MY TOP 10 MOST REALISTIC FIGHT SCENES

"You got something on your face....oh wait, it's my fist."

Ah yes, the iconic "fight scene."  It can really make or break a movie.
I love fight scenes, but I love them more when they're as real as possible (no wires or one sided fights where the half dead hero kicks it into overdrive and wins).

When Van Damme screams, run.  It means he got beat up enough and will now win. 

Great movies (especially action movies) usually involve an epic scene with the hero taking on a villain (or the main villain) in hand to hand, or gun to gun, combat.  There's something about a fight scene with real hits and all out hard work put in by the actors with no (or hardly any) stunt doubles doing the work.  While I enjoy many action movies, I enjoy the ones that are closest to being real as possible.  In a real fight, the combatants are going to be winded and are not going to be flashy with flips and wall climbing to finish off the opponent with a triple gainer followed by a big elbow from 3 stories up in the air.

Let me start this off with a fight scene I found that was so bad it was awesome!  When you're done with this clip, you will thank me for introducing you to the best fighter with no legs in the world!

Nowhere near realistic, but awesome right?

So what I have here are 10 fight scenes that I feel are some of the most realistic fights that could happen in real life.  They may not be the BEST scenes, but I'm going for realism.  Enjoy!

*please remember that this list is solely MY opinion and NOT, by any means, official. The order of these scenes are also based on the scenes themselves, NOT on how classic the movie might be*

#10 Roadhouse, Dalton vs Jimmy
Patrick Swayze, in one of his classic roles as a "Cooler" (no he doesn't store drinks in himself, he's a bouncer that looks more like a ballerina), takes on a dude who looks like an evil version of him with the same mullet and everything!

This is widely considered to be one of the greatest fight scenes of all time and I can see why.  Is it a Jet Li high wire fight?  No.  But you've got two guys with VERY basic self defense skills that have a back and forth fight to the end....where Patrick does a very not nice thing to end the fight.  It looked like they did put a lot of effort into this scene as the combatants were both clearly winded.

#9 The Last Samurai, Kendo Training
Tom Cruise is captured by a band of Samurai and he begins learning their ways.  One of (if not THE) main practices of the samurai is learning their craft of combat.  They take their fighting very seriously. Sword fighting was second nature to these noble warriors and Tome Cruise learns this the hard way in this flick.  While this scene is technically not a "fight scene," it pits him against an expert fighter and he shows he's no slouch.  He's learned how to fight like a samurai and shows it.  If you know about the samurai way, you know they are about finishing a fight in a single stroke.  So it's amazing to see this American going shot for shot with the expert.  Very well choreographed and (when you have two masterfully trained samurai battling) very realistic.

#8 They Live, Nada vs Frank
I've gotta admit, with all the fights in this post, THIS one is my favorite!  I LOVED this fight scene because of how gritty it was.  Rowdy Roddy Piper tries to get his buddy to wear some sunglasses that will cause him to see that aliens have infiltrated Earth.  His buddy doesn't want to wear them.  So naturally Piper has to beat the snot out of him to make him wear them.  What we get is a real treat!  The two dudes get some awesome hits in along with Piper utilizing some of his pro-wrestling skills.  There's 2x4's, shattered bottles, eye gouging, low blows and headbutts everywhere here!

#7 Haywire, Mallory Kane vs Paul
Magneto tries to take out Gina Carano when they enter their hotel room in this action flick...big mistake.  Ms. Carano is an experienced MMA fighter with serious street cred in the fighting scene.  I like how she didn't completely dominate the fight and how the hits looked to be very real at times.  It also really helped that the fight scene was all her and no stunt double.  Her martial arts training really shows and I think that two experts would have a fight similar to this in real life (maybe with less punches and more grappling, but hey, you can't make the fight scenes TOO real or they'd be boring).

#6 Flashpoint, Inspector Jun Ma vs Tony
Donnie Yen is mad.  Throughout this movie Donny Yen is very mad.  I'm not going to break down the movie because it actually has a pretty intricate plot.  Just know that Seraph from the Matrix Reloaded puts up a great fight!  These two kung fu geniuses go all out on each other and while some of the moves are definitely not what you would see in a street fight, you can tell these guys are really hitting each other at points.  Hard hitting action here.

