The subtle touches, like Daredevil sitting down on a vanquished biker for a rest, add doses of realism and humor the series does so well. The way the camera work pulls us in close to the fight adds to the claustrophobic, no-way-out-but-through feel of the scene. While this extended sequence has room for cuts and some visual tricks, its one-take feel is still as exhilarating as the season 1 hallway battle. Part of the brilliance of this scene is how Daredevil uses a length of chain and an inconveniently empty gun taped to his hand, the remnants of his rooftop altercation with The Punisher, in a succession of unique ways to lasso, whip, and beat his opponents into submission. In what seems like a smooth, continuous take, the Devil of Hell's Kitchen saves an innocent bystander, then fends off the fists, guns, and baseball bat swings of his biker attackers. While there are several good candidates, the most obvious homage is the long-take stairwell fight scene from episode 3, which you can now watch above. There are some minor spoilers in the set-up if you haven't watched that far in the series yet, but the scene boils down to Daredevil fighting a succession of Dogs of Hell bikers while The Punisher (Jon Bernthal) lies unconscious in an elevator. The showrunners knew Daredevil season 2 would have to find a way to top a scene like that. Nothing exemplified this better than season 1's famous one-take hallway scene, with a battered and exhausted Daredevil cutting his way through a horde of opponents to save a kidnapped boy. Viewers could feel the thud of every punch, while admiring each acrobatic leap that could end in dominance or disaster. Fans found them jaw-dropping because of the strength of the character's will at overcoming human fragility. That realism was carried through every action sequence, which were the exact opposite of flashy, colorful, CGI-enhanced spectacles. Despite the fantastic feats of skill and strength, Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) felt pain, he bled (profusely), and he often needed help out of dire situations. While a dark, edgy tone isn't new to the genre, the realistic, grounded take on Marvel's blind vigilante was a refreshing spin. I expect deafening cheers accompanied each of the three times they got through the whole shebang.When season 1 of Netflix series Daredevil premiered, it immediately set itself apart from the current crop of superhero shows. Plus, the actors had to have a little bit of cool-down time, since many are in constant motion for the entire scene. It’s a five-minute scene, so that’s roughly an hour of legit shooting time, combined with all of the time needed in between shots to reset everything, including the broken door, the microwave, etc. It’s beyond lunacy that the shot was put together and completed in a single day, especially considering it possibly would have taken longer had they gone with a variety of camera angles. I mean, it’s very hard to find holes in that. And one of them was the one in the show, which is kind of almost flawless. I think three of them, we made it all the way through to the end. If one punch doesn’t land, it no longer works. And it’s incredibly tricky because it’s not like a long tracking shot with two people speaking it’s a long tracking shot with people punching. And then we got into, it was, as you know, it’s one take, so we had to get everything right.
The first half of the day was just the camera movements. Murdock himself shared some of the details behind that shoot. SlashFilm caught up with star Charlie Cox, and Mr. That fight has earned comparisons to equally epic sequences in Oldboy and the Raid films – both of which showrunner Steven DeKnight has namechecked as influences – and has been a major source of conversation for those who binge-watched Season 1.