That said, Ratner adds: "I just saw the new movie"—The Foreigner—"and I thought he was brilliant in it. I always said he's a real actor. But he never got his opportunity, and I think with this new film, there's some people who are going to be surprised."

Pierce Brosnan calls from Hawaii, having just finished spearfishing, which is the most Pierce Brosnan–ish way to begin a phone call. Brosnan says Jackie acquitted himself brilliantly on the set every day, but that they never really got to know each other, because at the end of the day Jackie would hop on his jet and go home.

"I remember there were waste-disposal garbage cans on the set that were collapsible, and he just fell in love with them. He'd buy 50 of them," Brosnan says. "Really. Or on the craft service, there were these tables, and he liked the way the tables were made, so he'd buy, y'know, 12 of those, and ship them all back to China. Quite extraordinary."

This is the best anecdote Pierce Brosnan has to share, and they made an entire movie together. There were dinners scheduled, Brosnan says, but they fell through, which means that Pierce Brosnan never actually had dinner with Jackie Chan.

But I did, and what I can tell you is that if Jackie Chan invites you to his restaurant, you should go. He owns a fine-dining traditional-Chinese restaurant located near the city center of Beijing, in what was once a three-story Burberry store. Everyone who comes from out of town to visit him at the International Stunt Training Base is invited to dinner with him and his stunt team.

If Jackie Chan invites you to dinner and it takes longer for the rest of the dinner guests to arrive, you might get to sit with him beforehand in a private antechamber, and he might pull out his laptop and show you some things.

Here are some concept illustrations for some new products he wants to introduce—some kind of new take on the plastic bottle that he says Will Smith is interested in partnering with him on, modular coffee stands made of reclaimed wood and metal, so many patent applications and business ideas you will start to wish you'd brought along a prospectus for him to review.

Here are some videos. First a YouTube-style supercut of his gnarliest injuries. Then a kind of infomercial for Jackie Chan, chronicling his philanthropic efforts around the world, which begins as a somewhat uncomfortable thing to sit through in the presence of its subject and eventually floods and disables whatever part of your brain controls the cynicism response, because holy shit this guy does a lot of nice things for people, especially children.

Here's Jackie detonating land mines in Cambodia (sadly, not with his bare hands). Here's Jackie hanging out with tsunami survivors and New York City schoolkids who witnessed 9/11. Here's Jackie getting off the plane he chartered so he could fly to China's Qinghai province and comfort survivors of the 2010 Yushu earthquake. Here's Jackie donating coats to the elderly. It all starts to blur together—so many oversize checks, so many shots of Jackie high-fiving fans, the testimonials from Arnold Schwarzenegger and Zhang Yimou and Jeffrey Katzenberg and Owen Wilson and Sly Stallone.

Jackie also sings the theme song for this video, and at some point during the screening he pulls a Bluetooth speaker out of his bag and pairs it with his laptop, so we can hear his voice more clearly.

Here is Jackie, giving his time and money from Holland to Rwanda to East Timor. Here, for some reason, is Lionel Richie.