Lee Jun-fan was the most popular Hong Kong American actor from the 1960s through the 1970s and continued to be a superstar after his untimely death at the young age of 32. This young man was known to the world as Bruce Lee. He changed the action martial arts genre for decades to come and inspired a litany of filmmakers and actors along the way, such as Quentin Tarantino, with Kill Bill and Jackie Chan, with films like Drunken Master.
Even though Lee only got to star in six feature films, his on-screen charisma and unmatched fighting skills proved he was the king of action cinema, due to his quickness, charm, and incredibly creative fight scenes. Here are the 10 best Bruce Lee fights on film.
The Street Alley Fight In Way Of The Dragon (1972)
Way of the Dragon really brought Bruce Lee into the international spotlight, as he sparred with well known American action star and martial arts master Chuck Norris, way back before he became the popular internet meme sensation.
In this fight sequence, Bruce Lee's character, Tang Lung, crosses paths with quite a few street thugs who are looking to give him the beating of a lifetime. All these gangsters are different shapes and sizes with a multitude of weapons. They are no match for Lee though, as he expertly pulls out his faithful nunchaku and delivers a series of blows to each and every bad guy until they are incapacitated. His quickness and fantastic skills with these chain sticks are legendary.
The NBA Player Fight In Game Of Death (1972)
The same year as The Way of the Dragon, Bruce Lee led the way with Game of Death, as he fought through a ton of bad guys to reach the big boss battle, much like in a fun video game. And much like these video games, the size ratio of the good guy vs. the villain was something right out of a comic book, where Bruce Lee was the short, slender, yet muscular type and his foe was a 7-foot-2 man named Mantis, played by basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Even though Jabbar couldn't kick above his waist, it was still high enough to land a few blows to Lee's face, which pit these two against each other in the most perfect and entertaining way, including leaving a giant footprint ingrained in Lee's chiseled solar plexus.
The Revenge Fight In Enter the Dragon (1973)
Bruce Lee has a lot of killing to do in Enter the Dragon. One unfortunate victim was the American martial arts expert, Robert Wall, who played O'Hara. This villain was responsible for killing Bruce Lee's character's sister in the film, and so we see the wrath of an angry Bruce Lee unleashed.
The two square off in a tournament run by a drug lord, where broken beer and wine bottles are used for weapons, but Lee easily wins, taking out Robert Wall. The only thing that could have made this fight scene better would be an appearance by Steven Seagal to antagonize Wall himself.
The Basement Fight In Enter The Dragon (1973)
Another entry from Enter The Dragon comes in the form of the underground fight between Bruce Lee and a mini horde of bad guys. Lee ends up in a series of basement style warehouses, where there is no shortage of evil guards and henchmen branding all types of weapons.
This fight starts off with fists but quickly ramps up the carnage with bo staffs, wooden sticks, and eventually, the amazing nunchaku, where Lee lays the smackdown on everyone involved and showcases his expertise with weapons.
The Nunchaku Fight In Game Of Death (1972)
Early on in the film Game Of Death, Bruce Lee has a superb fight sequence with Dan - the third-floor guard played by Dan Inosanto. In real life, Lee and Inosanto were very good friends and their chemistry played out on-screen perfectly in the way of their impressive fight choreography.
With Lee donning the famous yellow and black striped fight suit, which was winked at by Uma Thurman in Kill Bill, the two men square off with a couple of sticks before diving into one of the best nunchaku fight scenes in movie history. Their epic battle plays out like a ballet, with hard-hitting notes and fast-paced rhythms that could only be possible with two of the best fighters in the world.
The Chuck Norris Fight In Way Of The Dragon (1972)
Leave it to Chuck Norris to display an impressive fight scene with Bruce Lee and successfully let his opponent win over his American audience with high praise and cheers. In this epic fight scene, with Chuck Norris playing a guy only known as Colt, the quick Bruce Lee pulls out all the stops to take down his worthy opponent who was built up to a high degree throughout the film.
Lee ends up winning the day with some hellacious chops, kicks, and a brutal choke out against the Texas Ranger. Bonus points to Lee for pulling out the glorious chest hair of Norris to show his dominance.
The Knife Deflecting Fight In The Big Boss (1971)
Bruce Lee's first film was also his darkest and most brutal in The Big Boss, otherwise known in America as Fists of Fury. The landscape of martial arts cinema was forever changed when Bruce Lee battled his way through gangs of bad guys in order to defeat the evil mob boss, Hsiao Mi, in an epic fight scene with a knife. In the climactic battle sequence, Hsiao Mi takes out a large knife and tries to slice the young Bruce Lee.
At one point, the sadistic crime lord harshly throws the knife at Lee's face, which Lee deflects with a superkick that flies right unto the gut of Hsiao Mi, which is eerily similar to the ending of Big Trouble In Little China.
The Karate School Fight In Fist Of Fury (1972)
Quentin Tarantino paid homage to this epic fight sequence in Kill Bill, when Uma Thurman faced the Crazy 88 army of thugs of Orin Ishii. The iconic sequence of the gang surrounding her in a circle where she pulls out her sword and everyone backs up in horror was taken straight from this scene in Fist of Fury, otherwise known in the USA as The Chinese Connection.
In this scene, Bruce Lee takes on dozens of Japanese karate school students and their master with a ton of excellent quick fights with each of the students, who are hilariously and easily made an example of.
The Mirror Fight In Enter The Dragon (1973)
Perhaps the best martial arts movie ever made is Enter The Dragon and it's no coincidence that one of the best ever fight sequences takes place at the end of this film between Bruce Lee and Shih Kien, who plays the diabolical Han.
At the end of the film, Lee finds himself in a hall of mirrors type room where he can't distinguish where the actual Han is. So, instead, Lee just Hulk-smashes every mirror until he finds the real Han, who is brandishing a Wolverine-style hand claw amongst other weapons. Lee even licks his own blood for a rage boost and ends up being the hero in this fantastic fight sequence.
The Ice Factory Fight In The Big Boss (1971)
The best Bruce Lee fight scene takes place in an ice factory in The Big Boss, where all of Lee's cousins are somehow murdered by the local crime boss, including his girlfriend/cousin (no judgment). This ice factory sequence is so intense and outlandish and features Bruce Lee taking on a legion of henchmen, which eventually leads to the outdoors.
However, inside the ice factory, a ton of brutal weapons are used that paved the way for many other martial arts films, such as Ong Bak with Tony Jaa. In this particular scene, Lee uses sharp daggers, long knives, flashlights, and even a rusty old saw to slice and tear into his opponents in one of the bloodiest Bruce Lee scenes.