How To Do A Fight Scene 

"Never use the same move twice" One punch man: "ok"

You can use a move twice...as long as it fails the second time.

I think John wick is incredible at mailing fight throughout the whole series of 4 films. Despite John being so far ahead of anyone else’s league you still see him get hurt a lot and he always leaves a fight scene limping before jumping into another fight. Truly incredible

Wide stable shots, no shaky cam, minimum cuts and great choreography that feels there is a lot at stake.

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I like that in Kingsmen, the villain "does" just shoot him..

Gotta admit, that's a writer's challenge I haven't heard before-- accurately and engagingly transcribing a Jackie Chan fight scene. I imagine keeping the lighthearted spirit of the scene would be difficult... I'm almost tempted to try my hand at it myself.

I think the best thing about the Church fight scene from Kingsmen is dynamic camera. Having a camera that moves with the characters makes you feel like you are in it - something the directors obviously wanted considering the POV shots. But you can also see this in the Upgrade fight sequence, where the camera is begins moving with the characters as the baddy is getting his ass kicked. You aren't just watching, you are participating.

something i hate about fights: when the camera is so cutty and shakey you cant tell what the hell is going on. Edit: yeah I know it's just an editing trick to hide the fact that the actors aren't actually hitting eachother, I'm annoyed when it's overdone to the point that the fight is nauseating to watch.

the thing with the John wick fight scene, you are supposed to be glued to the screen because its so fast paced and realistic as can be, whereas in Jackie chan fights, you're paying more attention because there is plenty of comedic moments and ingenuity. it's like having a well made Italian baked cannoli versus having a delicious bowl of swirly, sweet ice cream. they're both delicious deserts, but they're very different in form.

I think it's really telling that the most memorable part of that John Wick fight (at least for me) wasn't the cool new aspect of fighting with dogs, but rather the race between John and the two enemies to reload their guns first.

With John wick I really like the attention to detail in the gun fights, also how realistic the choreography can be like when he reloads or just aiming for weak points, or maybe that's just me.

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"Never use the same move twice" Naruto: I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you over my rasengan and my shadow clones

One of the Matrix movies (I forgot which one) had a massive Agent Smith horde fighting Neo. Everyone I've seen who's watched that fight scene has said that, while the special effects slowly die as the fight progresses, the fight itself is phenomenal. The scripting, the choreography, everything is as perfect as it could be.

I personally think that one Scene in John wick where the end up in the room with the knife case is one of the best. He throws at least a dozen knives but only actually hits one or two because he’s a human (regardless of assassin status) and desperate fighting 2 other guys i think.

George Lucas: “They fight”

Batman: I don't kill people Also batman: yeets a wooden crate at some dudes head Batman: he's probably fine....

The raid has absolute fantastic fight scenes, especially the second one. The cinematography, the plot, the brutality, the realism it’s great. I really like that the protagonist is struggling with literally every single fight and you don’t know if he’ll die or not

One thing about the upgrade fight I liked was the camera adjusting with each of the AI's attacks, it really made it more cool too watch and emphasized the power coming from the character

I’m a simple woman. I see Kingsman on the video’s icon, I click to watch.

Damnit. You just made me yell at my wife “honey did your internet drop out too?”

In defense of the A New Hope lightsaber fight, the props were apparently very fragile. So what they're doing is essentially at the limit of the tools they had to work with. What we're left with is essentially a duel between not just two master-level fighters but two who know each others' moves. They're at a stalemate and making small feints and brief passes to see if this or that might work and nope, nope, he still remembers that move. It ends because Obi-Wan decides to lose. And *that* is why it remains a fascinating fight to me.

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"Blow by blow" doesn't mean the same move over and over, it means choreographing a fight scene to emphasize each individual hit. Essentially the Batman clip you raved about, and the clip with Grey and almost every fight scene in film.

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The interesting thing is that sometimes you can compensate these three rules, as if they're a spectrum. For example the kingsman fight scene you showed a bit of at the beginning: I never really believed he was gonna lose, but the choreography was just so damn good and the moves were so interesting I didn't even care.

