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In fight scenes, the fighter usually defeats a swarm of opponents without getting hit or tired. The movie Old Boy didn't have that and in my opinion, was the most realistic fight scene ever. My question is how realistic was it to defeat multiple opponents in the movie.

Macaco Branco
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cameron
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That it could happen is plausible as seen by the existence of real-life examples of one person defeating a mob. In general, this becomes less common without armor or weapons because all it takes is one lucky hit to create enough of an opening for others to swarm and pigpile you. Oh Dae-su has the benefit of a weapon. Weapons draw attention and make each individual a little more afraid to attack. He's also more than a little bit crazy, and each individual is likely to take that into account when they consider whether they, individually, will escape confronting him with life and limb intact, plus he's likely not feeling any pain until later. Add to that that the thugs probably are not trained fighters and are used to beating people up who don't fight back. Take all of this together, and you get a plausible situation for one man to survive the fight, albeit far from unscathed. If a handful of them had rushed him and pinned him down where he couldn't get leverage, they would have defeated him, but they were all seeking to minimize their individual risk and therefore they were defeated as a whole.

Macaco Branco
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  • What would happen if they were all trained professional fighters. – cameron Oct 07 '14 at 20:46
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    Or just determined? Pigpile. It requires an arc to use a weapon like a hammer effectively. Pin the arms and they can't get that swing. That many people, they would have just piled on. There are ways to fight multiple people like that, but it requires mobility enough to be able to prevent them attacking you all at once. That was not the case in the corridor. For that matter, anyone with something heavy could have started chucking it at him and he would have had no defence. – Macaco Branco Oct 07 '14 at 22:32
  • If someone was able to have the strength along with other factors to escape or still fight from a pigpile that would be awesome. – cameron Oct 07 '14 at 23:14
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    I have a sneaking suspicion that this answer was not what you were looking for... :-P – Macaco Branco Oct 09 '14 at 12:07
  • It is, but I like fiction so just saying if someone were to escape from pigpile s fighting huge hordes of people in real life then to me that would be impressive. – cameron Oct 09 '14 at 12:24
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    {nods} If the answer addresses your question and you're reasonably certain a better one isn't going to pop up, can you accept it? :) Gotta feed my rep-habit... – Macaco Branco Oct 09 '14 at 12:35
  • I can accept it. – cameron Oct 09 '14 at 14:06
  • @cameron "if they were all trained" - several of them hit him from behind - they wasted the chance to tackle, enclosing his arms and taking him to his knees, head tucked out of reach should he attempt a backwards headbutt, giving the others ample time to apply a choke or finishing strikes. At 0:43 a guy kicks too high allowing his leg to be caught, with hands down unable to defend against the hammer - a good fighter would have kicked just above the knee and had an arm bar or punch ready too. At 0:45 he's hit in the back; a better opponent could strike decisively to his head. On and on.... – Tony D Oct 09 '14 at 17:27
  • Wow, that's even more awesome. When you say arm bar, which would be more effective, flying arm bar or other arm bars. – cameron Oct 09 '14 at 19:29
  • I'm not sure that your link listing a handful of examples from history (many not independently corroborated, and almost all involving sniper rifles, machine guns, or armored vehicles) qualifies as making it "plausible." Maybe "just barely possible". But it's not indicative of what you could ever expect from any kind of martial arts training, or from any real fight. – Larry Oct 10 '14 at 19:07
  • @Larry: Admittedly, the TV Tropes entry is a bit heavy on weaponry examples, but it shows that it could be done. I think that, in the end, it's a matter of psychology of the opposition. One of the points of military training is teaching people to ignore self-preservation and charge forward. As a whole, they can win, but as long as most people are holding back, you get a limited number of attackers at a time, which is more manageable. – Macaco Branco Oct 10 '14 at 19:11
  • @Larry: We had a regrettable case recently involving a kid with a butcher knife who cut his way through a hallway of kids. Most of the kids were larger than he was. But no one wanted to be the person who risked getting into the range of the knives until the security guard tackled him. Trained martial artists or security personnel would probably know better. Fortunately, Oh Dae-Su was up against a set of thugs more used to being the aggressors against weaker opponents. – Macaco Branco Oct 10 '14 at 19:13
  • @cameron: regarding the arm bar - if the guy who had kicked had kicked around knee height he'd have been well placed to smash his right forearm into Oh Dae-Su's throat or head... having just kicked, he definitely wasn't in a position to do a "flying" movement like that, and there's no need... done correctly those techniques "coat hanger" an opponent even without much backswing, and being grounded helps. – Tony D Oct 13 '14 at 13:40
  • @cameron "...if someone were to escape from pigpile s fighting huge hordes of people in real life then to me." That is a power only available to The One. – Hashim Aziz Dec 14 '18 at 08:52