9 Most Brutally Satisfying Fights Ever Put On Film

4.True Romance: Motel Meltdown

You know those moments in which a victim is mercilessly attacked while the hero paves his way through enemy after enemy to save them? During such intense sequences, we as the audience understandably expect the hero to arrive at just the right time (typically when the antagonist is raising some implement of destruction above the sorry sap's head) and blast the evil-doer to kingdom come. Rare is the film that goes against this, as the hero fails to arrive. Worse, when the hero didn't even realise there was a problem in the first place. In Tony Scott's True Romance, that's just what happens. Written by Quentin Tarantino as his personal take on the famed love story, True Romance's most heart-wrenching, gut-punching portion comes in the form of Alabama (Patricia Arquette) being viciously assaulted within the garish motel interior of the Safari Inn. Edited against this is that of her true love Clarence - buying fast food for them both - completely unaware that his beloved is being tossed around like a ragdoll by a giant thug named Virgil (played by the late - and then unknown - James Gandolfini). It's an incredibly hard scene to endure, but the payoff makes it all worthwhile. During the course of True Romance's storyline, Alabama isn't once portrayed as a mere victimised sex object and never once falls into the realm of a defenceless woman awaiting her heroic man to fend off her attackers. Much like well, everything Tarantino writes, Alabama is a woman - she is a full-fledged character - and she can fight her own battles. Not only does she refuse to betray Clarence, but she denies Virgil any sense of satisfaction he might gain from her conceding to his abuse. Just as both the viewer and Alabama are at their peak of punishment, the tables are swiftly turned and Virgil is dispatched by the femme-fatale in a most glorious way of emotionally-satisfying finality.