When regular fight scenes just aren’t thrilling enough, knife fights sure fit the bill. Unlike regular fight scenes, knife fights are usually going to end in death which makes it much more thrilling for the audience. Also just about every action or martial arts movie out there has a fist fight scene, but very few movies have knife fight scenes. Even fewer have knife fight scenes that are actually well done.
A good knife fight scene usually should incorporate skills and techniques from various knife fighting martial arts out there such as kali/eskrima and other Filipino martial arts. However, more importantly it is imperative that they seem realistic and these scenes did a great job doing just that.
3) Rebel without a Cause (1955)
This one may surprise many but it is in fact a very well done knife scene as well as an important part of cinema history. Starring the iconic James Dean, this scene did a great job keeping the viewer captivated throughout and for its time was very well done.
Though it doesn’t have the shock value or gore of other knife fight scenes, James Dean’s character is still able to effectively disarm his opponent and ends up showing him mercy.
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2) Commando (1985)
After mowing down hundreds of bad guys throughout this flick with military grade firearms having a knife fight scene at the end makes perfect sense. This iconic knife fight featured a prime Arnold Schwarzenegger taking on bad guy Bennet with his character’s daughter’s life on the line.
The only things bigger than Arnold’s muscles in this scene were their knives which look to be more like hunting knives than combat/military blades. Though they do end up dropping their knives and end up finishing it with other ‘tools’ which is why this scene is at number two on our list.
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1) Under Siege (1992)
Starring martial arts icon Steven Seagal, this one has much more of a martial arts influence compared to others on this list. In this scene, you can see Seagal using a reverse grip on his knife which has some advantages when compared to a standard grip. For one it gives you a more solid grip on the handle, which prevents you from being disarmed. It can also be used defensively as well in this position.
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One drawback of the reverse grip though is it limits your angle of attack to downwards thrusts, which Seagal ends up using to emphatically finish this great knife fight scene with Tommy Lee Jones.
