection of five or six different streets. Confirming it was not a problem since not much has changed in this area since 1995, including that billboard affixed to those IRT tracks.

The one part of this opening sequence that was filmed in Vancouver was where Chan is seen exiting an airport terminal. (Of course, in the film, he’s supposed to be at JFK.)

A still from the film outside the Vancouver airport terminal (top), and a 2022 view of a JFK terminal (bottom), where the scene was supposed to be taking place.

Since the scene featured principal actors, I assumed that it was shot in Vancouver. However, since the airport terminal got renovated in 2005, I had to dig up an old photo just to make sure.

A 1970 view of the passenger terminal at Vancouver International Airport, 35 years before it received a top-to-bottom renovation.

Driving Through the “Bronx”

Now in Vancouver, we get a view of 47-55 W Hastings Street, featuring “typical” Bronx sights, such as a group of orthodox Jews.

 

As well as a crook being chased by a cop.

Keung observes the “tough” neighborhood from his uncle’s pick-up truck, passing Vancouver’s Favorite Country Music Pub at 78 W Hastings Street.

 

They continue driving west, passing 84 W Hastings Street.

 

When I began researching the locations of  this Jackie Chan flick back in 2018, there was essentially zero information out on the web, aside from indications that it was shot in Vancouver. (Even today, IMDb only lists the basic city names where filming took place.)

The only specific addresses I could find for Rumble were for a nightclub and a golf course that appear later in the film (see their entries below). But having done some research on Vancouver for the movies Elf, and Friday the 13th Part VIII, I guessed that they filmed a good portion of Rumble in the Bronx in Vancouver’s Gastown neighborhood, which most closely resembles NYC.

So, knowing roughly where to look, I found a lot of these filming locations just by cruising around in Google Street View and 3D mode until I could spot a match. Although, the way I found this West Hastings location was from identifying the Country Music Pub, whose sign can be seen through the truck windows in the scene. Amazingly, the venue is still around today, and still has the same cartoony signage.

As to where this scene would theoretically be taking place in the Bronx, since the shot that proceeded it was at Southern Boulevard at Westchester Avenue, I imagined that they stayed in that same area.

From 2022, the east and west sides of Southern Boulevard, just south of Westchester Avenue.

More specifically, it’s conceivable that they were on Southern Boulevard one block south of the elevated IRT train where the stores are somewhat similar to what was depicted in the film.

That being said, one oddity from this scene that wouldn’t have been in the Bronx was the group of orthodox Jews walking down the street. Obviously the filmmakers were trying to show the cultural diversity in New York, but you really would never see traditional Jewish folks like that in that part of the Bronx in the 1990s.

There is a small Jewish community in the Riverdale neighborhood along the Hudson River, but that’s a fairly affluent suburban area consisting mostly of large, stately homes — nothing like the crime-ridden street depicted in the film. However, back in the early 20th century, there were many Jewish people living in the Bronx. According Fordham’s Center for Jewish Studies, the South Bronx was home to one of the largest Jewish communities in the United states with 260 registered synagogues, and at least twice as many unregistered ones.

Former synagogue, Khal Adath Yeshurun D’Bronx, at 1406 Bryant Avenue, now a church called, Salem Assembly of God.

Today, there are only three registered synagogues in the South Bronx. All the others have either been torn down or converted into churches.

 

Apartment

Keung and his uncle help his young neighbor Danny onto a school bus at 551 Seymour Street, Vancouver.

 

Keung runs to the other side of the bus to give Danny his GameBoy. 

 

Uncle Bill explains how Danny is a paraplegic orphan who lives with his neglectful  older sister.

 

The bus drives north on Seymour.

 

We’re already getting into some tricky territory in trying to find a conceivable location in the Bronx where this scene could’ve taken place. While parts of the block look a little bit like the Bronx, the tall, modern, office buildings in the background would’ve been fairly atypical in the 1990s, and are still pretty uncommon today.

If I was going to place the scene at a real location in New York, I would probably put it on E 161st Street near Morris Avenue.

It’s somewhat close to where I placed the previous scene, so it makes geographical sense. But more importantly, by 1994, there were a few modern buildings there that resembled the ones in the movie.

