Excellent points all. (I'm curious - are you thinking of the US version of Life on Mars or the original, or both?)
Lee's Game of Death - which was, ironically, cancelled midway through production by Lee's own death - is an interesting case here. The original plot had him working his way up the pagoda, on the top floor of which was something of great value (unidentified, but think of it as an exquisitely carved jade McGuffin). However, once he's finally defeated all his opponents he leaves the pagoda without going to fetch it. To travel is better than to arrive.
When the fragmentary footage was later cobbled into a film in 1978 the pagoda was written out of the story, and Lee was shown as fighting to rescue Princess Peach his fiancee from some mobsters - which he does, in what is obviously a far more conventional story.
no subject
Lee's Game of Death - which was, ironically, cancelled midway through production by Lee's own death - is an interesting case here. The original plot had him working his way up the pagoda, on the top floor of which was something of great value (unidentified, but think of it as an exquisitely carved jade McGuffin). However, once he's finally defeated all his opponents he leaves the pagoda without going to fetch it. To travel is better than to arrive.
When the fragmentary footage was later cobbled into a film in 1978 the pagoda was written out of the story, and Lee was shown as fighting to rescue
Princess Peachhis fiancee from some mobsters - which he does, in what is obviously a far more conventional story.