Chapter 373: A Billion Points of Shock Brought to the Film Circle!

Three days later.

Hengdian World Studios, 6:00 AM.

When Chu Chen arrived, the sky had not yet fully brightened.

However, the film set was already brightly lit.

Several massive searchlights illuminated a location set built to resemble a Hong Kong street scene as if it were broad daylight.

Director Xu Ke stood behind the monitor, clutching a cup of hot coffee in his hand; his eyes were dark-rimmed, but he was as hyper-excited as a bull that had just been released.

Seeing Chu Chen get out of the car, he practically ran to greet him.

"Oh! You've finally come! I've been waiting so hard for you!"

Chu Chen reached out his hand and shook his: "Director Xu, hello."

Standing on the concrete floor of the film set, he looked at the set built to resemble an old Hong Kong street before him—neon signs, tin roofs, old shirts hanging on laundry poles, and plastic crates and broken tires piled in the corners.

Every single prop was weathered to perfection, as if a real old Hong Kong street had been pressed on pause during a muggy summer night and then transported here in its entirety.

"Welcome to the team. I'll have them take you to get changed right away."

Xu Ke's voice carried an irrepressible excitement: "After you change, come straight over and we'll start filming. See that street? From this end to that end, it's two hundred meters long. In the middle, there are three corners, two balconies, one second-floor security window, and one laundry pole. We've designed a route—start from the tea restaurant at the end of the street, jump onto the second-floor balcony at the first corner, run fifteen meters along the security window, flip over the laundry pole, then jump down from the stairs on the other side, cut through the vegetable market stalls, and finally land next to the utility pole at the head of the street."

Chu Chen did not speak.

He looked at the street, his gaze moving from the tea restaurant sign to the wall at the first corner, from the second-floor security window to the laundry pole spanning the street, and from the plastic canopy of the vegetable market to the rusty utility pole at the end of the street.

His Spatial Perception had unconsciously incorporated the entire three-dimensional structure of the street into his consciousness; every height, every distance, and the surface material of every pivot point were precisely calculated.

"You can design the specifics of this route and how to execute it yourself; I trust your ability. After we finish this shot, there's another one on the rooftop, just like the one you did during your livestream."

Chu Chen nodded: "Alright, no problem."

The changing room was in the production van nearby; to showcase the sense of power in his Parkour, the clothes he wore for this shoot were very simple.

It was just a white athletic tank top and a pair of black athletic shorts.

This showcased his robust muscles to the maximum extent.

Ten minutes later, everything was ready!

"Lighting crew, cameras in position! Actors—"

Following the assistant director's order, Chu Chen accelerated and burst into the frame!

His first step was to kick off the air conditioner bracket on the wall, use the force to spring up, grab the edge of the second-floor security window with his right hand, flip his body half a turn in the air, and land his feet on the balcony railing!

The entire movement was as fluid as Water falling from a height; there was no pause, no hesitation, and no unnecessary motion!

There was a gap between the balcony and the next one, about two and a half meters wide.

Chu Chen did not slow down; the moment he stepped on the edge of the balcony, he leaned his body forward, kicked off with his right foot, and like an arrow being launched, flew out from the balcony railing.

His body briefly extended in the air, then landed precisely on the second-floor windowsill of the building opposite; he grabbed the top of the window frame with both hands to stabilize his center of gravity, slightly bent his knees to absorb the impact, and then followed through with a side roll, flipping from the windowsill onto the rooftop eaves.

He ran along the eaves for a stretch, his speed extremely fast.

When he reached the end of the eaves, he jumped straight out, turned his body at an angle in the air, grabbed the laundry pole spanning the street with his left hand, used the elasticity of the pole to swing himself out, and at the highest point, let go; when he landed on the ground, his feet hit the floor, his knees bent, and then he slowly straightened up.

The entire route took less than two minutes.

The cameraman had chased Chu Chen the whole way and was already so tired he was half-squatting on the ground, still holding the machine, but his eyes were wide as copper bells.

The assistant director's stopwatch had stopped; his finger was still pressing on the stopwatch, but he had forgotten he was timing.

It wasn't until Chu Chen finished that he reacted and shouted "Cut!"

"How was it?" Chu Chen asked, panting as he walked over to Xu Ke.

"Too perfect! Very good!"

Xu Ke had always been strict with his requirements for action scenes, and there were truly not many times he could get it in one take.

