This Intense Long Tracking Scene from the New Netflix Original Series 'Daredevil' is Simply Mindblowing

Forever losing memory of that dreadful "Daredevil" movie starring Ben Affleck from 2003, we have found a new standard in superhero movies thanks to the partnership of Marvel and Netflix. Finding its place with beautifully shot shows like "House of Cards" and "Peaky Blinders," Netflix adds the masterpiece that is "Daredevil," starring Charlie Cox as the masked vigilante. Each scene matches a tone devoted to the comics, and one stood out as beyond epic making it a must see!

With over 65 million subscribers to the network today, it is without a doubt growing beyond what anyone had ever thought Netflix could achieve. Keeping pace with the high-quality productions of the big screen varieties such as "Avengers" or "Iron Man," "Daredevil" is on par to be yet another explosive success for the company. In this long tracking scene, we have the main character fighting through a single hallway taking down multiple assailants one power punch after another. The raw, gritty feel to the show gives it character and emotion driving it past some rival shows like "Arrow." This is a true masterpiece of a scene that summarizes the entire show's inaugural season very well. 

The writers at SlashFilm were able to catch up with the leading star, Charlie Cox, about how the scene was shot and the way they used a double to go in and out of the fast paced action in one take:

We dedicated our whole day to it. The first half of the day was just the camera movements. And then we got into, it was, as you know, it’s one take, so we had to get everything right. Each attempt that we had at it. 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. If one punch doesn’t land, it no longer works. It ceases to work as a scene. So I think we did it 12 times. I think three of them, we made it all the way through to the end. And one of them was the one in the show, which is kind of almost flawless. I mean, it’s very hard to find holes in that.

...I come in and I go in a door. I hide behind the door, Chris Brewster (stunt double) comes out, he does his bit. Then he goes into a room, I come back out, I do a bit and, you know.

To say the show is a success would be an understatement. It's created a whole new place to broaden the Marvel Universe. I'm so happy to see the success of this show and many other original content on Netflix, it gives hope to the future of television. 

[via Cinema Blend and SlashFilm]

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14 Comments

Meh. When I think of shots like this one I think of Cary Fukunaga's iconic tracking shot from True Detective episode 4. I watched that one over and over again. This one doesn't work as well for me. Calling it "mindblowing" is kind of like calling a photograph mindblowing because of how difficult it was to capture rather than the artistic merits of the work itself.

That one was really impressive. The scene in Daredevil reminds me a lot of the tracking shot from the Korean film 'Oldboy.' It's incredibly similar. Still an enjoyable watch, though!

The one'r from True Detective was an actual one shot 6 min track. This is cool, but as has pointed out, borrows heavily from Old Boy, a film that is simply mind blowing (Park Chan-wook's original, not the butchered US version). This has for sure been digitally stitched - nothing wrong with that, but let's not call it something it isn't.

I really enjoyed this scene, but found it eerily similar to the one-take fight scene in Park Chan-wook's 'Oldboy.' From the lighting to the situation, it's almost identical. Didn't make it any easier to pull off, though, so kudos to those involved in the production.

100% agree. Very similar, but also very hard to pull off no matter how you look at it. Lots of respect to the entire cast and crew. This alone makes me want to see the series.

For others who may not have seen the Oldboy scene we are referring to, you can find it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OzB-mop6AA

As another voice of encouragement, Daredevil is definitely worth the watch! I was thoroughly entertained throughout. It's another success for Netflix in my opinion.

great reference. It's definitely like a different perspective take on the Oldboy scene.

I'm just glad I wasn't the only one who noticed it! Doing a quick search online, it appears there's already comparison videos for this scene. Both great scenes, regardless!

But I think it was purposefully similar. I'm going to guess this was an homage to that scene.

Ugh. Is every TV show / movie going to have one of these digitally-enhanced oner shots now? FWIW I don't believe this was all one take, and I'm pretty sure I can see where the splices were done (0:38, 1:05, 1:38, 2:17, possibly 2:50).

Charlie Cox says it's one take. Think he's lying? :)
But yeah, my first thought was that there were some splices here and there. Cool regardless.

Yes, it looks fishy for sure. Why bother trying for a single shot and then add all these potential edit points? Ego? It certainly wouldn't look any different to do one shot vs 4 or 5 the way their tracking was set up.

It doesn't look like he's actually hitting anyone?! lol

Boo! Hiss! The video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Netflix. Oh well, I'm not a Netflix customer.