Top 12 Fight Scenes of 2022

Another year and another list of its top 12 fight scenes. Action covers all subgenres and 2022 was lined up with plenty of movies and series to keep us occupied while the world continues to be become stranger and stranger. The master of disaster Roland Emmerich dropped Moonfall, a sci-fi thriller that doesn't quite match the fun extraterrestrial energy of Independence Day but was was Emmerich-y enough to keep me entertained at least. Lightyear opened a new universe within a universe, Jurassic World: Dominion continued the trend of legacy sequels/requels, Prey resurrected the Predator franchise after several lukewarm attempts, Ryan Reynolds found his childhood clone in The Adam Project, Uncharted put Tom Holland in charge of portraying a young Nathan Drake, and after what felt like 5000 years Avatar: The Way of Water finally landed in theaters......and I still haven't watched it. The Woman King was the African semi-historical epic we didn't know we needed, Top Gun: Maverick (another one I didn't get around to) proved its never too late for a sequel and that Tom Cruise is never too old to laugh at Death's face and keep innovating the action industry. Ambulance was classic Bay-hem in all the right ways and Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore further expanded the Wizarding World. But obviously that's not all 2022 had to offer as you'll soon see and some of the year's best action went well below the eye of the general public. Exiled: The Chosen Ones starring Sunny Pang is probably the most invisible of these hidden gems. And on that note is Kill-Fist gonna be available any time soon? I've been waiting patiently forever to catch Pang's Praying Mantis Kung Fu. Anyways, here's the 12 fight scenes from 2022 that I believe were the best both choreographically and in some cases narratively.

#12. Halo

Like in 2021, this list can't be considered complete without a television/streaming series entry and luckily we're alive during a time where the action delivered by any episodic medium is held to an increasingly higher standard. And this expectation for action isn't more obvious than in hand-to-hand combat. Streaming services have long since dominated the market for long-form content further raising the bar for all action-based shows. 2022 is of course no exception with Disney+ bringing us Obi-Wan Kenobi and Moon Knight, HBO Max with Peacemaker, Netflix impressing us with a new season of Cobra Kai, and AMC+ providing a 2nd season of Gangs of London. Yet it's the lesser known Paramount+ (so many pluses) that edged out its competitors for the bottom of 2022's best fight scenes list. The idea of an official live action adaptation of Halo has been floating around for so many years that few thought it would ever really materialize. But in an era when video game movies and series are at the peak of their profitability, the conditions seemed right to finally adapt Halo in the same manner. Though this long-running franchise is long past the height of its popularity, Paramount's attempt at "live-actioning" Halo had the potential to renew interest in the once gaming juggernaut. Sadly so far that doesn't seem to be the case as its intentionally drastic deviation from the source material polarized fans and non-fans alike.

One thing that did stay true to the Halo games however was its action sequences. Pablo Schreiber stars as John-117 aka Master Chief, leader of Silver Team, a squad of genetically engineered supersoldiers who defend humanity from both insurrectionists and their main threat, the Covenant, a religious empire of various alien races. The action is admittedly sparse throughout the series but what little action we see is undoubtedly faithful to the games. Sticking to the style of cut scenes from the Halo games, the Master Chief and his Spartan team members cut down their extraterrestrial foes with superhuman brutality and precision. Switching from the wide dynamic video game third-person view of a cutscene to the first-person shooter POV shots, the combination of melee combat and close-quarters gunplay truly captures the Halo feel. The Master Chief is a master of all weapons, both human and Covenant, and this combative versatility is made absolutely clear here. Pablo Schreiber and the rest of his fellow Silver Team cast members were given all aspects of basic military training for a full week along with an additional week to familiarize themselves with the Halo universe. Schreiber himself viewed every previous live-action adaptation and in-game cinematic as well as having read several novels to prepare for his role. As often as the Master Chief spends with his helmet off, the majority of his fight sequences are with his helmet on which would normally allow for the excuse for most of the action to be filmed with his stunt double Justin Howell (known for doubling Chris Hemsworth). But given the intense physical training he and his Spartan companions went through, it wouldn't be surprising if he performed most of the fights himself having to lug around the weight of his 50 lb costume armor in the process.

This faithfullness to the game's action aesthetic wouldn't have been possible without fight choreographer Gyula Toth and his team of fight coordinators one of which is Vi-Di Tran, a German action designer who served as an action director for the wushu western Into the Badlands and who, along with his choreographic comrade Shawn Bu, has been crafting some of the best live-action video game short films on his T7 Productions YouTube channel including Cyberpunk 2077 and Assassins Creed: Valhalla. Along with fight coordinator Felix Betancourt, assistant fight coordinator Khoa Huynh, and assistant fight coordinator Kai Fung Rieck (fight choreographer for the Halo fan film A Hero's Journey), Halo has traces of something more extraordinary not just in its plot point choices but also in its sci-fi battles. Proof of this lies in the pre-vizes uploaded to YouTube by Vi-Di Tran himself containing creative details cut from the final version. In spite of these awesome moments left out of the full cut possibly due to lack of time, budget, conceptual disagreements or what have you, the action style is still worthy of the games that it is pulled from. If the dramatically divergent storyline has left you no longer interested in a 2nd season, the human-alien fights may have at least adequately entertained you. I gave you pretty much all of them in video form above. That is, specifically the segments which focus on the close combat so that it sort of conforms to the rules of what a "fight scene" is.

#11. The Batman

Every year we get a new slate of superhero films mostly from the genre's 2 juggernauts Marvel and DC some of which have been more impressive than others while others have been...well...Morbius. But arguably the most sophisticated and possibly the best of 2022's superhero cinema came from DC's latest reboot of Batman. Bearing no connection to the DCEU shared universe, The Batman is the beginning of a brand new trilogy that has already spawned 2 planned spin-off series. Drawing inspiration mainly from 3 comics; Year One, The Long Halloween, and Ego, Matt Reeves' take on DC's most iconic masked vigilante may just be the darkest adaptation yet. The Batman is not your typical superhero flick. A neo-noir intended to emphasize Batman's ingenious detective skills more than previous films. This version of Batman is only 2 years in to his bat-themed career and is presented as a sleepless crime-fighting addict not yet having compartmentalized the stoic serious Batman persona with his more charming and charismatic playboy billionaire Bruce Wayne personality. Much of the movie is dedicated to the cat-and-mouse mind games played between Batman and the Zodiac Killer inspired reimagining of the Riddler, but Batman's reputation as an exceptional hand-to-hand combatant is abundantly emphasized throughout the film.

