Best Film Fights of All Time

As a martial artist, a writer, and a lover of film, I feel it incumbent upon me to weigh in on one of the hallmarks in cinema: the fight scene.  Now, I have to say that while I do get a visceral thrill seeing martial arts that I've practiced up on the screen, as a writer I know that a fight on film is pointless if it doesn't aid the story and provoke newer, deeper thoughts about what's going on within the story.  It is, after all, a movie, and if we wanted to judge a fight based off of its merits alone, independent of story, we could just watch a UFC fight.

So here they are, my favorite fight scenes, and why I feel they are the best the industry has ever had to offer:


1.  Luke vs. Vader (The Empire Strikes Back)

If a fight in a film is truly meant to add suspense, drama and meaning to a film, then the duel between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back may very well be the king of all cinematic fights.  Set in dark tones in an industrial setting, the formerly playful Star Wars saga is brought to a very dangerous place.  All music from famous composer John Williams is switched off for most of the fight so that we can only hear Vader's cold, mechanical breathing, Luke's panting, and the lonely hum of the lightsabers.

This fight is perfect for what was set up before: Yoda had warned Luke that he wasn't ready to face Darth Vader alone, but Luke, being young and impulsive, didn't listen and went against his teacher's advice.  In most films, the young hero would have pulled through at the last second, probably admitted he shouldn't have done it but, gosh darn it, he just had to.  Not in this film. 

In this film, we had to watch as our hero got brutally beaten, even as Vader toyed with him, and, of course, he lost his hand in a moment that surely shocked everyone that has ever watched it.

These well-known lightsaber battles were choreographed by the late legendary swordsman Bob Anderson, a man that was involved with sword training and choreography for The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Princess Bride, The Mask of Zorro and too many others to count.  Anderson knew that fight scenes ought to be kinetic, not stagnant, and that the actors ought to move around their environment and have moves that showed their internalized struggle--Luke, for instance, is young and brash, so his moves are more aggressive and risky, whereas Vader is calm and an old pro at this, fighting one-handed many times and using simple movements.  Without even knowing it, the audience's brains are being fed information about these characters just by the way they're fighting.

This fight between Luke and Vader also does something important in that there is that one Big Revelation that comes out at the end of the fight.  Luke realizes the truth of his father's fate, and is horrified by the lie Obi-Wan Kenobi told him.  It simply doesn't get much better than this.


2.  Jason Bourne vs. Desh the Assassin (The Bourne Ultimatum)

When it comes to absolute beat downs, it's hard to beat those dished out by Jason Bourne and his enemies.  These films have also been a favorite of martial artists everywhere, because, well, the moves he's using here are from Filipino Kali and Jeet Kune Do, the former created for warfare in the Philippines, and the latter created by Bruce Lee for street defense and real combat.

The improvisation of random objects is key in this series, and this fight scene does it better than any of the others.  Bourne is tired of killing, tired of being hunted, tired of having to constantly look over his shoulder, but Treadstone just won't leave him alone.  They've sent a new assassin after him from the Blackbriar program, a kind of "upgrade" and a younger, more energetic man than Bourne.

Jeff Imada is the fight choreographer on this film, and he was told by director Paul Greengrass that while Desh has youth and power on his side, Bourne has time and experience.  Though he doesn't want to fight anymore (he only wants answers), Bourne's only ally is about to be murdered by Desh.  If he loses, not only does he die, but so does she.  If he wins, he's just killed another person, and this is something Bourne has been trying to retire from.

So again, the filmmakers never lost sight of the fact that the fight has to have meaning, and the outcome must both convey something about the characters and further the plot.  It's a battle of constant improvisation as Desh frenetically flips and spins out of various holds, and Bourne improvises a hardback book (which has become a fan favorite moment in this series) and finally a towel to finish off his opponent.

The aftermath of this fight is also fantastic as there is no gloating from Bourne, only sorrow and bleeding.  In the next scene, he's got ice on his knuckles, which is realistic and appreciated by martial artists: few other films show just what awful condition the "winner" of a fight is in after he's finished, even an advanced martial artist.


3.  Jackie Chan vs. Crazy Legs Guy (The Legend of Drunken Master)

You simply cannot bring up fighting and choreography without mentioning Jackie Chan, and you cannot bring up Jackie Chan without mentioning what is perhaps his masterpiece.  In The Legend of Drunken Master, the follow-up to his hit Drunken Master, Chan goes all out, performing some of the most intense stunts and, of course, getting injured in the process.

It's difficult to separate Chan from his onscreen personas--he basically just plays versions of himself, a fun-loving guy who does stupid stuff from time to time and tries to fix his mistakes--and so it's hard not to get all giddy when he turns on the charm and kicks total ass while wearing a smile.  We're not just rooting for his character, we're rooting for Jackie Chan!

This is the climactic final battle of a movie about China's heritage being stolen and sold to other countries.  Chan plays Wong Fei Hung, a beloved historical character in China, and clowns around as he uses the controversial style known as the "Eight Drunken Immortals" (which is a real style in Chinese kung fu) to get drunk and use unorthodox attacks against his faster, taller opponent.

