Big Trouble in Little China spoilers explained

What is the main twist in Big Trouble in Little China?

Jack Burton (Kurt Russell) is not the hero of the story; he is the comic relief sidekick. The actual hero is Wang Chi (Dennis Dun), who rescues his fiancée Miao Yin (Suzee Pai) from the ancient sorcerer David Lo Pan (James Hong). Lo Pan is a 2,000-year-old cursed man who needs a green-eyed woman to marry so he can break his curse and regain physical form.

What happens in Big Trouble in Little China?

Jack Burton is a loud, brash, and somewhat incompetent truck driver who arrives in San Francisco's Chinatown with his prized 1974 GMC pickup truck. He meets his friend Wang Chi, a Chinese-American restaurant worker, at the airport where Wang is picking up his fiancée Miao Yin from China. Miao Yin is kidnapped by a street gang called the Lords of Death, who work for the ancient sorcerer David Lo Pan. Jack and Wang chase the gang through Chinatown in Jack's truck, leading to a chaotic fight in a back alley where Jack accidentally knocks himself out.

Jack wakes up in the back of a van driven by Gracie Law (Kim Cattrall), a reporter investigating Lo Pan. She takes him to a Chinese herbalist named Egg Shen (Victor Wong), who explains that Lo Pan is a 2,000-year-old sorcerer cursed to exist as a ghostly, decaying form. Lo Pan needs to marry a woman with green eyes to break the curse and regain his physical body. Miao Yin has green eyes, making her the target. Egg Shen gives Jack and Wang magical weapons and charms to fight Lo Pan's supernatural forces.

Jack, Wang, and Gracie infiltrate Lo Pan's underground lair beneath Chinatown, which is a maze of traps, monsters, and magical illusions. They encounter the Three Storms, three elemental sorcerers who serve Lo Pan: Thunder, Rain, and Lightning. Jack accidentally triggers a trap and gets separated from the group. Wang fights his way through the lair, using martial arts and the magical sword given by Egg Shen. Jack stumbles around, firing his gun wildly and mostly being a nuisance.

Lo Pan captures Miao Yin and prepares to marry her in a ritual ceremony. Wang and Gracie rescue her, but Lo Pan transforms into a giant, monstrous creature. Jack arrives and distracts Lo Pan by throwing a can of soda at him. Wang uses the magical sword to stab Lo Pan through the chest, killing him. The lair begins to collapse, and the group escapes through a portal created by Egg Shen's magic. The Three Storms are destroyed in the collapse.

Jack, Wang, Miao Yin, and Gracie emerge safely above ground. Jack believes he was the hero of the adventure, despite having done almost nothing useful. He and Wang drive away in Jack's truck, but as they stop at a traffic light, the truck is stolen by the ghostly minions of Lo Pan, who drive it off into the night. Jack is left standing on the street, bewildered, as the film ends.

Quick, non-spoiler context

Truck driver Jack Burton gets embroiled in a supernatural battle when his best friend Wang Chi's green-eyed fiancée is kidnapped by henchmen of the sorcerer Lo Pan, who must marry a girl with green eyes in order to return to the human realm.