These films revolve around Anthony, who visits his father in the Philippines and interferes with a gangster's affairs, almost getting killed. A monk nurses him back to health and teaches him martial arts. The first film ends with Anthony defeating the gangster, Quino. Subsequent movies follow Anthony's college life, facing a martial arts gang and terrorists on his father's yacht. The overarching theme promotes martial arts and portrays Anthony as a humble character using his skills to protect loved ones. The films emphasize perseverance, hard work, family, and friendship, showing Anthony's growth from an amateur to a formidable fighter. The franchise captures the excitement of martial arts, with emotional themes, ambitious action sequences, and impressive visual effects, highlighting the elegance and precision of martial arts disciplines. The fights demonstrate the characters' growth and the consequences of corruption.
Anthony is in the Phillipines visiting his father. He inadvertently interferes with the affairs of local gangster Quino, who also happens to be a champion Karate fighter. After embarrassing Quino near a local tournament, Anthony is beaten up and left for dead. An old monk nurses Anthony back to health and teaches him the ways of martial arts so he may go back and fight Quino again.
After studying martial arts in the Philippines and defeating his opponent Quino, Anthony Scott heads back to the U.S. to attend college. Making the promise to his teacher that he will not fight, Anthony finds himself the target of the Tigers, a local martial arts gang led by bully Dick. When Dick constantly attempts to fight Anthony, Anthony refuses. However, Anthony will fight under the condition that it will be a fair fight. When Dick resorts to dirty tactics, Anthony uses his special move, The Dragon Strike, to defeat Dick. Upset at his loss, Dick decides to get even through the Tigers' real leader, Mark Sanders.
The danger of any movie series that spans several sequels is that you've got a lot of backstory to catch people up on who might not have seen or remembered what happened in the previous outings. For instance, what happened in the first five Karate Warrior movies? This dude acquired a super powered punch that allowed him to beat up a cow. What now? Clearly, we have a lot of catching up to do with Karate Warrior Anthony!
