Historia mówiona klasycznego filmu akcji Krew i kość

One fateful college weekend, ActionMax, the genre spinoff of Cinemax, programmed 3 down-and-dirty action films in a back-to-back marathon of cable curation that would change my life.

First was Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning, a one-in-a-million blend of discipline fiction, horror, and R-rated action. Then Undisputed II: Last Man Standing, a milestone minute for the up-and-coming Scott Adkins. But the coup de grâce was 2009’s Blood and Bone.

Directed by Ben Ramsey (Dragonball Evolution, author of The large Hit), Blood and Bone is simply a crisp, 93-minute underground fight movie led by Undisputed II’s Michael Jai White, who surrounds himself with a litany of high-profile professional fighters, including Bob Sapp, Kimbo Slice, Gina Carano, and Matt Mullins. The cast and stunt squad is stuffed with action movie legends (Gene LeBell, Robert Wall, Ron Yuan, Zoë Bell), major manufacture players-to-be (Extraction franchise manager Sam Hargrave, The Continental stunt coordinator Larnell Stovall, Day Shift manager J.J. Perry, Black Panther fight coordinator Clayton J. Barber), and talented manufacture veterans who stay underappreciated to this day (Jesse V. Johnson collaborator Luke LaFontaine, and Sauron himself, Sala Baker).

Blood and Bone is an unforgettable display of bodies in motion. Anchored through a satisfyingly simple communicative about an ex-con looking to dominate an underground fighting ringing to fulfill a promise to a dead friend, the action choreography and fist-to-face sound effects combine to form pure cinema. Ramsey’s movie had opened me up to not just a full fresh planet of movies, but a full fresh way of watching them.

On the occasion of its 15th anniversary, and at a time erstwhile all of its major players feel either essential to action movies or underappreciated for their art, Polygon spoke to many of those active with Blood and Bone to realize how they pulled it off.

Michael Jai White, “Isaiah Bone” and co-producer: [Blood and Bone] was beautiful much a revisiting of ’70s moviemaking, due to the fact that I would do everything on camera. There’s no camera stunts or tricks or what have you. I love being pure to that, due to the fact that Blood and Bone was about it — that was a fight movie. That was an homage to Hard Times [starring Charles Bronson and James Coburn] in a contemporary fashion. So that’s what that was intended to be. So it had to be this truly mano-a-mano street-fighting kind of thing.

Ben Ramsey, director: It started with Mike [Jai White]. He was looking for a manager [for this project], and I had known Mike for rather a fewer years before we decided to do this. We were fellow martial arts fanatics, and always talked about doing 1 together. So he came to me with the script. And I was like, Yeah, come on, let’s go. Let’s do it. And we got the funding, and the rest, as they say, is history.

J.J. Perry, second unit director, martial arts director, and stunt coordinator: Me and Mike Jai White go back to 1990. erstwhile I got out of the army, he was just getting [to LA] from fresh York. He was a kyokushin national champion. I was the same in taekwondo. We were both, like, top players in our respective martial arts. He’s rather a bit bigger than me, he’s a different weight class, but we hit it off right away.

I did Undisputed II with Mike. We were already friends, but that’s erstwhile we created a very professional working relationship. And that’s erstwhile he asked me to come do Blood and Bone with him. I was super honored.

Sam Hargrave, “Manuel” and co-fight coordinator: It was early days in my career. J.J. Perry was a stunt coordinator I’d worked with. We had done X-Men Origins: Wolverine in Australia, and I was just starting to make a name for myself. He asked me to come on [the project], helping him fight choreograph, and playing a tiny character role. And so I helped him plan the action, and I did a tiny stunt part where I got beaten up by Michael Jai White.

David Chan Cordeiro, “Carlos” and stunt performer: The stars were aligned. I wanted to do stunts since I was little. A friend of mine knew J.J., and he set up a meeting. It virtually changed the course of my life.

Hargrave: I don’t think [you know how peculiar it is] erstwhile you’re in it at the time. All the people I was working with were more established than I was. J.J. and Clayton [J. Barber] and Sala [Baker] had done much bigger movies for much longer than I had. I think I was most likely besides young and caught up in the minute to realize who’s who, the list that I had the honor to be in the midst of. But you look back and go wow — if you combine all of the resumes of these people, it’s 1 of the most awesome lineups in action cinema history.

Ramsey: We utilized to brag that we had the baddest cast in town.

Cordeiro: I was starstruck.

Shooting large action on a budget

Perry: We shot very quickly. And we hired quite a few badasses. We beat up 50,000 motherfuckers in like 5 days with 3 cameras.

White: That’s what we had to do. To be able to do it now, like even with [my fresh movie] Outlaw Johnny Black, I’m creating the fight scenes as I’m on my way to set. Literally, due to the fact that I don’t have the time.