 

Grocery Store

Uncle Bill shows Keung his absurdly large “Bronx”grocery store

 

It was really a set constructed by production on an empty lot at 136 W Cordova Street in Vancouver. 

 

Inside the store, Keung looks for his American aunt.

 

Later on, Keung admires a Rolls Royce parked out front.

 

The new grocery store buyer, Elaine, compliments the car to her broker, but Keung thought she was talking to him.

 

Keung meets uncle Bill’s friend, Steven Lo, who is  loaning him a vintage automobile for the wedding

 

Since the store was the centerpiece for this film, it was the first location I searched for back in 2018.

View north from Victory Square of the Dominion Building in Vancouver.

The big clue that helped me zero in on the grocery store location was the large parking garage with the curved shape that was across the street from it. I basically just looked for any parking garages in downtown Vancouver until I found one that looked like a match. The other clue was the tall, Second-Empire style, Dominion Building that appeared in the background, which was fairly unique for the city.

Once I found the grocery store location, it helped me find many more locations from the film because they were shot in the same general area.

But what’s fascinating is how much this Vancouver location looks nothing like the Bronx, and to me, looks more like Hong Kong.

While not explicitly a Chinese grocery store in the movie, I used that as the inspiration in finding a suitable real Bronx location where it could’ve been. I ended up choosing the Chang Li Supermarket in the Parkchester neighborhood in Central Bronx.

Chang Li Supermarket at 2079 Benedict Avenue in the Bronx.

It’s pretty much the only Chinese grocery store in the Bronx of  that size, and it’s a stand-alone building, like the one in the film. And as it turns out, Parkchester has probably the largest percentage of Asians in the Bronx, although it’s still relatively small, clocking in at around 9%.

 

Drag Race

A homeless person pushes a cart from 585 Front Street Mews, New Westminster. 

 

Over at 431 Front Street, two rival bike gangs meet up for a drag race

 

The two racers speed through the intersection of 6th Street and Front Street Mews.

 

The roaring engines wakes up Keung at 525 Front Street.

 

Keung jumps from the apartment window to block one of the drag racers from damaging the Rolls-Royce his uncle borrowed. 

 

Keung watches as police cars race down Front Street Mews, chasing after the drag racers.

 

While I managed to find most of the Rumble locations on my own, I had a little trouble identifying this drag race scene. Probably because it took place in New Westminster, which is outside of  Vancouver proper.

I ended up putting the scene on my Missing Locations Page, and it actually got a response from am eagle-eyed reader named Marc Blanchet. The “Colombia” name painted on the side of one of the buildings was the clue that helped him identify the spot.

A still from the film, showing part of the Columbia sign painted on the building’s rear wall, as well as fake signage for New York’s 2 and 5 trains.

The Columbia was apparently an old movie theatre dating back to the 1920s, and is currently being used as a comedy club. At one point, the theater was renamed “Burr,” in honor of New Westminster-born actor, Raymond Burr, best known for his title roles in television dramas Perry Mason and Ironside.

After the Canadian location was positively identified, I next had to decide where this scene could’ve conceivably taken place in the Bronx. With the presence of what looks like elevated train tracks (which in reality is a Parkade) and fabricated signs for the 2/5 trains, I assumed this scene would’ve taken place along the Bronx’s Southern Boulevard. The 2 and 5 IRT trains run above a large section of the Boulevard and up around the 1500s, the buildings look similar to what appears in the movie.

Looking north on Southern Blvd at E 173rd, which could conceivably be where the two motorcycle racers sped through an intersection

Even though this is one of the more authentic-looking locations from the movie, the stairs and signage for the supposed elevated trains look pretty fake. The font and coloring on the signs don’t really match up with what’s in NYC, and the stairs look nothing like what are normally connected to elevated MTA stations.

But at least a little effort was made to make it appear as if it took place in the Bronx.

 

Mugging

Keung heads home, walking west on Seymour Street, Vancouver.

 

He spots a young woman being attacked by a gang

 

The gang pulls her into n alley at 438 Seymour Street, which is now an entrance to a Marriott hotel.

 

Keung watches from the alley entrance, across from an extant parking garage at 443 Seymour.

