Bruce Lee is the most enduring icon of the martial arts movie genre, and every fight scene in his filmography is full of amazing fighting techniques. Bruce Lee first took up martial arts as a youth in Hong Kong, studying the art of Wing Chun kung fu under the legendary Grandmaster Ip Man. Lee would later collect techniques and fighting theories from a wide range of different martial arts to create his own fighting philosophy, which he would dub Jeet Kune Do, or The Way of the Intercepting Fist.
Lee would then bring his martial arts mastery to the film industry, first breaking out as Kato on the TV series The Green Hornet, and headlining Hong Kong martial arts films like The Big Boss, Fist of Fury, and The Way of the Dragon. The posthumous release of Bruce Lee's enduring martial arts classic Enter the Dragon also cemented him as an eternal legend of martial arts worldwide. With so many incredible fight scenes in Lee's body of work, it's not surpriing that people want to revisit some of Bruce Lee's best martial arts moves.
10 Bruce Lee Kicking A Lamp
One of Bruce Lee's signature methods of on-screen intimidation is in kicking out a light hanging from a ceiling, which can be seen in two of his movies. In 1967's Harlowe, Lee plays Winslow Wong, who trashes an enemy's office before kicking out the hanging light with a jumping front kick. Lee later repeats the feat in his directorial debut The Way of the Dragon, in which his protagonist Tang Lung frightens off two henchmen by kicking out a hanging light in the villain's office.
9 Bruce Lee Trapping O'Hara
Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do draws heavily from the trapping and in-fighting techniques of his base art of Wing Chun, and Lee fully puts them to use in his fight scene with O'Hara (Bob Wall) in Enter the Dragon. With Lee and O'Hara meeting at the wrist, Lee traps O'Hara's arms repeatedly to land strike after strike at absolutely blinding speed. 50 years after Enter the Dragon's release, Lee's traps still amaze with their speed and pinpoint accuracy.
8 Bruce Lee's Armbar On Sammo Hung
Enter the Dragon's opening fight scene in the Shaolin Temple pits Bruce Lee against Sammo Hung, and Lee achieves victory in a very unique manner for the time. After pummeling his opponent with strikes, Lee traps Hung in an armbar, forcing him to tap out. Enter the Dragon's opening fight scene is essentially an MMA match decades before the UFC would come along, and shows Bruce Lee's innovation in fight choreography was far ahead of its time.
7 Bruce Lee's Flying Sidekick
In numerous fight scenes throughout his career, Bruce Lee would take to the sky to slam his opponent with a powerful flying sidekick. This would first be seen in the final fight of The Big Boss, with Lee later bringing it back in the final showdown of Fist of Fury. Perhaps most memorably, Lee would land an amazing flying sidekick on the face of the villainous Han (Shih Kien) in Enter the Dragon's final fight, with the kick even captured in gorgeous slow-motion for good measure.
6 Bruce Lee's Spinning Heel Kick
Bruce Lee would develop swift and strong kicks in his extensive martial arts training, and one that he would consistently excel at is his spinning heel kick. In nearly every fight scene throughout his career, Bruce Lee lands a strong spinning heel kick that leaves his opponent dazed or even knocked out. With the spinning heel kick itself being an especially powerful kicking technique, Bruce Lee always knows how to hit the mark with it in every fight scene.
5 Bruce Lee's Grappling Moves In Game Of Death
While Enter the Dragon would bring a taste of MMA-style grappling into its opening fight, Lee's unfinished film Game of Death goes much further in bringing grappling techniques into the mix. This is first seen in Lee's fight with Hapkido master Ji Han-jae, with Lee countering his throws with various kinds of takedowns. Lee later employs takedowns and chokes in his subsequent fight with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, making Game of Death's fights quite the preview of MMA-style fight choreography - though it is much more comprehensively seen in the documentary Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey, which includes all the footage Lee was able to complete before his ing.
4 Bruce Lee Taking Out Multiple Opponents With Kicks
Bruce Lee's skills with kicking techniques would really come into focus in two major fight scenes in Fist of Fury and Enter the Dragon, with Lee taking out multiple opponents in seconds with a swift sequence of kicks. In Fist of Fury, this happens in the movie's immortal dojo fight, with Lee fending off eight opponents with one fell swoop of kicks. Lee later repeats the same feat in the massive fight with Han's henchmen in Enter the Dragon, with Lee dropping 11 opponents with different kicks before finishing another off with a back fist strike. Needless to say, Bruce Lee throwing rapid-fire kicks never fails to amaze.
3 Bruce Lee's Quintuple Roundhouse Kicks
While Bruce Lee takes out several opponents with a slew of powerful kicks in Fist of Fury and Enter the Dragon, he also unleashes much more focused punishment on individual opponents in Enter the Dragon and The Way of the Dragon. As seen in both Enter the Dragon's free-for-all fight and Lee's illegally shot Colosseum fight with Chuck Norris in The Way of the Dragon, Lee takes out both opponents with a whopping five roundhouse kicks, first delivered to the legs and then the head. In both cases, it is a jaw-dropping moment of unbridled combative energy from the Dragon.
2 Bruce Lee Using Nunchucks
Whenever Bruce Lee breaks out a pair of nunchaku, he is bringing his signature martial arts weapon to a fight scene. With the sole exception of The Big Boss, every Bruce Lee movie sees him wielding a pair of nunchaku against one or more opponents. Bruce Lee's use of nunchucks in Enter the Dragon's cave fight is the most memorable instance and it is always a real treat to see him using his famed weapon with the level of skill he brings to it.
1 Bruce Lee's Sidekick
Bruce Lee would perfect the art of the sidekick with his training with Tae Kwon Do legend Jhoon Rhee, and some of Lee's most jaw-dropping on-screen moments have involved him sidekicking his opponents. One example is seen in the training sequence of The Way of the Dragon, with Lee sending his training partner flying back 10 feet with a powerful sidekick to a kicking shield. Even more unforgettable is Lee's sidekick against O'Hara in Enter the Dragon, captured in slow-motion and delivered with utterly devastating impact. In the legacy of Bruce Lee's filmography, his powerful sidekicks are the best fight scene money shots of his career.