And the fight sequences not only make clear his combat expertise but also the deeper character arc unique to this particular iteration of Batman. He evolves from a personification of vengeance to a symbol for hope. From the brutal beatdown of the film's very first fight to a similarly merciless takedown of the last of Riddler's followers in the film's climax, Batman's vengeful rage is only subsided by Catwoman's pleas and the realization that hope is far more powerful and necessary of a tool for liberating the people of Gotham City. Batman's actor, Robert Pattinson, even improvised 2 additional punches on the first henchman which is brought back in the very last fight to further convey that personal journey from vengeance to hope. Aside from the narrative substance behind the fights, the choreography is also an achievement on the technical level. The Bat has always carried with him a gauntlet of gadgets and this Batman has plenty from tasers, smoke bombs, a shot of adrenaline (or a precursor to Bane's venom?), and the ol' reliable grappling hooks. However, his simplest and one of his most useful pieces of equipment is his bulletproof suit which is heavy enough to withstand fully automatic gunfire, close-range shotgun blasts, and bullets to the head but light and flexible enough for fast and efficient melee. The latter of which owes to it being more flexible than any other batsuit put to film so far. An elaboration on the concept previously explored partly in the epic warehouse fight sequence from Batman v. Superman, this suit allows for Batman the excuse to dish out a beating on gun-wielding henchmen without the need for ranged weapons and to deliver some satisfyingly executed fight scenes.

Batman isn't just a walking tank of course and guns still significantly slow him down either knocking him back or knocking him out completely. This detail adds to the more realistic depiction of Batman in this movie forcing him to rely on quick and efficient methods of melee-ing his opponents. As a result, his hand-to-hand fighting form is more pragmatic to fit the gritty realism of the film similar to the Keysi Fighting Method of Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy. The similarities to Nolan's Batman ends there though as this Batman doesn't primarily utilize a specific martial art like Christian Bale's KFM but a mix of various combat arts mostly using punches and elbows and even assault rifles as bludgeoning weapons.

Robert Pattinson initially joked about not wanting to engage in any serious exercise but eventually began 6 weeks of military-style fitness training which included boxing drills, a martial sport demonstrated well by this portrayal of Batman. Pattinson was also instructed in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu by Rigan Machado who hails from one of the most prestigious BJJ families in the world. Strangely, no BJJ ground fighting can be found in the film. Instead, Batman's fighting style was developed by second unit director and supervising stunt coordinator Robert Alonzo who not only taught Pattinson in Alonzo's own area of expertise, Filipino Martial Arts, but also the aforementioned Boxing, Kickboxing, Muay Thai, Jeet Kune Do, and Silat. On top of Pattinson's prior martial arts experience starting at age 6 in Karate, Aikido, Tai Chi, and Capoeira, this amalgam of different styles gave Pattinson and Robert Alonzo (as well as Pattinson's stunt double Rick English) the ingredients to honor Batman's comic book legacy as a master of all martial arts while grounding him to fit the less exaggerated vision of Matt Reeves. Pattinson's casting was clearly no mistake proving wrong all the anti-Twilight naysayers as did Michael Keaton many decades ago.

Pattinson isn't the only actor to showcase his martial talents of course as Zoe Kravitz' Catwoman's Capoeira-esque kicks appropriately capture her feline agility contrasting well with Batman's more practical favoring of his fists. Kravitz actually observed the movements of lions and tigers to mimick their cat-like behavior almost like some sort of Big Cat style of Kung Fu. As is the case with any actor, Kravitz was doubled by Tara Macken likely for the more complicated techniques or the more dangerous stunts. But much like her co-star Pattinson, Kravitz has been well acquainted with the martial arts since childhood having studied Taekwondo when she was 7-years-old and since then added other kick-centric arts under her belt like Hapkido, Savate, and obviously Capoeira. Fight coordinator and Taekwondo expert Daniel Arrias was a huge help in designing the legwork inherent to Catwoman's character and together with Robert Alonzo, created distinct styles of combat for both animal-themed vigilantes. All that effort can be easily appreciated in the long wide takes employed in every fight scene avoiding the over-edited camerawork that plagued much of the Dark Knight trilogy until Christopher Nolan redeemed himself in The Dark Knight Rises. The Batman's visual style as a whole is perhaps the most intriguing of all prior live action movies evoking a comic-book aesthetic even rivaling that of director Zack Snyder's superhero films. Each fight sequence even conveys its own color scheme. From the grim dimly lit interiors to the fiery flashes of the night club to the cool blues of the film's climax, the movie creates its own unique look while also offering visual variety from one scene to the next. The action design in The Batman has set the example for not just Batman films or even superhero films but all movies in general especially those of greater grit and groundedness. So much so that I got carried away and chose every fight scene in the entire film instead of just a couple. I hope reading 4 whole paragraphs wasn't too much of a hassle for you. I guess you can say this entry was as long as was the movie.

#10. The Northman

The fantasy genre goes through its own trends every decade and this past year 2 prequels to the most popular fantasy franchises in recent memory were released; Amazon Prime's The Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power and HBO's House of the Dragon. Quietly lying underneath these massively successful series are more underrated fantasy action movies like Hulu's The Princess, an almost Reverse-Raid type Medieval femme fatale film. There's also The Siege of Robin Hood which is sort of what would happen if Jackie Chan himself played the eponymous hero-thief. But it takes a different style of film-making altogether to create a historical dark fantasy film like The Northman. Directed by Robert Eggers of arthouse horror films The Witch and The Lighthouse, Egger's mastery of horror elements are applied to the world of Norse folklore. The Northman is produced by and stars Alexander Skarsgard as a banished prince who vows to avenge his murdered father living his adult years as a Viking until learning of the whereabouts of his father's murderer.

