Scott Waugh Wanted the Camera on Jackie Chan, Not the Double — It Took 15 Takes of the Helicopter-to-Bus Gag on “Hidden Strike”

• Director Scott Waugh says Jackie Chan refused a stunt double on a hard gag in “Hidden Strike.”
• The move was a rappel off a helicopter, a flip, and a spin through a bus’s back window.
• Chan landed it on the fifteenth take, then walked past Waugh and said one word: “65.”

Posted: October 19, 2026

Waugh, 56, is the son of stuntman Fred Waugh and spent years as a performer before moving behind the camera, so the story he tells about Hidden Strike is a department story as much as a star story. The gag: Chan rappels from a helicopter onto the roof of a bus, then does what Waugh calls a kit — flipping upside down and spinning through the back window to land inside with a gun up. Waugh’s own assessment is that it is a hard, physically strong move to pull off at twenty, let alone at Chan’s age.

The part a coordinator will recognise is the decision underneath it. Waugh wanted the camera placed to feature that it was Chan in the window and not the double, which means the shot only works if the production can afford the takes. Ten went by. Twelve went by. Waugh says he was thinking that Chan should let the double have it. Chan’s answer was that he could do it. On the fifteenth take he landed it clean, came in, hit the beat with the gun, and the floor cheered. Then he walked past the director, looked him in the eye and said “65” — his age at the time — and kept going.

Waugh frames it inside a run of working with action leads who stayed physically capable late: he fought Sylvester Stallone as a performer on The Specialist and went out a window for it, and directed him on Expend4bles at 77. He is currently out with Runner, starring Alan Ritchson and Owen Wilson, now on digital.

Source: People — Filmmaker Scott Waugh Recalls Jackie Chan Nailing an Impossible Stunt at Age 65

Learn more on IMDb: Hidden Strike (2023) · Scott Waugh · Jackie Chan