The Best Real Punches You See In Movies

A lot of movies involve a lot of punching. It’s usually done with some technical camera wizardry and careful choreography, to avoid multi million dollar earning actors to get hit too hard in the face. From an insurance standpoint, that makes a lot of sense.

Some movies, however, go for the realistic approach. They actually let the punches connect and keep the footage. Imagine screwing up your lines and having to redo that entire scene. Suddenly your job isn’t so bad, is it! Let’s take a look at some of the best times we’ve seen actors actually get punched in the face.

Channing Tatum (Foxcatcher)

There’s a specific scene where Channing Tatum gets hit by his coach, proceeds to hit himself and bashes his head into a mirror until it breaks. All of those hits (and the pain that came with them) are 100% real, meaning Channing Tatum really did a number on himself in that scene.

Michael B Jordan (Creed)

It’s a boxing movie, so you can expect to get boxed at, I guess. During the final battle when Creed gets knocked out from taking a swift punch to the face, the punch is a genuine blow to the face. Michael B Jordan admitted afterwards that the blow made him see stars afterwards, but I guess he fully recovered. Oh, small sidenote: he had to get hit twice, because the first take wasn’t good enough.

Brad Pitt (Fight Club)

When your movie revolves around an underground fighting club, you’re bound to take a few hits. The scene where Edward Norton punches Brad Pitt in the ear, despite being literally the easiest scene on this list to fake, is actually a real punch to Pitt’s ear. Norton wasn’t supposed to hit Pitt in the ear, so the reaction to the blow and everything after that is pretty much improvised by both actors.