Hidden Strike trailer: Jackie Chan & John Cena join forces to foil a heist

Last Updated on June 5, 2023

A new trailer for Hidden Strike has been released, which finds Jackie Chan and John Cena playing two ex-special force soldiers who must escort a group of civilians along Badhdad’s Highway of Death to the safety of the Green Zone.

If Hidden Strike has slipped under your radar, you’re not alone. The movie was actually shot all the way back in September of 2018 and has been sitting on a shelf ever since. To put that in context, John Cena hadn’t yet been seen in Bumblebee, F9, or The Suicide Squad. Jackie Chan plays a Chinese private security contractor who is called to extract oil workers from a China-run oil refinery in the Middle East when it’s attacked. But that’s a smokescreen for an oil heist, and Chan’s character needs the help of an American former Marine (John Cena) to stop the thieves.

“In the film, both characters start off as quite normal guys, both retired military and not superheroes,” Chan said in 2018. “At first, I think we’re opponents — I think he’s the bad guy and he thinks I’m the bad guy. But then we realize that we’re on the same side and go after the real enemy.“

The film was directed by Scott Waugh (Need for Speed) from a script by Arash Amel (The Titan) but was an entirely Chinese-funded project filmed in China using local crews. “Some Western talent just come in-and-out when they do a China project, but these guys have a commitment to the culture and industry,” Chan said. “Scott has been living here for months to prepare for the film, and John has been learning Mandarin on his own for years, way before we asked him to join our cast.” The film was supposed to capitalize on the partnership between Hollywood and China that was all the rage back then, but soured trade relations and the COVID-19 pandemic left the project in limbo. It’s also possible that John Cena’s actions may have further delayed the film when he referred to Taiwan as a country while promoting F9. There was an immediate backlash and Cena issued an apology, which was also criticized.

XYZ Films will now release Hidden Strike sometime this year, but it doesn’t have an official release date yet. What did you think of the Hidden Strike trailer?