Id also throw in the mix the first Batman/Bane fight from Dark Knight Rises - it’s the first time we see Batman’s struggle against a villain physically and Bane spends the whole fight basically toying with him. The dialogue between bouts as well as the raw punchy action really brings Batman down a peg and not only has action but character development for both Bane and Batman and foreshadows the evil of Bane’s plan

“The hero always winning isn’t fun” “Never use the same move twice” Saitama: “Who are you calling bald?”

Bruce Lee pretty much proved that a hero dominating in a fight isn't boring. The same approach was done in Jet Li's Once Upon a Time in China series.

This is something I like about the Bloodsworn Trilogy. For those who don’t know, it is a series of fantasy books in a Norse-inspired medieval world. The author is actually a historical battle reenactment guy, but with real chainmail and learning actual tactics. The fights in the books are very good because every single one feels natural and understandable in how the fight comes about, they all serve the story well in some way, and every one of them is brutal and evocative while maintaining distinction from each other and variety within the fights. So far, most of the fights have primarily involved humans with real weapons and armor, with a few fantastical elements here and there, but the amount of variety that occurs even when everyone is wearing chainmail, almost everyone has a shield, and only a handful of weapon types is remarkable.

The animated series The Legend of Vox Machina has some pretty good fight sequences. Lots of emotional core, variety of blows, ebb and flow with regards to the tide of battle, and everything advances the story.

* Subtly ignores that Bat-Man is killing people *

In 1977, those "two people tapping sticks" was the coolest thing we'd ever seen.

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I'd like to mention some of Monty Oum's animated work as great examples of animated fights. A lot of hus scenes almost appear like dances, with the action flowling extremely well with the music.

*2017:* Elton John saves the life of the Kingsman Agent. *2019:* Eggsy becomes the legendary Rocketman. _Coincidence? I think not._

I've been a modmaker for Doom Eternal, and I find that a lot of your points here on making fight scenes also apply heavily to video games. Levels will suck if they have 0 plot significance and if people have no reason to care. Fights can get boring if they're too consistently easy or too consistently hard. And you should always give players multiple ways of defeating one encounter, making it always interesting.

I always come back to your channel whenever I need some inspiration to start storyboarding again! :) I love your work

The "never use the same move twice" rule can go really, really wrong. Like in the case of Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. Throughout the movie, the good guys almost never use the same magic or spell twice, and it makes absolutely no sense because it's clear that certain spells would work perfectly in a situation, yet they just pull out a random one from nowhere and often it doesn't even work.

6:32 You jerk. That transition was so smooth that I didn't see it coming. You got me. You got me bad.

Boring fights are usually the META in Games...^^

Some of my fave fight scenes are in my fave action movie, the Old Guard. Not just the final fight where the main characters escape the lab and take out the bad guy, which are mostly awesome because you see just how well these characters work together and how Nile, now manages to fit into the group. But even more so the scene in the church, where Andromache, as played by Charlize Theron, is fighting a bunch of mercenaries. Now normally there'd be no question that she'd win, cause she's an ancient immortal warrior who knows more about fighting than entire armies ever learn. But then in what's at first just a fun fight, we suddenly realize that spoiler, she's lost her immortality. And for the first time in over six thousand years, wounds actually matter, and if she gets a mortal wound, she might die. And even more than that, after the fight is over, we see Nile watch the aftermath and be horrified by it, and by what Andy's done, and the kind of person she is... And all of it matters so much emotionally, and this keeps on through the entire movie. Every action scene, every fight scene in that movie matters for the characters emotional arcs. It's the one movie I can endlessly rewatch because of it.

As someone who writes fiction I find having a background in martial arts helps write compelling fight scenes in stories (it also helps to have someone to throw about do you can see how they would react to the fight 😁)

“People don’t really consider stationary as being a lethal weapon but-“ Laughs in John Wick

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one of the first fights in john wick chapter 3 is when he is in a museum about old weapons, and everybody starts throwing knives at eachother. this fight doesn't really affect the story, but it still is one of my favourite fight scenes ever

6:00 jokes on you, my buffering symbol doesn’t look like that

6:00 I really thought rule 2 was something about tension and making the audience wait or something but it was all just a NordVPN ad

what makes a foundation for a good fight scene is the effort that runs into it. the choreography, the perfomance of the actors and to stay within the action all the time. if something is missing then the only chance you have left is to cut it together and that never looks and fell good.

