Matt Murdock has some of the most iconic fight sequences in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but there is really none better than the fight in episode 2 of the Netflix Daredevil era. So, Daredevil: Born Again has a lot to live up to when it comes to fighting.
The first two episodes of Daredevil do a lot of work to set up exactly who Matt Murdock is, and it takes us until the second episode to really see just how good Matty is at fighting. In episode 1, we see how his life has informed who he is as a lawyer and a man outside of his Daredevil persona, but what we see in episode 2 is just how his father’s boxing background was definitely passed down to Matt.
In a truly impressive feat, episode 2, titled “Cut Man,” takes Matt (Charlie Cox) into the basement of a restaurant where he’s trying to find a boy who a group of Russians are planning to traffic for money. The fight sequence that ensues is filmed in one continuous shot and has Matt going into different rooms and throwing men into our view in the hallway.
Right off the bat, it establishes not only Matt’s ability to fight but also gives fans the knowledge that he’s not someone the enemies of Hell’s Kitchen want to find on the other team. In the first episode, we see him in a number of situations where he has to fight, and the start of the second has him beaten to a pulp in a dumpster, but the hallway sequence has Matt Murdock taking on multiple men all by himself, and there really is no question over how powerful he is.
Daredevil became known for these sequences and they need to be part of Born Again
The hallway fight sequence became an emblem of the franchise. We knew that if Matt was put into a corner and he needed to save someone, whoever was on the receiving end of his blows had another thing coming to them. It’s why there was such an epic fight sequence in the third season between Matt and Bullseye (Wilson Bethel), using office supplies to try to hurt each other. Still, that fight sequence pales in comparison to this one, and that’s probably the second best in the entire MCU. Season 2 also had a hall way fight sequence, but it was the third best of them and we were apparently going to get the best one yet in the fourth season that never happened.
One of the reasons I was so excited for Matt Murdock to come back into our lives wasn’t just because the Marvel world needed him. It was because I knew that the fight sequences were going to be better than ever and would elevate the street-level aspect of the MCU. You can see it in shows like Echo with how they are shot, and even when Daredevil appears in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, his fighting is different than how the rest of the series was flowing.
The power that Cox brings to a scene—and the way they flawlessly switch between Cox and his stunt man, Chris Brewster, within that one shot to make us believe that it’s always just Matt Murdock—is so incredibly good that it elevates what these superhero properties can do as a whole. So, what I hope Born Again takes from how we all talk about this fight sequence is that we want more of this Matt Murdock in our lives, including the one-shot element of it because that just rules.
(featured image: Disney+)
