Everyone loves a good fight scene. The drama, the tension, the choreography… Nothing can beat it.
Fight scenes can make an episode or a film. Unfortunately, they can also break them. A bad fight scene can be awful to the point of comedy, but it can also disrupt the escapism.
Today, let’s look at some of the best fight scenes in TV and movies.
Game of Thrones
Photo by Global Panorama on Flickr
Game of Thrones, with its sprawling epic fantasy basis, always has good fight scenes. Whether it’s a large battle or a one-on-one fight, you know Game of Thrones will deliver.
One of the best fight scenes from Game of Thrones was definitely the fight between Oberyn Martell and the Mountain. Not only did it have amazing fight choreography and stunts, but it was also highly emotional.
Though Game of Thrones might be best known for the climactic battles, it’s often the single-person combat that pulls at the audience’s heartstrings most.
Daredevil
Daredevil is always going to deliver a crazy fight scene. Marvel is well known for them; just ask the Marvel geeks and they’ll talk for hours about it. But due to the main character, Matt Murdock’s, blindness, the fights in Daredevil are always unique and innovative.
This was absolutely the case in one of Daredevil‘s best fights, the hallway fight. You know the one I mean.
In this fight, Daredevil steps into a hallway full of Russian gangsters. It seems impossible (though, of course, we knew he was going to win), yet still, he fights his way through at top speed. The fight is suitably messy and brutal, and at the end of it, the viewer themselves feels exhausted. That’s how you know you’ve watched a good fight scene. With hits to the face like theirs, the surviving Russians are probably looking up how to replace the tooth permanently.
Hannibal
The fight scene in the premiere episode of Hannibal’s second season came by surprise. Of course, we know the character of Hannibal is a particularly bloody one – he has to be! – but the show had stayed pretty psychological in the first season.
By opening up the second season with this fight scene between Hannibal and Jack Crawford, the creators showed the viewers that they could be innovative and had more exciting things to show us as the series went on.
The fight itself is crazy – it happens in a kitchen, so various appliances (cutting boards, knives, salt shakers) become weapons.
Maybe it’s the unexpected nature of the fight scene, but this scene comes out on top as one of the best fight scenes in a tv show or movie.
The Punisher
Photo by Peter Lowe on Flickr
Not technically a fight scene, but an absence of one. After the battle with John Pilgrim, Frank gets a call that tells him Billy is bleeding to death in Curtis’ basement. As Billy attempts an apology, Frank shoots him.
We might have been expecting a climactic fight or a redemption between the two, but no – Frank just shoots him.
Here, the absence of a fight is almost as powerful and shocking as if there had been a really good fight.
The scene tells you a lot about Frank as a character and gives a dramatic exit for Billy in the show. If you were going to get killed off on a show, you’d want to go with a bang, no?