Unrelenting in its brutality, The Northman is undoubtedly darker than even The Batman throwing in several action sequences with unrelentingly long sweeping shots that totally immerse you into the unforgiving Northern European lands of old. Among its standout action scenes are a Viking village raid beginning with an incredibly badass catching and throwback of a spear as well as the slaying of the undead guardian of the magic sword Draugr. Each scene leads up to the inevitable destined duel between Skarsgard and his uncle, the man who killed his father in cold blood and the man that Skarsgard has devoted a lifelong quest to. Skarsgard's retains a mesmerizing presence in the film and part of that is due to his physical transformation into the Viking prince having maintained an intense 6-day per week workout regimen for 6 weeks straight to sculpt his shredded barbaric musculature. Based on the Scandinavian tale of Amleth, the film's titular character and the legend that formed the basis for Shakespeare's Hamlet, the final duel is set around the base of an active volcano. The 2 men surrounded in flames much like the most famous movie adaptation of Hamlet, The Lion King. Whether director Robert Eggers had the animated Shakespearian story in mind is unclear but Eggers did always desire for a Viking-themed movie to end with a volcanic brawl.

Head of the fight rehearsal team Paul Philip Clark, stunt coordinator C.C. Smiff, a swordmaster who worked on the blade-on-blade battles in Game of Thrones, and stunt coordinator Jón Viðar Arnþórsson, made sure this duel to the death would resemble closely real Viking one-on-one combat. Incorporating the shield as both a defensive and offensive weapon, the final product is some of the most beautifully filmed and choreographed European swordplay out there. The movements follow a somewhat slow and graceful yet unmistakably aggressive flow. Robert Eggers wished for a fully nude fight between the two actors but was not given permission by the overseeing studio and so their jiggly bits were hidden by smoke and shadows. Eggers also intended for the naked bodies to act as a gesture of how unfearful they are of being completely unprotected and relying on only their swords and shields. In spite of the censorship, the symbolic notion behind their nudity remains as it represents their primal animalistic lust for battle and burning hatred for one another. Ending the film in a hellish sword duel blending both beauty and brutality, The Northman subverts the classic story of revenge in a brooding but ultimately liberating Northern European tale.

#9. Blade of the 47 Ronin

(could not find the fight scene featured so here's the trailer)

As a sequel to the 2013 Keanu Reeves and Hiroyuki Sanada led film, Blade of the 47 Ronin is set 3 centuries later following the modern descendants of the titular ronin in their clandestine war against the witches, a clan of sorcerers. Blade of the 47 Ronin serves up some superb sword-slashing action with a bit of Mark Dacascos for good measure. Though lead actress Anna Akana only really gets her share of the fights in earlier moments throughout the film and not so much the end, the rest of her all-Asian ensemble of co-stars compensate well in the film's finale which features several fight scenes all at once.

Japanese actress Luna Fujimoto, an experienced Wing Chun practitioner and ballet dancer, makes her western film debut hacking her way through a small train's worth of swordsman. All while New York native Teresa Ting, a 3rd degree Taekwondo black belt, competitive Wushu champion, and student of Shaolin Kung Fu, avenges her slain sister in a 1-on-1 against an ally-turned-traitor played by stunt woman Eniko Fulop who stunt doubled the character Riz in the Halo series and Taskmaster in Black Widow. Nearby, Vietnamese actor and eclectic martial artist Dustin Nguyen's normally gun-wielding modern samurai engages with the movie's 2nd traitor played by veteran Japanese martial arts actor Akira Koieyama who also portrayed Master Gouken in the web series Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist. Nguyen and Koeiyama clash cold steel in a traditional katana duel incorporating one segment focused solely on countering each other's sword-draws. On the side, Midwestern martial expert Mike Moh (Ryu from Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist and Bruce Lee from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) matches his blade against the bludgeoning club of Yoshi Sudarso, an even more underrated martial arts talent and prominent Power Rangers actor. Most of the protagonists eventually unite to cut down the main boss played by Daniel Southworth, also a favorite among the Power Rangers fandom and whose skills also include video game voice acting (Vergil from the Devil May Cry series) who handles both bullets and blades with equal ease using nothing more than just his magical witch-enhanced hands.

Southworth was also the film's action supervisor drawing from the myriad of martial arts he has learned in his extensive career to design as excellent of an action climax as he possibly could. The movie's dedication to high-quality action is also due to it being directed by Ron Yuan, actor of many films and television series from independent productions like The Paper Tigers to major Hollywood productions like Fast & Furious, The Accountant, and Independence Day: Resurgence, popular TV/streaming series like Netflix's Marco Polo, and voice acting roles in almost every major game franchise and various animated films like Mulan, including his voice role as Sub-Zero in this 2022's Mortal Kombat: Snow Blind. His interests as an action aficionado go beyond simply acting however as he stepped into the shoes of a fight choreographer having been the action director for the Jason Statham film Wild Card. Since he was busy enough with his duties as director though, Ron Yuan left much of the choreographic specialty to fight designers James Newman (check out his YouTube channel!) and Zack Roberts. Because of this specially assembled team of cinematic martial experts, the fight choreography certainly surpasses that of its predecessor forgoing the minimalistic movements of old-school samurai films for more extravagant and sustained swordplay punctuated by occasional slow-motion and CGI blood sprays. No one was expecting this sequel but when it comes to the action department, it sure exceeded those expectations.

#8. Star Wars: The Old Republic - Disorder

Adult-oriented action animation has undergone a strong surge in popularity in the late 2010s' and currently during the 2020s'. 2022 is no different giving us the gory fatality fun of

Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind, a 2nd season of Primal's caveman carnage, and a wide selection of anime including Bleach: Thousand Year Blood Arc, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, and Chainsaw Man to name a few. But this year, the animation category goes to a different area of adult animation that isn't as widely celebrated. Video game cinematics. Ever since the very first cinematic trailer for the online MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic dropped back in 2009, fans of the galaxy far far away have been treated with a new trailer every few years that are arguably more epic than anything seen in the actual films. It's been a good number of years since the last one but the 6th and latest trailer was finally released this year, titled Disorder, to accompany the newest digital expansion to the game Legacy of the Sith.

