A good movie fight can convey emotions. They can spell doom for many characters, and often times they make it clear to the audience that what’s happening in the film is urgent and will cost many their lives. While true a movie fight in modern cinema is often used as a way to kill time and keep audiences entertained until the next scene, a really good movie fight fills you in on the film’s characters.
They stick with you, they keep you talking for years after watching the film, and they’re a key asset to unraveling the drama and anxiety before our very eyes. For some characters, a big fight can mean preserving themselves in a dire situation. For some characters a fight can be an act of vengeance, or just an act of sending a message to someone. In either case, a great cinematic battle is meant to convey emotions and compel you, and is just as important to the story as is the dialogue. Gnash your teeth, clench your fists, and spit some blood, we proudly present to you twenty of the Greatest Movie Brawls we’ve ever seen!
20. Mal vs. The Operative
(Serenity)
The Operative is unlike anyone Malcolm Reynolds and the crew of Serenity have ever faced. Aside from being backed by the Alliance, the Operative is a quick, cunning, and merciless warrior who is ready to murder anyone he feels warrants a merciful death and won’t lose an minute of sleep over it. This entry counts as two because both confrontations between Malcolm Reynolds and the Operative (our favorite character actor Chiwetel Ejiofor) are quite dazzling and teeming with a sense of urgency and sheer brutality. Malcolm completely perceives The Operative as a classic agent of the Alliance and is proven wrong when he reveals himself to be a wonderful warrior and master of hand to hand combat, bringing Malcolm to the ground without breaking a sweat.
Malcolm only leaves with his skin in tact thanks to Inara’s quick thinking. The second confrontation is a no holds barred duel to the death as Malcolm battles the Operative in an effort to get the signal out to the waves across the galaxy about the dread top secret experiment that birthed the space demons The Reavers. Filled with hard blows, brutal punches, and bone crunching smacks, the battle between Mal and the Operative is an important one. The Operative has a mission to fulfill and Mal must get the signal out to everyone to let them know the Alliance is up to no good and will use anyone to achieve their sense of peace in the verse.
(Godfather)
You have to give it up for Gianni Russo. As brother in law Carlo, he’s a despicable, slimy weasel and a coward to boot. The beating of Sonny Corleone’s sister (as played by Talia Shire) sets in motion a series of events, one of which is the complete birth of new crime boss Michael Corleone. After seeing his sister beaten and bruised, Sonny Corleone unleashes a hellfire of brotherly rage upon Carlo, beating him near death in the middle of a crowded street in front of on lookers.
Can lids to the head, biting his fingers down to the bone, and a flurry of kicks and punches to the face, Sonny brings Carlo to the ground and pounds him in to a greasy pulp in an alleyway with all of the trash around him. Sonny ends the punishment with the warning “You touch my sister again, I’ll kill you.” Any movie fan knows that, the coward that he is, Carlo responds to Sonny’s assault with one of the most crushing character deaths in cinematic history.
(They Live)
I remember watching on Monstervision where Roddy Piper was talking about how Keith David actually landed all the blows on Piper during their infamous fight scene in “They Live” and you can tell the hits hurt. “They Live” for all of its clever undertones about consumerism, government, and sheer disgusting superficiality really does manage to have an appeal beyond the intelligent themes with some actual interesting characters, and a premise involving a hero who brings down brain washing aliens by blowing them to hell.
In an effort to get Frank to see what he sees through his advanced sunglasses, Nada does everything in his power to get Frank to put them on. When Frank refuses, the confrontation escalates and the two men engage in a violent, comedic, and grueling fight in an alleyway that continues to be one of the most influential on-screen battles ever depicted with broken bones, slammed bodies, and broken jaws all present and accounted for. If there was ever a reason to watch “They Live,” it’s for this fight.
(From Dusk Till Dawn)
With the last survivors thrown down in to the pits of hell, the Fuller Family and criminal Seth Gecko took refuge in the stock room as the hordes of the undead lurked outside their door. With the leader Jacob bitten and on his way to becoming one, they quickly re-group using the weapons given to them at their disposal and decide to fight back. With no option left but to wait for daylight, they decided to fight their way out with their rockin’ weapons. With Seth’s proclamation “Kill ’em all!” They waged war on the masses of the undead making for one of the most exciting climaxes ever seen on a horror film as the war between good and evil took place before our eyes and the numbers falling for the worse. Truly, it was a highly exciting finale to a kick ass horror film.
(Eastern Promises)
Only director David Cronenberg could deliver a breathtaking and disturbing fight in a bathhouse and be so committed to realism that he features the star of his film one hundred percent nude throughout the entire bout. Star Viggo Mortensen spends the entirety of the fight in the buff battling two armed Chechen thugs in a deserted bathhouse and manages to survive the violent skirmish in spite of nearly being murdered. During a series of hard blows, and violent gashes to Nikolai’s back, Nikolai actually manages to fend off the two brutish hit men with a quick wit and merciless blows to their face and body that keep them outmatched in spite of their numbers and edged weapons. The fight is about as realistic as possible and filmed with a grit that keeps it disturbing and morbid in spite of the sleek editing and masterful direction. Nikolai is a worthy anti-hero and one who won’t be brought down by anyone.
