This 8 Minute Fight Is The Best Action Scene In Jason Statham’s Entire 25-Year Movie Career

This 8 Minute Fight Is The Best Action Scene In Jason Statham's Entire 25-Year Movie Career

Jason Statham has had a long and exciting career in action films, but his 2002 vehicle Transporter is still home to some of his best action scenes. Since then, Statham has become one of the most recognizable faces (and, thanks to his distinctive Cockney accent, voices) in modern action films. In addition to the Transporter films, Jason Statham’s action film franchises also include Crank, The Meg, The Fast and the Furious and The Expendables. While Statham’s stunts, one-liners and fight scenes have been consistently strong throughout his action film career, Transporter’s eight-minute martial arts fight still stands out as his most exciting bare-knuckle brawl yet.

The Transporter’s Bus Fight Is Actually Three Fight Scenes

When Jason Statham’s Frank Martin arrives to put a stop to the human trafficking operation of Mr. Kwai (Ric Young), he is forced to fight several of his henchmen in a fast-paced martial arts smackdown. After some quick combat in between buses — including some flashy kicks by Cyril Raffaelli of Kiss of the Dragon and District 13 fame — Frank fights his way through another wave of henchmen inside a bus. This leads right into round three of the action scene, with Frank standing his ground against his enemies in the middle of an oil spill in the bus station. The Transporter manages to pack a huge amount of action into its centerpiece fight scene, which also showcases why it works so well.

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Each of the three parts of The Transporter’s big martial arts battle sees Frank single-handedly taking on nearly a dozen opponents at once, but the real standout feature of this scene is the extent to which Frank is challenged in other ways. Each stage of combat requires Frank to adapt his fighting skills to different environmental circumstances. The first two sections in the containers and the bus require Frank to stick to a number of increasingly confined locations,

allowing action director Corey Yuen to get creative with the sequence’s fight choreography as well. The third part of the fight changes things completely: Frank and his enemies have a wide open bus station area to fight in, but struggle to simply stand on top of an oil spill. Frank once again adapts to the situation by strapping a pair of bicycle pedals to his feet, allowing him to stand and make full use of his kicking skills during an oil spill.

The Transporter Shows Jason Statham Is A Natural For A Hong Kong Action Movie

Combined with the chase scenes that bookend the film, The Transporter is as distinctly Hong Kong-style as a Western action film can get, and shows just how ideal Statham is for action films of that style. The Transporter films are essentially the only time Statham has headlined Hong Kong-influenced action films, with the exception of his appearances opposite Jet Li in The One and War. Although Statham has also excelled in Jackass, The Fast and the Furious and The Expendables, the Transporter film franchise holds a special place in Statham’s career due to its clear Hong Kong influence.