Iconic Fight Scenes Were Made Better By Actors Who Were Willing To Get Their A**es Kicked

Universal

Most actors these days need to know how to take a punch. That’s because, as superhero franchises dominate the box office and high-octane action continues to sell out theaters, Hollywood is banking on the “tough guy,” the hero who can save the day and also, kick a ton of a**. The only thing that sells more than sex is violence, and cinema has found a way to perfect the formula, giving us muscled masculinity coupled with a hint of morality and snarky dialogue. We like to see these bros beat the bad guys to a pulp, save the world, land the girl, and crack a few jokes along the way to keep things light.

For men, these characters represent an idyllic, if unattainable, form of machismo with their hulking frames and fighting prowess. For women, they play into a fantasy trope, the strong noble white knight, the modern form of chivalry — just with more muscle tees and steroids. But, because our idea of masculinity continues to evolve, we’re now questioning if these “tough guys” really make for the most realistic idols.

A recent article from the Wall Street Journal took a look at the contracts of three action stars who’ve become household names — Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Jason Statham, and Vin Diesel. All three men have shared the screen in the Fast & Furious franchise with Johnson and Statham headlining the latest installment, Hobbs & Shaw. That film sees the two former enemies teaming up to defeat a new villain in Idris Elba’s enhanced mercenary, Brixton, which is a good thing because it seems neither of these A-Listers enjoys losing, especially to each other.

The article details how Johnson and Shaw negotiated previous fight scenes involving their characters, nitpicking everything from how many punches were thrown, who was shoved through which drywalls and glass windows, and, most importantly, which man would come out on top. Diesel, who’s grown the franchise from the ground up, once suggested a point system to ensure he’d never seem the weaker of his two co-stars, while Statham has put contractual limits on how badly he can be beaten up on screen, and Johnson employs fight coordinators to guarantee he appears to be the most technically proficient fighter of the group.

It’s diva behavior, to be sure, and it’d earn nothing more than an eye-roll from those amongst us who have already recognized how exhaustingly childish the effects of toxic masculinity can be, but there’s another reason these revelations matter — besides confirming that, unlike the brutish men they play on-screen, these stars are fussy, vain, and just a bit fragile.

As the Fast & Furious franchise as worn on, the explosions have gotten bigger, the chase sequences more thrilling, and the fight scenes more absurd. We’ve seen men thrown from buildings, leaping over lanes of traffic, and trading blows with blunt objects and scrap metal, emerging relatively unscathed with no clear winner. It’s the kind of hollow, low-stakes action that’s come to define the series, action that’s on full display in Hobbs & Shaw. We know none of these men are going to seriously injure or kill the other — their box office draw is too great to waste — and now, thanks to this report on their lengthy fight clauses, we know we’ll probably never have a clear winner should they once again face off against each other.

And that’s the most concerning consequence of letting these men, who have crafted acting careers largely based on their physical prowess and overexaggerated manliness, have the final word in how “unmanly” they’re willing to be seen in a fistfight. If no one can win, if beloved characters aren’t at risk if these dudes aren’t willing to get knocked down every now and then, why should we be invested?