Now Showing: The Immortal Iron Fist

 

The Immortal Iron Fist

Genre: Action / Superhero / Martial Arts

Director: Aaron & Adam Nee

Writers: Jimmy Ellis & Dwight Gallo

Based on Marvel Comics characters

Cast: Luke Bracey, Henry Golding, Jackie Chan, Lee Byung-hun, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Harry Shum Jr., Zach McGowan, Diego Boneta, Deepika Padukone, Kal Naga, Tony Goldwyn, Zhang Hanyu

Plot: Shanghai, China - 1972. Danny Rand (Luke Bracey) is tagging along with parents on a globetrotting trip through Asia. They board a plane in Shanghai headed toward the west, trying to get out of the region before a massive storm comes through. The plane suffers from strong turbulence before a lightning strike hits it. The plane begins hurtling down into the Himalayan Mountains. The pilot does his best to land the plane, but it crashes violently into a mountain side, flipping over several times, and becoming engulfed in flames. An injured Danny is thrown from the plane. He runs toward the plane to rescue his parents, but it explodes in a ball of flame. Exhausted and bleeding in the freezing mountains, Danny finds shelter underneath some wreckage from the plane before passing out.

Lei Kung (Jackie Chan) arrives at the crash area when he comes upon Danny’s unconscious body. He places Danny’s body in a cart. Lei walks away from the crash site with the cart, deeper and deeper into the mountains, and finally to the village of K’un L’un. He takes Danny to the village infirmary. When Danny wakes up he sees Lei training his son Davos (Harry Shum Jr.) in the ways of martial arts in the village courtyard. Danny does his best to follow along, with Lei commenting that Danny is a natural filled with the force of Chi, unlike his son. Davos looks at Danny with anger and jealousy as Lei offers to train Danny as well, at least if he is going to stay in K’un L’un. With his entire family dead in the plane crash, Danny decides to stay in the village as he finds it peaceful.

After months of training in K’un L’un under Lei Kung, Danny and Davos are both invited to compete in the Challenge of the Many, a ritual for the young men in the village where they must catch a series of highly venomous vipers. Danny catches all but one, which bites Davos. Lei is ashamed that his own son failed in the challenge and declares Danny the winner after giving Davos the antidote for the viper bite. At the closing ceremony, Lei announces that he believes that Danny has earned the privilege of becoming the next Iron Fist. Davos is enraged, insisting that that should be his birthright. Davos attacks his father, but Danny comes to Lei’s defense. After Danny fends off Davos, Davos leaves K’un L’un vowing that this won’t be the last either of them hear from him.

Lei takes Danny into a remote cave outside of the village. Lei leads Danny in a ceremony, before leading him to a flaming brazier deep in the cave. Lei tells Danny that the flame has stayed lit for centuries, having originally been breathed by an ancient dragon Shou-Lao. Danny reaches his hand into the flames and pulls out the Iron Fist medallion. Lei puts the medallion around Danny’s neck

When Lei and Danny return to K’un L’un, they find the village being attacked by Chinese military forces led by General Huang (Zhang Hanyu). Lei demands to know why they are being attacked and how the military even found them, as K’un L’un is a peaceful village, hidden from the outside world by the mountains. Huang refuses to answer how they found the village, but does say that the village is being annexed by the Chinese government, and if the villagers don’t like it, he can easily slaughter them all. Huang doesn’t even wait for Lei to respond, and orders his soldiers to fire upon the villagers. Lei tells Danny about a secret passage out of the village and asks him to help lead people through it to escape. Lei stays behind, standing his ground against the military to allow everyone else to escape.

Danny helps lead the people of K’un L’un through the mountains to Kathmandu, Nepal. Distraught at losing his new father figure, and having nowhere else to go, Danny decides to return to the United States. Over a period of weeks, Danny hikes south to the coast of the Indian Ocean where he sneaks onto a freighter ship headed for the United States. On the long journey around the world on the ship, Danny sleeps in a shipping container and sneaks just enough food and water to survive on the trip.

Dirty and disheveled, Danny arrives back in the United States at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. He sneaks off of the ship and makes his way to the headquarters of Rand-Meachum Inc., the company his late father co-founded. A security guard tells Danny to keep moving as they don’t allow vagrants to hang around outside of the building. Danny asks to see Harold Meachum and for them to say Danny Rand is there to see him. Just a few minutes later, Harold Meachum (Tony Goldwyn) comes down into the lobby to greet Danny. He says that he heard their plane crashed, so he assumed that Danny had died with his parents. Harold invites Danny up to his office on the top floor. Harold starts to catch Danny up on what the company has been up to, when they are interrupted by the arrival of FBI Agent Jimmy Woo (Henry Golding), who insists that he has to bring Danny down to the Federal Building for questioning regarding the plane crash.

