If you can’t find anything to watch on Netflix or Hulu, you might as well put on Big Trouble in Little China for free on YouTube. Released in 1986, the cult classic movie is directed by John Carpenter and stars Kurt Russell, one of several collaborations between the two. Some would also say that Big Trouble in Little China is among the very best work of both Carpenter and Russell and still holds up very well today. You can judge that for yourself by streaming the movie now for free.
Per the official synopsis, Big Trouble in Little China stars Russell as Jack Burton, a simple man who doesn’t believe in ghosts or magic until he’s swept into a mind-boggling adventure deep within Chinatown’s mysterious underworld. Burton’s pal, Wang Chi (Dennis Dun), is trying to rescue his kidnapped fianc&ée. Egg Shen (Victor Wong), an enigmatic tour-bus driver seems to know a lot about ancient Chinese magic for a simple tour-bus driver. They do battle with an outlandish array of human and inhuman adversaries under the command of Lo Pan (James Hong), a 2000-year-old evil magician who has the power to transform himself from a wheelchair-bound old man into a seven-foot-tall mystical menace.”
John Carpenter and Kurt Russell had previously worked on Escape from New York, a sci-fi action movie that was released in 1981. The pair would get back together for the sequel Escape from L.A. in 1996 with Russell reprising his role from the original. Russell also famously starred in Carpenter’s popular 1982 horror movie The Thing, which has a large cult following of its own. Although Carpenter hasn’t directed a movie since 2010, he’s since teased his return to directing, and has even said he’d love to work with Russell again.
“There’s a whole lot that I haven’t worked with. Jennifer Lawrence, she’s a brilliant actress. Amy Adams – brilliant actress. I would love to work with them, but chances of that are kind of slim,” Carpenter told NME in February. “You just don’t know what’s going to happen. I’d also really like to work with Kurt Russell again. That would be fun. We had such a good time working together.”
For years, there has been talk of a reboot of Big Trouble in Little China, but it remains unclear if the project will ever actually come to light. In 2015, it had been reported that The Rock would star as a reimagined Jack Burton in a remake of the movie with Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz writing the screenplay. Producers would later claim in 2018 that the idea was for the movie to be a direct sequel instead of a remake. No major updates have come about on the planned movie since and its current status remains unknown.
In any case, there will always be the original Big Trouble in Little China, a movie that some would say could never be matched in any kind of sequel or remake. You can watch the movie for free right now streaming on TA0kU3GUQ2De37|YouTube.