Unlike previous cinematic trailers that were produced by one of the titans of video game cinematics, Blur Studio, Disorder was animated by Industrial Light & Magic, the legendary visual effects company that was first created by George Lucas for the original Star Wars films. Lightsaber combat has always been a unique form of swordplay that has evolved greatly over the course of the Star Wars franchise. The Old Republic combines the fast, flashy, and frenetic saber style of the prequel trilogy with the simpler but more emotionally driven approach of the original and sequel trilogy to mold a novel take on lightsaber choreography. Revolving around the height of the Galactic Republic, the Jedi were at peak power as they were during the prequels which translates to their skill with the lightsaber and the Force to be in their absolute prime. As with prior cinematic trailers, both the Jedi and the Sith obliterate the environment around them with their Force abilities showing the sheer scale of their powers. In a fully CGI landscape, there are no practical limitations in capturing the action and so the camerawork is free to embrace the acrobatic spectacle of the combatants.

Each cinematic trailer from The Old Republic is choreographed in its own special manner. Disorder is the first use of dual-wielded lightsabers (at least where both are single-bladed ones) along with a short stand-up grappling engagement between the Jedi master Denolm Orr and the Sith Lord Darth Malgus. And for extra stylishness, the "saber drop" used by Rey in The Last Jedi is incorporated because almost everyone wants to use the classic knife/blade catch move in a fight scene nowadays. Moral ambiguity is all the rage in modern narratives and Star Wars has been favoring this same thematic concept lately over its classic conflict between good vs. evil. Disorder continues this preference for moral complexity by revealing the noble Jedi's own unethical ways and the negative ramifications that harm the very people of the galaxy they intend to protect while Industrial Light & Magic's famously fluid animation conveys this struggle through stellar action sequences that emphasize the power and elegance of lightsaber combat.

And on a non-adult-oriented animation note, I also hear Puss in Boots: The Last Wish has got some surprisingly good fight scenes? Do let me know what you think of that one as I have not seen it at the time of writing this article. And also, speaking of video game cinematics, make sure you check out the live action trailer/short film made for the martial arts beat em' up Sifu.

#7. RRR

(only a trailer and bits of the action sequence mentioned below as there were no full action scenes I could find on YouTube)

If you told me a decade ago that Indian action cinema would be breaking through the language barrier and taking the world by storm I would seriously not have believed you. Yet the past few years It's India that has been establishing their own culturally unique flavor of action. This year we have Bollywood's top two movie martial artists returning with Tiger Shroff in the spy comedy Heropanti 2 and Vidyut Jamwal in the dramatic action thriller Khuda Haafiz 2. The women of the Indian film industry have also started proving their action capabilities as well with Kangana Ranaut in the tactical actioner Dhaakad. Recently however, it's been South Indian films that have been leading the country's action breakthroughs with the Hindi-Telugu dual-language MMA-Kung Fu movie Liger starring Vijay Deverakonda. But the one film that has now more or less officially defined South Indian action movies and perhaps all Indian action is RRR. This semi-historical epic is based on a fantasy meet-up between fictionalized versions of two real Indian revolutionaries Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem who have otherwise never interacted with one another but both died fighting against the British Raj. RRR is quite possibly the greatest movie bromance of all time and has the highest budget in Indian cinematic history. It's title is in fact an abbreviation for "Rise. Roar, Revolt." but also stands for the names of its director S. S. Rajamouli and the film's bromantic lead stars N.T. Rama Rao Jr. and Ram Charan who together form a cinematic triple team for the ages.

And in all honesty if we're comparing it to Hollywoods action blockbusters, it is far better than another 3-letter acronym action film franchise (I mean Triple X of course). The R could also stand for "Revolution" not only in its socio-political and patriotic narrative but also in its revolutionary international breakthrough bringing attention to a form of film-making that those outside of India like myself are finally becoming more aware of an enamored by.

The movie is an action spectacle but 2 action sequences in particular are the most memorable of all; the 1st being the brotherly brawl of fire vs. water between Ram Charan and Rama Rao amidst the chaos of an entire zoo of animals being unleashed upon the British Governor's mansion. But I'll resist cheating on this entry unlike previous entries by choosing only 1; a prison breakout scene that has far less hand-to-hand combat but is far more original and truly encapsulates the bromantic bond of its mythical heroes. Rama Rao carries the broken-legged Ram Charan on his shoulders together forming an unstoppable tag-team with Rao as the legs and Charan as the arms tossing British soldiers like ragdolls and dual-wielding rifles. Ok, maybe I am cheating if I also count the forest battle that follows where Ram Charan's legs are herbally healed giving him the means to apply his mythic marksmanship to an old-fashioned bow and arrow. And man is it some of the most creative use of arrows I've ever seen. Arrows are lit on fire, kicked through a tree and into a soldier's head and even fired with unpinned grenades attached as the bodies of legions of motorcycle-mounted British troops pile the forest floor. Meanwhile Rama Rao bulldozes through the Brits impaling them with spears, clubbing them with their own rifles, and even stomping into mid-air and hurling an entire motorbike back at them.

Rajamouli is the king of over-the-top South Indian action as you would know if you've seen his prior 2-part fantasy epic Bahuabli. RRR can kind of be considered a Rajamouli superhero film except the superheroes are not of the standard American variety. It may seem silly and unrealistic but the characters are operating by their own built-in fantastical laws of physics that need not be explained much like the flying warriors of Chinese wuxia films. The action style is all about the big moments appreciated to maximum effect with an abundance of slow-motion shots as Indian films are famous for. Much of this not only due to the surprisingly sweet special effects and stuntwork but also the dedication of actors Rama Rao and Ram Charan who completed a specially made physical training workshop for their roles.

