Across the Marvel Cinematic Universe's many movies, countless epic fights have unfolded.
We've seen incredible showdowns between the likes of Thor and Hulk, Hulk and the Hulkbuster,
Captain America and Red Skull, and so many more.
However, for as many cool fight scenes as there are across the MCU's filmography, it's
pretty obvious that some conflicts in the MCU are inherently more captivating than their
peers.
These are the greatest fight scenes in the MCU.
"YES!"
Captain America vs. Iron Man
This fight in Captain America: Civil War is the payoff to over half a decade's worth of
tension-building between the MCU's two biggest heroes.
Across both Avengers movies, we'd see these fan-favorite characters butt heads, while
their solo movies pushed them even farther into different perspectives.
That kind of friction could only be resolved in one way, and audiences were waiting for
it.
The scene let us revel in seeing our favorite hero beat the snot out of the other guy, and
gave us an MCU fight with some actual emotional stakes.
Another excellent aspect of the fight is how close it is to its comic book counterpart
in terms of general tone and shot composure.
The battle pays tribute to its source material without being limited by it, and raises the
MCU's cinematography standards all inside a few short, sweet minutes.
The Hydra Fortress Assault
Courtesy of Avengers: Age of Ultron, this fight scene, from the moment it begins, is
an absolute joy.
Not only does it display each of the core Avengers in all their glory, but it does so
through the use of one continuous shot that strings together the different Avengers in
a sweeping, interconnected style.
Every Avenger gets their time to shine.
As icing on the cake, the opening scene caps off with a beautiful group shot of all the
Avengers leaping into battle as a combined unit, and it's at that moment you're reminded
why Marvel's interconnected universe was worth all the effort.
[Fighting and grunting]
Iron Man's assault on terrorism
It's one of Iron Man's first major fight scenes, featuring Tony Stark taking down terrorists
in the Middle East right after he's developed his Mark 3 Iron Man suit, and it's an instantly
classic collection of cool moments.
[Gunshots and explosions]
This single scene was a milestone for superhero cinematography, displaying a whole new breed
of superhero action that fans at the time didn't even know was possible.
Iron Man and War Machine vs. Hammer drones
But wait, Iron Man's battles got even cooler when Iron Man 2 came along.
No other fight scene in the MCU's history has filled its frames with cherry blossom
petals swirling around two guys in robot suits, and that can only be considered a huge missed
opportunity given how cool it looked in this scene.
More importantly, this scene is one of the only times we get to see Rhodey use his War
Machine armor to its fullest potential.
While he and Iron Man get a cool team-up throwback scene in Age of Ultron, nothing quite compares
to their first go-around at the end of Iron Man 2.
"I think you should lead with that next time."
The Guardians of the Galaxy vs. Ronan
Towards the end of Guardians of the Galaxy, Ronan the Accuser saddles up to declare his
triumph over the Nova Corps and the Guardians, until Star-Lord interrupts him and challenges
him to a fight to the death… by dance-off.
[Singing] "Oooh, child, things are gonna get easier.
Ooooh, child, things will get brighter.
Listen to these words."
What comes after, however, might be even better.
The Guardians, united, join forces in the most unironically epic hand-holding session
in the history of cinema, literally vaporizing Ronan with his own infinity stone.
If only all dance-offs ended this way.
The tarmac throwdown
So far, not one other movie in the massive, multi-franchise saga can claim to have a scene
with as much raw, literal superheroism as this one from Civil War, given that there
are no fewer than twelve Marvel superheroes throwing down at the same time.
[When all your friends start having a political discussion.]
Civil War's tarmac scene is a cacophony of comic book noise crammed into frames that
are barely big enough to hold all the action.
For the sheer scope of the fight alone, this scene easily earns its slot on this list.
Captain America and Bucky's final fight
There's not a single fight in the MCU's history that's quite as painful to watch as the one
between Bucky and Cap at the end of Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Not only are the stakes ridiculously high, but they're also intensely personal.
The only person keeping Cap from saving the lives of millions is Bucky Barnes, Cap's longtime
best friend.
"Bucky?"
"Who the hell is Bucky?"
It's absolutely heartbreaking to watch Bucky attack Cap, knifing him and smashing his body
to a pulp as the latter desperately tries to deactivate the helicarrier and save innocent
lives.
There are more action packed scenes in the MCU, but none as intensely personal and character-driven
as this one.
"Bucky.
You've known me your whole life."
Ultron crashes the party
While this battle from Age of Ultron is nowhere close to being the most bombastic fight scene
in the MCU, it's great for a whole different reason: without a doubt, it's the coolest
entrance of a villain in the MCU's history to date.
Ultron says some harrowing words before siccing a bunch of hijacked Iron Legion troops on
the Avengers in their own meeting room.
"Peace in our time."
From there, caught with their pants down, all the Avengers scramble to defend themselves.
Instead of Iron Man just pointing his hand at things or Hulk smashing, the Avengers actually
need to display some slick moves and dodge attacks with acrobatic finesse.
The Incident
You'd be hard-pressed to find a soul alive that wouldn't qualify the Battle of New York,
aka The Incident, as one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's greatest fights.
From top to bottom, this enormous battle from The Avengers an absolute behemoth: it's nearly
40 minutes of Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Thor, Black Widow and Hawkeye smashing the
ever-living crap out of Chitauri warriors, in increasingly impressive ways.
[Roaring]
Before you know it, Iron Man is bouncing his repulsor beams off Cap's shield to wipe out
entire conga lines of bad guys in a single blow.
Hulk is guarding Thor while he summons lightning bolts directly into massive alien slugs' spines.
Hawkeye uses otherworldly archery skills while Black Widow pilots a flying hoverbike.
It's a legendary scene from start to finish.
The actual greatest fight in the MCU
As great as the Avengers' throwdown in New York was, let's not pretend its glory came
from heroes like Iron Man, Captain America, or Black Widow.
These characters were all fine, sure, and we paid them their due above, simply because
it would've been rude to do otherwise before we arrived at the real champions.
These two mystery contenders and their absolutely glorious brawl have, and will, reign supreme
over all other MCU fight scenes today, yesterday, and tomorrow, and it's highly unlikely The
Avengers: Infinity War will feature anything better.
We present to you:
[Punch]
It's short, sweet, and absolutely brutal.
Brutal enough to oust every other fight on this list from their shot at being number
one.
Thanos has no clue what he's about to go up against.
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