 In our most recent episode, Movie Krate, we talked about all sorts of different tips and techniques that filmmakers and editors use to make movie fight scenes so much cooler than they have any business being. And to highlight this concept, we're going to take one scene from Cobra Kai from season one, and it's the school lunchroom scene, and we're going to take a look at the cinematics versus the realism at play. Now it goes without saying this is going to have some spoiler alerts. If you have not watched Cobra Kai on either YouTube Premium or on Netflix yet, pause this episode, go watch the show a thousand times because it's that awesome, and then come back and join the discussion because we will be giving away some minor plot elements, so if you don't want to be spoiled, then please go check it now. If you don't care, then let's move on. I thought that this was a really good scene to start with, mainly because even though it's halfway through the first season, it's a pivotal moment. You know, this is a moment that kind of cements and sets the dynamic for these characters going forward, so I thought this was the appropriate place to start. Now, we're assuming you know who characters are if you've continued watching this, but up at this point, we've seen our main character Miguel be impacted by the bullies a couple of times. In the first episode, he's getting his butt kicked by them in the parking lot. Johnny comes to the rescue and saves them. Later at the Halloween dance, we see Miguel has learned just enough karate to get himself into trouble, and he faces off with Kyler again, delivers a beautiful front kick, and it works, but then he realizes very quickly he's in over his head, and then the whole scenario does not end very well for him. So at this point of the show, we're halfway through the show, and Kyler keeps getting the best of Miguel. And this goes back to our most recent episode, we talked about the different hierarchy in the movie scene when it comes to a fight, where the realism itself, the actual realistic nature of the fighting, is actually on the bottom totem of the priority list. Number one is the narrative setting. You know, this is a narrative piece to tell the story, so every scene has to move the story forward. So there's some sort of story telling, some sort of character development. The story has to move forward. That's number one priority. Two, then we have the choreography, which is the actual fight that they choose. You know, it's got to look cool, it has to be engaging, and it's got to be creative, it's got to be different enough. So that's the choreography that goes into it to make it more of a spectacle. Then there's the presentation and intended effect. And that means what do the filmmakers want the viewers to feel after watching the scene? Do they want the feel triumphant? Do they want the viewers to be angry, upset, happy, you know, terrified, suspense, you know, that comes into play too. So you've got your narrative structure. So moving the drama forward, you have the choreography and making it creative and look good. You've got your presentation and the effect you want on the audience. Once you've met those, then it's about making it as realistic as possible within those confines. And that's usually the priority of how things are set in an action film. And all of that plays into this scene right here, this lunchroom scene. We're halfway through season one. This is a milestone scene. How this plays out affects the path of the show from this point forward. So you have your narrative structure right there. We also see some choreography. We're going to get back to that part in a minute, but we're going to see some moves that we saw Miguel training. So that choreography is in place. As far as the intention, this is definitely a root for the underdog moment. This is definitely we want to feel triumphant and that's our takeaway when we walk away from the scene. After that, the realism is actually pretty low, but nobody cares because the scene itself was just cool enough and it actually impacted enough to move the show forward. So what's interesting though is when the scene starts, it actually appears like it's going to be a Samantha versus Kyler moment. We know Samantha has training. We know she can take Kyler. They already kind of shows the glimpse that she knows how to handle him. Kyler's pushing her buttons and actually Samantha takes a stance. It looks like she's about to unleash. So it's like, okay, this is going to be satisfying. We're going to watch Samantha kick the crap out of him until Miguel steps in and we realize, oh, this is his moment. Is he going to succeed? So I thought it was interesting how they shifted the tone from one that quickly switched over to Miguel. This is Miguel's defining moment. This is where I feel is the most realistic of the scene. The shoves and the intimidation is real. Miguel's kind of getting his bearing. You know, he's had no success up to this point. And then Kyler throws a punch and Miguel immediately does a defensive tactic and captures it. And of course if he pauses and delivers a cool line saying it's not lame as karate, it's Cobra Kai, then delivers a counter strike. Okay, total Hollywood right there. You don't stop in the middle of the fight. The bad guy is not going to stand there and let you give a catchphrase or something like that. That's pretty unrealistic. It was pretty badass in the moment, but right off the bat, that's not a realistic part of a real fight. But what happens from that point on, I really like this is my favorite part of the fight. Kyler's reaction is