- What's up guys, it's Rustic.
You guys asked for it, so today I'm doing a breakdown
of the one-take stair fight scene from Atomic Blonde.
I'll be explaining how they filmed the fight scene
and how they did the stunts.
Everything I'm going to be saying
is gonna come from my opinion as a stuntman
and an action filmmaker.
So, before we continue, I just wanna congratulate
the stunt team and the filmmakers behind this fight scene.
These guys actually won the Taurus Award,
which is basically like getting an Oscar in the stunt world.
If you haven't seen the actual fight scene,
make sure to check it out first.
There's gonna be a link in the description.
And if you've already done that, let's just jump right in.
Couple of notes before we roll the clips.
This fight scene does have several cuts
which I will point out to you.
The filmmakers actually use some strategic whip pans
which means that they've looked away and looked back
to help the people reposition themselves.
And they also had the performers come really close
to the lens a couple of times
in order to help hide the cuts.
Now the first thing that impressed me about this fight scene
is that it actually has some really long cuts
with the actress Charize Theron doing her own choreography.
At certain points, she's actually performing
about a minute of choreography at a time.
Which means she did a really, really good job in training.
Also guys, pay attention to the dynamic camera style
which puts us directly inside of the fight scene
without unnecessary shakes.
And also sets the mood up to hide the cuts
we're gonna see later on.
Okay, so here we have our first cut during a throw
when the brown suits foot covers the lens for a moment
and you can see the background
jump just a little bit as it happened.
The reason for this cut is it probably helps
break up the choreography in order to keep
the performers really active and keep the energy up
throughout the whole thing.
Okay, next we got this little whip pan right here.
So whip pans like this usually mask cuts in fight scenes,
but here they followed the back in order to help
the stuntman right here reposition himself
for the fall down the stairs.
So that's our first real stair fall.
This fight scene has a lot of them.
And it must of been gnarly, but it's really nice
that all these guys have long sleeves which actually
helps them hide a lot of body pads.
That's actually a sign of the wardrobe department,
the director and the stunt team all working together.
Coming back to the stuntman, the reason that we
actually follow him down the stairs was to let
Charlize Theron's stunt double step in
for this next stair fall.
You know it's the stunt double
because you don't see her face much
and is covering her face.
And at the very last second, they have her
go right by camera and then cut to Charlize
taking the last part of the reaction.
Okay, so there we have another cut on the reaction
of the guy hitting the steps, you can actually see
the frame jump a little bit and they pan up.
We have a bag toss, which probably took a couple of takes
to do and then we cut out of that again
as the black jacket covers the lens.
You can actually see that they zoomed in a little bit
and matched the cut on that one.
And then you'll land right in the perfect shot
for him to take out the knife and start fighting.
And then we cut out of it on the tackle into the wall
because the next clip is gonna have a gnarly wreck.
Okay, hold up really quick.
This stair fall that you're about to see is terrifying.
This stuntman has got some balls, there's no way
you can fake that, the camera follows him down the steps
and I'm pretty sure they only would have done this
like once or twice.
I've actually seen this stunt man's reel before
and it's gonna be linked in the description
if you want to see more of him.
You did a good job on it, I'm glad you're safe,
and guys watching this, let him know he did an awesome job.
Alright, so back to the fight.
The reason that they cut before it,
is to give him his own timing
because this is such a big wreck,
you don't wanna have like one little timing issue
go wrong and make this guy do it over and over again.
So that's why the filmmakers would have had
the cut right there, so the guy can just come up
and take his own reaction.
After that wreck, the camera whip pans to Charlize
and the last bad guy, I'm pretty sure
that whip pan right there did hide a cut
and then we have another hit,
into another throw down the steps
which ends the fight scene.
Pay attention to how this guy hits the stairs,
and then manages to get up and rotate his body
to go next to camera instead of in to camera.
Now from my personal experience,
that guy has really good body movement
because if you're taking that particular throw,
you're gonna have a lot of landing force to control.
Alright guys, that's where the fight scene ends.
Once again, phenomenal action design with the action team
and the filmmakers and the performers all working together.
The camera work was amazing.
This was definitely a unique puzzle to solve.
To figure out how to move this big camera around
with all these performers, down stairs
in this little tight space.
I really like the minimalistic use of the stunt double,
for only that one stair wreck, but at the same time,
how they managed to hide the body swap.
And of course, Charlize Theron, how she did most of her own
fighting, she did an amazing job.
I really congratulate it, I really love when actors
do their own stunts and I love it when actors
actually show up to train to do their own stunts.
Unlike Iron Fist, which had their Brett, a while ago on.
It's really nice to see when actor's show up for training.
And of course that stair fall at the very end.
I can't believe it, it makes my stomach turn
every time I watch it.
Congratulations on that stair fall,
I'm glad this guy's safe.
And make sure to check him out in the description.
I can see why they won a Taurus Awards,
congratulations to everybody involved.
And thank you guys for watching.
This has been a really quick breakdown
of the Atomic Blonde fight scene.
Thank you for requesting it, let me know in the comments
what you wanna see next.
It there's anything else you wanna see me breakdown,
or if you have any questions.
Make sure that you caught my last breakdown
and if you want more videos,
there's gonna be a playlist on my channel.
I hope you all have a great day
and I'll see you on the next video.
(upbeat music)
(electronic music)