FILM · 1985 · USA
The Last Dragon
32 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (32)
- #001
The film was a critical failure but a box office success, earning $33 million against a budget of roughly $10 million. It has since become a cult hit.
- #002
During his entrance training, Leroy Green cuts an arrow passing by him in karate. It was a real demonstration that took 2 hours to get right.
- #003
At the club, Ernie Reyes Jr.'s character gets into a long fight with his real-life father, Ernie Reyes Sr.
- #004
When filming began, Julius Carry had no interest in any martial art.
- #005
The Seventh Heaven disco set was built at the Camera Mart stages on 54th and 10th Street. One day Diana Ross visited the set and asked whether she could buy it for her next tour.
- #006
Denzel Washington auditioned for both Leroy and Sho'Nuff.
- #007
The producers considered Mario Van Peebles for the role of Leroy Green. Wesley Snipes and Laurence Fishburne also auditioned and lobbied hard for the lead role.
- #008
Angela Viracco's character was modeled on Cyndi Lauper.
- #009
Vanity was the first and only choice to play Laura Charles.
- #010
Motown Records released an original soundtrack album for the film featuring songs by popular artists including Vanity, Stevie Wonder, Rockwell, El DeBarge, The Temptations, Syreeta Wright and Smokey Robinson.
- #011
Some posters for the film carried a long preamble that read: "He's a martial arts master who refuses to fight. A Bruce Lee fan so sure he's Oriental that he eats popcorn with chopsticks. His friends think he's too serious. His family thinks he's crazy. His enemies think he's no match. But he knows he's The Last Dragon."
- #012
According to Apollonia Kotero, Motown Creative Assistant Suzanne De Passe wanted to bring Kotero into Motown Records as a musical act and offered her a role in this film. Kotero later showed the script to Prince. After reading it, Prince immediately kicked in the air in front of Kotero. Kotero turned the role down shortly afterward.
- #013
Leroy wears the same jumpsuit Bruce Lee wore in Game of Death (1978).
- #014
Under pressure from the studio to cut $2 million from the budget, director Michael Schultz and screenwriter Louis Venosta sat in a hotel room all night rewriting the script. When Venosta fell asleep, Schultz decided to delete 40 pages of the script. When Venosta woke the next morning, the two spent the day recreating the deleted material.
- #015
Jim Kelly was offered the role of Sho'Nuff but turned it down because he was not interested in playing the villain.
- #016
It was featured on How Did This Get Made in the comedy podcast's 172nd episode, with special guest Hannibal Buress.
- #017
Jim Brown, Ron O'Neal, Carl Weathers, Billy Dee Williams and Fred Williamson were considered for the role of Sho'Nuff.
- #018
Faith Prince sang her own song.
- #019
Taimak, Lia Chang, Glen Eaton and Ernie Reyes Jr. all made their screen debuts in this film. None of them had any acting experience before it.
- #020
William H. Macy and Chaz Palminteri have small roles in this film at the very start of their careers. Both went on to become Oscar-nominated actors.
- #021
Keshia Knight Pulliam, who plays little Sophia, had already completed the first season of The Cosby Show (1984) by the time this film was released. Carl Anthony Payne II, who plays one of the kids in the pizza shop, would go on to play Walter "Cockroach" Bradley, one of Theo Huxtable's best friends on the series.
- #022
Controversial film critic John Bloom, better known by his pseudonym Joe Bob Briggs, wrote his final review for this film before being fired by the Dallas Times-Herald.
- #023
Asked what was inside the aquarium, Christopher Murney explained that he had actually hit his face on a metal pipe. That is why, in one scene, after Taimak's character Leroy Green pulls Murney out of the tank, Murney has a cut near one of his eyebrows.
- #024
Sho'Nuff wears the symbol of the Tiger, the traditional yin corresponding to the Dragon's yang in Chinese philosophy and martial arts. The Tiger symbolizes physicality and aggression, while the Dragon embodied by Leroy represents spirit and wisdom, reflecting the film's central conflict.
- #025
Leroy calls his little sister Lotus Blossom, his father calls her Sophia, and his mother calls her Natasha.
- #026
The casting requirements meant looking beyond Hollywood for the lead actors.
- #027
The fortune cookie factory in the film is called "Sum Dum Goy". "Goy" is a Yiddish word meaning a non-Jewish person, or "gentile" in English, suggesting the factory name is a pun meaning "some dumb non-Jew".
- #028
It is one of two theatrical films directed by Michael Schultz that were first released in 1985. The other was Krush Groove (1985).
- #029
Rapper Busta Rhymes played Sho'Nuff in the music video for his song "Dangerous".
- #030
It was gospel singer Esther Marrow's last film and, as of 2023, her last screen appearance.
- #031
Both of the film's stars used a single name: Taimak and Vanity. Taimak's full name is Taimak Guarriello, and Vanity's real name was Denise Katherine Matthews.
- #032
In the film's credits, William H. Macy is billed as W. H. Macy, a format he used early in his career to avoid being confused with another actor named Bill Macy.
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