rage. He's bewildered for a second, grabs Miguel and just starts throwing him around the tables. And for anyone who's seen a real high school fight in a lunch room, that's pretty much what it is. You know, wild swings, grabbing and choking, throwing each other into the tables. And it's frantic and Miguel looks panicked. And for the moment you can relate, if you've ever been into a fight, you've got that moment of, okay, this is on, this is happening. You try to find your first bearing and you see the moment it clicks. When Kyler pulls him off the table the second time and puts him in that chulk hold, Miguel immediately recognizes his position because we've had some foreshadowing of Johnny teaching them different techniques. He recognizes his position and he goes right into action and actually delivers another blow to Kyler, which is extremely satisfying to watch. And what I find realistic about it is, again, that panic and that franticness, it feels raw. That is authentic. And even his counterattack and the kick and the way Kyler falls off the side, it's a little sloppy and kind of awkward. But again, also realistic. It's not move. Yes, you know, he's not doing a Chuck Norris move. It's a gangly teenager, you know, trying to defend himself having just learned after a couple of weeks. Now he has to succeed because failure is going to be worse this time. And then we're cheering along with them, especially when Alicia stands up, she goes, no mercy. It's on. We're excited. We are now automatically rooting for the underdog. And here's where it gets a little silly. Here's where the Hollywood, Hollywood dough comes in. First, he exhibits his spidey sense with that punch coming in. He drops down and we're going to call him the big dumb guy because that's what Johnny called him. Big dumb guy comes in for punch and Miguel drops and sweeps and takes him right down. A couple of minor problems with this, and these are very nitpicky problems, is continuity. If you go frame by frame, if you're a geek like I am and you went frame by frame, you can see that when the big dumb one comes in for a swing, he's already in mid swing in the close-up shot. But when you cut to the lower shot, you see both of his hands are down. So he's not in swing position and his lead leg is different. Okay, it's an editing continuity error, but it's very, very minor. Then Miguel does a sweep. And in my opinion, that sweep was just way too easy. A big guy like that really wasn't off balance enough to have his legs fly out from underneath him that way, especially considering Miguel never actually touched him. We talked about this in the previous episode about how you frame camera shots so that they look like this connection happening where a foot or a hand just has to pass in front of an object to make it look like they're connecting. If you look closely, you see Miguel's foot actually sweeps the floor in front of big dumb one's legs and there's no contact made, but the reaction and the falling down, I think, helps sell it. So yes, I am nitpicking here when you go frame by frame. When you play it back, it's good enough, you get by with it. It still adds to the scene in the moment, but nitpicking, you can see there's a couple of little movie magic tidbits happening in there. And here's where they kind of dip into briefly the whole, well, you're going to attack, and you're going to attack the whole one at a time, multiple attackers that you see a lot in movies that's not that realistic. It's only brief here. I won't even forgive it, but he gets attacked from behind. He goes into that chokehold. He delivers a hammer fist to the guy's groin. Okay, good. Bys himself a couple seconds. That could legitimately be a technique. And then he delivers a solid front kick to the next guy. And we've already seen him deliver a front kick. So if you work to land that, totally believable that that kid will fly back and maybe by himself a few more seconds. And then he turns, spins, does that beautiful cresting kick, knocking the next guy out. The only thing though is, again, camera angles, because later in the show, you see an alternate angle from a cell phone. When Miguel did the turn spin kick, he was nowhere near landing that strike. So that's that part I was talking about where certain camera angles can help sell strikes better than others, that you have to frame things in a certain way to make it look like things connect. So that was a little sloppy later that they showed the other angle, but it's actually kind of fun to see the difference in the two, how much of a difference a slight angle change can make. Now I do feel that the scene has a pretty good use of environmental space. And if you go back to the Karate Kid movies, most of the fights are in big open areas, and with some exceptions, but most of the times they're on a big open mat in the tournament or in a big open room. Cobra Kai, there's a lot more environmental usage. You know, they fight in the bar, they fight in a school hallway, they fight in an apartment, they fight in the school lunchroom. You see a lot of different environments in which the actors are playing off of, and there's a good example of that here. Miguel is using the tables. He is putting obstacles between himself and his attackers, and he's using his space as part of the fight. And that really makes the fight that much more interesting, because the moves themselves aren't that impressive, but it's this whole, the way he's reading the situation that we're invested in, and the way he's trying to scramble to get away and protect himself is what we're invested in, and using the