The hallway fight has become a staple of action films ever since The Matrix knocked it out of the park in 1999. Since then, movies like The Raid and others have done their version of the hallway fight scene, taking it all up a notch. And Marvel films and television series are no different. Here are some of the all-time Marvel hallway fights. Whether or not these all count as MCU is debatable. After all, we still don’t know officially if the Marvel Netflix series are MCU canon. But we can make still an argument they are. So for the purposes of this ranking, we are counting Daredevil and the other Defenders shows as MCU.
8. The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) Spider-Man vs. the Lizard
Ok, this first entry is an MCU adjacent fight, but we say it count since Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker is now officially part of the MCU multiverse thanks to Spider-Man: No Way Home. In the first Amazing Spider-Man film back in 2012, the Lizard emerges from the sewers and attacks Peter Parker in Midtown High. The two tussle in a hallway between rows of lockers. Eventually, this Peter puts on his Spidey outfit, and the two wreck the school halls in an all-CG scene. They then take the fight to an overpass, also kind of a hallway, where Gwen Stacy gets involved. Granted, some of the effects are dodgy, but the fighting acrobatics themselves are pretty cool still.
7. The Defenders (2017) Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and Iron Fist vs. The Hand
When the Netflix Marvel shows did their crossover, The Defenders, it wasn’t quite the Avengers-level event we hoped for. Nevertheless, it gave us a pretty cool hallway fight between Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and Iron Fist as they take on the Hand. This scene was good enough to make even Finn Jones’ Iron Fist look cool. Everyone fights in their traditional forms. Matt Murdock and Danny Rand use Martial arts, Luke Cage uses sheer strength, and Jessica Jones tosses dudes aside like paper. One of the best parts of the entire Defenders experience is these four emerging from a high-rise elevator and kicking ass.
6. Iron Man 2 (2010) Black Widow vs. Justin Hammer’s Guards
Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) made her MCU debut in Iron Man 2. While not a terrible movie, it is one of the least-loved entries in the Infinity Saga. Without a doubt, Natasha Romanoff had a lot more to do character-wise in future MCU films. However, we cannot deny that her big action scene in Iron Man 2 is one of the greatest Marvel fights ever. Towards the end of the film, Nat and Happy Hogan are looking for villain Ivan Vanko, who is hiding out in the Hammer Industries complex. Nat easily makes mincemeat of every guard that comes at her. She uses every trick both S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Red Room taught her. After she’s cleaned all their clocks in the cramped office corridors, she pepper sprays one last guard as if to say “This wasn’t even that hard.” Nat, you were the best.
5. Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3 (2023) The Guardians vs. the High Evolutionary’s Creatures
The most recent hallway fight on this list is more of a corridor on a spaceship, but it counts. When the full OG Guardians roster busts out to free the kids on the High Evolutionary’s ship in this two-and-a-half-minute action scene in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, to the perfect James Gunn needle drop of the Beastie Boys’ “No Sleep Till Brooklyn,” audiences wanted to stand up and cheer. Unlike many of the other entries here, particularly the ones involving the Defenders, this one is very CGI-reliant. However, the folks at Weta Digital knocked it out of the park. It may look like one take, but it’s actually 18 separate shots stitched together. We can watch this one on a loop and never tire of it. Just for Rocket’s glee at all the carnage.
4. Daredevil (2016) Punisher vs. Prisoners
In terms of sheer gore and brutality, nothing tops the Punisher’s prison fight in season two of Daredevil. After Wilson Fisk has set him up, Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) takes on a metric ton of inmates in the prison corridors. And he murders everyone who gets in his way. The Punisher is not Daredevil. He doesn’t go for the injury, he goes for the kill, and you see it in all its bloody gory. This one is brutal folks, and not for the squeamish. No single fight scene shows the difference between how Daredevil and the Punisher approach a brawl than this one.
3. Daredevil (2015) Daredevil vs. Russian Traffickers
The first season of Daredevil had everyone talking, when in the second episode, vigilante Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) takes on a group of Russian human traffickers to save one kidnapped boy from their warehouse. The whole thing remains impressive for several reasons. First, it’s a three-minute sequence all shot in one take. Daredevil takes on a good ten Russian thugs inside his little cramped hall, bathed in a sickly green light. Unlike so many fight scenes in superhero media, this one looked like it actually hurt. Not just for the bad guys, but for Matt too. You could feel every punch landed, and every punch Matt landed on the bad guys. There have been other great, more grandiose hallway fights, but this one will probably remain talked about as a game changer for a long time.
2. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) Cap vs. HYDRA Agents
If we’re extending hallway fight to include any cramped indoor space, then what’s a smaller cramped indoor space than an elevator? And that’s where this entry comes in. When Steve Rogers, realizing he’s in an elevator surrounded by Hydra agents in S.H.I.E.L.D. gear looking for a fight, asks if anyone wants to get out before the beat-down begins? You just knew it was going to be a brawl for the ages. Steve proves why he’s freakin’ Captain America in this scene. He takes on all these guys who should have beat him ten to one…and he still hands their butts to them. And then jumps through the glass several stories below. This scene will never not be impressive. If it was in an actual hallway, it would be our number one pick.
1. Daredevil (2016) Daredevil vs. Bikers
After all the accolades season one of Daredevil got, especially that hallway fight, the creators clearly felt the need to top themselves. And we argue they did. This fight showed the Punisher trying to show the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen that his nonlethal ways are ineffective. This scene takes place after Daredevil escaped capture by the Punisher. Matt discovers the gun he taped to his hand doesn’t have bullets in it. Subsequently, Matt fights a plethora of bikers, starting in an apartment complex hallway, later extending into the stairwell. And all without full use of his hands! It is one amazing fight, as Daredevil mows through his attackers. This fight scene somehow topped the first hallway fight from season one. And it’s our favorite Marvel hallway fight of all time.
