Transcription
Watch Denzel Washington in this clip and this one. And this one. Now watch what happens after right there. Right there. He's calm. He's composed. And he knows exactly what's about to happen.
While these guys laugh, his face drops whatever act he was putting on. His eyes go dead. His expression drops. And in my opinion, the most intimidating part. Sometimes his lip droops a little bit at the bottom here, giving an uncanny, asymmetrical, and intimidating stare. See it again here. Just Denzel Washington is such an amazing actor, and this look alone shows his enemies and the audience his complete confidence in composure in life-threatening scenarios.
Okay, but anyone can give a look. You can't fake confidence like this without knowing you can do this. While yes, this is a warning and this is why he actually does three main things before he fights or typically murderers and four main things during a fight. I'll try to sum up the pre-fight ritual quickly because what he does during fights is even more interesting. Despite that, everything he does in his pre-fight ritual is a result of his experience, training, and trauma. And all these things come before he even gets to the brass tax.
The main plot of The Equalizer is that Robert McCall lives a peaceful life. And when he encounters a vulnerable individual being taken advantage of, he tips the scales back to balance. This is why he's called the equalizer. Like in the diner where Robert sits every night, he brings his own teaag, folds his napkin, and he reads his book. He talks with this girl who's a prostitute. Every night she comes in before she goes to do her work. It's clear she doesn't like what she does, but she's not able to get out. When Robert sees she got beat up pretty bad, a switch flips in his brain.
All right. The beginning of the entire, we'll call it mission starts with the first pillar of the pre-fight ritual, selective intervention. He is the response to injustice. This woman doesn't deserve what has happened to her and now she's been brutally beaten. Robert McCall responds, "Whoever did this to her is going to pay. He is the equalizer." He was given a card to the company and goes to their place of business with an offering. "You're wanting to give me $9,000. $9,800 cash for what? Her freedom." Uhhuh.
This is the second pillar of his pre-fight ritual, presenting a chance. This is like when villains say, "We can do this the easy way or the hard way." He's letting his potential opponent have the opportunity to do the right thing. Not only is he offering a chance, but he's also lowering the guard of his opponent. He comes across as a concerned citizen that is trying to do something right, but maybe weigh in over their head. The Russian leader laughs, insults him. "Jerk yourself off 9,800 times, and then you come crawling back here to talk." And Robert turns to leave. Robert opens the door, then closes it three times before locking it. He turns around and we see the third and final pre-fight ritual pillar. Complete and total awareness. When I think of how they display his awareness in this movie, it's like he knows exactly what's going to happen in the next 30 seconds. He can see the future. The only thing he needs to do is execute. And that's exactly what he does. 16 seconds.
Okay, hold on. One more thing before I analyze the fight. Before almost every fight, he starts his stopwatch to time how long it takes till the fight's over. I.e. until he kills everyone. Clearly, before every fight, he does a lot of things. He's a man of routine. Before he eats, he sets everything up perfectly. It's a recurrent theme throughout all of these Equalizer movies. A man of routine, repetition, and staples. Plan, kill, rest. Sit, fold, wait. He's like this due to his special forces background and having OCD is how he can keep routine, maintain control, and stay calm throughout his daily life. So, the use of his stopwatch signifies his confidence. Just like the look he gives, he's not trying to win. He's just trying to do it as quick as possible because it's a game to him. It's not, "Oh man, I hope I make it out of this one alive." It's, "I wonder how fast I can kill this room full of men." He knows he's going to win. That's part of what makes him so compelling because he's not invincible or anything. He's just your regular run-of-the-mill retired Black Ops agent. In all seriousness, though, he's the person who's most in danger in most of these situations. Yet, he's the calmst one in the room. That kind of confidence doesn't come quick or easy. Nothing really valuable does. So, his extreme composure is reflective of his brutal past and is compelling to watch on the screen.
Anyway, 11 1. The man creeps up behind Robert with a gun, which he anticipates and blocks at the wrist, delivers a punch, and wraps his right arm around his elbow, allowing a leverage point that Robert was able to use to break his arm. This is interesting because unlike my last video about Jason Bourne, Robert McCall doesn't leverage weak points with a goal to escape or make his opponent comply. He does it to cause as much damage as possible. Notice how he's the one being attacked in this scene. And while he's defending himself against five grown men, he's really the attacker here. See, this guy makes the first move towards him. Yet, Robert's defense is just killing him. He rarely attacks first and waits for his opponent to make the first move. This takes me to the first pillar of how he fights. I call it the one move rule. Robert waits for a move to be made on him so he can leverage it against his attacker. Jason Bourne had a similar style that I called reaction over initiation. The difference here is Robert is here to kill these people. Basically, he's saying, "I'm here to kill you by letting you try to kill me."
