Bruce Lee is not only the ultimate martial arts star; he’s also one of the most beloved Asian actors and fight choreographers in cinematic history. A pioneering filmmaker and an incredible fighter, Lee had an awe-inspiring career that was tragically cut short by his untimely death in 1973. Nevertheless, Lee’s impact continues to be seen in Hollywood today, with his image inspiring film appearances and numerous documentaries and biopics every year.
Update July 31st, 2023: In honor of the 50th Anniversary of Lee's tragic passing on July 20, 1973, this article has been updated to include even more magical onscreen moments that the legendary Bruce Lee left us with.
He’s an icon with an almost mythological legacy that continues to be influential today. To trace the origins of the man, the myth, and the legend that is Bruce Lee, let’s take a look at the most essential moments from his short-lived film career.
14 Fight with Hakim – Game of Death
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1978’s Game of Death is a weird movie. It’s the result of a low-budget cobbling together of a 1972 film that Lee left unfinished when he died, and a wrap-around story featuring not-so-convincing stand-ins for the deceased star. Whether it was anyone’s right to finish Lee’s movie without him is one thing, but including actual footage from Lee’s funeral is just plain old bad taste. Regardless of the questionable ethics involved in the film’s completion, the scenes that Lee did film are fantastic and some of the most iconic in his career. Here he dons the famous yellow tracksuit that would later inspire the wardrobe in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill.
While the entire pagoda fight is great, the highlight of the movie is Lee’s duel with Hakim, a hulking giant of a martial arts star played to perfection by the great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. It’s a classic showdown, with the 5’8” star proving to his 7’2” opponent that the bigger they are, the harder they fall. Fortunately for Bruce Lee fans, according to ScreenRant, the entire 40 minutes that Lee shot for Game of Death in 1972 are now available to watch without the lame bookends.
13 Duel with O’Hara – Enter the Dragon
Enter the Dragon is often hailed as one of Lee’s greatest films, and for good reason. With its blend of martial arts and spy film tropes, with a pinch or two of blaxploitation zaniness thrown in, it’s one of the ultimate must-watch films of the 1970s. Lee is, of course, awesome in it. While there are many great fight scenes in Enter the Dragon, one of the best is when Lee finally gets a shot at revenge against the ruthless bodyguard O’Hara – the man responsible for the death of Lee’s sister. It’s a thrilling duel with stunning fight choreography, made even more vicious due to the personal vendetta at the center of it.
12 The Ice Factory Battle – The Big Boss
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The Big Boss marks Lee’s first major film role, and is the movie that launched him to international superstardom. One of the best scenes in the movie is when Lee is ambushed by baddies at an ice factory. This fight sets the precedent for all of Lee’s later films – though he’s unarmed and outnumbered, he’s not giving up without a fight. What follows is a dazzling and unflinchingly brutal beatdown featuring punches, kicks, a volley of throwing knives, and some incredible ice pick misuse. It tops off the violence with a wink of humor, as Lee punches one of the thugs straight through a wall, leaving a perfectly-shaped hole in the wall that looks like it came right out of a Looney Tunes cartoon.
11 “We’ll show him Chinese boxing!” – The Way of the Dragon
With The Way of the Dragon, Lee made his directorial debut and showed the world he’s not only got the fighting chops, but a flair for energetic filmmaking as well. Being his only finished directed film, The Way of the Dragonhas a unique tone and style that none of his other films quite match. It seamlessly weaves humor into the intense action – a trait best exemplified in the fight scene where Lee decides to show a band of thugs his own special brand of “Chinese boxing.” With plenty of quips and sly glances, Lee makes quick work of the smug gangsters, demonstrating a confident swagger that he’d later perfect in Enter the Dragon.
10 Duel with the Big Boss – The Big Boss
After a long and exciting build-up, Lee finally takes on the titular boss at the end of The Big Boss, and it’s one of the most satisfying moments in his filmography. The epic duel concludes with Lee deflecting a throwing knife with a perfectly timed kick, then finishing off his foe with an uncharacteristically animalistic move: jamming his fingers into the boss’s ribs and squeezing the life out of him. It doesn’t get more savage than that.
9 Fight in the Hall of Mirrors – Enter the Dragon
As we near the top of the pile of the most essential Bruce Lee moments, we have to revisit the seminal Enter the Dragon. Specifically, the famous fight in the hall of mirrors. Lee’s final confrontation with the evil crime lord Han takes a surreal turn when their fight moves into a room full of mirrors. The mirrors initially give Han the edge in the fight, but Lee takes over by smashing all of the mirrors in this super stylish and iconic sequence.