For this sequence, Chan spent a lot of time bent over or hanging upside-down, so as to keep his face red and drunk-looking.  He said that if they used make-up he'd only sweat and the make-up would run down his face.  He got dizzy from this, and missed his mark a few times.  Though it only lasts minutes, this one sequence was so intricate that it took months to shoot, because Chan kept wanting the punches closer to his face, and some of them to actually hit, so that it looked more real.  Once again, the "Chan Man" was putting himself through hard times for the sake of his loyal fans.


4.  Westley vs. Inigo Montoya (The Princess Bride)

It doesn't have to be an epic battle between a hero and a villain to be a great fight scene.  A fight scene only needs to serve a purpose to the story and not be merely gratuitous.  In this scene from The Princess Bride, two men who will become allies meet and their egos get in the way as they challenge one another to a duel.

Again, Bob Anderson is the Sword Master on this film, choreographing every bit of the swordplay.  He choreographed it so there are plenty of interludes and breaths available for witty dialogue, and both he and the director make plenty of use of the set they were given, having their characters move up and down stairs, danced around pillars, and flip over objects, all of which shows us their dexterity--which, in turn, also tells the audience of these characters' mental dexterity, their ability to improvise.  Again, the fight has communicated something to us besides just showing us swords bashing against each other.

This fight scene is fun, there is no questioning that, the choreography is flawless and inventive.  We find out a lot about these two men in this sequence, first and foremost that they are playful and clever.  We get a chance to hear playful banter between them, which reveals exactly what sort of men they are.

As writers, we are constantly told the rule "show don't tell."  Well, here, we were never told how good these men were, how clever or debonair they were, we were shown.  Mission accomplished.


5.  Bruce Lee vs. O'Hara (Enter the Dragon)

This may not be Bruce Lee's most complex fight choreography, but it's certainly one of his most emotionally intense.  The martial arts master was just getting to the top of his cinematic game when this film was released.  Enter the Dragon was a box office success, and it introduced many Americans to a style of action they hadn't seen before.

In this scene, Lee (playing the character of "Mr. Lee") steps forward to confront a man named O'Hara, the man that killed his sister.  They've met in this tournament put on by the evil Mr. Han, and while facing O'Hara, Lee has flashbacks of his sister's brutal end.  It's obvious by his face that he's fighting to bottle his rage.

Lee begins the match by having total control, merely smacking down O'Hara with lightning fast punches, but soon O'Hara becomes humiliated and takes things too far.  This is when Lee finally loses it, and we get TWO famous Bruce Lee moments: the first, when he runs towards the camera in slow motion, howling that "Waaaaaaaa!" we all know so well before he thrusts his side kick, and the second when he leaps into the air and stomps on O'Hara and kills him, Lee's face contorted in a melange of sorrow and anger.  It appears that Lee may not just be sad for his sister, but also upset with himself for having lost this much control, having gone too far.  Maybe he feels he's just lost a piece of himself?

Bruce Lee was probably one of the most intense movie actors of all time--not just among action stars, but among all actors.  His intensity in the moment could not be ignored, and, in this scene in particular, you see his sheer ferocity shining through.  It doesn't just make for a good fight scene, it makes for good storytelling, which is exactly what a movie ought to do.


6.  Hulk vs. Loki (Marvel's The Avengers)

 

No, I swear I'm not including this one just because it's trendy and new.  This movie was made by Joss Whedon, the writer and creator of the TV series Firefly, as well as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dollhouse, and if you know anything about Whedon at all, then you know he knows how to write.  Period.  End of story.  It's not even up for debate.

For the above scene to even have reached the realm of hilarity that it reached (the theater I was in erupted in laughter unlike any I've EVER heard in my entire life going to the cinema), so much had to be perfect about the preceding scenes.  Loki had to be built up as the appropriate douchebag we all wanted to see get the shit kicked out of him, and the Hulk had to be used little enough so that we weren't tired of seeing him by then.

A master storyteller can create this well-timed and focused energy: Joss Whedon is that kind of storyteller.

With this fight scene (and this film in general), Whedon did the impossible--he made a film where seven different superheroes all shared the same film, shared screen time, and somehow it came out feeling RIGHT.  It didn't feel like the X-Men films where they were all pretty much just Wolverine movies with little focus on the others.  In this film, we got a lot of shared time, lots of banter between characters, but not so much that it stemmed the flow of action.

Quite simply, Whedon got it all right, everything we love about these iconic superheroes was represented here.  Captain America takes charge and leads, Iron Man covers the skies and blows stuff up, Thor tries to prevail upon his brother Loki and fights him, Hawkeye keeps an eye on things from above, Black Widow stomps ass, and Hulk smashes...oh, God, does he ever smash.

Also, in most films where a whole city is attacked, such as Transformers, we can get lost spatially, never knowing where "we" are in reference to the action, and where the characters are.  In The Avengers, Whedon made sure we had a clear vision of what was going on, where our heroes were at any given time, and what they were doing.

Hulk helps out, but bashes Thor in the face after they've just both worked together successfully, which fits Hulk's persona precisely.  Tony Stark (Iron Man) makes the sacrifice play that earlier Captain America said he wasn't capable of doing.  Bruce Banner shows that he can control the Hulk enough to be a team player, at least for a time.  Captain America shows that he's able to lead in this new age.

Nothing here was excess.  There was no "fat" that needed to be cut.  The New York battle scene was exactly as long as it needed to be.  And Hulk "fighting" Loki was a well-timed bit of comedy relief no one saw coming.

(Write in the comments below if you think there's one key fight cinematic fight scene I neglected.)

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