 

Keung runs into the alley to save the woman, but it all just a set-up by her and the gang to trap and beat him.

 

One reason Vancouver is often used to double NYC is because of its abundance of alleyways, although in reality, New York doesn’t really have a whole lot of alleys. It’s more of a Hollywood convention than anything else.

While I was able to identify all of the other alleys used in this movie, I had trouble finding this one. The main reason is that all the buildings that made up the alleyway in this scene have since been razed. They came down around the same time this movie was released to make way for a large luxury hotel. Fortunately, the garage across the street is still standing today and served as the main piece of evidence that helped my research partner, Blakeslee, determine where this scene took place.

An alleyway near 2527 Frisby Avenue in the Bronx.

Like I mentioned before, there aren’t a whole lot of alleys in New York, and when it comes to the Bronx, the alleyways tend to be more like narrow courtyards behind a row of tenement buildings. But they are similar enough to what appeared in this scene. So, I just randomly picked the one off of Frisby Avenue since it’s not too far from where that Chinese supermarket is located.

 

Restaurant

Keung walks outside a restaurant at 351 Abbott Street, Vancouver. 

 

He then spots several of the gang members on the corner of W Hastings Street.

 

The motor gang then begin to surround Keung, terrorizing tourists.

 

They then drive onto the sidewalk, forcing Keung to hop a small fence.

 

He runs up the sidewalk, across the street from 55 W Hastings.

 

He jumps out of the way just as a motorbike crashes into a large popcorn machine.

 

If you were unfamiliar with the Bronx, maybe this location looked reasonable enough, but generally speaking, there really wasn’t a place in the borough that looked like that in the 90s. The restaurant in the movie has a touristy feel to it, so it could theoretically pass for parts of Manhattan. However, since this extended sequence ends up across the street from the already-established grocery store, I had to pick a Bronx location.

I ended up landing on the Court Deli Restaurant at 96 E 161st Street, mainly because that is an area in the Bronx that might’ve had a slight touristy vibe to it in the 1990s, given the fact that it’s close to Yankee Stadium.

 

Rooftop

Keung escapes into Blood Alley, entering from Cambie Street.

 

The motorcycle gang follows him into the alley, nearly cutting him in half with their grinding tires.

 

After slipping through a car’s sunroof, Keung runs down the alley.

 

He sees more bikes on his tail.

 

Keung climbs up a chain-link fence, entering the back of the parking garage.

 

He then scales up the side of the garage at 151 W Cordova Street.

 

The gang members take the stairs to the rooftop.

 

After spotting Keung hiding in the back of a truck loaded with balls, the gang members push the vehicle over the edge of the roof.

 

Keung jumps out of the truck just before it tumbles several stories to the street below.

 

The truck smashes onto W Cordova Street, sending balls everywhere.

 

Keung finally escapes from the thugs by leaping from the parking garage to a neighboring building’s fire escape on Blood Alley.

 

He gives his rivals one last pained glance before taking off. 

 

Finding this Vancouver filming location was easy since it took place across from the grocery store on W Cordova Street, but trying to find a real Bronx location where the action could’ve conceivably taken place was pretty tough.

The big glaring incongruity in this scene is the presence of 15,000+ ft. mountains in the background, which as many critics have pointed out, don’t exist in the NYC area. In addition, there really aren’t any parking garages of that size and scale in the Bronx (at least none that were around in 1995).

Today, the parking garage at the Bronx Terminal Market is the closest there is to what appeared in the film. Granted, it didn’t exist until over a decade after Rumble was released, but I was becoming desperate, so it would have to do.

I chose this structure because it looks similar to the parking garage in the film and it’s situated along the Harlem River offering sweeping views of the Hudson as well as the cliffs of Fort Lee, NJ.

Looking at the cliffs of Fort Lee, NJ, on the Hudson River, with an inset still from the film showing the North Shore Mountain Range.

While there’s a little bit of height in the New Jersey landscape, it’s nothing compared to the massive North Shore Mountain Range in British Columbia, but it’s pretty much the closest you’re going to get in NYC.

Another problem with the Bronx Terminal Market location is that there aren’t really any alleys there, especially any that look like Vancouver’s Blood Alley, where a lot of the action took place.