(Terminator 2: Judgment Day)
Short but sweet, this important scene is the indication that though the T-800 was the big bad bastard in “The Terminator,” he’s number two now that we’ve met the T-1000. Posing as a police officer, the T-1000 attempts to bring down John Connor’s defenses and capture him, but the T-800 interferes in time and saves his life. Sure there are a few hapless civilians brought down in their hail of gunfire, but as John gets away, the T-800 tries to bring down the new model and fails spectacularly as the T-800 outmatches this defunct model in every single way imaginable. After hurling him in to walls and throwing him through a window, the T-1000 gives the old model a run for his money for most of “T2” mangling him and mutilating him at every turn with the old model getting away by the skin of his teeth every single time.
(The Lost Boys)
This is a battle that was basically a long time coming. The new vampire versus the aged vampire. The good guy versus the eighties rebel. The victim versus his sire. Michael battling David is perhaps one of the most exciting moments in a horror comedy that’s ripe with clever one-liners, and hilariously creepy moments that never cease to keep us laughing and coming back for more.
With everyone battling the ensuing onslaught of avenging vampires, big brother Michael is forced to battle the clan leader David who is out for blood, and more so is out to convince Michael that their way of vampire life is for him and inevitable since he drank his blood. The battle is one of the most intense and well edited, even considering it was filmed in the eighties. The battle of Michael vs. David is only a warm up to the big reveal in the finale, but it is a truly great and exciting duel of good versus evil finishing off with a stake to the heart.
(On the Waterfront)
Crooked Union boss Johnny Friendly was called Friendly because he had so many strong arms under his thumb that he warned them to consider him their “friend” and not their boss. Of course this was a warning and not so much a bid for companionship. Friendly did everything in his power to silence Father Barry without killing him. He called forth Waterfront workers to stop the madness and they were beaten up, he begged for some sense on the docks and he was crucified. And after discovering what bums had been working for Friendly throughout his experience in “On the Waterfront” and getting close to Eddie Doyle after putting the hit on her brother not realizing he’d be killed. But his brother, Charley Malloy worked for Friendly avidly and paid the price.
This triggered Terry to stop being such a bum ruled by Johnny’s top dollar and stand up to him in court. When the case goes through and Friendly is convicted, he vows to get even and destroy his chances at work. Terry emerges later to discover his beloved pigeons destroyed at the hands of Friendly’s men. This leads to the huge confrontation on the waterfront, where Terry and Johnny finally settle the score. The two have a mix of words and finally duke it out by Johnny’s booth punching and wailing on one another until Johnny finally proves his cowardice and calls his cronies to beat Terry down. Terry’s fight was a victory in that he showed dock workers that Johnny was nothing but a stooge if pressed enough, and the dock workers knew that when crime corrupts, you have to stick by your guns.
(Kill Bill Vol.1)
The combination of the RZA’s score, the splatter of Gregory Nicotero, and the ace editing of the late Sally Menke make the Bride’s campaign of violence and gore for the sake of her dead child one of the most gruesome but incredible sequences ever put to action cinema. Once the Bride is able to cut the limb off of O Ren Ishii’s number one girl Sofie Fatale, The Bride proves she’ll go through heaven and hell when she brings down O Ren’s bodyguard the uber-nymph Gogo Yubari and then must contend with the massive army of disposable masked soldiers from the Crazy 88 gang, all of whom sport their own swords and come prepared to die at the blade’s edge of the Bride’s Hattori Hanzo sword.
Sliced hands, diced heads, goons split in half, axes to the head, ankles torn from their limbs, and screams aplenty, the Bride does everything possible to get to O Ren, and in the end comes out victorious. To add insult to injury, she even lays claim to the dismembered limbs from the gang. An ode to classic chop socky cinema, Tarantino films a delightful bloodbath for audiences, and it’s compelling in its over the top attitude.
(Aliens)
The mother of all mothers versus the mother of all xenomorphs finally come together to basically protect their own. Whether or not you sympathize with the queen Xenomorph, like Ellen Ripley, she’s protecting what’s hers, and she’s intent on doing whatever she can to avenge her little buggers and bring down the human she-bitch and her little Newt however she can. The battle of the two maternal entities of “Aliens” is the most cinematically compelling moment of the Cameron sequel, because in spite of the obvious symbolism there, the special effects are still so damn great.