Ram Charan clearly the more athletic of the two freedom fighting bros, was already well versed in the martial arts having learned MMA and studied Aikido for some of his past films the former of which is showcased most of all in the intermission scene. Charan also added some intense sessions of boxing to his workout regimen to achieve his Indian superhero-like physique in RRR.

Rama Rao and Ram Charan are not only inspired by their characters' historical namesakes but also 2 mythological figures that reflect their distinct personalities and physical prowess; Rama Rao's character has its basis in the superhumanly agile Rama of the Ramayana myth and Ram Charan's character takes inspiration from the monstrously strong Bhima of the Mahabharata myth. And this bromantically bombastic breakout in Indian action would not have been possible without the multi-ethnic team of highly experienced Indian and non-Indian choreographic masters including action director Todor Lazarov, action director King Solomon, action director Riyaz-Habib, action designer/weapons trainer/stunt coordinator Vicky Arora, fight choreographer/stunt coordinator Ivan Kostadinov, and lastly fight choreographer/stunt coordinator Nick Powell known for The Bourne Identity, a movie on the polar opposite end of the action spectrum. Here's to hoping RRR's sequel pushes past even its predecessor's earnestly over-the-top ways to new levels. Maybe it'll be titled....RRRR?

#6. Day Shift

Shifting back to Hollywood, the past year had one of H-Wood's foremost action directors David Leitch give us what may be Brad Pitt's final films Bullet Train. On the smaller streaming screen though are some actioners that deserve as much attention. As we saw with Blade of the 47 Ronin, some say Netflix's glory days are waning but their action film output is still going fairly strong and in 2022 they gave us the Ryan Gosling/Chris Evans action comedy The Gray Man, Fistful of Vengeance the movie-length follow-up to Wu Assassins, the chaotic Korean one-take film Carter, and the France's more down-to-earth answer to the Fast & Furious franchise, Lost Bullet 2. There were also some Indonesian films that we'll get to later. But this spot on the list will be a streamer of the horror genre. Horror and action can conjure up similar emotional intensity in the audience and some directors have shown their ability to cross both subgenres like Robert Eggers with our previous ranking of The Northman. Prachya Pinkaew who once worked alongside Tony Jaa executively produced Shadow Master, a demonic horror-martial arts mash-up starring and choreographed by the oh-so unsung D.Y. Sao. But the 6th best fight scene of 2022, I'm going back to Netflix by choosing another horror-martial arts mashup, Day Shift.

Day Shift is the directorial debut of one of Hollywood's top fight choreographers J.J Perry (whose name is mentioned over the loud speakers during one particular moment in the film).

Jamie Foxx is a divorced dad trying to make ends meet for his daughter as a vampire hunter who blends in with the rest of society by posing as a pool cleaner later finding himself placed under the supervision of a nerdy and mostly incompetent office-type Dave Franco. Day Shift is basically a substitute for the movie that could have hypothetically been made if Jamie Foxx had landed the role of Blade in the upcoming Marvel film instead of Mahershala Ali. And I am so glad it was made because this film is evidence that there is still some originality left in the vampire genre especially when it comes to the action front. We even get Scott Adkins probably happy to reunite with director J.J. Perry after collaborating in Undisputed 2 who shows up as one among a pair of vampire-slaying brothers in an gloriously gory team-up house raid. A vampire action flick would obviously need a beautifully bloody final battle and it delivers that in spades but my pick actually goes to the very first vampire kill in the film.

That vampire being an initially unassuming and friendly elderly lady of all people

this isn't your ordinary bloodsucking grandma but a nearly unbreakable contortionist who bends and cracks around Jamie Foxx's close-range shotgun blasts and machete swings. This is a vampiric action comedy of course so some humor is sprinkled in with the overwhelming blood splattering. One specific instance of which is where the fight is seen through the reflection of a mirror in which only the amusingly disembodied clothing of the geriatric vampire is visible making this one of the few times in which elder abuse is completely fine. 3 doubles were used for the granny vamp each for their own specialty; the melee combat, the stunts, and of course one for the body contortions. The contortionist being one of many inhumanly flexible individuals featured in the film some of which were former performers from the world renowned Cirque du Soleil who were asked to play vampires to offer employment after their jobs became nearly nonexistent during the pandemic.

In an incredibly innovative method of filming contortionism without the necessity of any CGI, the creepily double-jointed vampire actors had their horrifying postures elevated with wires after which the footage would be played in reverse with J.J. Perry's own special filming speed to create the disturbingly contorted movements you see in the movie.

Gun-Fu will probably not die out as an action movie trend any time soon and the "shotgun-fu" of Day Shift is even more understandable given that J.J. Perry is a long-time friend and colleague of John Wick director Chad Stahelski who was also one of the film's producers. With the assistance of Jamie Foxx's always reliable stunt double Gee Alexander, fight choreographer Felix Betancourt (fight choreographer of other Netflix originals The Grey Man and Shadow and Bone), fight coordinator Eric Brown (also fight choreographer of John Wick 2), and fight coordinator Michael Lehr (stunt coordinator behind numerous major Hollywood action flicks but also recognizable in many indie fight scenes on YouTube), Day Shift is a testament to the choreographic creativity that can still be incorporated into what is thought to be the stale vampire genre and what is considered by some as a stale streaming service.

#5. Everything, Everywhere, All At Once

Sadly nothing of significant note has come out of Hong Kong or the Chinese mainland this year in terms of martial arts cinema besides a few good but not necessarily great films from both the bigger and lesser known actors of the industry. Wang Zhao starred as the folk hero Fong Sai-Yuk in Unbending Mr. Fang, Dennis To can now claim not only Ip Man but also Huo Yuanjia on the list of historical Chinese martial arts figures he has cinematically portrayed with The Grandmaster of Kung Fu, Xing Yu took on the criminal underworld in Kowloon Walled City, Louis Fan became a supernatural detective in Taoist Master Kylin, Andy On became a blind SWAT officer in Blind War, the once child prodigy Tse Miu played a blind swordsman in Defiant (and also Ip Man in Ip Man: Awakening Master but even though it got a wider release namely on Hi-Yah! this year, I had already watched a copy of it in 2021 and mentioned it on that year's list), and Max Zhang joined a counter-terror group in Wolf Pack. But in HK's absence, H-Wood has been partly inheriting their legacy with filmmakers that have been raised on Hong Kong action. And it was only a matter of time before a film like Everything, Everywhere, All At Once from preeminent arthouse studio A24 came along to represent this new generation of martial arts movie-makers. Directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, known together as "The Daniels", both of whom also directed the outlandish black comedy Swiss Army Man, a movie that features Daniel Radcliffe as a human corpse-raft propelled by farts, the directorial duo had been writing the screenplay for Everything, Everywhere, All At Once since 2016 with Michelle Yeoh's role originally intended for Jackie Chan until being rewritten just for Yeoh.