#5 Fast Five, Dominic Toretto vs Luke Hobbs
Vin Diesel vs Dwayne Johnson!  King Kong vs Godzilla!  A lot of people hated on the movie, but I felt the fight scene delivered the goods.  You've got two huge behemoths using every bit of their strength to go at each other.  Ever since the Rock was rumored to be in this movie, fans wanted to see this battle happen.  What we got wasn't Riddick taking out armies (although Riddick is awesome), but we got two dudes using their surroundings to beat the other guy.  I'd say the only part of this fight that was a little over the top was when they both flew out a window and glided about 10 feet before hitting the floor.  Still a great fight though.  Do you smell what The Rock is cookin'?

#4 Wheels on Meals, Jackie Chan vs Benny "The Jet" Urquidez
Two martial art heavyweights battle it out in an epic battle with REAL hard hits!  Benny "The Jet" Urquidez is a legendary fighter who didn't get his nickname for no reason.  A truly legit fighter who made this scene so real and intense!  Even Jackie Chan admitted that he would not stand a chance against Urquidez in a real fight!

Well, the word is that Jackie joked around with Benny during this fight sequence saying "come on let's fight hard, full speed!"  Benny answers "anytime Jackie, anytime."  Apparently, The Jet thought that Jackie seriously did want to go full speed...the result is a high octane slugfest with very real and very hard hits!  Look very carefully for my favorite part: Benny goes for a roundhouse kick, which Jackie ducks, and the force of his kick blew out some candles behind Jackie!  (This was NOT an effect in the movie, it was really his kick that blew out the candles!!)

#3 The Raid: Redemption, Joe Taslim vs Yayan "Mad Dog" Ruhian
Ok, first thing's first: If you haven't seen The Raid: Redemption, SEE IT NOW!!!  There are too many awesome fight scenes in this movie to list, but one of my two favorite scenes is the first fight Mad Dog has in it.  Mad Dog is a pure fighter who prefers hand to hand combat rather than using weapons.  He savors the fight and feels he's the most dominant fighter around....and he may be right.  While this scene is insane, you have to see his other one where he takes on TWO masters!  The only reason I didn't put the second Mad Dog fight on this list is because....well...I just love this scene and it seems more realistic than the one on two scenario (but you MUST see the movie!!!)

#2 The Hunted, L.T. Bonham vs Aaron Hallam

Benicio Del Toro and Tommy Lee Jones lock horns in this flick where Tommy is a Spec Ops officer who is (surprise, surprise) trying to track his Delta Force student.  Del Toro, his star pupil, suffers from post traumatic stress (well, that's the story the FBI tells Tommy to get his help) and can't stop using his special knife skills to kill people.  In a teacher vs student battle, the two men have one of the most vicious and bloody knife fights I've ever seen!  This looks like the type of fight true experts of hand to hand military combat would have.

#1 Game of Death, Bruce Lee vs Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
I love this fight.  To me it was VERY realistic.  What makes this fight so realistic to me is that Bruce Lee doesn't dominate the fight, but is taken to the limit.  What makes it so special is that Lee choreographed every fight scene in his movies carefully to make them as realistic as possible, so what we have here is a very possible scenario.  Keep in mind (for those who don't know the whole story behind Game of Death) that this fight is the original uncut version which is what Bruce Lee intended for the movie before his untimely death during filming of this flick.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find the complete English dubbed version so you'll have to deal with subtitles during the times Bruce is calculating how to defeat his opponent.  Great back and forth action!  Also bear in mind that, for those who would say a little guy like Lee could never beat a 7-foot fighter, Bruce Lee was inhumanly strong and skillful.  Enjoy the spectacle!

Oh and before you jump down my throat saying "what about the iconic Bruce Lee vs Chuck Norris battle?", remember I'm talking about REALISTIC fight scenes....not awesomely fast paced, way too obviously choreographed fight scenes.  But I know you want to see it anyway, so click here to catch that showdown.

So what do you think?

This is just the first list of realistic fight scenes as I'm sure there are going to be more great scenes with great movies still on the way!

What movies do you think have realistic fight scenes?  (And please don't say The Matrix Revolutions or I'll have to stab you in the face with a soldering iron...just kidding.)

Good fight, good night.


Jay