Fight Clip Club: They Live

…and I’m all out of bubblegum.

So when I taught stage combat at the college level, the final exam for the semester-long course was to incorporate all three weapons (or all two, in some cases) into a scripted scene, and choreograph and perform the scene to the highest quality possible. Scenes could not be written by the students—they had to pick something published and produced, though they did their own choreography. Some semesters we went over only unarmed and sword, some we did unarmed, staff, and sword. I don’t remember which type of semester this was—I think it was just swords and unarmed—but one year my students picked this scene to do for their final fight. 

Now, normally I’d encourage them to do a scene from live theatre and not movies (since it’s a theatre class and not a film acting class), and I’d have them pick a scene that had more dialogue in it than this one, obviously, since that’s a big part of what makes their final exams challenging—combining lines (and ‘normal’ acting) with the fight movements. But I mean. I couldn’t resist! I let them do it, and they re-choreographed it all themselves, using pipes and street detritus as makeshift swords, included all the great wrestling moves, and of course the pair of sunglasses. Did they go for 6 minutes plus? Readers, they did. And They Lived. 

But you may not be familiar with this epic fight scene to end all epic fight scenes, so give it a  watch and we’ll chat about it.