Although Bruce Lee’s Game of Death is unfinished, fans of Enter the Dragon are still likely to get a lot out of the classic martial arts movie. Given his outsized influence on the martial arts movie genre, it can be easy to forget just how tragically young Bruce Lee was when he pᴀssed away. The legendary martial artist and movie star was only 32 years old when he died, leaving behind a legacy that changed Hollywood martial arts movies forever.

Although martial arts movies became less popular in Hollywood after Lee’s death, the actor’s output didn’t end with his pᴀssing. There were a slew of so-called Brucesploitation movies that cashed in on the actor’s popularity with lookalike stars such as Bruce Le, тιтles that purported to be sequels to Lee’s hits, and other shameless tactics to draw in viewers who enjoyed the martial artist’s movies during his life. However, there were also some more legitimate late additions to Lee’s filmography, like the H๏τly contested unfinished movie Game of Death.

Enter The Dragon Fans Will Surely Love Bruce Lee’s Unfinished Game Of Death

Lee’s Unfinished Game of Death Started Filming Before Enter The Dragon

Game of Death began filming in 1972 and was set to be directed and written by Lee himself. The movie originally told the story of Lee’s heroic protagonist saving his younger siblings by working with a group of martial artists to retrieve a stolen national treasure. Since the treasure was stored on the top floor of a South Korean pagoda, Game of Death’s unfinished story saw Lee and his fellow martial artists defeat a new set of fighters on each floor of its pagoda setting.

This premise gave Game of Death an opportunity to show off Lee’s fighting skills while also showcasing a variety of martial arts from his opponents. If the setup sounds familiar, that might be because it was reused in everything from The Raid to a standout sequence in Tony Jaa’s Warrior King to 2012’s Dredd. More broadly, the concept of the hero traversing various levels to take on progressively tougher enemies is one that has informed generations of video game storytelling, and many early platformers owe their inspiration to Game of Death’s central conceit.

How Much Of Game Of Death Was Filmed & How It Was Finished

Significant Portions of Game of Death Were Filmed Before Bruce Lee’s Death

Game of Death was left unfinished when Lee died in July 1973 and the movie spent years languishing in development hell as Bruce Lee’s work inspired countless martial arts movies. Eventually, Enter the Dragon director Robert Clouse hired Hong Kong action cinema legend Sammo Hung to direct Game of Death’s action and clobbered together a new storyline. In this version, Lee’s character, now named Billy Lo, was targeted by a mafia syndicate and forced to fake his death.

Colleen Camp played Lo’s fiancée Ann Morris, who was kidnapped by the mafia to lure Billy out of hiding. 1978’s revised version of Game of Death changed the setting of the finale to a multi-story restaurant rather than a pagoda, but kept much of the available footage Lee filmed before his pᴀssing. Unfortunately, Clouse’s movie also includes a lot of awkward scenes starring Kim Tai-chung as Billy, and the lack of a resemblance between himself and Lee resulted in some outrageous comedy disguises and knockabout farce that stalls the movie’s pacing.

Game Of Death Is Responsible For Bruce Lee’s Iconic Yellow Jumpsuit

Bruce Lee’s Posthumous Movie Started Two Distinct Trends

Fortunately, 1978’s Game of Death isn’t the only version of the movie available to fans of Lee in 2025. In 2023, Arrow Films released an almost four-hour long documentary on Game of Death’s production that includes the two hours of footage Lee sH๏τ for the movie, restored alongside a new introduction that makes sense of the choppy, unfinished plot. While Enter the Dragon remains Lee’s best movie, this version of Game of Death proves just how much promise the star’s final unfinished project had.

Before 2023’s full-length restoration of Game of Death, producer Alan Canvan offered viewers a stripped-back version of the movie that was later released as part of the Criterion Collection’s Bruce Lee box set. тιтled Game of Death Redux, this 2020 release combines John Barry’s score from Clause’s 1978 movie with footage from Lee’s original shoot. Like the 2023 version, the end result is something closer to Lee’s vision.

All three versions feature Lee’s iconic yellow jumpsuit, a costume choice that went on to famously influence the outfit Uma Thurman’s Bride wears in the Kill Bill movies. Game of Death also features Lee’s famous fight with NBA icon Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, which went on to become one of his best-remembered sparring sessions. Although it may not enjoy as much mainstream fame and acclaim as Enter the Dragon thanks to the movie’s troubled production and unfinished nature, Game of Death remains an unmissable Bruce Lee outing.