Tony Jaa is the man. We all know this. But man, this FOUR MINUTE, ONE TAKE, NO EDITS, NO WIRES, NO SPECIAL EFFECTS fight scene is one of the most insane things I’ve ever seen. It’s from “The Protector”. Thanks to the venerable Chuck Norris for the heads up on this. Check it out:
To make this even more interesting, check out the info about this scene from the YouTube page:
“The director calls this “the most dangerous long take scene ever.” A 4 minute stedicam shot featuring a variety of martial arts.
The crew spent over 1 month preparing and choreographing before they were able to get a perfect shot. When it came time to shoot, they could only do 2 takes per day because of the set repairing and prop replacement that needed to be done. It took 5 takes to get it right. A foreign cameraman was needed because the stedicam mount was built for american / european operators who are typically much larger than asian operators.
The foreign operator they hired could only do two flights of stairs at a time and simply gave up. They decided to use a Thai stedicam operator who physically prepared for a month for this job.
The reason the shot is 4 minutes is because reels of 35mm film are only about 4 min in length.
They shot the first take which had a number of problems with stuntmen cues, and even a stuntman bumping into the stedicam operator. After choreographing more dynamic action, an increase of extras and improving the set, the next take they did was 17 days after the first take.
The second take was better but when the stuntman was supposed to be thrown from the 3rd story, the safety mattress was not completely in place yet so Tony Jaa stopped the shot and saved the stuntman’s life.
The third take was just about perfect but just before Tony Jaa was supposed to bust through the last doorway, the film ran out. The director finally decided that instead of simply cutting there, they would try again for perfection.
They thought the fourth take was perfect but after review there were some parts that weren’t as good as the pervious takes. They decided on one more try.
On the fifth try, it was almost perfect. But there were 2 miscues. On the 2nd floor, Tony Jaa slams a door into the head of a stuntman and the small glass window on the door was supposed to break. It failed to do so, so they used CGI to fix this. The 2nd issue was the fight just before the sink gets thrown. The timing was off as planned but the end result looked natural so they decided this was the take to use in the final film. Simply amazing.”
29 Comments, Comment or Ping
moviegab
Tony Jaa is the future of martial arts !!
Sep 3rd, 2008
dave
Dude, have you not seen this? Good gravy, you should check out the circus of joint manipulation/splitting/cracking that happens closer to the movie’s conclusion..
My lanta. I mean seriously.
Sep 3rd, 2008
Phil Gee
I have to admit that i’ve seen stuff in Jackie Chan films that I thought was crazier than this but that doesn’t take anything away from the amazingness of this scene. Thank you for sharing sir.
All the while i was watching it, i just kept thinking how awesome it would be if this were the opening scene of the new G.I.Joe film but with Snake Eyes beating up Cobra soliders.
Sep 3rd, 2008
nautica
ong bak 2 should be crazy insane! sure looks that way in the trailer.
Sep 3rd, 2008
Ramsey
that was amazing. it’s rare to see long scene without any cuts. they make you feel like you’re standing behind the guy.
Sep 3rd, 2008
Homero
Both of his big films are filled with these kind of scenes, there’s one in a warehouse involving bikes, motorcycles and ATV.
I agree with Dave, one of my favorite scenes is the fight at the end of this film with all the guys and their broken bones, oh man, it’s ridiculous. I think I’m gonna have to search my DVD collection for the films again.
Sep 3rd, 2008
moviereign
Tony Jaa is a rock concert. I thought this movie was awesome. After I saw it, I took this girl I was dating at the time to see it and she broke out in laughter during the bone breaking scene.
Sep 3rd, 2008
Dragonslayer
That was so freaking awesome!
Sep 3rd, 2008
Sound Designer Dan
To be honest, TECHNICALLY I thought this was mad impressive and I was hyped at the start of the fight. Unfortunately, you can only see the same stuff over and over again and by the end of the scene/shot, I was already bored.
For my money the craziest AND ridiculous fight scenes are from the Story of Ricky:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vxd08Sp_FdI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaC9WfQ-Fzg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWImBJyxPCE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2y2DpCbLBs
Sep 3rd, 2008
T-Vo
Can;t compare this with Chan, apples and oranges I say. The Muay Thai style is much “harder” style whereas Kung Fu or Wu Shu is much more subtle and more graceful. Chan’s movements are much faster, and Jaa’s are more deliberate but seems more powerful, but both are great to watch.
Moral of the story, never steal Tony Jaa’s elephant. This is why he is so pissed!
Sep 3rd, 2008
T-Vo
Doug,
Heres another awesome fight scene. From Donnie Yen’s last movie. He was quoted as saying MMA has influenced him alot lately and he incorporated into his fighting chereography. I can safely say, this is the first time MMA moves has been used on the big screen. Watch for the arm bars and knees to the body while in side mount! Donnie Yen FTW!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmwjfoel79o
Sep 3rd, 2008
Antonio
I stand in awe of the preparation that was needed to get this scene to work.
Note to action movie directors: If you want us to feel like we’re (the audience) is part of the action, throw away the shaky cam and watch this clip!