And if you’re wondering how this Vancouver passageway got its gruesome-sounding name, it seems no one really knows for sure. One theory is that the name came from when the alley was home to a number of butcher shops and animal blood would purportedly paint the street red. But there doesn’t seem to be definitive evidence to support this origin story.

My first attempt to photograph Blood Alley was abandoned after encountering an immobile heroin user.

These days, one might think Blood Alley got its moniker from all the drug users who use the secluded spot to mix heroin into their bloodstreams. In fact, when I was in Vancouver taking pictures of these locations, I had to come to the alley twice because the first time I went there, a strung-out addict planted himself dead-center in my shot.

 

Stealing the Diamonds

The gang members hang out in front of 560 Seymour Street, Vancouver.

 

Keung pushes Danny’s wheelchair south on Seymour.

 

Meanwhile, two of the gang members hear a commotion coming from around the corner.

 

Two cars come barreling around the corner from Dunsmuir Street, ramming into each other.

 

Keung sees the danger and immediately gets Danny inside his apartment building.

 

One of the cars crashes into 555 Seymour Street.

 

The two gang members look inside the crashed car to discover a briefcase full of stolen diamonds. 

 

Meanwhile the other car stops in front of 560 Seymour Street and a bunch of tough-looking suited men step out.

 

Angelo, the gang member who grabbed the briefcase, spots the goons across the street. 

 

The suited men pull out some heavy artillery and began opening fire.

 

They riddle the car with bullets, but Angelo manages to escape with the diamonds in hand.

 

After making sure Danny is safe, Keung stands on Seymour Street, trying to figure out what exactly happened.

 

This scene took place on Seymour, the same street already established as the front to uncle Bill’s apartment building. (Although it might be noted that the back of the apartment, where the drag race took place, was about 10 miles away in New Westminster.)

In between set-ups, Chan poses with Canadian stuntman and costar, Garvin Cross.

This scene also features a lot of screen time for Garvin Cross, whose career has primarily been working as a stuntman or stunt coordinator. While his acting is a bit over-the-top (although it’s hard to really tell with all the bad overdubbing), it was probably decided by Chan that it’d be better to have a mediocre actor with great stunt skills instead of a good actor who would need a stunt double.

 

Police Station

Detectives interview the gang members involved in the big shootout at police headquarters, 452 W 12th Avenue, Vancouver.

 

This police station was really the Vancouver City Hall, and pretty easy to identify. However, when it came to finding a police station in the Bronx that looked like the building in the movie, there weren’t a whole lot of good choices. So, in the end, I picked the Old Bronx Borough Courthouse on East 161st Street.

The old Bronx Borough Courthouse, at the intersection of Third Avenue and E 161st Street.

Architecturally, the building looks pretty similar to Vancouver City Hall, and geographically, it’s close to places I chose for some of the other scenes in the movie.

One big difference between the two locations is that the old courthouse in the Bronx isn’t on top of a plateau with stairs leading up to it. However, the old Bronx Borough Hall did. It used to sit on a rocky plateau in  present-day Tremont Park, before it got demolished in 1969. Today, all that remains of the Hall are the stairs that led up to it (which are briefly seen in the movie, Fort Apache, the Bronx.)

 

Nightclub

Danny’s older sister, Nancy, dances at the Rage nightclub, formally located at 750 Pacific Street, Vancouver (the building got torn down and replaced in the early 2000s).

 

Even though she’s a member of the motorcycle gang, she and Keung have developed a truce for Danny’s sake.

 

Later that night, the two kiss at Stanley Park, overlooking the skyline across Vancouver Harbor. 

 

When I started my research into Rumble in the Bronx back a few years ago, the Rage nightclub was one of only a few addresses that were specifically mentioned as a filming location. Which was a good thing, because otherwise, I’m not sure I would’ve ever been able to identify this short-lived, since-demolished dance club.

A still from the film featuring a stained glass window at the former rage nightclub in Vancouver

In terms of where this could’ve taken place in NYC, with the presence of large stained glass windows, one could easily imagine that the scene took place at Manhattan’s notorious nightclub, the Limelight. Situated inside a former Episcopal Church on Sixth Avenue at W 20th Street, the Limelight first opened its doors in 1983, promoting itself as a disco and rock club.