Instead of going to the Federal Building, Jimmy brings Danny to the Chinese Garden. Danny asks what they are doing there. Jimmy insists that they are going to spar to see if Danny really is the new Iron Fist, motioning toward the medallion around Danny’s neck. Danny is confused, but when Jimmy attacks him, he defends himself, blocking several attacks in a row. Danny then fights back, proving his skills enough for Jimmy to call it. Jimmy then tells Danny that he needs his help. He explains that Master Khan is a criminal who has been shipping heroin across the globe, but since he rarely leaves his personal island off the coast of Korea, they have never been able to catch him in the act. Jimmy says that Khan is holding a martial arts tournament and that the Iron Fist medallion will grant Danny instant access into the tournament so they can stop him and find all the evidence they need to shut down his operation. Danny, excited by the idea of having a mission, agrees to help.

While on the boat headed to Khan’s island, Jimmy goes through a dossier on Khan and the other contestants in the tournament. We get a brief glimpse of each of the contestants:

- Hector Ayala (Diego Boneta), known to those in Puerto Rico as “The White Tiger”, Hector learned to fight in order to protect his young family from the violent gangs of San Juan, Puerto Rico.

- Abdul Qamar aka the Arabian Knight (Kal Naga), a nomadic prince that has trained in fighting all across the deserts of the Middle East. His trusty scimitar is his weapon of choice.

- Logan (Zach McGowan), a Canadian soldier. He stayed in Asia after the Korean War and found himself training in martial arts in Japan.

- And finally Steel Serpent, a masked fighter that has recently appeared on the scene.

Danny is the last to arrive on the island and is greeted by Master Khan (Lee Byung-hun) himself. Khan inspects the Iron Fist medallion, before bowing to Danny and taking his hand to greet Danny. He tells Danny that he is late, they have been waiting for him at the banquet. Danny and Khan walk into a large room. Khan has a chair pulled out for Danny who sits down at a large table, gaining glares from the fellow contestants. Khan says that they have waited long enough and welcomes them all to the island, before moving onto the rules of the tournament. Each contestant will compete in a series of fights that will go on until one fighter taps out or is rendered unconscious. The last fighter standing after the final fight will win $100,000. In the evenings, fighters are expected to stay in their quarters, which Khan assures everyone is for their own protection as his guards are on high alert in the dark hours. After he has explained the rules, he tells everybody to continue with the feast, as he sits down with a smile on his face.

After the opening feast, Danny finds himself back in his room. He is startled when a woman sits in darkness in the corner. She stands and introduces herself as Colleen Wing (Natasha Liu Bordizzo). She tells Danny that she is deep undercover for the CIA, getting, well, as close to Khan as she can. Jimmy Woo had contacted her about Danny. Danny asks Colleen what they do next. Just then Jimmy sneaks into the room also. Jimmy gets to explaining the plan. Colleen offers to show the two around the island and help them sneak past the various guards.

Jimmy, Danny and Colleen are exploring the island in the cover of night, with Colleen showing them around the island and the operations Khan runs. She says that she would have turned in evidence by now, but that Khan has forcibly kept her from leaving the island or contacting the outside world. Contacting Jimmy has been hard enough. For a split second they walk into a bit of light and are immediately spotted by guards. They split up and manage to avoid being identified, but Khan and his chief bodyguard Bengal (Deepika Padukone) are now on high alert. Danny makes it back to his room just before Bengal and Khan start doing sweeps of all the contestant rooms to ensure everyone is accounted for. When they account for everyone, Khan returns to his room where Colleen is waiting on the bed in lingerie ready to seduce him to distract him from the security situation. She serves him a drink, which she has laced with a mild sedative to keep him calm and make him tired, but he eyes it suspiciously and does not drink it.

In the middle of the night, Danny hears the slightest of noises in his room and jolts awake. He sees the masked Steel Serpent trying to steal his Iron Fist medallion. Danny takes the medallion back and kicks Steel Serpent through the wall of his room. Security lights are triggered by the loud commotion. Danny and Steel Serpent continue fighting as they are quickly surrounded by the guards, led by Bengal, and soon Khan himself arrives. Khan orders them to stop fighting at once. The guards separate the two men, and Khan asks Danny and Steel Serpent to explain themselves. Danny says that he caught Steel Serpent sneaking into his room trying to steal his medallion. Khan asks Steel Serpent if this is true, but gets no response. The other tournament fighters have now also arrived on the scene to see what is going on. Khan tells everyone to go back to their quarters, including Danny and Steel Serpent, who he tells to save their animosity for the tournament.

Khan stands before a crowd of people in a coliseum type structure. He tells them all that the fights will commence … NOW!