Larnell Stovall, “Trey” and stunt performer: This was during a time erstwhile the MMA craze was kind of inactive peaking. Where UFC was inactive increasing and legends were inactive being created. So any kind of underground fighting had an anticipation behind it now. People wanted to see more real techniques. They wanted to see jiu-jitsu, they wanted to see Muay Thai, they wanted to see karate. So realistic styles were incorporated in that.

Hargrave: Because [MMA] was in the public’s consciousness, people were utilized to seeing that and then you’re taking it and adding in what we would call “movie fu.” Like, Yes, it’s MMA, but with an breathtaking twist. So it’s the things that are the most dynamic, but inactive related to the principles of the technique. That era was definitely a demarcation and a shift of choreography for martial arts action movies.

Ramsey: We had specified a short time to shoot. quite a few large martial arts movies famously had like a full week or 2 weeks doing 1 fight scene, and we would get on set and just have a fewer hours, and we had about 20 days [total] to shoot in a full bunch of locations, and just shy of $4 million on budget. So erstwhile it came time to do these fight scenes, they had worked it out so well that we could go and just shoot.

Hargrave: What I remember is the night shoot, erstwhile I was interacting with Michael, getting my butt kicked. But besides time spent in the gym with all the stunt performers. It was reasonably early in my career, 2009. And I’d only been doing it for about 4 years professionally. And so that camaraderie of working with the performers, being able to see the magic on this kind of level — it was a fun, lower-budget, gritty, get-it-done, “work with the fellas and do fun stuff with your friends” [project]. And I just remember the camaraderie of the stunt squad on set.

Perry: I only have fond memories of those days of doing those run-and-gun, $2-to-$5-million budgets in 30 days where it’s you and your homeboys. We’re shooting 7 days a week, and we’re sleeping in our cars, and we’re just going for it. I think that’s what prepped me for [bigger Hollywood movies]. due to the fact that if you can fight over your weight class in a movie like that, and score, erstwhile you get on a large movie, and you’ve got money and time, you gotta shoot farther, you gotta see farther. I’m super grateful for all of those movies, due to the fact that that’s the road that got me to where I am now.

Hargrave: Lower-budget movies force you to work rapidly and make bold choices and act on those choices. Meaning you don’t have quite a few time to second-guess yourself, you don’t have quite a few time to shoot a bunch of different coverage, you just [ask], What is the most effective way to tell the communicative with the camera there? and get it done with confidence.

Set stories/favorite memories

Cordeiro: Me and Sala got knocked out beautiful early in a fight scene. But then there are also beats where Michael goes up to the leader of the gang and grabs him. So Sala and I had to play dead for possibly 2 or 3 nights in a row. Sala would put his hands on my ankle and start tickling. And I’m dead, and I’m trying to decision distant without ruining the take. I find it funny, due to the fact that Sala is simply a massive dude, he utilized to play rugby, a immense human, but he is the kindest, most comic person.

Stovall: 1 of my favourite memories was the showcase fight scene where he took on fighter after fighter after fighter. Watching that, it was like, Yeah, this is gonna be special.

Hargrave: That minute erstwhile David Chan Cordeiro got deadmanned out of the air with a Michael Jai White side kick. I was showing that to individual the another day!

Cordeiro: I had seen a YouTube wushu reel at the time, and I said, “I have a proposal, and I’d like to show you.” And Michael saw the kick and goes, “Oh, that’s amazing.” And I asked, “Do you head if I [am the 1 who gets kicked]?” due to the fact that I figured they’re going to give it to a more seasoned stunt performer. And [co-fight coordinator] Fernando [Chien] was so nice. He said, “No no no, David, you suggested it, you keep it.” And I’m like, Oh my God, this is my large moment. On the day we do it, I get kicked with the kick — obviously, Michael’s being safe, so the kick wasn’t full-on, he kind of grazed me, and I didn’t get pushed back. So I get up, and I say to Sam, “Can he kick me harder?”

Fernando brought me a [stunt vest], and there’s a tiny tarp on the floor, so I had possibly an inch of padding. And he did kick me hard, and that’s the take in the movie. And then everyone just applauded and congratulated me. To be honest, I didn’t care if I got knocked out erstwhile I fell on the ground. I just wanted to sale that kick.

I was truly tense that day. So many large names. I thought to myself, All these guys, they most likely wanted to be in this spot, so I truly gotta go 100%. But to be honest, I never felt any jealousy from them. They were super supportive, and erstwhile I asked for feedback, they all said, “Bro, you’re looking good, keep yourself safe.”” That was 1 of the best experiences I’ve had my full life.

Stovall: We had Tanoai Reed in that, who’s The Rock’s double. He was the guy with the gold tooth that gets knocked out truly fast. And what’s comic is, I love the thought of subverting expectations. Now, I didn’t have nothing to do with the story. But as an action designer, it teaches me to pay attention to things. possibly you request to bring the audience’s expectations to a certain point, and then go left. due to the fact that erstwhile you see a guy like that, you’re like, Oh, he’s this size, he can move. OK, this is gonna be a good fight. And then WAPOW! and it’s over. Like, wait, what the — what just happened? At the end of the day, things like that I think stand out more.

