Swedish filmmaker David Sandberg had a dream. That dream was to make a film that combined everything that was both ridiculous and wonderful about ’80s action movies. In 2013 he posted a trailer for that film on Kickstarter, hoping to raise enough money to make his dream a reality. The result is, well, amazing.
A nostalgia-inducing, surreal trailer for Kung Fury helped the fundraising campaign earn more than $600,000, and now the full 30-minute “movie” (short film?) funded by that campaign arrived online this week. And it seems safe to say that Kung Fury is all that the trailer promised, and so much more.
Written and directed by David Sandberg, Kung Fury also stars Sandberg in the title role — a Miami cop who was simultaneously struck by lightning and bitten by a cobra while fighting a kung fu master, inheriting superhuman fighting skills. Known simply as Kung Fury, he uses his new-found powers to uphold the law, even when justice demands that he doesn’t play by the rules.
If that’s not enough to pique your interest, the film also features a Triceratops cop named (wait for it…) “Triceracop,” a super-hacker who uses a Nintendo Power Glove to hack his way through time, and a mission to kill Adolph Hitler that takes Kung Fury on an adventure that goes all the way back to the Viking Age (which apparently included velociraptors with laser eyes and valkyries who ride giant wolves).
Oh, and the entire film is presented with effects that make it appear to be copied from a VHS tape that’s clearly been watched a few too many times.
Basically, if you have even the slightest amount of fondness for ’80s cinema, this homage will have you hooked from its opening scene.
Given that the film’s fundraising campaign generated more than three times its initial, $200,000 goal, it’s good to see the money was well spent on giving the project an extra-special bonus feature: an original song performed by David Hasselhoff with an equally epic (from an ’80s perspective) music video starring the ‘Hoff.
You can watch the video for “True Survivor” here (embedded below) after you conclude your time-hopping quest for action with the one and only Kung Fury.
