Did you ever hear about the time that Chuck Norris faced a biker gang? No, this isn’t one of those Chuck Norris jokes that the Internet loves. It’s actually true.
In 1979, Norris starred in the movie A Force of One (Rotten Tomatoes: 30% on the Tomatometer, from 2 critic reviews).. The film sees Norris play Matt Logan, a martial arts instructor who is recruited by the police to teach them combat skills so they can fight the city’s newest threat. While it’s not one of Norris’ most memorable films, it’s a movie with a behind-the-scenes story that showcases why all these Chuck Norris jokes started in the first place.
In Nick de Semlyen’s The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood’s Kings of Carnage, Norris’ business partner and friend Robert Wall shared a story about the production. In A Force of One, the big battle takes place in a sports arena. When the day came for everybody to film this scene, they had an unexpected audience in attendance: a group of bikers. Reportedly, these bikers disrupted the filming by throwing bottles into the ring. Who decided to step up to the bikers? You guessed it.
“[Norris] goes over there in a break and sits on a step below the head of these Hell’s Angels types,” Wall said. “The sub-dog position. And he talks to them: ‘Guys, we’re doing a film. I would appreciate it if you would stop bothering people.’ Then he says, ‘You want to be in the movie?’ ‘Yeah!’ So we filmed them. We edited them out, but we filmed them.”
It’s a story that describes how many people claimed Norris was in real life. While he was a martial arts champion (he won six consecutive world professional middleweight karate titles from 1968 to 1974) and somebody who was more than capable of doing damage with his fists and feet, he always chose the path of peace first and foremost.
As it turns out, A Force of One nearly didn’t happen. At the time, Hollywood producers didn’t believe that the audience wanted martial arts, so Chuck Norris had to go all out on the promotional drive for it. “No studio wanted this one, either,” Norris told Black Belt. “So I started the whole gambit again, following the same route I did on Good Guys Wear Black. And then A Force of One wound up out-grossing Good Guys Wear Black.”
RELATED: A Chuck Norris Movie Stole Its Premise From BraveStarr
What was the moral of the story here? Never doubt Chuck Norris! The late action legend, who died on March 19, 2026, at age 86, always had the ability to sweep you off your feet – in more ways than one!
RELATED: “He’s a Good Martial Artist”: Why Chuck Norris Backed Jean-Claude Van Damme Over Steven Seagal
A Force of One is streaming free with ads on Tubi, The Roku Channel and Plex, and it’s also on MGM+ for subscribers.
A Force of One |
|---|
When the detectives of an undercover police unit are being mysteriously killed by a martial artist, a professional kickboxer is hired to assist them. |
 |
|---|
| Studio: American Cinema Productions, Distributed by American Cinema Releasing |
| Running Time: 90 minutes |
| Release Date: May 18, 1979 |
| Cast: Jennifer O'Neill, Chuck Norris, Ron O'Neal, Clu Gulager, James Whitmore Jr., Eric Laneuville, Bill Wallace |
| Director: Paul Aaron |
| Writers: Ernest Tidyman, Story by Pat E. Johnson, Ernest Tidyman |
| Genre: Action, Crime, Martial Arts |
| Box Office: $23 million |
