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Kung Fury is a 2015 Swedishmartial arts comedy short film written, directed by, and starring David Sandberg. It pays homage to 1980s martial arts and police action films.[3][4] The film was crowdfunded through Kickstarter from December 2013 to January 2014 with pledges reaching US$630,019, exceeding the original target goal of $200,000, but falling short of the feature film goal of $1 million.[2] It was selected to screen in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, losing to Rate Me from theUK.[5]
Plot[edit]
In 1985, Miami-Dade Police Department detective Kung Fury and his partner Dragon apprehend a red ninja in a back alley, but Dragon is sliced in half by the ninja while Kung Fury is suddenly struck by lightning and bitten by a cobra, giving him extraordinary kung fu powers that enable him to defeat his foe. The day after defeating a rogue arcade machine robot, Kung Fury quits the force when he is assigned to partner with Triceracop, fearing that he would lose another partner in the line of duty. Meanwhile, Adolf Hitler, a.k.a. "Kung Führer", enters the timeline and remotely guns down the police chief and attacks the precinct through a mobile phone. Intent to avenge the chief, Kung Fury has computer whiz Hackerman send him back in time to kill Hitler in Nazi Germany. A glitch in the system, however, sends him back into the Viking Age. After Kung Fury meets the Viking valkyries Barbarianna and Katana, the Norse god Thor sends him to Nazi Germany for him to finish his job.
Upon his arrival, Kung Fury singlehandedly mows down hundreds of Nazi soldiers with his kung fu skills, but is gunned down by Hitler using a Gatling gun from inside his podium. Suddenly, Thor, Hackerman, Triceracop, the Viking Babes, and a tyrannosaurushack into the timeline and kill the rest of the Nazi army while the tyrannosaurus squares off against Hitler's robot bird. After being revived back into health by Hackerman, Kung Fury gives Hitler an uppercut before Thor drops his hammer on the Nazi leader and his robot bird. Seeing his mission as accomplished, Kung Fury returns to his timeline.
Back in 1985 Miami, Kung Fury once again battles and defeats the arcade machine robot, but notices a Swastika on the robot's body while Hitler and his robot bird enter the timeline, vowing revenge on Kung Fury.
Upon his arrival, Kung Fury singlehandedly mows down hundreds of Nazi soldiers with his kung fu skills, but is gunned down by Hitler using a Gatling gun from inside his podium. Suddenly, Thor, Hackerman, Triceracop, the Viking Babes, and a tyrannosaurushack into the timeline and kill the rest of the Nazi army while the tyrannosaurus squares off against Hitler's robot bird. After being revived back into health by Hackerman, Kung Fury gives Hitler an uppercut before Thor drops his hammer on the Nazi leader and his robot bird. Seeing his mission as accomplished, Kung Fury returns to his timeline.
Back in 1985 Miami, Kung Fury once again battles and defeats the arcade machine robot, but notices a Swastika on the robot's body while Hitler and his robot bird enter the timeline, vowing revenge on Kung Fury.
Cast[edit]
- David Sandberg as Kung Fury, a Miami detective who possesses a new and powerful form of kung fu after being struck by lightning and bitten by a cobra, thus becoming "The Chosen One" as told by an ancient prophecy
- Jorma Taccone as Adolf Hitler, a.k.a. "Kung Führer", who aims to become the greatest martial artist by traveling through time to kill "The Chosen One"[6]
- Steven Chew as Dragon, Kung Fury's partner who is killed by a red ninja
- Leopold Nilsson as Hackerman, a computer whiz who can transform into a robot
- Andreas Cahling as Thor (voiced by Per-Henrik Arvidius), the Norse god of thunder
- Erik Hornqvist as Triceracop (voiced by Frank Sanderson), a half-man, half-Triceratops cop who is assigned as Kung Fury's new partner
- Per-Henrik Arvidius as Chief
- Eleni Young as Barbarianna
- Helene Ahlson as Katana (voiced by Yasmina Suhonen)
- Eos Karlsson as the Red Ninja
- Magnus Betnér as Colonel Reichstache
- Björn Gustafsson as Private Lahmstache
- David Hasselhoff as Hoff 9000 (voice)
- Frank Sanderson as Cobra/Dinomite
David Sandberg is a Swedish filmmaker who has directed television commercials and music videos. In 2012, he quit the commercial directing and focused on writing a script for an action comedy film set in the 1980s, inspired by action films of that era. He initially spent US$5,000 on producing and shooting footage with his friends, which became the first trailer.[2]
In December 2013, Sandberg began a Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund the film's production with the goal of raising US$200,000 to produce a 30-minute version of the film and stream it online for free. A second goal was added with the target set to $1 million to rewrite the story into a full-length feature and a possible distribution deal. Most of the raw footage over green screen had been filmed using a Canon EOS 5D and a Sony FS700, but additional funding was required for post-production.[2][7][8]
The Kickstarter project ended on January 25, 2014, with $630,019 pledged by 17,713 backers.[2]
Filming[edit]
Due to a limited budget, Sandberg shot the majority of the film at his office in Umeå, Sweden, using digital effects to replicate the streets of Miami. As he could only afford one police uniform during the production of the trailer, he filmed the police precinct scene by shooting each extra separately and compositing them in the scene. The single-frame scene where Kung Fury dispatches dozens of Nazi soldiers was achieved by combining the primary take of Sandberg's moves with over 60 takes of individual extras attacking him.[2]
On July 30, 2014, Sandberg announced that he and his crew had begun filming new footage, with the 30 backers who pledged to be in the film as extras. Filming was also done in Stockholm for additional scenes and stunts.[9]
In keeping with the film's '80s theme, the visual effects artists softened the film clarity and added videotape wear effects to give the illusion of it being a worn VHS copy being played on an old VCR. One instance of this effect is in the scene where the Viking Babe Katana summons Thor. The scene was in the trailer with Joanna Häggblom originally as Katana, but because Häggblom was replaced by Helene Ahlson for the actual film, visual scratches and distortion effects were added to the scene to mask the cast change.
Soundtrack[edit]
The soundtrack score is composed by Swedish Synthwave musicians Mitch Murder and Lost Years,[10] with additional music by Patrik Öberg, Christoffer Ling, Highway Superstar, and Betamaxx. The official soundtrack album is scheduled to be released on vinyl record on July 8, 2015.[11]
David Hasselhoff's music video of the theme song "True Survivor" debuted on April 16, 2015.[12] It begins with an altered scene from the trailer where instead of the police car exploding in mid air, from thug gunfire, Hasselhoff turns the tables and fires back at the thugs from the airborne police car. The video features Hasselhoff singing alongside a white Lamborghini Countach replica, clips from the film, as well as an end scene of himself and Kung Fury riding a tyrannosaurus; Hasselhoff replaces Katana, who appeared with Kung Fury on the tyrannosaurus in the original trailer.[13] As of May 17, 2015, the video has scored over 10.5 million views on YouTube.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTidn2dBYbY
Here's a video of "Hackerman Hacking Tutorials". At the end it asks "Where did Hackerman go?". You are then asked to participate in a competition that ends next week.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEkrWRHCDQU
Competition:
Okay so here’s the deal, Hackerman has been sucked into space time and nobody knows where he went! We need your help to locate him. Use one of our Hackerman pictures and photoshop your own version of where he ended up! 17th century France? 23rd century Uranus? You be the judge!
Upload your picture to Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, and mark it with #whereishackerman, or upload it to our Reddit thread (see below) to enter the competition!
Go to the tweeter machine and enter #whereishackerman...there's some epic shit in there.