The fight scene works and it’s one of the most exciting moments in a film filled with them. Ellen takes on the genetic monster the only way she knows how: with her robotic power loader that allows her to get the best of the gigantic beast. With swipes, punches, and screeches between the rivals, “Aliens” ends on a surprisingly dramatic note between two women sans the clothes tearing.
(Oldboy)
When I initially sat through “Oldboy” I was in disbelief at how a fight scene could be so exciting and so dramatically compelling. “Oldboy” is a film that delivers on every emotion from horror, action, suspense, and offers up one of the most twisted surprise endings of all time. In Oh Dae Su’s quest to figure out who kidnapped and imprisoned him for years, he takes on an entire hallway of armed thugs with his claw hammer in hand and it gives way to one of the most incredible fight sequences ever put to film.
Apparently the corridor fight scene took seventeen takes in three days to perfect and was one continuous take and has yet to be topped in its grit and realism, if you ask us. From Oh Dae Su getting bashed over the head with wooden sticks and his rebuttal of smashing his hammer among the hands and feet of the thugs, this is a classic battle and one that really conveys a lot about the lengths our main character will go through to discover what caused this kidnapping.
9. Marshall Will Kane vs. The Frank Miller Gang
(High Noon)
That’s gratitude for you. You spend decades protecting a small town from vicious criminals and when that vicious criminal comes out of jail vowing to kill you, no one has the guts to step up and fight alongside you. For a majority of “High Noon,” Will Kane spends the film walking around town trying to find someone, anyone, who will help him fight Frank Miller and his gang, all of whom are waiting at the train station and are prepared to completely massacre Kane after boss Miller spent years in jail.
With the clock literally ticking away every hour, Kane even goes to church and asks the men in town to help him fight for his life, and no one has the courage to repay him for his duty and risk their lives for him. In the end Kane can do nothing but stand alone and hope that his skills and wits aide him in his battle against Frank Miller and his cronies who storm in to town prepared to mow the sheriff down. In the end all a man has to rely on is himself.
(The Empire Strikes Back)
Before George Lucas handed everyone and their mother a lightsaber in the “Star Wars” prequels turning the lightsaber in to something of a common intergalactic switchblade, the lightsaber and the lightsaber fights actually meant something to the films. More often than not a lightsaber fight was important to the story and meant that we were about to learn something truly crucial. When Obi-Wan first fights Darth in “A New Hope” we learn that they’ve known one another for a long time and that Obi-Wan sacrifices himself for the greater good. When Luke Skywalker fights Darth Vader for the first time in “The Empire Strikes Back,” he learns something about himself and his foe.
He learns that in order to bring down this great evil he will have to train further in the Jedi arts and master the lightsaber. And that when he does master the art of the Jedi training and perfect lightsaber training, he will have to come back and fight his father, who happens to be one of the most vile individuals of the galaxy. Luke loses this battle in “Empire” but he’s destined to return and bring down pure evil as a Jedi master under the tutelage of Yoda.
(Tombstone)
All Wyatt Earp wanted to do when he retired from a life of crime was build a small business in Tombstone and live a normal life as a shop keeper whose wife happened to be addicted to Opium and was gradually being crippled by her dependence by it. Is that too much to ask? But soon Doc and his brother Morgan become law officials in town and he’s forced to fight the Clanton brothers when they begin wreaking havoc in Tombstone making way for one of the most dazzling and exciting gun fights in the Western sub-genre of cinema.
With sharp editing, great dialogue, and unmatchable charisma from Val Kilmer, Kurt Russell, Bill Paxton, and Sam Elliott, the foursome are forced to murder most of the brothers in the OK Corral setting in motion a series of horrific events that would turn Wyatt in to a cold hearted monster driven by vengeance by the end of the film.
(Return of the Dragon)
One of the only fight scenes to be refereed by a stray cat, “Return of the Dragon” features one of the most legendary on-screen bouts to ever be filmed. The one and only Bruce Lee takes on the legendary Chuck Norris. Lee would suffer a premature death and live on as a legend while Norris would go on to action movie fame in the eighties and nineties primarily kicking people in to submission and starring as a sheriff on CBS for a shockingly long series run in “Walker Texas Ranger.” He’s our own little martial arts Jim Belushi.
Whether you refer to it as “Return of the Dragon” or its original moniker “Way of the Dragon,” Lee and Norris throw down in the finale of the classic action film as Norris plays fight for hire Colt who ambushes Lee’s character Tang on an abandoned Colosseum and challenges him to a one on one to the death. It’s a high energy and iconic bout between two action stars, and one that continues to live on in many action movie fans’ memories to this day.
(Rocky)
This is one of the many films that expresses the idea that fight scenes aren’t always about choreography and padding a storyline. Sometimes a fight can be just as important as dialogue or a story. Rocky Balboa was recruited to fight Apollo Creed in hopes of being a fall guy for the champion before a better match and was perceived as something of a putz originally. Wanting to prove he’s more than just a strong lug, Balboa uses this opportunity to show the world he’s a champion.
