The transcript below is from the video “KNIFE EXPERT Breaks Down Steven Seagal’s UNDER SIEGE Knife Fight | Scenic Fights” by Scenic Fights.

Scenic Fights (YouTube Channel, go-to source for original martial arts action movies and content):

New York City Pekiti-Tirsia Kali Instructor Logan Lo breaks down every thing wrong with Under Siege’s knife fight scene between Steven Seagal and Tommy Lee Jones in the latest episode of Scenic Fights’ Fight Scene Breakdown.

[Logan] I’m going to bite this knife for the purposes of art. That’s what I’m going to do right now.

[Logan] Welcome back to Scenic Fights’ Fight Scene Breakdown! I’m Logan Lo. I’m here with Chad Vázquez. We’re here to breakdown a video that was sent to us from JDK52 and it’s Under Siege. If you like what you see please, like, comment and subscribe below.

[Logan] Kicks the gun out somehow.

[Chad] Mr.Jones [Logan] Yeah Look at that hair.

[Logan] So they are both in an ice pick grip.

[Logan] Tommy Lee Jones had a knife that was a single-sided knife, and he had it in an ice pick grip. For the scene he had it with the blade out which is very offensive. You want to use it for slashing, and that makes sense, and that’s fine. The only issue is when the blade is in, you can use it to capture and cut as well while you’re capturing. For Steven Steven Seagal, he had a double-sided knife that is also in ice pick grip as you can see like this. I’ve noticed they didn’t really reinforce with the thumb, not everyone does. I like to reinforce with the thumb, especially if you’re doing stabbing prevents your weapon from flying out.

[Logan] Lots of motion, that’s good you don’t want your weapon to be stationary.

[Logan] Yeah one of them should definitely be in a hammer grip.

[Logan] You can’t really get a lot of distance because of how they have their knife. I don’t know how he did that cut there. 

[Chad] Alright so they are like sword fighting with knives.

[Logan] So for this demonstration, Chad is going to be Tommy Lee Jones with the single sided blade. Here you go Chad! And then I’m going to be Steven Seagal with a double-sided blade. We noticed there were essentially two stabs, and two slashes that Steven Seagal was able to do to Tommy Lee Jones. So here he did a slash to the wrist. I actually don’t know quite how that happened. It would have had to have been when he was reaching out, and he did a cut like this. Right, but you can see, I can cut his wrist, yeah, but he can stab me. I wouldn’t want to do that. I think that is why they did a close-up because you can’t really show that. I actually do not know how he got a cut. Unless he did this and took a step back, but he’s still getting stabbed.

[Logan] If he did that cut. So that cut, I don’t think is realistic. I don’t see how that would happen. The other cut that happened was to the chest. That I don’t see happening as well. If Tommy Lee Jones had his knife facing in, If I did an inside cut, he can still do a stab, he can’t do a slash to me, but he has a superior weapon, he has a stabbing weapon, whereas I’m slashing. So you can see in this, I might be hurting him, but he’s killing me. So that too, doesn’t make a lot of sense. Then we have a stab, when he does a stab, the stab is flat against the body so this is perpendicular so it’s perpendicular to him. Notice I have to open up my hand to get that? Realistically speaking it would come in at an angle, but if that happens, same thing, mutual destruction. We’re both at the same arm length, unless one of them is much much taller than the other, I’m going to get stabbed, and he’s going to get stabbed. That’s mutual destruction, you definitely don’t want that.

[Logan] So Chad, has a safety glove right now. He has it in ice pick grip, I have it in ice pick grip, he comes, he does a slash or something to me, I basically want to get offline, notice I go to his side, if I have this hand using it as a block. I have this hand free to come in and do a stab. Same thing is, if I come in here, he comes, I can also capture here and I can do a tap here to the hand. Ideally this is the closest thing to me and the most dangerous thing. I’m defanging the snake, these are the fangs, I don’t want him to have his weapon anymore Ideally, I want him to lose his weapon, so I would hit him, hit his weapon hand first, Ideally, he will drop the weapon, even if not, he’s taken a wound now. And then I can come in here. So he comes out with a slash here, right, so I come, and do a pass, once again. Now that I’ve passed him completely. I can go back and noticed I flanked him. I can see his back, if I can see his back, he’s mine, because I can hit him in the back of the skull, and I can hit him in the back of the ribs as well. So once I get to the back, once I’ve flanked, I won this fight, he will sustain damage that he won’t be able to recover from.

[Logan] Steven Seagal, he has his weapon grabbed and then Tommy Lee Jones has his weapon grabbed, we’re both here. And they both try to continue to force in either a stab or a slash looks more like a stab, so he’s trying to force in a stab, so you’re trying to stab me, I’m trying to stab him.

[Logan] And we’re both like this. And we’re both static. So here it doesn’t really stop me from doing this and taking offline and going.

[Logan] Also, if I’m here, there’s nothing stopping me from twisting out, cutting in, and stabbing him this way. There’s nothing to stop me from going forward, back, slashing in, passing and stabbing again.

[Logan] What they are doing in this scene. Grab again. They’re doing something that is completely unrealistic

[Logan] They’re just forcing it in. He’s forcing it in.

[Logan] We’re both trying to force in. Never works. Now

[Logan] Tommy Lee Jones with the come here

[Chad] If you’re going to do that you gotta back it up.

[Logan] Yeah, he’s getting killed.

[Chad] Yeah [Logan] That doesn’t make any sense,

[Logan] Again, if you look back at the John Wick video

[Logan] That we did previously, whenever you grab someone by the wrist, you risk getting cut. [Logan] okay [

Chad] so he bites the knife!?
[Logan] (Laughing) He bites the name and Tommy Lee Jones, let’s go of the knife

[Chad] Woah okay

[Logan] Yup

[Logan] Steven Seagal’s answer for this is not to slash out, it’s not to force in, pull out and stab. It’s not to pass and stab. Steven Seagal’s answer for this is to bite the knife, which is a terrible idea

[Logan] Tommy Lee Jones can just cut through and cause what’s called a Glasgow smile or a Glasgow grin. And you’ve seen it before with the Joker in, The Dark Knight, and that’s basically just slashing through the mouth

[Logan] The very last stab is the only one that truly makes sense.

[Logan] So Tommy Lee Jones comes in, I’m assuming he’s blocking it somehow, coming over the top, and stabbing him on top of the head.

[Logan] And the top of the head is called the fontanelle, that is a point of weakness that if there are seams on the head. He comes in, that’s the area, that I’m best able to penetrate, if I had a weapon.

[Logan] Tommy Lee Jones’ character’s weapon would probably be better because it has a spine.

[Logan] It’s stronger for the thrust, whereas this in the middle, is inferior to the spine in the back so it would probably be a stronger hit with Tommy Lee Jones’ weapon, coming down.

[Logan] So I have to say it, this film is one the reasons why I got into martial arts as a kid.

[Logan] I thought it looked really cool as a youngster, but honestly as an adult now, that has been trained, I really have to give this an F, and mainly because of the biting of the knife.

[Logan] Any redeeming qualities that this fight scene could’ve had was completely taken away by that disarming, because it’s not a disarm whatsoever, and if some kid is watching that and thinking, that’s valid, I have to disabuse you of that, that is a terrible idea.

[Logan] Do not do it! So this is a solid F I’m afraid.