A DJ spins records at the former Limelight Nightclub in Manhattan.

By the mid 1990’s, the club had become a hotspot for young New Yorkers (even yours truly was lured onto its multi-level dance floor on occasion), but it also became known as a place where massive amounts of elicit substances were being bought and sold. This reputation as a “drug supermarket” eventually led to its closure in the mid-2000s, and the space has since become a fitness gym.

I found the location of the scene where the couple kiss by matching up a few of the buildings seen in the background, with the extant Chevron gas station island in the harbor being the most noticeable structures.

The floating Chevron station in Vancouver’s Coal Harbor waterfront has been a local landmark (or rather, watermark) for several decades. Back in the day, it was part of a thriving hub of stations known as Gasoline Alley, but today, the gas barge is the last of its kind in British Columbia. In fact, it’s the only self-contained marine fueling station with the Chevron brand.

Of all the scenes in Rumble, this one could probably pass for New York the best.

Looking at Manhattan’s night skyline from Long Island City, Queens.

It could very plausibly be taking place along the promenade in Long Island City, Queens, with views of Midtown Manhattan (minus the presence of any barge gas stations).

 

Stealing the Wheelchair Cushion

Folks skate and cycle in the parking lot at the Jericho Works Yard.

 

Angelo, the blond gang member follows Keung, Danny and Nancy to the park.

 

The trio park their bike with a wheelchair tow at the northeast corner of the lot.

 

Keung and Nancy skip off to the nearby ice cream truck.

 

The blonde gang member then steals Danny’s wheelchair cushion, thinking the stolen diamonds are stashed inside.

 

I found this location by using the then-new online tool: Google Lens, which basically does a reverse image search. When I ran a pic of the graffiti art through the system, I got a couple results linking it to Jericho Beach Park. After that, I just checked out all the parking lots in the area until I found one that had a long wall on one side of it.

Amazingly, the graffiti art had survived on that lot for over twenty years after this movie made. Inexplicably, around 2020, the large murals were covered over with plain white paint.

Even though the location in the scene looks pretty rural, it could conceivably be taking place in Van Cortlandt Park in the northern end of the Bronx. Although, the orange cones and rollerbladers give more of a Central Park vibe.

 

Wood Chipper

Two of the gang members are kidnapped outside the grocery store by the suited goons.

 

The goons take the young thugs to a remote location at 19731 Richardson Road in Pitt Meadows (just outside of Vancouver), where they beat and torture them.

 

One of the goons talks to the syndicate boss, White Tiger, telling him that the gang members claim they don’t know anything about the diamonds.

 

To send a message to the gang members, the two goons shove one of the men into a giant wood chipper.

 

I found this location by hovering around the Vancouver area in Google Maps 3D mode, eventually managing to match up the mountains in the background. It was hard to get the exact spot but I probably found it within 50 yards or so.

Of course, this is one of the more egregious inconsistencies with what the landscape looks like in the NYC area. By having those tall peaks clearly present in the background, it really ruins the impression that we’re in the Bronx.

Jackie Chan addressed this issue in his autobiography:

“Yes, I know there are no mountains in New York City! At first we tried to maintain the illusion, avoiding shooting angles that would show the mountains. We even hired people to paint the graffiti on the walls. But then we had to paint over it all at the end of the day. In the end, I decided to forget about trying to simulate New York, figuring that people shouldn’t be watching the scenery so much as the action anyway.”

The closest thing that could create a similar vista would probably be Bear Mountain, located on the Hudson River about 30 miles north of the city. However, at a mere 1,280 feet, it would barely measure up to the massive North Shore Mountains outside of Vancouver.

Looking across the Hudson River at Bear Mountain from Peekskill, NY.

But I must admit, when on film, it’s hard to fully ascertain the scale of a mountain,. So, this scene could’ve theoretically taken place in Peekskill, NY, which is about an hour’s drive from the Bronx and has a view of Bear Mountain that sort of looks like what appeared in the movie. (Thankfully, I haven’t encountered any industrial-sized wood chippers during my visits to the town.)

 

RV Park

Keung and Nancy meet up with who they think are FBI agents at the Brownsville Pub & RV Park, located in a suburb of Vancouver, 11940 Old Yale Rd, Surrey.

