INSIDER AXE FIGHT REVIEW by Tyr Neilsen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJToYvIy9gc&ab_channel=Insider

A few weeks before Christmas 2020, a producer from INSIDER got in contact and asked if I was interested in reviewing axe fight scenes from the Vikings TV series.

Insider also wanted me to review the reality of axe fight scenes from ‘realistic’ movies and TV such as John Wick, Bullet to the Head, Transporter and Frontier, and from sci-fi and fantasy movies such as Snowpiercer, The Old Guard, Serenity, Avengers: Endgame and Lord of the Rings.

During a video conversaton with Insider producer Ju Shardlow, who was making this episode, we talked about how I would deconstruct techniques from an axe fight scene, the quality of the choreography, the camerawork, and if and why the scene worked. We talked about what if anything I would have done differently regarding a situation similair to certain axe fight scenes.

We also talked about how ‘real’ an axe fight could be in a fantasy or science fiction film. Days later, the episode was green lit, and I would be the first Norwegian to be in an Insider video.

On the 22nd of December, I was connected to a video chat with Ju and senior video producer David Ibekwe, who quickly organized the technical aspects of videoing this episode. When everything was operational, David started recording as Ju began asking questions regarding axe scenes.

Some of the questions were straightforward whilst other follow up questions ensured that I clarified a technical or historical aspect of the scene, or gave my personal meaning about the scene.

It was a strange sensation to be sitting in my living room, talking to producers in the UK, and giving my opinion about Ragnar and Rollo’s axe fighting in the TV series Vikings. This was the show that brought axes and axe fighting to prominence for the modern audience, by showing us how the axe had come to prominence in the Viking Age.

I was asked to talk about the differences between the various types of ‘Viking’ axes and to demonstrate some of the many techniques that could be used with these weapons. Ragnar Lothbrok actor Travis Fimmel has made the single-handed Viking axe famous around the world for the everyman, and Rollo actor Clive Stanton has done the same with the Viking battle axe. It was a pleasure to watch the complete axe fight scenes they were in, but it was no simple job to rate them.

Disputes throughout the Viking Ages were often ‘solved’ by combat and there were regulated duels called Holmgang. The axe fight scene between Ragnar and Earl Haraldson was a tense dual where few techniques were used, but they were used to good effect.

It is a completely different type of fight when Ragnar’s army faces Rollo and his Viking battle axe. In Berserker mode, Rollo exploits the chaos, raining down brutal blows with his battle axe, and even when the haft of his axe is cut in two, Rollo continues using the broken axe haft as an effective weapon.

Jason Momoa swings a mean North American Tomahawk axe in a brutal fight scene from the TV series Frontier. In this scene, basic axe swings and attacks were used in a very realistic way, and when the weapon was trapped and stripped away, the fight ended up with savage grappling.

Most weapon fight scenes focus so much on the striking, that they don’t show how quickly this can end up grappling with weapons, both standing up and on the ground, which this scene does to great effect.

It is one thing to know how to use an axe when attacking. It is something quite different to know how to defend against an axe attack. A scene with Keanu Reeves fighting against two axe weilding attackers in the John Wick 3 movie, was a great way to address this difference. Here Keanu uses blocks, parries, trapping and locking techniques as well as creating and closing the distance between himself, his attackers and the weapons.

Getting out of the way of an axe requires a lot of focus, coordination and energy, and is not enough in itself to ensure safety. The weapon has to be stripped from the attacker or used against the attacker, something a scene from another movie would allow us to go into later.

Trying to explain how it would be to defend yourself against two axe-weilding attackers in a hall as big as a closet, as Jason Statham does in the movie Transporter, was almost as much fun as watching this scene. Filled with a mixture of danger and excellently timed maneauvres, the creative choreography includes how using an inanimate object can be used to your advantage when unarmed. A good thing to know in such a situation.

It’s not often you qet asked “How would you defend yourself in a train compartment filled to capacity with axe weilding maniacs?” Hopefully I would do as well as Chris Evans does in the movie Snowpiercer. This is just a nightmare scenario.

Technique alone would not be enough. Strength and stamina would not be enough. Spacial awareness and luck might help, but if you lose your grip on a weapon, or lose your balance, as Chris’s character does in the movie, taking out the legs of an opponent is a very effective maneuvre.

After addressing the scary use of a Fireman’s axe and the great work done by Jason Momoa in the movie Bullet to the head, I got to address the use of metal Fireman’s axes weilded with bravado by Ed Skrein in Deadpool.

For several axe fight scenes, I had to change my thoughts regarding the reality of the situation, and consider the elements of the movie. As it is impossible to give any points out of ten for reality to a fantasy figure with a fantasy axe in a fantasy setting, I tried to take into consideration what would be possible if the characters were real, and of course the work of actors, stuntmen and the choreography and filming.

Charlene Theron does an incredible job of weilding a double bladed axe in the movie The Old Guard. Theron’s character Andy (Andromache) is about 6000 years old, and has amazing healing abilities. As this cannot be regarded as realistic, the axe fighting had to be looked at and rated in a totaly different way than a realistic axe fight.

Andy has had many millennia to practice weapon fighting, and is pretty much invulnerable, so the creative choreography of the scene makes sense. In reality, it is highly unlikely that a real person would be able to swing a deadly sharp double bladed axe around their body in a fight like this without causing serious damage to themselves, and I advise not to try.

In a similiar fashion, Summer Glau’s exciting axe scene in the sci-fi movie Serenity, shows elegance within brutal axe swings, as her character, River Tam, goes into a type of berserker mode against many opponents. Again, these moves would not be able to be performed by a real person in a realistic situation without serious consequences, but within the parameters of the scene, the character shows how an axe can be weilded as an extension of the body.

Gimli swings a long hafted battle axe with relish in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. In this fantasy adventure, the dwarf compensates for his height disadvantage by using a weapon with reach. Every time he swings or thrusts the axe, he does it with all his energy and intention. Not something that can realistically be done for us mere mortals, as it quickly drains energy, but is done to great effect in the film.

In Avengers: Endgame, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, weilds the fantasy axe Stormbreaker with powerful intent. This modern mythical weapon could be based on a Viking battle axe or Medieval pollaxe, and is swung as these historical weapons would be swung. There are many sophisticated tricks and techniques for such weapons, based on quartstaff or stick fighting.

Outside of the exciting fantasy fighting in the scene, there was the very important theme of turning an opponent’s weapon against them. Technique has to be used against a bigger and more powerful opponent, in order to turn a disadvantage into an advantage.

The Insider producers encouraged me talk at length about axes, fighting techniques, historical weapons, stunts, choreography, filming and all aspects of the impressive work that went into the making of these fight scenes. After watching each axe fight scene in its entireity, I also had to ‘rate’ them, which was no easy task.

All of this was then edited and pieced together with film clips in order to create the finished video. From start to finish, this was a really interesting and exciting experience, and I would like to thank everyone involved with this project, especially Ju Shardlow, for making it happen.

Axes are not abundant in movies and TV show fight scenes, but when they have athletic actors and stuntmen who perform scenes that are creatively choreographed and filmed well, they are every bit as exciting as any other weapon used in a fight scene.

Link to Insider video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJToYvIy9gc&ab_channel=Insider