One of our favorite moments from Daredevil is the climactic fight sequence which ends Episode 2. Its probably my favorite television action sequence in recent years. So when I got a chance to talk to the cast and crew of Daredevil, all I wanted to know was how they pulled off that sequence. For those of you who haven’t yet watched the Netflix television series, the second episode ends with Daredevil in full vigilante mode, attempting to break into a baddie’s hideout to save someone.

The sequence lasts five and a half minutes long, with a three-minute fight in the middle, and is incredibly well choreographed. When I first saw it I almost stopped breathing as I realized the beauty of this single take. I’ll admit, it looks like the shot could be visually stitched together using three different takes (as was done in Birdman) but and according to those involved, the fight scene you see is the result of one lone single shot. Lets find out how they did that Daredevil fight scene, after the jump.



Daredevil Fight Scene in Hallway

For those of you who haven’t seen the sequence, above is a 3-minute segment of the action sequence in question. The scene in the show has more to it at the header and footer. The scene begins almost 46 minutes into the second episode, with the camera following a Russian mobster to give us the layout of this hallway hideout. You then see the action in the clip above, and the whole thing concludes with Daredevil unlocking the door and entering to save the kid on the other side. He carries the kid out of the hideout, stepping over the piles of wasted Russians as the camera tracks back down hallway in front of them, giving us glimpses into the rooms.

Peter Sciretta: In Episode 2, one of the my favorite moments in the show is the ending fight sequence, the five and a half minute sequence.

Steven DeKnight: Ah yes.

Peter Sciretta: I was wondering if you could talk about that. How was that put together? What was the thought behind that?

Steven DeKnight: Sure. You know, when I first came onto the show, when I took over for Drew Goddard, who had to leave to do the Sinister Six movie, the first two episodes were written. So I got to the end of reading that Episode 2 thing and, you know, it was described as this long, continuous fight in a hallway. And I thought oh that’s great. I don’t know how the hell we’ll ever be able to do it, but that’s great. So the next key was our Stunt Coordinator and we hired Philip Silvera. If you remember the elevator sequence from Winter Soldier, he’s actually one of the guys in that sequence, which I didn’t know until much later. But he had worked with Marvel before. And he gave us a great test reel for the fight in the Episode 1. He put together a little test and he said, that’s exactly it. I had always approached it this way as I wanted this world to be very grounded.

So we wanted more Jason Bourne, The Raid movies and not a lot of flying wire CGI stunts. And then he was instrumental. He brought in a fantastic stunt guy, Chris Brewster, who doubled Chris Evans in The Winter Soldier. So he was our main double for Charlie for some of the more extreme stuff.

Peter: Now tell me this, Is that one single shot or is that three? It looked like it could be three stitched together.

Steven DeKnight: You know, I’m not sure myself. We did multiple takes but it was all designed to be one continuous shot.

***

For the answer to that question we spoke to actor Charlie Cox who plays Matt Murdock, aka Daredevil. He explains how this masterful fight sequence was executed. Learn more, after the jump.