So, next, Robert wraps the gun around this guy's back to shoot the Russian leader. When this guy tries to grab the gun, Robert takes a shot glass and shoves it in his eye. Then, this buff guy comes at him with a knife. Robert grabs the wrist and stabs the guy with a knife still in his hand. He blocks a punch with his right hand, pulls out the knife, then slices this guy's throat. Then, he throws his entire body into a glass table. When ran at again, he stabs him twice, finishing him off. Look at the composure, his eyes. He's not even looking at his opponents. This sequence right here is choreographed so well. It looks so cool. This is where the next pillar comes into play, which is the fact that he's calm and goes at whatever pace he needs. I'm just going to call it control. There's actually a method to this in real life. Like I said in my first video, watching fight scenes in movies is actually a great way to teach yourself important self-defense techniques. These action movies, while choreographed, can give insightful tips on how to defend yourself in real life. Not for everything to be taken literally, but certain methods are in movies for a reason. When you gain the kind of confidence that Robert has, which is possible to get in real life, having the mental awareness and muscle memory of defending yourself, you are the one in control. So, Robert here is moving in a calm and controlled rhythm, going at whatever pace he needs. Obviously, it's not a snail's pace, but he is the one in control in all of his fights.
This also brings up the third pillar to his fighting style. Do you notice anything in these scenes here? No. Okay. How about a little later? Do you see it? He pulled up without a weapon, yet he always ends up using one. Born was similar. I called it improvised weapons. But Robert goes somewhere aware he's likely going to be killing people. Doesn't bring a weapon even with this knowledge. and he still ends up using one either from his surroundings or his opponents. A wise man once told me, "Why bring a gun to a gunfight when I can just use theirs?" Which is what I'll name this pillar. Why bring a weapon when I can use theirs? Next, he dodges a swing of a bottle, grabs some wine openers. Why bring a weapon when I can use theirs? Ah, it's kind of long to say, but that's a gun, shot glass, a knife, and wine openers that he uses in this fight.
Now, look at Denzel Washington here. Look at how he stares. He's not even in a proper fighting stance. See the confidence? I'll harp on this point forever. He's looking at this man and saying, "Go ahead and try." He swings and pays for it. He comes at him again and pays again. The guy falls and Robert stops his watch. He determines that it took 19 seconds to kill everyone. Here I go again about his confidence. By the way, this scene was a minute and 4 seconds. This movie thought they'd get away with that, but they couldn't get it past me.
Robert sits down with the Russian leader and this brings me to the final pillar of his fighting style, the brutality. And most of the time, straight up murder. Every single person in this room is dead. Same for this scene. Same for this scene. And the way he kills them, it's so gory and brutal, sometimes drawn out. Most of the moves he makes are ones that cause permanent or fatal injuries the whole time, keeping a flat gaze on his face.
Now, this is the one scene in the whole series where Robert doesn't go in Sano mode. Robert witnesses this restaurant owner being taken advantage of by corrupt cops. Selective intervention. He catches them outside and says he wants to report a crime. "What's up? I'd like to report a crime." "Really? Call 911." After they blow him off, he gives them a call. "How do you get their number?" "Packer." No, I'm just kidding. He shows them a video of them taking money from a restaurant. They start to press him. This guy pointing a gun at him. This guy searches him. "Those people you took money from, maybe you should give it back." "Why would we do that?" "That would be in the best interest of everyone involved." "Really?" "Yeah."
Here he's presenting a chance. His tone is also sounding kind of innocent. "Those people you took the money from, maybe you should give it back." They threaten to kill him and Robert takes action. He slams this guy into the wall and flips the gun. He directs the gun inward of the holder. Nobody's in this direction. So, if it fired, there's a lower chance of someone getting hurt. He's twisting the gun in the direction of grip being the weakest. Like in this scene, see, he twists it toward the open side of the hand and gets the gun out. Robert slams the guy into the ground using his own arm. Flips around and pistol whips this guy. Quick and easy. He took control and put two people on the ground in 3 seconds. He lectures them and tells them to return the money they stole. "Now, I'm offering you a chance to do the right thing. Take it." "Damn right, Denzel. I mean, Robert, the officers listened and justice was served."