So within Blood and Bone, I liked the thought that they built the character up so strongly, that by the time individual [gave White’s character a real challenge] — whether it was Bob Sapp, or whether it’s our final character, the fight scene with Matt Mullins, it was a better payoff by the time you got there.

Hargrave: In the final showdown, we had choreographed a series where [Mullins] gets swept and falls to the ground and does this large fall. We had another stunt guy double him for that, Steve Upton. He took specified a hard fall, and then just got back up and kept going. I remember my eyes popping out of my head, and going, like, Holy smokes. So yeah, Steve Upton, doubling Matt Mullins, he gets swept and does the eventual taco fall, he fundamentally falls and folds in half beyond 90 degrees. I was in awe of that, the ability to keep going, that stuck out to me. And I actually will mention that or show that to fresh stunt performers and go, “This is what stunt people do in a fight, erstwhile they do their acrobatic falls.”

Michael Jai White as a singular action star

Stovall: Michael Jai, who’s a beast, he’s like my large brother. I’ve done a fewer films with him. It was large to see him get off in that.

Hargrave: Michael is fantastic. He’s a actual martial artist from way back, and getting to work with individual with his control, speed, technique, and acting skills is an honor, and it makes our occupation easier, right? due to the fact that you don’t gotta hold their hand through the process. It’s like a dance with a partner who’s much more advanced than you are at that peculiar dance. So working with him, it was great. It was never a sense of feeling like, Oh, gosh, you’re in danger, you’re gonna get hurt. due to the fact that he demonstrates this all the time, he could halt a punch within centimeters of your face. Just so much control, so much experience. It was truly an honor to work with him.

Ramsey: That was a regular process for him, wowing me. The beauty of shooting with an actor as skilled as Mike is that you don’t gotta trust on doing quite a few cuts and coverage. We planned and decided that we’re going to do long takes and as fewer cuts as possible.

The another thing Mike was real large on, being a actual martial artist, was showing the character’s strategy. How he would do things like, erstwhile a guy jabbed he would drop his left. Mike studied that. He throws a jab, drops and comes across with a right cross, knocks him out, POW. Or there’s a guy that would leave his ribs open. So Mike lifts up his arm and exposes his ribs. So there was kind of like this throughline, you know, that he was always playing chess. He was besides a strategist erstwhile he was fighting, so that was something that we wanted to show.

Cordeiro: I think it works due to the fact that it’s Michael. It wouldn’t have worked if it was anyone else. He has an aura. quite a few what you see on Blood and Bone is Michael being Michael, kind of like Bruce Lee on Game of Death. Had it been individual else, you could most likely tell if it’s being besides fake or besides forced.

Perry: Mike has always been a dear friend and a fan. And I’ve always been a immense fan of Michael Jai White. He’s a real one, not just as a martial artist, but as a human being and a real gem. What a G. Man, you know, I’m 10 days older than Mike Jai, quite a few people don’t know that. Yeah, I want I looked like I was only 10 days older than Mike, goddamn.

Hargrave: He’s got the look, the physicality, and the charisma. He’s made a career out of it. It’s just curious the way the cookie crumbles in that respect sometimes.

Cordeiro: I want we had Michael and [Mark] Dacascos erstwhile they first started out, now, in 2024, with the audience that we have, with the directors that we have. They were the pioneers. They opened the manufacture for us. And they were besides far ahead of their time.

Cordeiro: [White never becoming an A-list action star] is 1 of the things that truly breaks my heart. Clayton [J. Barber] always said, “Action heroes, your career is very short-lived and very ungrateful. You don’t get to make a full lot of money. Like, you’re not gonna get filthy rich. You’re always gonna be doing like quite a few B movies, and it’s the hazard of injury.”

Blood and Bone’s legacy

Stovall: Blood and Bone, that 1 needs a sequel.

Cordeiro: I cannot talk adequate about how much this influenced my life. And I had no thought that the movie would live on so long. Even nowadays in São Paolo, people will be like, “Aren’t you the guy in Blood and Bone?”

Perry: Do I want to go back and do another Blood and Bone? If it was Mike and Scott Adkins, bro, I’ll go. I’ll go due to the fact that those are my homeboys. Let’s go.

Ramsey: It’s kind of died down a small bit, but for the longest time, it would happen almost all day. individual would ask me about Blood and Bone 2. That’s a Mike and a Sony question. I was just a hired gun. I’m semi-retired right now from showbiz, kind of doing my own thing. But if the call came and Mike said, “Come on, we’re going to do Blood and Bone 2,” I’d be there.

Blood and Bone is available to watch on Netflix, for free with ads on Tubi, or for digital rental on Amazon and Apple TV.