10 Best Bruce Lee Movie Fight Scenes

Bruce Lee’s kung fu skills helped produce several of the most iconic fight scenes of all time. In spite of being the biggest martial arts star in cinematic history, Lee only starred in five movies. But while his brief stardom provided only a small number of films, there’s no shortage of noteworthy martial arts sequences featuring the actor in action.

A few years after bringing his martial arts talents to the small screen in The Green Hornet in the United States, Lee returned to Hong Kong to make a name for himself there. There, Lee played the lead role in a total of three kung fu films with Golden Harvest before making his most famous film, Enter the Dragon, in Hollywood. Lee died in 1973, prior to the film’s theatrical release and before his final work, Game of Death, could be completed. But through each movie – including footage from Game of Death – offers not just one, but multiple samplings of his martial arts prowess. Here’s a ranking of Bruce Lee’s best fight scenes across all five of his films.

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12/12 10. Enter the Dragon: Bruce Lee vs. Robert Wall

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Robert Wall, an American karate expert who enjoyed a long friendship with Lee, fought the martial arts actor twice on the big screen, the first being in Way of the Dragon. The second time was in the beginning of Enter the Dragon, where Lee had to prove himself against an American martial artist. Wall’s O’Hara was depicted as a tough-as-nails fighter up until the point where he fought Lee. Though the fight was entirely one-sided on Lee’s end and was counted as an easy win for the hero, it’s still regarded as one of the actor’s most memorable action sequences, as its utilization of Lee’s reflexive movements makes it abundantly clear that his speed wasn’t just for show.

10/12 9. Fist of Fury: Bruce Lee vs. Katana-Wielding Karate Master

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Bruce Lee’s second kung fu movie boasts a handful of the actor’s best kung fu battles. One of them is courtesy of a fight between Bruce Lee’s Chen Zhen and several karate masters. After the Japanese martial artists slaughtered Chen Zhen’s fellow students, the kung fu hero marched into a karate dojo and took out the villains he held responsible.This culminated in a short but well-choreographed sequence in which Lee faces off against their leader, Yoshida, who was clearly in over his head. The speed and smoothness of Lee’s movements as he dodged Yoshida’s katana and the execution of the final blow make it one of the highlights of the film.

8/12 8. The Big Boss: Final Showdown

The ending of Lee’s first martial arts movie delivered a thrilling final showdown between the main protagonist and the villain. Played by Han Ying-chieh, Hsiao Mi was a knife-wielding gangster whose weapons made him a challenging foe for Bruce Lee’s Cheng Chao-an. Typically, Lee’s characters easily disarm his enemies, but taking away Hsiao Mi’s knives wasn’t such a simple task. The confrontation between the two in The Big Boss was a fight in which the main hero was seen having to overcome some real adversity from one person, as opposed to just dispatching opponent after opponent as he had done throughout the film.

7/12 7. Fist of Fury: Final Showdown

Fist of Fury’s final battle included some of the best action of Bruce Lee’s career. At the end of the movie, Chen Zhen had to go up against two fighters with completely different styles: Robert Baker’s Petrov and Riki Hashimoto’s Suzuki, the movie’s main villain. Petrov’s reliance on brute strength made him an interesting challenge for Lee, but an exiting flurry of attacks proved too much for him. Lee’s signature high kicks delivered the bulk of the entertainment here, and were similarly effective against Suzuki, who was finished off by a jump kick to the neck.

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6/12 6. Enter the Dragon: Bruce Lee vs. Han’s Henchmen

The lead-up to the final fight in Enter the Dragon featured what may be the most brutal display ever of Bruce Lee’s fighting abilities. His facial expressions and body language during the fight perfectly convey the rage his character feels as he fights his way through a number of hired thugs. The scene of a shirtless Lee ruthlessly killing Han’s henchmen – one of which played by none other than Jackie Chan himself – is a longtime favorite of martial arts movie fans, and for good reason.

5/12 5. Fist of Fury: Bruce Lee Fights An Entire Karate Dojo

Not all of Fist of Fury’s action was driven by Chen Zhen’s crusade for revenge. Arguably the movie’s best demonstration of Lee’s skills came in the first half of the movie when he single-handedly attacked an entire dojo full of karate students. In lashing out against Japanese oppression of the Chinese people, Lee’s character impressively fought off a crowd of assailants. This particular fight scene seamlessly juggled over a dozen fighters at once, which was a testament to the quality of Fist of Fury’s martial arts choreography. Lee smoothly transitioning from one adversary to another is truly a sight to behold.

4/12 4. Enter the Dragon: Mirror Room Fight

Enter the Dragon ended its story in a spectacular fashion by taking Bruce Lee’s battle with the villain into a mirror room. The main antagonist, played by Shih Kien, wasn’t on the level of Bruce Lee’s character in terms of martial arts ability, but the movie made up for that with the mirror room, which created a unique battleground for the two fighters. Lee’s hero having to sort through the illusions to find the real enemy allowed it to serve as a satisfying finale to the actor’s biggest kung fu movie.

3/12 3. Way of the Dragon: Bruce Lee’s Nunchucks Fight

Before employing his famous nunchucks routine against Dan Inosanto in Game of Death, Bruce Lee brought them out in Way of the Dragon when his character stood up to a vicious gang in Rome. During his second fight with the thugs, Lee whipped out his nunchucks and displayed an impressive level of control over these difficult-to-master weapons. Just how hard it is to use them was underscored by the humorous moment where a criminal injured himself trying to wield them.

2/12 2. Game of Death: Bruce Lee vs. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Unfortunately, one of Bruce Lee’s best fights was in the film he never completed. In Game of Death, Lee took on a kung fu master called Mantis. Played by NBA star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Mantis was a foe unlike anyone else Lee had ever faced in one of his movies. As a seven-foot-two basketball player, Jabbar easily towered over Lee. The size difference factored heavily into the fight, which lasted for several, intense minutes. The top-notch choreography seen in Lee’s fight with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is one reason why so many people regard Game of Death as a movie that that could have been Lee’s best work.

1/12 1. Way of the Dragon: Bruce Lee vs. Chuck Norris

By casting world karate champion Chuck Norris as Way of the Dragon’s Colt, Bruce Lee was able to top every fight he had previously filmed. The advantage of centering a fight scene around two real-life martial arts experts (rather than just one) was evident throughout their battle. Both were at their best as they engaged each other in an epic fight that raged for nine minutes. The blows were visceral, Lee’s speed was remarkable as usual, and Norris’ raw power matched up well with Lee’s agility.