Fights break out way more often in movies than they do in real life. It seems like the folks on the silver screen are never more than three poorly chosen words away from throwing hands in front of everyone. Action movies are built out of these engagements, but a good brawl can come out of almost anywhere.
Movie fight scenes cancommunicate just about any message. An action movie might just be seeking to entertain with a balletic exchange of blows, but it can just as easily be a showcase for some deeper elements of the film. Good fights can be funny, scary, or dramatic, and that means they can pop up anywhere.
RELATED:5 Horror Films With Killer Action Scenes
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
Around the midpoint of thisbeloved Will Ferrell comedyabout a vain and arrogant newsman adjusting to the first woman in his industry, a prolonged battle to the death occurs. The main characters meet a competing news team in a back alley and start talking trash when another team arrives. The fight includes around 20 participants, the overwhelming majority of whom the audience has never seen before the fight starts. It takes up around six of the film’s 91 minutes, from inciting incident to the dialogue that wraps it up. The scene has nothing to do with the rest of the film, it’s a brief comedy sketch that appears out of nowhere and is never brought up again. It’s absurd and it rules. The fight scene is chaotic, unhinged, and hilarious. The way that the entire fight scene comes and goes without comment isfunnier with every rewatch.
Malignant
Speaking of buck-wildcreative choices, James Wan’sunlicensed remake ofBasket Caseis an unhinged mess that turns out to be pretty entertaining. The film is a fairly generic horror story at its core, but everything surrounding it is beyond the realm of explanation. The action scenes are commanded by the main character’s unborn twin, who grows from the back of her head, forcing the character to move and walk backward. There’s this incredible unnatural air to their movements, the flowing yet jittery motion makes them a joy to watch. They slaughter their way through a police station backward, all while moving with the grace of a ballerina. Their ornate dagger is presented with the VFX fromNinja Assassin. It’s a truly stunning scene in an otherwise utterly disorienting film.
Apostle
This nightmarish folk horror movie comes to us from thedirector ofThe Raid. That means that even though there’s plenty of old-fashionedSawtorture horror, just about every action scene in this film has the impact of a gory martial arts movie. From the early scenes of this film, one would not expect that some of the violence will feel ripped straight out of a seinen anime. A scene near the end of the first act depicts a sudden and violent execution that is the first hint of the director’s martial arts history. As the action ramps up near the end, the film manages to keep its audience on the edge of their seat and covering their eyes. It’s a staggering high-wire act that only keeps revealing new layers of bizarre horror. This film went tragically under-viewed in its initial release, but it’s still available on Netflix, and itmust be seen to be believed.
Neighbors
Nicholas Stoller’s 2014 studio comedy wrings a fair amount of fun out of a simple premise. Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne portray a suburban couple raising their infant daughter when a raucous fraternityled by Zac Efronrents the house next door. The grown-ups want to sleep in peace, the youths want to party, and hijinks ensue. It’s a surprisingly sincere and human film for all the easy gags about sex toys and drugs. The big climax brings Efron and Rogen into a physical confrontation, and the fight scene is surprisingly well-handled. It switches effortlessly between the realistic flailing of untrained combatants and layered competitive slapstick gags. It wouldn’t pass muster in aJohn Wicksequel, but as the final setpiece of a studio comedy, it’s solid.
The Black Phone
Scott Derrickson’s adaptation of Joe Hill’s short story is mostly a nightmarish story about a kidnaped child enlisting the ghosts of his captive’s former victims to escape his fate. Only somewhat relatedly, it seems to take place in the town fromDouble Dragon. There are so many hardcore throw-downs between teenagers in this film. WhereStranger Thingstook place in a sincerely and faithfully realized take on the 80s,The Black Phoneportrays a1978 in which kidsspend more time practicing roundhouse kicks than watchingHappy Days. An early scene depicts a long-awaited duel between two kids that ends in a shocking amount of blood. Fighting is a key theme in the film. The local kids have an ongoing ranking system for the best fighters in their area. It makes sense, but to watch those freshmen brawl out of context, no one would ever guess the type of film it came out of.
MORE:From Russia With Love Still Has Bond’s Most Brutal Fight Scene