What always gets me into the fight is use of environments in a believable way for that setting is a good start. Also less cuts

I think you missed the fight in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead's Man Chest when Will, Jack, and the British dude are fighting in a giant hamster wheel, while at the same time Elizabeth and the other two pirated are screaming "sword" while running from CGI shark people. But the video is pretty good and you get my like

Batman be like “ I don’t kill, I just throw massive, wooden boxes at peoples heads really hard”

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Jackie Chan has talked about this alot in how he does his fights.

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I had forgotten about Upgrade.. thanks for mentioning it!

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Spider-man: “magic with a kick”. Spider-man: “magic with a-“. Thanos: “insect”.

How to do a fight scene.? Every Jackie Chan movie that he made before coming to Hollywood.

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6:18 when he said "this video has been blocked in your region" i instantly knew he was sponsored by a VPN

In the book Ender's game, the little doctor shooting at a planet is totally foreshadowed, Ender legit just asks when he first hears about it if he can shoot it at a planet.

Amen to that. I'm a director specialized in action and I'm so glad someone analyzed that so well. :)

This video reminded me of "The Begnning after the End" a korean light novel that I personally love, it has some of the best figth scenes i've ever read and it pretty much follows all the rulles mentioned in this video.

I saw "The Closer Look" with Kingsman as the thumbnail and clicked as fast as I could

I can't believe he didn't bring up the action scenes in Killer Bean, those are the best action scenes around. :(

I've found that in any good fight either the hero's or villains are being resourceful and using anything at there disposal. eg batman throwing the crate, harry in kingsmen using the bear bottle the umbrella and even the other bad guys and even with thanos using the face of a moon.

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The church scene still stands as being one of the best fight scenes I've seen in a film. Free Bird blaring in the background, amazing choreography and cinematography, and just the all around feel and impact. Just so good

As a writer, I hate writing fight scenes... I never know how to make it engaging, so I just try and avoid fight scenes as much as possible... Fight scenes are hard to write ;-;

Idk if it was out at the time but the bus fight scene from nobody i would love to have had mentioned, that fight mesmerized me

i loved the fight club reference when you were talking about the first rule of fights then numbing the senses great stuff

0:57 "feel the weight behind that crate crack that guys skull" *as it bounces off of him like a rubber ball*

I agree with you for the most part but I'd like to add that fights in books can in my opinion have a different roll than in movies. Books can't describe easily the physical action taking place, with the exception of formats with visual aids like manga or comic books. I think the best fights in books can and do often give the protagonists inner monologue. Some of my favorite fights in books barely describe the combat. Books can focus more on what is important to the people in the fight working as a tool for further character development. Fights in books can for this reason still be compelling even if nothing else is achieved. 🤙🏻👌🏻

Upgrade was a hidden gem. This was one of the best sci-if/action movie I’ve seen in a long, long time. The twists at the end were brilliant. I say “twists”, plural, which is not a typo, but because there are a few twists and surprises in the story. One reason I don’t like a lot of films is because I can almost always predict where it’s going. Upgrade took some spins at the end I just didn’t see coming. I told my brother about it and he didn’t take it too serious, but when he finally took the time to watch it, he texted me right away telling me how great it was. The way the protagonist was freaked out by the violence his body was delivering without his control was brilliant. I loved the way he kept telling the guy to please stay down so he didnt have to watch anymore of the brutality. There is a bad guy with a shotgun built into his arm later in the movie. The way he is dispatched is my favorite move. Upgrade had many really original things, not just the fight and action scenes, but in the story. It’s probably so good because it didn’t come from Hollywood, where the producers can’t keep their untalented hands out of the story and ruin everything by using the same boring, predictable and stupid formulas. A movie like Upgrade can only come from the independent market. It very, very non-Hollywood. I think Upgrade was a script that didn’t go through several rewrites, where so many different people with different vision put their thumbprint on the script, there isn’t a clear story written by one person’s vision, so that everything makes sense and works. That is the only way to get a good movie. Too many cooks do still spoil the broth….. and the movie. Game Of Thrones is the most recent example of this crap. When they were following GRR Martin’s vision, the show was fabulous with great character depth and story beats. Then they ran out of material from Martin and the producers took over the writing in their own arrogance. HBO was writing blank checks at that time, so they could have found some really good writers willing to take over and finish the story and character arcs with class and style, at the least make it make sense? Instead they made a complete mess out of it. We didn’t really get an ending to the story, because no real fan of GOT that I know accepts any of that nonsense as the climax to the story we waited 8 years for. We’ll all have to wait for George to finish his novels to get the real ending and I think he wanted it that way. That means we’ll never get an ending, because Martin will never live long enough to finish that story. At least Upgrade has an ending.