8 Bruce Takes on the Entire Dojo – Fist of Fury
“You must be tired of living,” says the man at the door of the Japanese dojo that Lee kicks down at the start of this iconic sequence. Here, Lee takes out an entire dojo of fighters after they insult his recently departed master. From one of the best martial arts films of the 1970s, Fist of Fury is loaded with spectacular action set-pieces, but this dojo fight is up there with Lee’s all-time best moments.
7 Showdown with Chuck Norris – The Way of the Dragon
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Lee’s directorial debut ends with an explosive duel between him and fellow martial arts legend Chuck Norris. Taking an incredible moment to even greater heights, the fight takes place in the Roman Colosseum and is set to the tune of music borrowed from the spaghetti western masterpiece Once Upon a Time in the West. The wordless eight-minute fight scene is refereed by a stray cat, and exemplifies Lee’s excellent visual storytelling abilities. Jo Berry of Empire Online is right on the money in calling it "just about the best combat sequence ever shot."
6 Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan's encounter – Enter The Dragon
It's not every day you get to see two legendary fighters/movie stars sharing the same screen space. Enter The Dragon gives the audience such a unique experience. Although Jackie Chan's cameo appearance doesn't take up more than a few seconds, fans would definitely appreciate a moment where Jackie Chan comes out of nowhere to give the one and only Bruce Lee a bear hug from behind. We would have wanted to see more from the rising star, but Bruce Lee ended it by snapping his neck a few seconds later. It's not the full fight scene of our dream, but it's still an unforgettable moment in Bruce Lee's career in hindsight.
5 Bruce Lee Imparting Martial Arts Wisdom – Enter The Dragon
If Bruce Lee's career as an actor teaches something, it's that the biggest part of fighting is mental. Bruce Lee is not just a martial arts hero, he is also a teacher with enough wisdom to preach to the young. In a very memorable scene in which Lee delivers one of his most memorable lines, we see him speaking to his young student at the Shaolin Temple about the importance of feeling as opposed to thinking in getting into the flow of fighting. He basically tells him, "Don't think, feel! It is like a finger pointing a way to the moon. Don't concentrate on the finger, or you miss all of that heavenly glory".
4 Nunchuck scene – Way of the Dragon
Although Bruce Lee hated the Nunchuck weapon early in his career, calling it a "worthless piece of junk" in his I Am Bruce Lee documentary, he masterfully adopted them later on. In The Way of the Dragon, Lee used the Nunchuck in his famous alley fight scene with a gang that has been trying to bring the streets of Rome to chaos. His incredible choreography with the Nunchuck remains one of his best onscreen moments as it's always amazing to see him wielding the big guns in the face of bad guys.
3 Bruce Lee Vs. The Mafia– Way of The Dragon
After defeating the gangsters, Tang Lung (Bruce Lee) takes the fight to the mafia headquarters. It all begins with a punch thrown his way, which simply infuriates him, and the rest is, well, history. Although he isn't fighting alone in this scene, the punches and front and back kicks that we see coming from him make him stand out outstandingly. He even managed to defeat four goons coming at him at the same time, proving yet again that he is simply the best.
2 Bruce Lee Licking His Own Blood – Enter The Dragon
Enter The Dragon generated many of Bruce Lee's unforgettable moments and is one of the most culturally influential movies. In the final showdown Han (Shih Kien) cuts Lee's torso with his arm claw, a move which he must have already regretted when he saw Lee licking the blood from his open wound and looking at his opponent with revenge-filled eyes. The sheer anticipation of what Lee would do next is sufficient to call this moment iconic. He then leaps in the air and attacks Han with a strong sidekick right in the face. The blood-licking scene indicates enough is enough and that it's time for Lee to tip the scales in his favor.
1 The Final Flying Kick! – Fist of Fury
Fist of Fury, arguably Lee’s greatest film, ends with one of the most shocking and exciting moments in his career: just after surrendering himself to protect his master’s legacy, Lee is betrayed and comes face-to-face with an army of Japanese soldiers ready to do him in. In a final act of defiance, Lee roars like a dragon and launches a flying kick into the crowd of soldiers. The film freeze-frames as the sound of a barrage of rifles firing kicks in, and Lee’s character’s final sacrifice for honor is immortalized by the iconic image of his fearless snarl and immaculate form. It’s an epic conclusion to a great film and a moment that epitomizes Lee’s bold and valorous legacy as a fighter, an actor, a filmmaker, and a man.
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