The Marvel Cinematic Universe is ever-expansive as it's currently sitting in its seventh year. And in that time Marvel Studios has mustered up a plethora of great scenes...but today we'll focus on the most impressive of fighting. This list will contain the whole of the MCU, which includes film AND television (and potentially the One-Shots haha)
10 Daredevil Episode 2 {Hallway Brawl}
The new Daredevil series that premiered last month on Netflix was another triumph for the MCU, and this time on an entirely new platform they hadn't yet explored, that has a greater freedom of content. There aren't any restrictions of what you can show, that includes blood, gore, language, sexual, etc. Daredevil certainly took advantage of this and in turn delivered one of the best adaptations of the MCU. This throwdown in Episode 2 is one of two standout fight scenes on my list on a show that excelled in action, among many other attributes.
What's special about how this scene was done, is not only is it an impressive One-Take, but it's also some of the most realistic fighting in live action comic book I've ever seen. Guys...you know, actually get TIRED. Lol. Including our titular hero. One hit isn't enough to knock someone out, these are regular humans. Daredevil had to REALLY beat on these buys to take em down. This fight was a gratifyingly long, and remarkably astute take on one man standing up to bullies. And in a way, this is Daredevil's struggle throughout the whole series personified.
9 Ward vs Hydra Agents {Agents of Shield, Season 1 Episode 17}
Agents of Shield got off to a shaky start in Season 1, and many have the opinion that the show wasn't worth watching until the Winter Soldier tie-ins around Episode 16 and on. In the wake of Hydra's infiltration and takeover of SHIELD bases, Coulson's team must take back the "hub" and save Simmons. The team seperates and Agent Ward and Skye end up trapped in a hallway closet with 12 Hydra agents patroling right outside.
Ward in an effort to protect Skye leaves her there and takes em all on himself, apparently defeating them with one knife. This scene was one of the best choreographed of the show and quite exciting to watch. Brett Dalton in general does a great job with his fight takes, being that he's the most fit and physically gifted on the show. There's a point in the fight he's getting stomped out by about six and he has no weapons on him, besides a bloody knife that's a considerable distance away. A few seconds later he's returned to the closet having tooken care of all of them. I imagine you'd find this sort of thing in a How To Be a BadAss 101 manual.
8 Thor vs Hulk {Avengers}
The two most powerful members of the Avengers squared off after Dr. Bruce Banner transformed due to an attack on the Helicarrier by Hawkeye's forces. Thor had to save Black Widow's life and contain the rage of the monster.
This fight is pretty much what every comic nerd dreamed to see on screen before 2012's Avengers. This is exactly the type of stuff you ask for, comic live action at its very finest. Neither character is undersold in this scuffle, although Thor might've been holding back some because he isn't trying to kill Banner. Anyhow, Whedon still managed to make Thor look pretty damn good. Fans know Hulk has essentially unlimited strength and fury, yet it can be argued Thor won this round.
Another thing to love about this scene is they showed that not even Hulk could lift Thor's hammer as breathtakingly strong as he is. Worthyness > Strength.
7 Tony vs the 10 Rings (Escape) {Iron Man}
This was not only a great fight scene, but one of the most glorious scenes of MCU history in general. A comic origin story brought to life. This part of the movie shows the birth of the very first armor Tony created : the Iron Man Mark I suit.
While riding with military transportation Tony is captured by the 10 rings, held in captivity in a cave in the mountains, and forced to assemble his Jericho missile for their leader. In response he secretly builds a body of armor that he will use to escape.
The suit is more than enough to fight through the squad of terrorists and JUST fly outside of their reach. Tony even had built-in flamethrowers that he used to set those dudes on fire (bet you forgot how dark that scene was huh? ;)
6 Thor & Company vs Frost Giants {Thor}
There is no scene in the MCU that displays just how mighty Thor is like this one does. Thor vs the Frost Giants, the first presentation to movie audiences of the power of the thunder god. And of course, Loki and the Warriors 3 got down too.
A Frost Giant infiltration of Asgard leads Thor to disobey his father's wishes by leading Loki and the Warriors 3 into Jotunheim. This was a major, actually the main catalyst of Thor's banishment as it was just a glaring example of his extreme arrogance and recklessness, putting his friends lives in danger and starting a war between the Asguardians and the Frost Giants. Thor UNLEASHED in this fight, one of the rare times he actually does as he's usually holding back being that he's so powerful. Although this was before he developed into a hero and started to realize how audacious he is. So he brought out all the tricks. Hammer twirling, lightining summoning, hammer smashing, hammer throwing...did I mention that he used his hammer a lot?
