Vanguard

Vanguard is a 2020 Chinese action-adventure film written and directed by Stanley Tong, starring Jackie Chan, Yang Yang and Miya Muqi. It marks Chan's sixth collaboration with Tong. Vanguard was originally scheduled to be released on 25 January 2020 in China but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was later released on 30 September 2020 in China, 20 November 2020 in the United States, and 25 December 2020 in India. The film received mixed reviews, with critics praising Jackie Chan's performance as well as the action sequences and music but criticising the screenplay, editing and runtime. Plot Qin Guoli, a Chinese accountant based in Great Britain, has been forcibly contracted by Maasym, leader of the terrorist organisation Brothers of Vengeance, to finance his projects. After Qin had tipped off Scotland Yard, Maasym was killed in a military operation by US forces, but his son Omar has survived and now wants to get his hands on his father's money, whose whereabouts are solely known to Qin. Omar has hired the mercenary gang Arctic Wolves, who kidnap Qin and his new wife Meiwei during London Chinatown's Chinese New Year festival. Vanguard, an international security company assigned to protect Qin, sends agents Zhang Kaixuan, Lei Zhenyu and Mi Ya to rescue him. After the operation's successful conclusion, Qin asks Vanguard's director Tang Huanting to protect his daughter Fareeda, who is currently in Africa, before Omar can use her as leverage against him. Tang, Lei, and Mi Ya travel to Africa and find Fareeda, but also have to contend with the Arctic Wolves and a poaching gang who have been hired as additional muscle. During the chaotic first altercation, Lei and Fareeda are separated from the rest of the group and hide out in the nearby jungle, forcing Tang and Mi Ya to search for them on foot, guided by satellite tracking provided by Vanguard headquarters. Tang and Mi Ya rejoin their companions and fight their pursuers in a furious river chase with an amphibian car and jet skis, which ends with Tang and Mi Ya getting stranded and Lei and Fareeda being captured. Broto, the leader of the Arctic Wolves, proposes to trade his captives for Qin, which Qin immediately agrees to.