 

Keung finally realizes that the men are criminals who are after the stolen diamonds. 

 

This was the last location I found for this movie, although I thought I had already found it months earlier. I originally tried to find any sort of lot or yard near a couple bridges (which you can see in the background) and landed at Burrard Civic Marina near the Burrard Street Bridge. But later on, I realized I had made a mistake —the bridges didn’t quite match up— and returned back to my search.

Eventually, I figured out the Brownsville Pub & RV Park in nearby Surrey was the place I was looking for. I knew I got the right place the second time around, thanks to the nearby public transit SkyBridge whose distinctively narrow structure perfectly matched with what appeared in this scene.

2021 view of the SkyBridge which connects public transit over the Fraser River, as well as a view of the Patullo Bridge in the distance.

And like most of the locations used in this film, this place doesn’t really look like anything you’d find in New York City. As far as I can tell, there are no RV parks in the five boroughs.

Looking at the parking lot at Ferry Point Park in the Bronx.

But with the presence of a couple bridges it could conceivably take place in the Bronx’s Ferry Point Park which is near the Throgs Neck and Whitestone Bridges.

 

Destroying the Grocery Store

Back at the grocery store at 136 W Cordova Street in Vancouver, White Tiger’s team arrives in the parking lot.

 

The goons connect a chain from the front of the store to a huge tow truck which starts to grind forward.

 

The trucks rips the building apart, leaving nothing but a pile of rubble.

 

This scene was shot back at the fake grocery store, built on a then-empty lot on W Cordova Street, across from the large parkade. With the total destruction of the building, it’s a little more clear as to why production chose to construct a set instead of using a real grocery store.

The lot is now occupied by an upscale condo building with all the amenities.

The parkade across the street has since gotten a fancy make-over and is now a popular spot for amateur and professional photographers to snap some pics.

 

Sting Operation

Keung meets with detectives from the “NYPD” under Vancouver’s Iron Workers Memorial Bridge. 

 

Keung agrees to help them with a sting operation to incriminate the White Tiger.  

 

The cop posing as a cabbie drops Keung off at the nearby Lynnwood Marina & Boatyard at 1681 Columbia Street, North Vancouver.

 

One of the goons waves him over to his table.

 

After Keung mentions the name White Tiger, the goon gets suspicious and tells his boss that he thinks this is all a set up.

 

Sensing danger, Kuehne escapes from the goons just as the police arrive on the scene.

 

The bad guys quickly escape onto a hovercraft and begin speeding away.

 

Keung leaps onto the base of the Iron Workers Memorial Bridge as the hovercraft approaches.

 

He then runs and jumps onto the stern of the hovercraft as it passes by.

 

This wasn’t a very hard location to find since the Iron Workers Memorial Bridge is pretty unique looking (although I found at least one web article that incorrectly identified it as the Granville Bridge). Fortunately, the marina was also in the same general area as the bridge.

If you’ve watched the gag reel at the end of the movie, you know that it was during the stunt of jumping from the bridge to the hovercraft that Jackie Chan broke his ankle. After returning from the hospital, Chan —the trooper that he is— continued working on the film by wearing a sock painted to look like a sneaker over his cast.

A calm Chan being carried to an ambulance, moments after breaking his ankle.

While this filming location is seemingly unlike anything you would expect to see in the Bronx, it could very well conceivably be taking place on City Island. Located in the northeastern section of the borough,  City Island is a quaint fishing village is full of yacht clubs and waterfront settings

The City Island Yacht Sales & Marina in the northeast section of the Bronx.

Alas, this small seaside neighborhood is bereft of any large bridges like the one that appears in this sequence. But at least the City Island Yacht Sales & Marina is next to the modest vehicular bridge connecting to the mainland, making it feel similar to the North Vancouver location.

Memory-wise, this was the most fun location to visit on my trip to Vancouver. This was mostly because it was part of a day-trip I took to the suspension bridge at Lynn Canyon in North Vancouver. If you ever find yourself in this Canadian city, I highly recommend visiting it — it’s just as spectacular as the overrated Capilano Suspension Bridge Park, and unlike the bridge at Capilano, the one at Lynn Canyon is free to walk across.

