Bloodbaths and brawling – The Best Movie Battle Scenes ever inspired by The Great Wall
THE GREAT WALL, starring Matt Damon, brings epic battles back to the big screen as we look at the blood-soaked best bits from Lord of the Rings, Gladiator, Saving Private Ryan, The Revenant and more.
The Great Wall trailer teases epic battle in China
Why do we love watching brutal battles so much?
The adrenalin rush? The satisfaction of seeing the baddies finally get what’s coming to them?
The Great Wall hits cinemas this friday and features jaw-dropping battles on an almighty scale with huge armies battling human and supernatural foes.
We have an exclusive clip from the new film by legendary Chinese director Zhang Yimou (Hero, House of Flying Daggers) plus some of the best pulse-pounding moments from cinema history.
The Great Wall is out in UK cinemas on Friday, February 17
Why do we love watching brutal battles so much?
The Great Wall – First Battle
The film stars Matt Damon as a foreigner drawn into one of the most iconic periods of history as a new Emperor decides to build that famous wall. But it's not just regular soldiers they are trying to keep out...
In the next clip, we get to see the three specialist warrior clans of the nameless order show off their skills. From acrobatics leaping off platforms into the sea of green beasts to the deadly long distance cavalry, it’s an absolute blood bath.
NEXT: EXCLUSIVE CLIP FROM THE GREAT WALL
The Great Wall trailer teases epic battle in China
The First Battle in the Great Wall hosts an absolute blood bath
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Helms Deep)
Purely for Orlando Bloom’ Legolas and Viggo Mortensen’s Aragorn leading several hundred defenders against an army of around 10,000 Orcs and Uruk-hai.
Bonus scene: when Legolas slides down stairs on his shield WHILST firing arrows.
Saving Private Ryan places the viewer in the midst of the action like few movies had done before
Saving Private Ryan (Omaha Beach Scene)
It is an utterly visceral and uncompromising but realistic view of war, it also places the viewer in the midst of the action like few movies had done before.
Braveheart (Battle of Stirling Bridge)
This film took the graphic nature of battle on the big screen to the next level with the inclusion of a lot of blood, decapitations, hacked off limbs and crushed bodies.
Such additions to already massive battle scenes added a level of realism and shock which other films had left out. Bonus scene: FREEDOOOMMM!
Braveheart included a lot of blood, decapitations, hacked off limbs and crushed bodies
The Revenant (Opening Battle)
Completely harrowing, brutal and featuring a phenomenal (Academy-Award winning) performance by Leonardo DiCaprio, the amazing tracking shots of one of the most seamless battle scenes ever really sets you up for the journey throughout the rest of the film
Children of Men (Refugee Uprising)
Director Alfonso Cuaron created an awe-inspiring, continuous and uncut take clocking in at 6 minutes, which really heightens the battle's gritty realism and is impossible to look away from.
Gladiator (Battle for Germania)
The organised, efficient killing machine that was the Roman legion are matched against the hairy, scary rabble of the Germanic tribes, and watching this highly organised war machine do what it does best is cinema at its finest
The Great Wall is out in UK cinemas on Friday, February 17.