The matriarch of martial arts cinema Michelle Yeoh stars as a laundromat owner at risk of being audited by the IRS. The least of her worries as an alternate version of her husband played by once child actor and now returning adult actor Ke Huy Quan awakens her to a nihilistic threat that could jeopardize the existence of all reality. Everything, Everywhere, All At Once is a tribute to Hong Kong cinema even more so than last year's Asian actor dominated Shang-Chi managing to land Asian American acting legend James Hong along with the Chinese characters speaking Cantonese and certain scenes in the film recreating the cinematographic style of Wong Kar-Wai. But the most relevant Hong Kong styling added to the movie for our list is obviously the action design. Worth mentioning first is the unforgettable fanny pack fu of Ke Huy Quan who to be entirely honest I only knew from Indiana Jones and The Goonies but apparently is also an amazing Takewondo stylist and Wushu practitioner as well as the assistant action choreographer for The One. An older multiverse movie starring Jet Li. The dude seriously needs a Hollywood Renaissance after proving his dramatic and martial screen presence in this film. Though Ke Huy Quan is absolutely awesome, this spot will have to go to the other star who is also receiving her own kind of rebirth, which has also landed her a part in The Witcher: Blood Origin. Of course I mean Michelle Yeoh. The wacky dimension-hopping final confrontation with the film's enigmatic antagonist is silly and heart-rending all at the same time. But her finest fight sequence comes mid-way in the film. And although I may be bending the rules again, these fight scenes are all consecutively strung together and are some of the most absurdly creative out there do why not?

Michelle Yeoh uses her verse-jumping abilities to access the skills of a version of herself who became a global martial arts megastar, basically Michelle Yeoh in real life, and mixes it with the heightened sense of hearing and increased lung capacity of an opera-singing version of herself to blindly and breathlessly resist the tear gas of agents sent by the Alphaverse version of her father. Further leveling up the choreographic creativity is Yeoh adapting a sign-board spinning version of herself to elegantly weaponize a riot shield. Captain America would be impressed. Next is an office break room brawl against another Alphaverse agent who whips around her cute corgi like a wushu meteor hammer which Yeoh defeats by tapping into one of her master chef variants from a universe that is an intentional knock-off of Ratatouille. Immediately after is the weirdest fight sequence yet against the butt-plug brothers and the film's fight choreographers themselves Andy and Brian Le in their 2nd blockbuster movie year in a row after Andy Le's turn as Death Dealer in Shang-Chi. The weirdness only ends once Yeoh discovers the power of the pinky as a true martial artist should be able to utilize every part of their body even if it means growing biceps on certain extremities that shouldn't have biceps in the first place. All of this being watched on-screen as an opening premiere by the quasi-real-life Michelle Yeoh variant in a clever meta-movie moment. The Daniels even had the luxury of sneaking in a Super Smash Bros. critical hit sound effect for Yeoh's upward pinky strike.

The Le brothers and their Martial Club team have been gradually stepping into the martial mainstream with each passing year. And aside from Brian Le's turn as an evil monk in Shadow Master, it's this film that has allowed them to again showcase their unique brand of martial arts action that mixes traditional Kung Fu, acrobatic Wushu, and modern tricking framed in wide longer takes that allow full appreciation of the action. Their martial mastery has contributed in bringing forth a specific blend of sci-fi, martial arts, and philosophy that has not been executed so ingeniously since The Matrix over 20 years ago. Without a dildo of a doubt, Everything, Everywhere, All At Once is one of the best films of 2022 if not outright THE best film nominated for a whole stack of Golden Globes including Michelle Yeoh winning the award for Best Actress and Ke Huy Quan for Best Supporting Actor all which was for its existential heart and humor as well as a huge helping of Hong Kong style action. It managed to magnificently merge the martial, the marital, the multiversal, and the meaning of life all at once. Multiverse movies have become their own popular subgenre and Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is definitely one of the genre's best but Everything, Everywhere, All At Once might just be the multiverse movie to end all multiverse movies.

#4. The Big 4

2022 satiated many a martial arts cinephile with a lineup of various Silat streamers on Netflix; Yayan Ruhian as the big bad in both Ben & Jody and Mat Kilau, and as we mentioned before on this list, Fistful of Vengeance. Outside Indonesia, other Southeast Asian countries have attempted their own stab at action and in 2022 Malaysia released the schizophrenic thriller The Assistant. But for the 4th best fight scene for the list, I'm staying in Indonesia by selecting The Big 4. The 4th entry on this list having a "4" in it's title is pure coincidence, I swear . While Gareth Evans has focused on non-Indonesian work after The Raid 2, Timo Tjahjanto has spiritually and stylistically succeeded him sticking to the semi-horror-esque violence in several Indonesian films throughout the past decade. In 2022 however, Tjahjanto surprised everyone by delving into more comedic territory albeit with the same signature blood and gore. Among the gallery of gory gun-blazing action is a hotel scene incorporating some martial arts slapstick that echoes the best days of Hong Kong physical comedy lead by the likes of Jackie Chan. The best is saved for last though as the film's climax sees the 3 members and the newest unofficial 5th member of the eponymous "big 4", a group of recently retired assassins, rescue their hostage-held 4th member by storming a hotel occupied by the psychotic big baddie played by Indonesian actor/model, Marthino Lio.