In the finale, Rocky and Apollo fight and Rocky shows Apollo in more than one way that he’s there to fight until the lesser man goes down. And before long Apollo finds himself in the fight of his life against an equally skilled opponent. A riveting and exciting moment in film history, this is the showdown that expressed how committed Rocky was to earning his respect from the world.
(Enter the Dragon)
I had no idea that during the scene where Lee is infiltrating the underground base of the evil Han, one of the guards that attempts to grasp him and has his neck broken is Jackie Chan. You learn something new everyday. When Lee agrees to be apart of the illegal fight competition run by the evil Han on his island, he infiltrates its underbelly with the intent of discovering its crime ring, and Lee is discovered by the legions of armed guards.
Mostly a show for Lee’s own swift martial arts skills and prowess, Lee pretty much turns his confrontation with the thugs in to something of a theatrical presentation, bringing down everyone who tries to grapple with him, and even displaying his ability with the nunchuks. Lee’s battle with the guards in the base is very much an example of Lee’s charisma on screen and what he was capable of as a hero of the big screen and his battle in “Enter the Dragon” is still one of his best among a series of truly great fight sequences.
(Lethal Weapon)
The battle between Martin Riggs and Joshua was a long time coming in “Lethal Weapon.” From the very beginning when the two psychos on opposite ends of the law butt heads, they’re meant to throw down hard, and Riggs constantly finds himself being dogged by Joshua. One is an erratic and lethal henchman and the other is a suicidal police officer willing to do whatever it takes to end this crime spree, much of the conflict involved in “Lethal Weapon” concerns when and where Joshua will finally confront Riggs and see who the better man is once and for all.
When Joshua manages to escape and make it Murtaugh’s (Danny Glover) house, he is greeted by police and taken away. Up for a final confrontation, Riggs “takes a shot at the title” and Joshua is more than willing to oblige. As the water pours along the front yard, the two brawling foot soldiers take to hand to hand combat on the front lawn as Murtaugh holds back the police and the two engage in a true street fight that stands as one of the greatest moments of the “Lethal Weapon” series. Yes folks, Gary Busey and Mel Gibson were once bad asses. I’ll let you absorb that prospect for a while.
(The Warriors)
In spite of the fact that “The Warriors” is about as true to gang life as “West Side Story” was, the film is still considered a classic. And we still love it to death. I mean sure why would a gang dress up as baseball players and wear make up? But in spite of the apparent theatricality and camp value of “The Warriors” it’s still a very well respected gang picture with one killer premise behind it. After the Warriors attend a gang rally in the Bronx, they’re framed for the assassination of a powerful gang kingpin.
Now with every gang in the city out to pay them back for their crime, The Warriors have to travel from the Bronx to their turf in Coney Island where they will hopefully seek sanctuary and prove their innocence. While waiting for a train, they realize they’re being watched by local gang the Punks, a group of suspenders wearing roller skating gangs who resembled Dexy’s Midnight Runners. Like everything else in their journey they find no other option but to fight their way out and take refuge in the subway bathroom. With the element of surprise, the gang battles the Punks in a knock down drag out that’s definitely the best of the film and one of the most break neck fights we’ve ever seen.
(The Wanderers)
While 1979’s “The Wanderers” is basically a gang film, it’s primarily a coming of age drama centered around a gang called the Wanderers, all of whom are growing up and moving on with their lives. During a random football game where racial tensions were high and the football game meant a victory for warring gangs, “The Wanderers,” the primary antagonists in the 1979 coming of age drama, find themselves supporting their home teams, and as usual they’re pitted against their rival team played by the Del Bombers a gang of African Americans. The Wongs, a vicious martial arts street gang are on the sidelines watching, and they’re all being supervised by the elders of the neighborhood who are of course rooting for their Italian American youngsters in the big game.
But what happens when the Ducky Boys decide to take part in their game of football? The Ducky Boys are an endless legion of psychotic Irish American gang members in the hundreds who dominate their block with their willingness to murder intruders and non-believers of Catholicism. While every one of the gangs attending this game are violent and dangerous, above all else, the gang to be feared in their neighborhood are the Ducky boys. While the game is being played during the middle of the day, the Wanderers and their rival teammates begin to notice that they’re being watched by the Ducky Boys whom are at first appearing sporadically in pairs, and then small groups, and soon enough decide to raid the game and massacre the entire crowd of spectators. cheerleaders, and football players.
With no option but to take them on and fight for their lives, the rival gangs and the tough Italian elders all agree on teaming together and forming their own mob to battle the Ducky Boys, and as they advance, they make one last violent stand on the football field making way for one of the most compelling and incredible fight scenes we’ve ever seen. The movie itself is fantastic, but the fight is amazing and it’s stuck with us for years after watching it.