environment in such a way, I think, was a very effective way to do that. I'm not a fan of the chair knocking the guy down. At best, you know, pushing a chair like that is a good quick delay, but I don't think anyone's gonna go creaning over it like that. My pet peeve of the scene, honestly, is that stupid food tray. Miguel picks up the food tray, plastic food tray, not very aerodynamic, not very heavy, and he's knocking guys out with it. He's hitting people, he's blocking with it, he's striking with it. I understand what they're going with, that he's grabbing a tool that's at his disposal. I just wish they would have chosen something better, like a book or a bag, something with more substance, because you're not going to do a whole lot of damage with that tray. Maybe if you used it once, but it was like his primary weapon, and he's like, kneeing guys and knocking them out over the head. I have a hard time believing he's going to knock somebody out or even knock somebody down, hitting them with that kind of a tray. That's just my opinion. I kind of, it was kind of like, when they did that, but it did highlight ingenuity and just kind of, you know, cementing the fact is that when you are in a self-defense situation, that you really should be aware of your environment and that anything around you can't be used to defend yourself. So I think it succeeded in highlighting that. I just, my nitpick is in the choice of object. I just don't think that was as effective, and that kind of pulled me out a little bit. So after knocking the guys around a little bit, Miguel's wrapping it up. He's trying to escape. He sees Kyler getting up, jumps on Big Dumb Guy, jumps on the table and delivers a nice little, you know, sweeping back kick to Kyler, knocking them backwards. No problem with that. I mean, yes, you know, legitimately speaking, he could have gotten enough torque and enough energy to do some damage, but then he resorts back to that tray again. But ultimately though, as far as the story goes, he has now vanquished his bullies. He's taken all four of them out. He is lunchroom hero. He stands up and there's this triumphant moment. He has now gained new respect in the school. He has now attracted the eye of the girl that he likes. His friends who doubted him are now seeing the value of self-defense in karate. So this was a pretty big moment for Miguel. The fighting was kind of weak in itself. If you break down individual moves, it was pretty weak, but the overall presentation, the way they frame the angles, the way they edit it, the timing, his use of space, the music pumps you up, the characters' excitement all wrapped up, adds up to a scene that's pretty pivotal, and it's a tentpole scene and the very important scene in the series because it really affects a lot of things going forward. And I also like that it stretches far enough to the point where it indicates Johnny a little bit because we saw Johnny working with Miguel on a variety of techniques and one of them was at chokeholds. So when we see it being applied in real life here, it kind of cements the bond between him and Johnny. Johnny taught him well and we see that. And when you see a little bit of a foreshadow like that and haven't paid off later, I find that very satisfying. And that happened in the original Karate Kid film too. In the tournament between Daniel and Johnny, Daniel's moves are pretty basic. He's pretty much punched, front kick, round kick for the most part, but there's that one moment where he pulls out that nice leg lock takedown and does that backfist of Johnny's head for a sweet point. It seems pretty advanced for Daniel, way more advanced than the other stuff he's done, but we got to see the moment where Daniel saw that was first exposed to it when he was goofing around with Miyagi and Miyagi did it to him. It was such a subtle moment earlier that when we see him break it out later, dramatically speaking, and his audience engagement, it's that much more satisfying. So I like to see that Cobra Kai is doing little things like that. They drop little hints and they pay off later. So the whole position recognition of Miguel in that chokehold and slithering out and doing that counter strike was beautifully done. I think it was a very impactful moment in the series. So that was just one fun example to show how there's little tricks that you can do to make action scenes much better because you don't always have the greatest martial starters or actors that have martial arts skills. So sometimes you have to cheat a little bit and I find it impressive different tactics that you can use to make actors and make the scenes look better and come across better than they would have in real life. And that's part of the fun of movie magic. And if you guys like this episode, if you kind of like this concept of breaking down movie scenes, please by all means suggest more below because maybe we can do more of these if there's specific scenes that you either want to break down, you want to hear explained or you don't know how it was something was done and you want it to be discussion. You know, I value all your input. So please leave those comments down below and also be sure to check out our past episode where we talked about movie karate if you haven't already, where we go a little bit more in depth of the different camera work and a different editing work that can help amplify these scenes. So this is kind of a partner companion piece with that. So if you haven't checked it out already, please go take a look. And thank you so much for watching and look forward to your feedback and we'll see you next week.