The only advantage the Frost Giants had were numbers, and a colossal beast...that Thor literally FLEW threw. If only the rest of the movie had action on this level, there was like one other scene where Thor threw down on this level and that was towards the end. Actually since this scene back in 2011 the MCU hasn't had a Thor sequence this awesome.
5 Hulk vs Abomination {The Incredible Hulk}
Hulk vs Abomination, classic MCU fight.
Emil Blonsky takes a distorted form of the super soldier serum in a lust for power and becomes the Abomination. Abomination begins to wreak havoc on New York....General Ross allows Banner to transform and confront Abomination as Hulk is the only thing that can stop him. This fight consisted of head smashing, car smashing, wall smashing, building smashing, even a great "HULK....SMAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSHHH!!!" ing moment.
One word I'd use to describe this brawl : brutal. Just [frick]ing BRUTAL. It literally ends with Hulk choking Abomination out with a huge chain. And that's some intense shit when you're looking at two Hulk-like beings going at it.
4 Cap vs STRIKE (Elevator) {Captain America: The Winter Soldier}
The Winter Soldier to me is Marvel's best movie, with by far the best fight chroreography of any MCU film throughout. There could honestly be about 3-4 fights from this movie alone on here but for fairness sake this is one of 2 of the great fights from this movie I have for this list.
Even besides the fighting, what made this a great scene was the tension build-up. Rumlow's STRIKE team has been ordered to capture Cap as he's leaving the Triskelion through the elevator. More and more men pile in and Cap knows something's up. He peeps the anxiousness, the nervousness, sweat dripping off one of the agents faces. He quickly concludes that he's gonna get jumped. This leads to that great line : "Before we get started, does anyone wanna get out?"
Cap fights off like 20 men, with one of his arms locked, in an extremely small space, without his shield. End result?
You bet.
3 Daredevil vs Nobu {Episode 9}
Whenever I come back to this scene I feel like I'm watching something from a classic martial arts film. This fight was shown in snippets throughout all of Episode 9, and then we were shown the last few minutes of it towards the end. Nobu has constructed a plan to meet up with "the man in the mask" to get revenge. Matt believes he is getting closer to taking down Fisk but instead all he ends up with is Nobu.
Nobu was Daredevil's greatest single challenge physically in Season 1, and his blades ripped through Matt several times
Matt was actually gonna lose this fight, Nobu sliced him up to the point where he could barely move. He actually had to use the bolts from a lamp to set Nobu on fire and ultimately claim victory. Funny enough, he kills Nobu here, yet in Episode 10 when Foggy asks him has he ever killed anyone Matt replies "I've never gone that far" But Murdoch....you killed Nobu!
2 Avengers vs Loki & Chitauri {Avengers}
The Avengers is Marvel Studios' greatest achievement. Successfully crossing over characters that had already had their own movies, this had never been done to this magnitude in the history of cinema.
And when it finally arrived in the spring of 2012 Avengers delivered AND some, including with the action sequences. The final battle is a very satisfying 45 minute war between the team and Loki's army. There are so many great moments in this scene it's hard to describe how epic it was.
And the long shot of them going around the city was just.....just....it was everything lol. It was everything. The little kid in me tried to leap out.
And this money shot sparked instant nerdgasms everywhere. Literally a comic book fan's dreams come to life in live action.
#1 Cap vs Winter Soldier (highway scene) {The Winter Soldier
And last but certainly not least we have the most well choreographed fight in all of the MCU to date.
First and foremost the whole scene is great, not just the fight. Widow's great, Falcon did well, Winter Soldier was menacing. The whole environment and feel of this scene was very intense and suspenseful. But this fight between the titular villain and hero was just the cherry on top.
Hopefully the Russo Brothers can bring more of this to the table with Civil War and future Avenger movies. Boy I get too excited just thinking about what they're gonna do with Black Panther fights...cannot wait at all.
Fun Fact : Sebastian Stan actually did the knife tricks in this scene.
Aaaaanndd that concludes my list, let me know what you think below and thumbs up if I've just made the best list ever (I know I have but...yea lol) Or of course you can try to have me banned for blasphemy...whatever best suits you, I'm here to serve.
Honorable Mentions
Hulk vs Hulkbuster {Avengers: Age of Ultron}
Guardians vs each other {Guardians of the Galaxy}
Cap vs Batroc {Captain America: The Winter Soldier}
Widow vs Hawkeye (Helicarrier) {Avengers}
Ronan vs Drax {Guardians of the Galaxy}