Another Indonesian actor/model, Lutesha, mows down the building's mercenaries with almost equally psychotic glee before going 1-on-1 with second-in-command henchwoman and bazooka badass Michelle Tahalea whose flexible high kicks give Lutesha an intense femme fatale fight. That is until a miracle marksman played by actor and comedian Arie Kriting joins the fray to even the odds. Yet another actress/model Putri Marino engages in a vicious brawl with a crazy killer hip hop artist looking Kho Michael, actor and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner, keen on avenging the death of his twin brother who throws Putri Marino wall to wall with his brute strength. But the main fight is between the deranged and deadly Marthino Lio and actor/producer Abimana Aryasatya who had previously portrayed an Indonesian Silat superhero in Gundala and among the side cast of another Timo Tjahjanto film The Night Comes For Us starring Joe Taslim and Iko Uwais. Marthino Lio swings his scorpion stinger like hair braid for which his character is named after while also relying on his assortment of knives. All 3 fights go on at the same time 2 of which are in dilapidated hallways reminiscent of the groundbreaking action film that started the Indonesian action film craze, The Raid.

Despite most of the fighters featured being actors/models with limited martial arts experience, their theatrical combat skill is pretty damn good made more cinematically appealing with the lively camera that hits the right degree of shakiness and follows the exact motions of the fighters keeping key moments in center frame. The climactic carnage is all choreographic courtesy of the movie's fight choreographer Muhammad Irfan who was not only involved with Indonesian action comedy Hit & Run starring Joe Taslim but had already collaborated with director Timo Tjahjanto in his 2 most successful movies Headshot and The Night Comes For Us. Tjahjanto's flavor of black comedy might be the change needed to freshen up the Indonesian action market and a sequel is more than welcome. I don't even care if the title were to be as uncreative aslike "The Big 5" or something because I'd watch it in a heart beat. In fact, that would actually play well with its comedic tone as a self-referential joke much like 21 Jump Street's sequel being called 22 Jump Street.

#3. Baby Assassins

Unless it's Rurouni Kenshin, most Japanese action films go under-the radar. But if you're reading this article, they probably stay well within your radar at least by the time you've gotten this far on the list. Kingdom 2 can be considered one of these. The 2nd in a soon-to-be trilogy of live action films adapted from the manga/anime of the same name that has swordplay of a similar style to that of the Rurouni Kenshin films. However, the 3rd best fight scene will instead go to an even more unknown movie. Directed by Yugo Sakamoto and a prequel/spin-off to 2021's A Janitor, Baby Assassins stars Mone Akitani and Saori Izawa as 2 high school contract killers, who first appeared as side characters in A Janitor, forced to become room mates under the order of their employer. The opening convenience store fight brilliantly sets the bloody but bonkers tone of the film to prepare us for the inevitable 3rd act.

Our 2 adolescent anti-heroines, like the last entry, storm the house of the main antagonist guns blazing. Mone Akitani is great as a perky and trigger-happy assassin but Japanese stuntwoman Saori Izawa steals the spotlight as a polar opposite personality; quiet and moody but even more dangerous than the sociopathic Akitani. Saori Izawa is known for her stuntwork in some of the best Japanese action films in recent memory like the phenomenal live action Rurouni Kenshin series, and 2 films starring Japanese action legend Tak Sakaguchi in Kingdom and Re:Born. And so it comes without much surprise that Baby Assassin's top action sequence is with Saori Izawa but also with who is allegedly the Japanese underworld's greatest hired killer played by the oh-so underrated movie martial artist and action choreographer Masanori Mimoto. Designing this fight scene is one of Japan's greatest action directors Kensuke Sonomura of last year's Hydra, which was a collaborative project with Masanori Mimoto among many others including the hidden gem Ninja Hunter. Besides straight live action martial arts action films like the cult upon cult classics Bushido Man, Kensuke Sonomura is also known for many video game adaptations like Resident Evil: Vendetta and Tekken: Blood Vengeance.

Like Hydra, Kensuke Sonomura takes the gritty MMA style of Donnie Yen's Flash Point and dials up the sound of clothes ruffling up and dials down the volume of the actual impact of strikes to create a distinct sonic style of combat. Stand-up striking is also more defensive than in Flash Point with Saori Izawa and Masanori Mimoto unleashing flurries of punching combinations that are blocked by peek-a-boo stances while wider swings are dodged and slipped with bobbing and weaving. The ground fighting is also....well...grounded. The only difference is the added gun-fu segment in the beginning which is also made in Kensuke Sonomura's lighting fast manner, a pace that is familiar to those who have seen the glorious gunplay of a particular hallway sequence also choreographed by Sonomura in Resident Evil: Vendetta. Video game movies/series are bigger than ever so hopefully it's only a matter of time before he makes a larger claim to international fame. In the meanwhile we also have these more obscure Japanese actioners to look forward to every year. Who knows, maybe Kensuke Sonomura might make a more successful transition to Hollywood than did Kenji Tanigaki in Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins. (I really do hope Tanigaki is used more effectively in a future Hollywood film though, he deserves it)

#2. The Killer: A Girl Who Deserves To Die

If there's one country in the world that's been delivering international action hits to rival anything from the West, it's Korea and they've arguably surpassed even Indonesia's level of action-oriented fame in the last few years. 2022 was no different with the choreographed chaos of Netflix's Carter, the time-traveling wuxia-esque Alienoid, the body-hopping action thriller Spiritwalker, Don Lee's personal punching party in The Roundup, and the superhuman sequel The Witch: Part 2. The Other One.

