“I HEARD MY hand snap and I was like, ‘Oh, this is bad,’” Dev Patel tells Empire, describing the moment a bone broke while making Monkey Man.
Anyone who’s seen the visceral revenge movie (also Patel’s directorial debut) can attest to its bone-splintering sense of realism —the tale of a street kid in India seeking vengeance on wealthy villains, its action is kinetic, brutal and based on strenuously rehearsed choreography. It’s the latest in a long tradition of action movies, orchestrating fights practically on set. But also out recently is Doug Liman’s Road House, Prime Video’s most popular original movie, which uses a very different approach. It sees Jake Gyllenhaal and UFC star Conor McGregor trading blows in VFX-assisted combat, filmed —in Gyllenhaal’s words — “in a way that’s never been done before”. Although it’s not immediately obvious, Road House is full of digital trickery, its brawls put together in the editing room.
These two films represent two opposing forces in the action genre. But which one is the future? “We’re at a peak right now,” says Garrett Warren, the director/stuntman who designed the innovative fights in Road House. “Action has become so elevated that audiences expect more and more. When I get called onto a movie, it’s no longer, ‘We need some fights.’ It’s: ‘We need something really groundbreaking.’”
Warren’s answer on Road House was a technique he dubs “the glorified pillow fight” —a multi-take process involving actors performing slow-motion combat, before walloping (and being walloped by) safety pads. The shots are then sped up and digitally stitched together to create the semblance of one long, epically brutal dust-up. “Doug wanted it like a UFC fight, where the camera never cuts,” Warren tells us. “Using the pads, we could have Conor throwing a full-force headbutt ‘at’ Jake, without the actors worrying about getting hurt.”
The results have been much debated, some viewers complaining that the effect is jarring, others delighted by the savage-looking fights. British action star Scott Adkins is on the fence. “I really enjoyed Road House, and that headbutt worked great,” he tells Empire. “But I felt some of the [fight scenes] had that ‘uncanny valley’ aspect. I’ll always prefer practical stuff —it’s a more visceral experience when you know it’s real.” He’s not alone —the publicity for Ryan Gosling-powered action-comedy The Fall Guy has trumpeted its practical stunts, including a 150-foot leap from a helicopter and the official Guinness World Record for ‘Most Cannon Rolls In A Car’ (eight-and-a-half ).