5 Movies That Feature Krav Maga

The evolution of movies has seen a steady rise in the pursuit of realism since the inception of motion pictures around the turn of the 19th century. More and more people yearn for better graphics, special effects and – this is a big one – fight scenes. Action movie critics and fans crave realistic fight scenes, and as camera technology has gotten better, so has the need for choreographed fight scenes that are equally as advanced.

Krav Maga has swiftly crept in as a favourite amongst film and TV crews, actors and stage combat directors as an extremely realistic form of training and fight scene choreography in recent years. Favoured in training for its reality-based techniques and fitness benefits, and in choreography for its situational sensibilities, chances are you’ve seen Krav Maga being implemented in numerous films.

Whether used as an effective training technique, or in action packed fight scenes, these are 5 movies that feature Krav Maga.

Collateral – Tom Cruise

Before filming the neo-noir hit Collateral (2004), legendary action star Tom Cruise went under intensive Krav Maga training for more than 3 months. There is one scene in the film where Cruise’s character Vincent is attacked by a baton-wielding bodyguard, he responds with a disarming counterattack, removing the weapon from his opponent – textbook Krav Maga. You can hear director Michael Mann talking about Cruise’s training in the film’s DVD commentary.

Million Dollar Baby – Hillary Swank

While Million Dollar Baby (2004) is strictly a film about boxing, the movie’s lead Hillary Swank heavily relied on Krav Maga as a part of her training repertoire. It clearly had a huge impact on Swank’s physique and fighting form, lending itself to a more toned body through high-intensity activity balanced with short periods of rest. Swank spoke very highly of Krav Maga after the film come out: “You punch, you kick, you also learn how to get out of a choke hold. I love, love it,” she said.

Blood Diamond – Leonardo DiCaprio

Although not revered for its fight scenes as such, this is one of the most action-packed films of DiCaprio’s career. A training system like Krav Maga was perfect for Leo for this very realistic iteration of the civil war in Sierra Leone in the 90s – not only in terms of fitness, but also in terms of developing DiCaprio’s method acting, getting him mentally prepared for making fiction seem real. Darren Levine – founder of Krav Maga Worldwide – told Details post-film, “We trained Leonardo DiCaprio for Blood Diamond. He was out of shape when he first came to us, and he left rock-solid.”

The Debt – Jessica Chastain

Discussing her training for the The Debt, Chastain spoke about the hard reality that Krav Maga was based on: “I became kind of obsessed with it. I had four months of training before, and before that I never really thought about myself as a fighter. What I was told, it’s not necessarily simple to learn, but in my very first session they said, Krav Maga is about taking out your opponent as quickly as possible. It’s about someone coming at you with a gun or a knife and being able to disarm that person ensuring your ability to go home safe.” We think she nailed it.

Enough – Jennifer Lopez

It’s nice to see so many women on this list. Krav Maga is great for empowering women and that’s what Enough was all about. J-Lo was vicious in this film, playing an abused wife who learns to fight back through learning Krav Maga. Speaking openly about the benefits of the system, Lopez expressed her belief in its use for women. “[Krav Maga] levels out the playing field between men and women…Where it doesn’t matter how big or tall or strong you are. You can actually manoeuvre around that. It’s about getting out of the way, counter attacking and using whatever you can to get the upper hand.”

Whether you’re an actor, an athlete, man, woman or child, Krav Maga is an extremely effective way to get fit, improve strength, and develop useful real life self defence techniques. If you’d like to give it a try contact Urban Kombat today. We have a wide range of classes to choose from and our qualified instructors will be more than happy to get you started.