One of the things that make Jaa so unique is that he does all of his own stunts, just like his hero Jackie Chan.
Tony Jaa is one of the hardest hitting action movie stars to emerge onto the scene in a decade. One can probably give him the credit for the martial art of Muay Thai into the mainstream. His brutal-yet-graceful fight scenes continue to thrill fans as he gets more and more roles in Hollywood films.
One of the things that make Jaa so unique is that he does all of his own stunts, just like his hero Jackie Chan. Throughout his career, he has had no shortage of impressive, and sometimes insane stunts. Let’s take a look at some of the best.
10. Light Pole Kick.
Tom Yum Goong (2013)
Not every stunt need be some impossible feat. Sometimes the best stunts are the simplest, and this stunt from The Protector is exactly that; simple and elegant. Upon arriving in the foreign land of Australia in search of his family elephant, protagonist Kham is confronted by some street thugs. To intimidate them, he does a flipping kick that shatters the bulb of a lamp post above him. Part of what makes this stunt so cool is that it’s also a reference to the Bruce Lee classic Way Of The Dragon. In that film, Lee pulls the same stunt on some overhead lighting to take out some bad guys.
9. Muay Kotchasan.
Ong Bak 2 (2008)
Filming fight scenes is one of a stuntman’s most critical duties, as an action film with boring fight scenes isn’t going to be very good. Tony Jaa does some of the best fights in the business, and it takes dedication to get them right. He is so dedicated that he once created his martial art! In preparation for filming The Protector Jaa created his variant of Muay Thai called Muay Kotchasan. The style is based on the movements of elephants, which is fitting for a character who’s family has been raising the giant animals for generations.
8. Three Climbing.
Kill Zone (2015)
Ong-Bak is the film that brought Tony Jaa to the attention of western audiences, and for good reason. Even over a decade later it remains one of his best films do to its brutal fight scenes, and eye-popping stunts. It’s only natural then that the film begins with an impressive stunt sequence. At the start of the film, a group of mud-covered young men race to climb up a tree and retrieve a flag. Jaa’s character Ting nimbly ascends the tree, leaping from branch to branch while avoiding other competitors. In the end, he gets the flag and jumps off a high branch to win.
7. Burning Legs.
Ong Bak 2 (2008)
Ong Bak 2: When your job is to pull off the dangerous feats of acrobatics, you are inevitably going to get injured. It’s just something stuntmen have to make peace with, and then try to do things as safely as possible. Jaa learned this the hard way while filming a scene for Ong-Bak Toward the end of the film, Jaa has a fight in an abandoned gas station, during which he lights his legs on fire. Since they weren’t using CGI, this meant lighting himself aflame. He later commented that he did get minor burns while filming the scenes.
6. Parkour Cashe.
Ong Bak (2003)
No action film is truly complete without a good chase scene, and Ong-Bak has at least a few that stand out from the crowd. At one point in the film, protagonist Ting finds himself being chased by a group of drug dealers who are after his cousin Humlae. Ting proceeds to put the thugs through their paces as they chase him through the crowded streets of Bangkok. Parkour is always a visual treat to watch, and Jaa brings his A-game here. Watching him jump, flip, and slide over enemies and obstacles alike is great fun. A bit of fisticuff makes this scene just about perfect.RELATED:
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5. Tuk Tuk Chase.
Master Z: Ip Man Legacy (2018)
Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy: The Tuk-Tuk, a motorized rickshaw, is an iconic part of the Bangkok cityscape, so when Ting and Humlae find themselves needing to make a speedy getaway then naturally commandeer one of the vehicles. The pair proceed to weave through the city streets as the bad guys attempt to ram them off the road. Jaa even leaps between Tuk-Tuks to dispatch a pursuer. At the end of the chase, the vehicle carrying Ting goes off a ramp and into the water of a nearby dockyard. Jaa was in the Tuk-Tuk during the filming of this scene, and one can see him in the vehicle if they look closely.
4. One-Shot Fight Scene.
The Protector (2005)
Even short fight scenes take a lot of time and effort on the part of the stunt team to get right. Everybody has to know their parts and be able to perform them flawlessly. As you might expect, this only gets harder when the fight scene in question is to be filmed in one continuous shot. The restaurant fight scene in The Protector took over a month to shoot, but it was well worth the effort. The scene is one of the most memorable in the movie, and Jaa seems like an unstoppable force throughout. It is one of the longest continuous fight scenes ever put to film.
3. Boat Chase.
The Protector (2005)
Many of these entries come from The Protector, and there’s a good reason for that. The film stands out to this day as a great example of what can be accomplished by a dedicated stunt team. Jaa’s refusal to use wires or CGI to perform his stunts also makes every scene more memorable because you know it was the man himself doing them. At the start of the film, the main character Kham makes a speedy getaway from the film’s bad guys on a boat. During the chase, he weaves between and ramps over other boats before drifting his craft under a helicopter.
2. X-Games Fight.
Ong Bak: The Thai Warrior (2003)
Fight scenes are hard enough to film when it’s just people that the stunt coordinator has to manage. Bringing vehicles into the mix adds a whole new layer of complexity to the scene. The X-Games fight in The Protector is a great example of how cool it looks when it’s pulled off right. During the scene, Jaa is attacked by thugs on bikes as he dodges and even manages to fight back. Then someone brings an ATV into the matter and is only defeated when Jaa manages to trick him into driving through a plate glass window on the second floor of the building.