Your author doing some sort of disco dance on the Lynn Canyon suspension bridge.

And since I didn’t have a car, part of the day’s adventure was figuring out the bus routes and transfer systemc to get me to both the Canyon and this filming location with the least amount of bus fares.

One last note about the scene where detectives talk to Keung underneath the bridge next to their undercover van. Apparently, Marc, the reader who helped me find the drag race location, owns  the van used by production.

He first got the clue that his vehicle was semi-famous after getting a random phone call from his brother exclaiming, “Jackie Chan is sitting in your van” while watching Rumble on TV. Turns out, the previous owner was a sound guy and his van was loaned out to the production company.for these scenes.

 

The Beach

Keung hets dragged by the hovercraft through False Creek, passing BC Place Stadium.

 

The crooks force the hijacked hovercraft to head to Locarno Beach, Vancouver.

 

Police race to the scene, traveling north on Timber Street.

 

The large, air-cushion vehicle lands on the beach, sending sunbathers away screaming.

 

This location was found by checking out all the beaches in the area and lining up the mountains in the background.

As to where this beach could exist in the real New York, there are no great options. Naturally, when you think of a New York City beach, your mind goes directly to Coney Island. But Brooklyn’s famous sandy destination, with its long boardwalk and mammoth amusement park attractions, looks nothing like Locarno Beach in Vancouver.

While the producers of the film were probably using Coney Island as their inspiration, for me, I thought Orchard Beach in the Bronx would be a pretty good counterpart. The 115-acre public beach has been at its current location since the 1930s and with a size and layout similar to what was in the movie. Plus, I like the idea of keeping the beach location in the Bronx.

Orchard Beach in the Bronx, from the summer of 2023, 

As an added bonus, Orchard Beach is not too far from City Island where I placed the previous “Sting Operation” scene, so it all make geographical sense.

 

Hovercraft Runs Amuck

Now on land, the hovercraft crashes with a police car at the intersection of Pacific Boulevard and Davies Street in Vancouver.

 

Speeding on, the hovercraft causes a semi-truck to skid across a median strip in front of 1283 Pacific Boulevard.

 

One block over at 1303 Homer Street, a band plays on stage sat some sort of street festival.

 

After realizing the stage is blocking the hovercraft’s path, the goons make the driver turn the machine around. 

 

Since the beginning to this extended action sequence took place near a waterway with fairly modern-looking buildings, I figured there were only a handful of areas in Vancouver that fit that bill. It was also clear that part of the action took place on a fairly wide street with a median strip, so that helped further narrow down the possibilities.

I then began cruising around the city in Google;’s 3D Satellite View, soon ending up in Yaletown, a formally rough-and-tumble industrial area along False Creek which was heavily redeveloped after the 1986 World’s Fair. The development involved both preserving old industrial buildings and constructing new tall buildings on derelict yards.

A 3D satellite view in Google Maps of the Yaletown neighborhood in Vancouver.

The vast majority of those new structures were in a uniform glass and concrete high-rise style, making them look very similar to each other. This caused me a few false alarms while cruising around the area in Google Maps looking for matching buildings from the movie. But I eventually got to the right place.

As to where this would’ve taken place in NYC, the buildings looked like a lot of the buildings in Battery Park City in Lower Manhattan since that area was developed around the same time as Yaletown.

A 3D satellite view in Google Maps of Battery Park City in Manhattan.

Battery Park City is also on the Hudson River, giving it a similar visual as Yaletown, which is on False Creek.  And Manhattan’s West Street looks quite similar to  Vancouver’s Pacific Boulevard, both with a median down the middle.

Looking north on West Street near Battery Park City in NYC, c 2016.

The only big glitch with choosing this neighborhood as the NYC counterpart is that it is super far away from Orchard Beach in the Bronx. But the goons could’ve taken the hovercraft back onto the river and gone south to Manhattan. It’s a bit of s stretch, but generally speaking, there were no large modern buildings like that in the Bronx in 1995.

 

Crashing the Hovercraft

As the hovercraft approaches, police set up a roadblock at the intersection of Powell Street and Princess Avenue. 

