10 Best Epic Hollywood Punch-Ups

Less humour in this brutal battle of the sexes encounter between Alabama (Patricia Arquette) and burly hit-man Virgil (a brilliant pre-Soprano’s turn from James Gandolfini). Seeking the suitcase of cocaine that Alabama and Clarence have made off with, Virgil takes sadistic delight in giving the spirited Alabama a fighting chance, before it’s ‘No more Mr Nice Guy’.

It’s a hard watch, and the man v woman violence is unflinching, made all the more intimate as it stays contained in the small motel room.

In another film, in another era, this would have been the set up for Clarence’s return, to take down the bad guy and save the girl. But this is the world of Tarantino and Tony (Scott) and a changing tide in the persona of on-screen females, with Alabama showing she’s no damsel in distress as her survival instincts and inner-toughness come to the fore in a brutal, toilet-related turn of the tide.