You're so absolutely right..., Upgrade had these really bad a55 fight scenes, first time I saw it, I watched with my mouth open in awe...!!

Bruh, that "buffering" was funny. I like funny 4th wall breaks like that.

0:33 To this day I'm 100% convinced that *someone* on the Batman V Superman team has played the Arkham video games. It just makes sense to me.

dynamic camera and reliable punch impact

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"You can't help but feel the weight behind that crate" Oddly, one of my complaints about that exact sequence is that the crate seems bizarrely weightless. Like, what is it filled with, foam? How is Batman able to hurl it one-handed over his head and into the other man. It does not make Batman seem formidably strong. It makes the crate seem oddly lightweight. Now, even an empty crate will brain a man, but Batman's effortless tossing of the crate makes it seem weird. Like he is a superpowered man in this scene for no reason.

The reimagined version of Obi Wan vs Darth Vader is actually spectacular and fits a few of the things you mentioned, look it up

I don't know why but that little fight scene at the start of Witcher caught so of guard, its just amazing the way he flows and stabs with so much force

you got me with the pause. the song i was listening to just so happened to end at the same time, so i legit was wondering what happened

another big issue with fights in books is speed though too, in a movie it can be so fast paced and easy to pay attention to, while in a book the sense of speed is suddenly missing because instead of it relying on the directors eyes for speed, it relies on how quickly you can comprehend the book

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When a fight serves to the plot, ussually it can be readed as a fight of something inside the characters involved as well as the fight in the outside. So the narrative and the change of the control of that fight can be a representative way to speak about the forces that drives the characters to stay the way they are or change in some way.

Also I love when fight scenes don't have a shaky cam so I can actually see what's happening, when it's not really dark in terms of colour (not dark in plot) I also love when you can feel the characters exhaustion when watching them fight, daredevil the show did a good job with the hallway scene.

I love how in this entire 20 minute video, the only spoiler warning you gave was for the film from 1977.

One of the things that helped that fight scene from Kingsmen massively was the bloody awesome guitar solo from free bird. Just a phenomenal choice of music.

The church scene from Kingsman made me feel like i was a sidekick in training, almost like Egsy at the start. The camera movement makes it feel like im just trying to get out of the mess alive and dodging flying pews and bodies

Rules: 1. You need variety in your action. Different styles, different moves. Never use the same move twice. 2. There needs to be rivalry between hero and villain. The audience should feel like either could win and either could loose. 3. Use normal everyday objects to your advantage. 4. The fight scene must serve the story. Maybe they make a crucial decision in the fight or something is revealed. If a fight ends, and nothing has changed in the story, your fight has failed.

Henry: From this point on, Luke's alone in his story. He has to be independent and figure this Jedi stuff out without any help. Yoda: Joke to you, am I?

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Kingsman, Mission Impossible, and John Wick have been fantastic w designing+executing creative action scenes. they try new things, the actors dedicate themselves to actually doing the incredible stunts+fights themselves, they're innovative w the filming/cinematography, find ways to put a fresh spin on things, integrate character into the set pieces, and (esp in the case of kingsman) they aren't afraid to get weird and unique w it haha. the type of action in each of those 3 franchises may be vastly different, but they do still share all of those qualities.