 

After the hovercraft busts its way through the the blockade, Keung runs into an antique store at 120 Princess Avenue to grab a large serrated sword from the window. 

 

He brings the sword into a Lamborghini that was damaged by the hovercraft.

 

Mounting the sword onto the side of the car, Keung drives up against the hovercraft on W Cordova Street.

 

As the two vehicles pass each other in front of 93 W Cordova Street, the sword rips open the air cushion chamber.

 

The hovercraft then crashes in front of 120 W Cordova Street, where Keung jumps out of the Lamborghini and traps the goons inside.

 

Finding the second half of this sequence was easy since it took place not too far from the grocery store and parking garage. But finding the antique store proved to be difficult, especially since I suspected that the stout building was long gone.

It wasn’t until about a month ago that it was finally found with the help of Blakeslee. I had assumed that the antique shop was close to where the police set up the roadblock, and since those parts showed more buildings in the background, I thought there would be a batter chance of identifying one of them.

Blakeslee was able to find one of those buildings by doing a Google Reverse Image search of a still from the movie. The search engine found a match of the three-story corner building. The reason it was able to find a match for a rather insignificant building in Vancouver is because the property suffered a fire in 2022 and there were a few online news stories (with photos) about it.

Vancouver Fire Rescue Services attend a three-alarm fire on Powell Street, an area used in Rumble in the Bronx

As to where this could’ve taken place in NYC, almost any side street off of West Street in Manhattan would do since many has a combo of old and new buildings that looked like what was in the movie.

 

Golf Club

The crime syndicate boss, White Tiger, casually plays golf on the 18th hole green atSwaneset Bay Resort & Country Club in Pitt Meadows, BC, Canada.

 

Over at the clubhouse, two undercover detectives ask a passing cart of members where White Tiger is playing.

 

Meanwhile, Keung and his friends drive the hovercraft onto the course, heading for the oblivious crime boss. 

 

The large vehicle speeds towards closer.

 

The hovercraft runs over White Tiger, stripping him of all his clothes and leaving him for the police to take away.

 

This country club was one of the few places that was specifically mentioned online as a filming location for Rumble in the Bronx.

Apparently it was a poplar spot for movie productions in the 1990s (probably for its spectacular scenery). It was heavily used in the Adam Sandler comedy Happy Gilmore and in a the “Father Image” episode of the comedy-drama cop series, The Commish.

Of course, once again, the presence of large mountains ruins the illusion that it took place in the NYC area.

One of the greens at Storm King Golf Club in Cornwall, NY.

But if we went back north into the Hudson Valley near where I placed the “Wood Chipper”scene, there are plenty of suitable golf courses to choose from. In the end, the one that has similar views of mountains is Storm King, located across the river from Peekskill near the village of Cornwall.

 

Manhattan Skyline

Looking at Manhattan from Brooklyn, near the Brooklyn Bridge

 

Looking at Manhattan from New Jersey, not too far from Liberty Park.

 

Another view of Manhattan from New Jersey.

 

Even though they are sprinkled throughout the movie’s runtime, I thought I’d throw all the establishing shots of Lower Manhattan here at the end. Like most skyline shots, they are fairly easy to figure out where they were taken from based on the orientation of the skyscrapers and where they overlap each other.

They were obviously done by a small second-unit team, probably taken in one day. But what’s silly is, these establishing shots are of the southern tip of Manhattan, some 15-20 miles away from the Bronx where the movie was supposed to be taking place. But of course, you gotta go for the classic iconic visuals to establish a NYC setting.

Overall, it’s hard to say if Rumble in the Bronx truly was the vehicle that helped introduce Chan to American audiences. Even with its “New York” setting, it still feels more like a foreign production.

I know budget was likely a major concern, but I think it would’ve done much better if they did at least one week of real shooting in NYC and made a better effort to hide any obvious signs of Vancouver. As you can tell, it proved to be a difficult for me to even come up with a conceivable Bronx location for many of the scenes.

I also think if they didn’t overdub the whole movie and allowed a mix of English and Cantonese, it would’ve become a bigger American hit. But all this being said, Rumble in the Bronx has a ton a great stunt work and is still fairly fun to watch.

Plus, it gave me an excuse to take a trip to Vancouver, Canada.