Chu Chen was one of the few stunt performers who could get him to do a one-take.

Besides this street Parkour, over the next two and a half days, they added some rooftop Parkour scenes for Chu Chen.

These were equally perfect.

Although rooftop Parkour was more dangerous than street Parkour, for Chu Chen, it was just as easy.

He completed them quite effortlessly.

Less than a week after the Parkour scenes for Fireline Rescue were finished, Chu Chen left Hengdian.

Immediately after, a call came from the Warner Bros. side.

Their invitation this time was for Chu Chen to complete a shot for the movie Point Break.

Since the preparation of this film, all the action and dramatic scenes had basically been completed, and a rough cut had already been edited; all that was missing was the appearance of Chu Chen, the mentor!

Point Break was a crime action film about extreme sports; the protagonist group was a gang that used extreme sports to commit crimes, and while they challenged the Extreme Eight Items left behind by Chu Chen, they robbed the rich to help the poor. The producers set up a background character in the film—an "Extreme Mentor" revered as a legend in the extreme sports world; this person was Chu Chen.

In the movie, he proposed the Eight Challenges, each of which broke the limits of human physical ability.

It was precisely because they were inspired by this person that the protagonist team began their adventure.

In the entire movie, Chu Chen only had one shot.

He only needed to stand at the foot of Mount Everest, wearing a windbreaker, and with an expressionless face toward the camera, leave behind a still photo.

Other than that, no further participation was required from him.

But this photo was best if it were a real shot.

Because it concerned the film's box office, Chu Chen agreed without even thinking.

He flew to Tibet, stayed at the Mount Everest Base Camp with the crew for less than four hours, and completed the shoot.

Due to his participation, the filming progress of these two movies also accelerated quite a bit.

On July 30th, Fireline Rescue released its first trailer.

The trailer was one minute and fifty-two seconds long; the first fifty seconds were the standard tropes of traditional Hong Kong action films—gangsters, gunfights, car chases, and explosions.

After watching the first fifty seconds, the audience would at most think, "Another Hong Kong film, the same old recipe."

But after fifty seconds, the camera cut.

An old street in Hong Kong illuminated by neon lights appeared on the screen; the night was deep, and the road surface after the rain shimmered with a moist glow.

A figure started from the entrance of a tea restaurant at the end of the street, kicking off walls, grabbing windows, vaulting, leaping, passing through balconies, crossing over laundry poles, and dropping down from the air!

The entire parkour sequence was done in one breath, without any trace of editing, without any cover from a stunt double, and without any wire attachment points.

At the end of the trailer, that figure landed, brushed the dust off his hands, turned around, and smiled slightly at the camera. The entire face appeared for less than two seconds, then the screen cut to black. On the black screen, two lines of text emerged: "July 30th, igniting the whole country!"

Within one hour of the trailer's release, the total views across the entire web exceeded three hundred million.

In the top ten of the Weibo trending list, "Fireline Rescue" occupied four spots. Ranked first was "Chu Chen Parkour," second was "Chu Chen Filming," third was "Fireline Rescue Trailer," and fourth was "Hong Kong Cinema is Back."

Someone wrote in the comment section: "For the first fifty seconds, I thought it was just another cliché Hong Kong film. For the last sixty seconds, I paused three times and rewound it five times. On the fifth time, I turned off the bullet comments because there were too many blocking the screen."

On Douban, an account verified as a "Film Critic" posted an article titled "That Figure in the Fireline Rescue Trailer Reminds Me of the Most Glorious Era of Hong Kong Cinema."

The article wrote: "I haven't seen this kind of action design in a Hong Kong film for many years. I don't mean the action choreography—that kind of parkour route can be drawn up by any action director. I mean the execution. That move in the trailer where he jumps from a balcony to the eaves, and from the eaves flips onto a laundry pole, would usually require wires, stunt doubles, and three to four shots spliced together in post-production in the film industry. In those three to four seconds of footage, there is no trace of splicing. That person really ran the whole sequence in one go. In the current film industry, this is so luxurious it borders on waste."

Another film critic's Weibo post was reposted tens of thousands of times; the content was shorter but more direct: "Hong Kong cinema isn't dead. It has been waiting for someone, waiting for someone with the ability to make it come alive again in forty-three seconds on a street illuminated by neon lights."

