Game of Death
Game of Death is a 1978 film from Hong Kong and the USA, directed by Bruce Lee, Robert Clouse and Sammo Hung, running 92 minutes. reelscum files it under martial arts and bruceploitation.
- Year
- 1978 · 1970s films
- Runtime
- 92 min
- Director
- Bruce Lee, Robert Clouse, Sammo Hung
- Updated
- 29 Oct 2026
- Obscurity
- canon (7/100)
- Also known as
- The Game of Death
Defined in the glossary: Martial arts, Bruceploitation
The film Bruce Lee left unfinished, completed with a double, a cardboard cut-out, and his real funeral.
Bruce Lee died with about forty minutes of footage shot for this, and Golden Harvest completed it five years later by building a whole new film around a double, using a cardboard cut-out of Lee's face in some shots and, notoriously, real footage of his actual funeral. It is bruceploitation committed by his own studio against his own memory.
What survives of Lee's real material, above all the pagoda fight against Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the yellow tracksuit that Tarantino borrowed, is superb. The film welded around it is ghoulish. An uncomfortable, fascinating object.
Trailer
The numbers
Nobody has rated this yet. Be the first to make a claim you'll have to defend.
Your call
Where to watch
Legal options in USA
Links open in a new tab (↗). Availability data via TMDB and changes constantly, so confirm on the service. Legal options only. Checked 7 Nov 2026. All options ↗
Discuss with AI
Open a chatbot with a question about this film already typed out. Useful for a second opinion, plot detail, or where to find a copy.
Written about
- Exploitation film examples, cycle by cycle
Exploitation film examples grouped cycle by cycle, from Freaks in 1932 to the video nasties, with the real dates, cut durations and censorship rulings.
Filed alongside
The Big Boss
Lee's first lead, and the star arrives fully formed.
Fist of Fury
Bruce Lee kicks a 'No Dogs and Chinese' sign to splinters. The crowd never recovered.
Enter the Dragon
Lee died six days before release. The mirror room still works.
Drunken Master
Jackie Chan finds the formula: comedy, pain, and visible competence.
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin
The best training film ever made. Lau Kar-leung at the peak.
Come Drink with Me
King Hu, Cheng Pei-pei, and the template for every wuxia since.
A Touch of Zen
Three hours, a bamboo forest, and a Cannes prize. Barely exploitation.
The One-Armed Swordsman
The film that made Shaw Brothers switch to male leads and stay there.
Master of the Flying Guillotine
A blind monk, a bladed hat on a chain, and a tournament. Perfect.
Five Fingers of Death
The one that broke kung fu in America, months before Bruce Lee did.
The Man from Hong Kong
Jimmy Wang Yu wrecks Sydney, with hang-gliding and a man actually on fire. Peak crossover.
Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky
A live-action gore manga where nobody has heard of restraint or arterial pressure.