The action sequences featured in The Protector reach such an amazing height that it’s easy to question how much of it is real. Over the years, countless martial arts movies have packed their fight scenes with jumps so high and blows so powerful that nothing on their level could have been achieved in real life.

Of course, some level of ridiculousness to the martial arts action is part of the charm of old-school kung fu movies. This type of fanfare is oftentimes both expected and appreciated. However, there are also plenty of films in the genre that strive for realism. But to do that naturally limits the filmmakers in terms of how spectacular the fighting can be.

That’s not the case for The Protector, the 2005 martial arts movie that followed Tony Jaa’s breakout performance in the first of the three Ong Bak movies. Also known as Tom-Yung-Goong, The Protector is an especially memorable entry in the martial arts genre, even in the face of its rather straightforward plot and one-dimensional characters.

The Fight Scenes In The Protector Are Among The Best In 21st Century Martial Arts Movies

The Protector is a modern-day martial arts movie that stars Tony Jaa as Kham, a villager who becomes a fish-out-of-water when he enters a big city to rescue the elephant he was entrusted with protecting. Kham is ruthless in his efforts to find the missing elephant, which his people regard as a sacred animal.

In The Protector, there’s a moment near the end of the film where Kham charges at T.K. (Nathan Jones), his final opponent of the movie, and leaps into the air to execute a double-knee-to-the-chin move. What Tony Jaa accomplishes here looks unbelievable, but that isn’t the only instance of this in the film.

Tony Jaa moves with breathtaking speed throughout the film’s action sequences, jumping from one enemy to another – particularly in the final battle. Tony Jaa’s athleticism is on full display in The Protector, with many of his leaps and flying kicks being so impressive that there’s a significant distance between them and what’s typically seen from most martial arts stars.

What’s more, The Protector is rich with long takes, even more so than what was offered in the first Ong Bak film. One of the best sequences in The Protector sees Tony Jaa fight through a horde of thugs as he makes his way through several levels of a large building, with limited cutaways, thus extending the action and making it more immersive in the process.

Making the action all the more exhilarating in The Protector is the level of brutality infused into the fighting. Tony Jaa’s character utilizes a number of well-choreographed, bone-breaking martial arts techniques. The excruciating sounds of the thugs having their bones broken in combat lend themselves well to the intensity of the fight scenes.

How The Fight Scenes Were Filmed In The Protector

Part of what makes The Protector’s fight choreography with Tony Jaa so extraordinary is the knowledge that no wire-work was used to shoot his fight scenes. Some of the scenes – particularly ones that involve ridiculously high jumps from Jaa – may indicate that it was necessary, but it’s long been understood that wire-work and CGI were avoided during the making of the film, a fact that was brought up often while it was being promoted.

As for how The Protector succeeded in accomplishing all that it did using conventional methods, this owed to a more old-school approach reminiscent of 1970s and 1980s kung fu movies. Many of these films, specifically those from studios like Shaw Brothers, were incredibly impressive, due in large part to how much time went into the choreography.

Large amounts of time being used to film single fight scenes may not seem practical today, but it was the norm then, and also something that had to be done when making The Protector. As Tony Jaa has explained, the five-minute scene where he had to fight through four floors took a month to film, just on its own [via IGN].

Because of all the moving parts, the long takes wouldn’t have worked without hours of practice and memorizing moves.

Other Tony Jaa Movies To Watch After The Protector

The Protector is certainly a sight to behold, but far from the only film that serves as a showcase of Tony Jaa’s martial arts talents. All three installments in the Ong Bak trilogy are perfect examples of this, as are Triple Threat and Kill Zone 2. These great action films offer some of Tony Jaa’s best fight scenes.

The Ong Bak was really the beginning of this style of martial arts movies that Tony Jaa became known for; the actor just took that to the next level when he made The Protector.

Also worth mentioning is, of course, the sequel to The Protector. Released eight years after the first movie, The Protector 2 has some good fight scenes, but unfortunately doesn’t share its predecessor’s commitment to realism when it comes to CGI and wire-work, and instead relies on both tools. It may be worth seeing just to experience Kham’s completed story, but it’s not a must-watch.