Three days later, Warner Bros. released the final trailer for "Point Break."

The film was two minutes and fifteen seconds long; the first two minutes were the protagonist team's extreme adventures—helicopters, Wingsuit Flying, Free Climbing, and high-speed skiing.

Every frame was shot on location, with no green screens and no special effects; the actors were truly flying in the air, climbing on rock faces, and sliding at high speeds on snow.

At the two-minute mark, the screen went quiet.

The background music switched from an intense symphony to a slow piano piece that sounded like walking on ice.

The scene cut.

Somewhere at the end of the world, the wind was strong, the snow was white, and between heaven and earth, there was only a pure, blinding white.

A figure wearing a dark gray windbreaker stood on the edge of a cliff, facing the camera, looking at the distant skyline.

The screen paused for three seconds.

Then he slowly turned his head, his profile outlined by a clear, clean line in the reflection of the snow.

And just at this moment, the screen suddenly cut to black.

On the black screen, a line of text emerged: "The challenge is never the destination."

Then came the film's title: "Point Break," October 1st National Day release, global simultaneous premiere.

After the Warner trailer was released, the style of the comment section was completely different from "Fireline Rescue." The audience of "Fireline Rescue" was shouting, "Hong Kong cinema is back!"

While the audience of "Point Break" was shouting, "I've watched this turn fifty times."

An overseas netizen wrote in the YouTube comment section: "Chu's aura is too powerful; when he stands there, the aura of the entire film is sucked away by him."

On Twitter, the hashtag "Chu Chen Point Break" topped the global trends list within an hour.

Someone posted a screenshot in a tweet; the frame of Chu Chen standing at Mount Everest Base Camp with his profile to the camera was enlarged into a wallpaper, with the caption being only one sentence: "According to official reports, this profile is worth 100 million USD at the box office."

Someone replied below: "100 million USD? You underestimate him. Just by standing there, he is already worth a billion. Because he is standing there, extreme sports enthusiasts from all over the world will buy tickets to the cinema, just to see those two seconds!"

The official website of "Film Review" magazine published a feature article after the trailer's release, titled "The Chu Chen Effect—How One Trailer Changed the Fate of Two Films."

The beginning of the article wrote: "In the Hollywood film industry system, an actor's scenes can be cut, can be reshot, and can be replaced. But in 'Point Break,' Chu Chen's screen time is less than thirty seconds, yet it has become the most anticipated part of this film. This is not because of his acting, but because his existence itself has transcended the scope of acting. He is a symbol. A representative symbol. In an era where special effects are rampant and green screens are everywhere, his existence—even if only for thirty seconds—reminds the audience that there are still some things in this world that computers cannot do."

On Douban, tens of thousands of short reviews flooded into the entries for both films within a few hours of the trailer's release.

Most of the short reviews were saying the same thing—"For Chu Chen, I will definitely go see it," "That parkour segment by Chu Chen is worth a second viewing," "That turn was too amazing," "Him standing there is enough."

Besides this, people on the internet also started analyzing the box office prospects of these two films.

An account verified as a "Film Industry Analyst" posted a long Weibo, titled "Chu Chen's Box Office Value May Be Seriously Underestimated."

The article wrote: "The pre-sale data for 'Fireline Rescue' surged fourfold within twenty-four hours of the trailer's release. This is not because the audience is interested in Hong Kong films—the pre-sale data for Hong Kong films has remained stable at a relatively flat level over the past decade. It is because of Chu Chen. He alone drove the entire attention of a film. If the box office of 'Fireline Rescue' eventually exceeds one billion, then at least half of the audience went for those forty-three seconds of Chu Chen. The situation for 'Point Break' is more extreme. The marketing focus of this film has always been on the extreme sports themselves, but after the trailer was released, the focus of all discussion was concentrated on those two seconds of footage of Chu Chen. Warner Bros. should feel fortunate; their money was not spent in vain, they bought the entire topic-worthiness of a film."

Long Shu was asked about "Fireline Rescue" and Chu Chen in an interview.

The reporter asked him: "Have you seen the trailer?"

He said he had seen it.

The reporter asked again: "How do you evaluate Chu Chen's performance in it?"

Long Shu was silent for two seconds, then said something that made everyone present go quiet.

"Very impressive, it's unbelievable! His parkour looks just like Lightness Skill, and it's very watchable; he has opened up a new path for our action films!"