Sep 3rd, 2008
T-Vo
I couldn’t agree more, American directors need to get rid of that shaky cam for fight scenes. I’m pointing at you Bourne and Batman Begins!
Sep 3rd, 2008
JJ
Tony Jaa is badass. Never steal his elephant or else he will get pissed, and you won’t like him when he pissed.
Sep 3rd, 2008
Tommy
Not to be rude but Tony Jaa makes Jackie Chan look like a cum dumpster!
Sep 3rd, 2008
finaljoe
Jackie Chan would get Tony Jaa’s intestines for dinner, but he’s too much of a nice guy.
There is nothing new or original about Jaa. All he does is rip off Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung.
This scene is boring. The fighting and stunts are simplistic. The stuntment take their que and wait for Jaa to make his move. Just because you can do something in one take doesn’t mean you should. Cuts add power to fight scenes. Jackie Chan knows this.
Sep 3rd, 2008
mikey4402
LOL i like the guy with the Stone cold steve austin shirt.
Impressive scene, although I have seen better fighting though..but never with such a long take
Sep 3rd, 2008
Beej
I remember seeing this movie with my brother. We didn’t like the movie very much, but I remember when it got to this scene, about a minute into it we were both like, holy crap, this is one shot. Impressive stuff.
Sep 3rd, 2008
miles
…that is so cool.
Sep 3rd, 2008
nevada smith
Totally agree with finaljoe above-all I kept thinking was that it looked like a poorly choreagraphed dance. the prep work must have been massive and one shot always seems impressive-but it looked rehearsed-where these type of shots really only work if it looks fluid and natural-this just looked like everyone was waiting for their cue and then stepping in.
Sep 3rd, 2008
parker
Shaky cam is better because the truth of it is the mind needs to fill in a little bit of the move transitions, when you see it all in one shot like that it looks very choreographed, which sucks. That is partly why in the name of the kind was so bad, no shaky cam and those fight scenes were terrible.
Just my opinion though, I just did not like this one, but the Ong Bak 2 trailer looks amazing and Tony Jaa definitely deserves respect for his martial arts.
Sep 3rd, 2008
Erika
Ummm. It kinda looks like a video game. It is cool to look at. =D
Sep 3rd, 2008
Jon
Cant believe you havent seen these movies. Some of the best recent martial arts stuff out there. Get Tony Jaa in a hollywood film without Chris Tucker and it will be great.
Sep 4th, 2008
Gordon Shumway
Thought Ong Bak overall was better but this is a major highlight of ‘Warrior King’ as its called in the UK.
Sep 4th, 2008
calviin
I felt like I was watching a video game. The camera following instead of using cuts to follow the main character felt like any regular third person video game I’ve played. Cinematic, sure, but still had the game feel. I did like it.
Somehow, WordPress is telling me this is a duplicate comment, yet I don’t see any other instance of a comment from me in this post.
Sep 4th, 2008
Anti-Ceptic
Tony Jaa’s fight scenes are always amazing, too bad his movies leave me so depressed. If the could only combine these amzing fight scenes with a semblance of plot it would be a huge win. The editing on this fight scene was very good, but editing throughout the movie is horrible. There is just very little plot to carry this film.
Tony has been working with Hong Kong Directors as of late so I think we will start seeing some better high quality movies from him.
Sep 4th, 2008
Christian Seehausen
Unbelievable that he managed to get all that in one take. It reminds me more of a play than a movie, except more ambitious than any play I’ve ever seen. The biggest challenge with any really long take like this is maintaining the energy, especially in a fight scene, and that’s where I think this falls flat. With a couple of exceptions, the scene doesn’t feel very kinetic-without any fast cuts and without particularly spectacular stunts (except a couple) it’s hard to get very excited about what’s going on.
Sep 4th, 2008
Lars
I really like long takes, but as other posters already said: It’s the same thing over and over again. In my opionion the action sequences in “Children of Men” are much better because the action is much more complex (think the war zone in the ghetto or the car sequence) and the takes are even longer. Of course they used CGI, but properly used it is a legitimate tool.
Sep 5th, 2008
vid
Although still impressive technically, I think the main problem is that the camera is never really close up to the fight so it doesn’t seem as intense. That’s a problem you’d have with one take. It means only one angle and lugging that camera fast enough up those stairs makes it difficult to keep up with Jaa.
The difference with guys like Jackie, Tony and Jet is that they can fight for this long in one take whereas most hollywood action stars require the fast cutting and multiple angles because there is so much complicated choreography in a good fight scene. I cite Drunken Master II and Black Mask as a couple of examples, there are of course many.
Many hong kong action movies have really long takes where it’s just two guys whailing on each other while hollywood action movies of late make so many cuts you have no idea what the hell is going on. ie: Bourne movies, SWAT.
Seeing Jackie Chan or Jet Li up close against a single equally skilled opponent without cutting I find to be infinitely more exciting than one with a lot of cuts. Those guys just move so damn fast. I will admit that a controlled amount of cutting and different angles can certainly enhance the action and compensate for a rather weak fighting scene by making it seem more visceral and exciting. Sometimes this works in some of Bourne’s better fight scenes but sometimes you just have a headache figuring out what just happened.
Sep 9th, 2008
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