Out of all of these, I decided to go with The Killer: A Girl Who Deserves To Die. Adapted from a well-known Korean novel The Kid Deserves To Die, The Killer stars Jang Hyuk as, tell me if you've head this one before, a former assassin pulled back into the hitman game. And because it's a hitman film, it incorporates the one choreographic trope that is so common within the hitman subgenre, gun-fu. Any self-respecting action movie is obligated to end in an extravagant finale and The Killer is no different saving the greatest gun-fu sequence for last. The gunplay is a little slower-paced like John Wick but without as much ground grappling and Judo throws. Jang Hyuk non-chalantly slices and shoots an entire compound of men with guns, axes, knives, and sticks occasionally kneeling down to execute a finishing move before returning to his calm and composed steady walk. Being a Jeet Kune Do practitioner, this may be interpreted as Hyuk having taken inspiration from the similarly stoic and unfazed Bruce Lee. Except unlike Bruce's more passionate moments of martial rage, Hyuk approaches every opponent with complete composure. The 360-spinning camera and slow-motion style of 2021's The Swordsman, specifically the scene where Jang Hyuk cuts down a squad of rifleman, is re-used in The Killer for extra stylishness. The hallway massacre eventually leads to a rematch with a Russian Spetsnaz-trained mercenary played by Bruce Khan, a 4-time world Hapkido champion, and a proficient practitioner of a multitude of other martial arts.

Bruce Khan's superhuman speed and aerial arsenal of kicks from Revenger are mostly kept out to ground the action as the lower tempo plays more to Jang Hyuk's rhythm. The striking and grappling are mixed with a variety of weapons as was the sequence that came before going from guns, to knives, and finally fists flowing together into a dancelike yet realistic duel of assassins. Like in The Swordsman, Jang Hyuk and director Choi Jae-Hoon were the choreographic craftsmen behind the action likely having shared creative input from Bruce Khan all to construct their own distinctive action aesthetic. Jang Hyuk and Choi Jae-Hoon might just be another actor/director duo to look out for in the coming years after landing some of Korea's greatest action titles like The Swordsman and The Killer. What's next?

#1. Accident Man: Hitman's Holiday

Taking the top spot on this list is a movie that combines classic Hong Kong style action with contemporary cinematographic flair and some British humor. I'm talking Accident Man: Hitman's Holiday. Probably a superior sequel in every way, Accident Man 2 may seem like an obvious pick for a list like this and Scott Adkins had to make his way in it at some point after being mentioned on the entry for Day Shift. This would be Adkins' 3rd film from 2022 after also appearing as an antagonistic agent in Section 8 and of course Accident Man: Hitman's Holiday is by far the best of his 2022 movie lineup. Produced by and partly written by Scott Adkins as a passion project follow-up to the 2018 live action comic adaptation, Adkins returns as the eponymous "accident man" who is tasked with not assassinating a target but playing bodyguard to the spoiled son of a mob boss whose life is threatened at every corner by a cast of colorful contract killers. Like many assassin films these days, the action is not about assassination at a distance but assassination up close and personal and Accident Man: Hitman's Holiday couldn't make this clearer with a mashup of multiple melee fights. My personal favorites are the weapon duel between Scott Adkins and a Ghana "vampire" (world kickboxing champ Faisal Mohammed) as well as the penultimate 2-on-2 pitting Adkins against a crazed clown (action design company Ki Films' Beau Fowler) and Wushu extraordinaire Sarah Chang against a San Fran strangler (stunt coordinator Peter Lee Thomas). And although I almost went with the latter as the #1 fight scene of 2022 for the unique character attributes implemented into the fight sequence, I decided to give into what is likely the status quo and choose the final fight.

Scott Adkins goes up against an actual ninja, the OG assassin that all other assassins are compared with. And that ninja is played by none other than former Jackie Chan stunt team member and rising fight choreographer Andreas Nguyen also known as Andy Long. Long has come miles from his origins as an internet action short film-maker and has now been behind some incredible fight design including 2021's Sanak. Though his character is described as an expert in Ninjutsu, his fighting style is in fact a mix of many martial arts from Kung Fu, Judo, Hapkido, and Taekwondo. Along with his terrific tricking skills, Andy Long's versatile martial arts background is presented in this particular fight scene as a primarily kick-centric form that even gives the TKD footwork of Scott Adkins' character a run for his blood-soaked money. Originally meant to appear as the katana-wielding killer played by Amy Johnston in the 1st Accident Man, Andy Long finally made his "long" overdue appearance in this 2nd outing as not only a modern ninja but also one of the makers of the movie's martial mayhem as the film's fight choreographer sharing his duties with the original Accident Man's Tim Man as well as Scott Adkins himself possibly in his first time as choreographer. It may be because of Andy Long's involvement in the fight design that Accident Man 2's fight sequences are far faster than its predecessor intensified by its almost anime-like kinetic camerawork. I would've personally loved to have seen an extended sword vs. fists/feet section towards the end but that may have been a little repetitive given how we already gotten something like that between Scott Adkins and Amy Johnston in the first film. The incredibly narrow 22-day shoot for the movie might've also cut down on the overall length and complexity of the fight but the end product is short and sweet.

Taking over from Jesse V. Johnson in the first movie is the brotherly directorial duo Harry and George Kirby in their biggest budget film to date after putting out numerous lower-budget fan-made films of beloved franchises from Batman to Dragon Ball Z. George Kirby in particular drew from his prolific career as a Hollywood stuntman to also work double duty as one of the fight choreographers along with the aforementioned Andy Long, Tim Man, and Scott Adkins. Joining this team of masterful martial movie makers is fight choreographer Hung Dante Dong and assistant fight coordinator Samuel Mak. It is because of these guys that the frenetically fun finale of Accident Man: Hitman's Holiday isn't necessarily the most original fight scene of this list but it is the most technically well executed recreating the stylistic flavor of the golden years of Hong Kong action cinema edging out other HK inspired fight sequences of 2022 like Mark Zaror's 1-on-1 with Andy Cheng in Green Ghost and the Masters of the Stone.

Wow, have I seriously procrastinated on this article. Sorry for the wait as it was supposed to be out by the end of December but I got lazy and burnt out. Let's make that 2023's new year's resolution. But hey, at least its now published so please consider leaving a comment on what you thought of it and whether you think the end fight of Accident Man: Hitman's Holiday is kind of overrated and another fight scene should've taken it's place. Feel free to subscribe to the website to be notified of the next top 12 list. The Michael Jai White article was meant to be written before this list but like I said before, I was defeated by my own laziness. So that'll be next. Stay tuned for it.