50 Best Movie Bar Brawls

Book Of Eli (2010)

The Brawl: Martz (Evan Jones) takes offence to Eli (Denzel Washington) shooing a cat off a bar, and just won't drop the subject - until Eli confronts him in typically bloody fashion.

Coolest Scrap: When things get out of hand, Eli uses a machete to hack his way through the wall of people stopping him from leaving the bar.

Willow (1988)

The Brawl: Madmartigan (Val Kilmer) gets into a spot of bother at a bar when he's caught fraternising with another man's girl. Which prompts him to dress up as a (rather convincing) woman.

Coolest Scrap: Madmartigan ends up fighting his way through the bar before somersaulting outside onto a horse. Classy.

Welcome To The Jungle (2003)

The Brawl: Bounty hunter Beck (Dwayne Johnson) single-handedly takes on a load of bodyguards in a busy club - all while Missy Elliot raps over the soundtrack. Bangin'.

Coolest Scrap: Beck takes on two bodyguards in one go, breaking on of their legs and sending the other one into a pillar. This guy's badass.

Once Were Warriors (1994)

The Brawl: When an idiot bar patron shoves on the jukebox, disrupting a live performance, Jake 'The Muss' (Temuera Morrison) goes over to give him a lesson in respect.

Coolest Scrap: The idiot bar patron goes in to head butt Jake, but Jake gets there first, pummelling his ugly face with his fists.

Silent Rage (1982)

The Brawl: Sheriff Dan Stevens (Chuck Norris) heads to a bar where mentally ill John Kirby (Brian Libby) is having a bit of fun with his biker buddies. That fun includes beating the crap out of the Sheriff.

Coolest Scrap: The Sheriff shows he ain't going down without a fight by beating the crap out of the biggest biker in the bar.

48 Hrs. (1982)

The Brawl: Cates (Nick Nolte) is being used like a rag doll in a bar by a load of red-neck assholes, which prompts Reggie (Eddie Murphy) to step in and give him a hand.

Coolest Scrap: "Anyone else want a limp?" Reggie proves he's got the guts to use a gun by shooting one of the aforementioned red-necks in the leg.

The Boondock Saints (1999)

The Brawl: The McManus brothers (Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus) confront massive Russian mobster Boris (scary name, dude) in a bar, and take him on when he buries his fist in their booze-addled buddy.

Coolest Scrap: Sean Patrick Flanery takes it that one step too far by strapping Boris to the bar, dousing him in alcohol and setting him on fire. Don't try this at home, kids…

Knockaround Guys (2002)

The Brawl: Kevin Gage makes the mistake of spitting on Vin Diesel's jeans, and he gets his comeuppance in fist-pummelling style as Diesel lets him know that that is ABSOLUTELY NOT OK.

Coolest Scrap: Diesel gives a rather eloquent speech before head-butting his saliva-spewing rival and dropping him to the floor. He can talk AND fight; that's just how Vinny rolls.

The Wolverine (2013)

The Brawl: The film's not out yet, but from the trailer we know that something very cool goes down between Yukio (Rila Fukushima) and a load of beer-swilling bar-props.

Coolest Scrap: Yukio unleashes her katana, slicing apart a bar stool - and a guy's beer bottle. Now that's one sharp blade…

The Dark Crystal (1982)

The Brawl: An all-out assault on the adorable little podlings by the Skeksis' scuttling servants the Garthim. They trash the podling village, breaking into a podling tavern to kidnap the poor mites. Life's a bitch, eh?

Coolest Scrap: An old podling beats a Garthim's back with his walking stick. Meanwhile, big-gobbed Fizzgig simply barks at the big brutes - before dodging out of the way of a swiping claw.

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.