We see our main contestants in a barrage of fights. Hector uses his speed and elusiveness to make quick work of his opponent. The Arabian Knight is in a tense battle with his opponent, but a split second slip up from his opponent allows the Arabian Knight to slice his opponent’s arm with his scimitar, leading to the opponent yielding. Logan is ruthless in his match as he brutally pulverizes his weaker opponent. Danny stays calm and uses the training he received from Lei Kung to his advantage, defeating his opponent, while ensuring the opponents safety after the fight. As his hand is raised, Steel Serpent walks past and eyes Danny off. Danny leaves the area but watches as Steel Serpent fights. He too seems to show a calming presence, however his strikes seem more aggressive than that of Danny’s. Steel Serpent eventually kills his opponent with a strike to the throat, making the opponent collapse, and shutting off his heart. Steel Serpent’s hand is raised, as we again see Danny and Steel Serpent lock eyes.

As they await their next fights, Danny runs into Hector. Danny and Hector talk, with Hector revealing that he only agreed to come all the for the tournament so that he could use the winnings to move his family from Puerto Rico to New York for a better life. Danny tells Hector that Khan is not a good guy and to be cautious around him and his guards.

While everyone is occupied by the tournament, Jimmy sneaks into the underground factory where Khan’s workers are processing massive amounts of opium poppies into heroin. Woo is caught by Bengal. Jimmy tries to fight her off, but Bengal moves too quickly and is able to knock Jimmy out with her cat-like reflexes. She has some guards tie Jimmy up until Khan can deal with him after the tournament.

Danny manages to sneak away from the fights and tries to contact Jimmy through the secret radio he gave him, but Jimmy does not answer, which makes Danny realize something has gone wrong. He finds Colleen and tells her that Jimmy isn’t answering his radio. Colleen says that he must have been captured by Khan’s guards. She tells Danny to go back to the tournament to not arouse extra suspicion while she tries to find where Jimmy is being held captive.

The tournament is set to continue with Danny set to fight Abdul. As Danny and Abdul face off, the fight is interrupted by Steel Serpent. He takes off his mask, revealing himself to be Kung’s son Davos. He angrily tells Danny that the Iron Fist medallion should be his by birthright, and now he plans to take it from Danny’s corpse.

Colleen sneaks down into the underground heroin factory, finding Jimmy tied up. She frees Jimmy and together they set up a series of explosives to destroy the drug supplies. Bengal spots them and chases them out of the underground facility and back up to the surface just as the explosives go off, shaking the island.

Danny and Steel Serpent continue their fight, with Davos trying to rip the medallion off of Danny’s neck every chance he gets. The continued explosions send Davos stumbling back. Danny channels his Chi into his fist, which begins glowing yellow. Davos launches himself at Danny, but Danny swings at Davos, hitting him with a powerful punch. Davos is sent flying back into a fly, crashing through it.

Bengal transforms into an actual tiger and continues chasing after Colleen and Jimmy. Amidst the chaos that is developing at his tournament, Khan proclaims that he will give $10,000 to any man who stops Danny Rand. Abdul pulls out his scimitar and lunges at Danny, but Hector protects his new friend by kicking away Abdul’s sword. Hector begins hitting Abdul with several quick attacks, outpacing his opponent.

Collen and Jimmy hide from Bengal, who begins thrashing through the chaos of the tournament. Logan sees Bengal charging at him now and readies himself. Three long bone claws protrude from each of Logan’s two hands. He slashes at Bengal with them in a berserker rage. Their fight ends when Logan manages to impale the tiger in the side with one of his sets of claws. Bengal turns back into human form as a pool of blood develops underneath her.

Khan makes his way to his boat dock to escape the island, but is stopped by Colleen and Jimmy who tell him that he is under arrest. Khan insults Colleen’s ability in bed, so she kicks him in the face, knocking him out. Jimmy then ties Khan’s hands behind his back. Colleen and Jimmy then call in nearby CIA and FBI forces to come to shut down the rest of the operation on the island.

Davos dusts himself off and prepares to continue fighting Danny. Davos reveals that he was the one who told the Chinese military about the location of K’un L’un after being skipped over for the Iron Fist by his father. Enraged by this revelation, Danny begins channeling all of his Chi into the Iron Fist medallion on his chest. Davos charges at Danny, but Danny lets out a scream and the fire of the ancient dragon Shou-Lou bursts out of Danny’s chest at Davos. Davos is pulverized by the blast from Danny, seemingly killing him. Danny is surprised by the power that was unleashed from his body, realizing that Lei Kung was right about him.

Forces from the CIA and FBI both arrive on the island to arrest Khan and anyone who worked for him, including Abdul the Arabian Knight. Danny thanks Hector and Logan for their help when things got crazy there. Hector graciously accepts Danny’s thanks, shaking his hand before boarding his boat off the island. Logan brushes away Danny’s handshake, telling him to save it for someone else who cares. Jimmy is excited that they shut down one of the biggest heroin operations on the planet. Colleen interrupts though, saying while Khan was high up on the food chain, he still had bosses and that’s who she plans to go after next. Colleen and Danny sit on the shore of the island together. She asks him what he plans to do next. Danny thinks about it for a moment, before deciding that he should probably go back to New York and finish dealing with his family’s unfinished business. He then asks Colleen if she would like to join him.