There is a time when Robert doesn't offer a chance to do the right thing, though. This girl was put in his car by this kid and he tips him, asking Robert to help her get in her apartment. She's crying, clearly a wreck. Robert's looking at her and he knows some shady stuff was done to her while she was inebriated. In his head, he said, "It's time for some selective intervention." He knocks on the door and we see some of the best acting in the whole movie. "Stop cheating, bro. Hey man, the credit card declined for the lift." He gives him a credit card and while Robert's admiring it, he asks this. "You're not going to ask me if she got home okay." "She got home okay." Robert lays the brass tax. "No, I took her to the hospital and they're pumping her stomach. This is the point where usually I'd uh give you a chance to do the right thing, but not tonight." You heard it from the man himself. The guy goes to lock the door and Robert uses his supreme awareness. These guys are rich. These guys do drugs. It's clear who he's working with. He starts his stopwatch and "You knocked on the wrong door tonight, Pops." One move roll. Hold on though. What is this punch? Guys, learn how to punch correctly. Please. Even if the equalizer is your opponent, at least give yourself a fighting chance. Michael J. White said it 7 years ago. The power comes from the body, not the arms. Even if this connected, it would have done absolutely nothing. So, as deserved, he gets a credit card across the forehead and a broken arm. This guy runs at him, one move roll, and gets his arm broken, too. Another guy runs at him. Robert kicks his knee, then breaks this guy's wrist. Dude, his arm is broken. I guess Robert's got to stick to the code, even though this is totally unnecessary. Next, he breaks this guy's neck, which could have totally paralyzed or killed him. Three guys down already, not a scratch on him. Robert motions for the next guy to come here, and he winds up only to get five in a couch to the face. This wasn't even self-defense or martial arts. This was just belt to ass. He doubles back real quick just to reimburse some pillar 4 and stops his stopwatch. He heads over to Waterworks and tells him to call 911 and tell them what they did to the girl. He grabs his left hand, makes his demand. "I expect a five-star rating. You understand?" And then breaks his finger. While he didn't kill anyone here, probably he made his point loud and clear and got the revenge for the girl they violated as well as a fivestar review. Now, this guy got the lightest punishment in the whole room by just getting his fingers broken. I've always liked ways you can manipulate the hand when defending yourself. There's so many ways you can take control with the wrist, fingers, and pressure points. The possibilities are almost endless.
Robert utilizes a pressure point in the hand between the thumb and the index finger when this guy comes in and harasses a family. Robert's enjoying this dinner when he sees all this start to go down. Selective intervention. After this guy sees his stink eye, he comes over to give him a piece of his mind. "You like being in other people's business." Wow, look at that lip. You can tell he's pissed already. Robert asks about his watch and when he serves his wrist up on a platter, Robert grabs it, twists his arm, and slams him into the wall. "That's the median nerve that I'm compressing. On scale from 1 to 10, that's a two." "That's a three." This guy's reaction to this seems to be that he's really cold. "Okay, right now, put your thumb into this part of your hand, you'll realize it actually is quite painful if you press hard enough." Now, in a real life scenario, getting a grip on this pressure point would be hard, and keeping a grip would be harder. But this is where Robert is leveraging another move that takes away this guy's strength to struggle away. His arms twisted and he's pinned up against the wall. Some people think pressure points are like how they seem to be in movies. Touch a pressure point, shut your whole body down. Bow. It's a wrap. All can't move none of that. Fight back. Okay. This isn't how it is at all, though. Some pressure points exist on the body that you can use as leverage when defending yourself, like Robert does here.
Now, we've looked at all the pillars for before the fight, during the fight. What about the post-fight ritual? There is none. Mission complete. Back to folding towels. The scales of justice have been balanced. And he goes on with his daily life. You could say everything has been equalized. Thank you, Matt Riley, V1R, for the comment on the last video. Yes, these movies are fake, but choreographers got to base stunts off of something, and I've seen countless moves I've seen in movies work in real life. Not saying everything's realistic, but consume your content with a learning eye, and you may actually learn something. Thank you, Blizzard 69, for the comment on my community post. I can't explain how much this comment actually meant to me when I read it. Next video coming soon. Peace.