You’ve seen it – those rapid, fluid knife and stick movements in movies like John Wick, The Bourne Identity, or The Hunted. What you may not realize is that much of that choreography has roots in Filipino martial arts – Kali, Eskrima, and Arnis. Once obscure and localized, these arts are now a go-to choice for directors, stunt teams, and fight choreographers seeking realism, rhythm, and raw intensity.

Filipino Kali is an art built for adaptability and improvisation. It’s fast, it’s fluid, and it transitions smoothly between weapons and empty hands. For film, that’s a goldmine. Directors need motion that reads well on camera. They want energy, style, and rhythm. Kali delivers.

Weapons like sticks and knives are central to Kali—but in cinema, they’re often disguised. A short blade becomes a pen. A stick becomes a rolled-up magazine. The transitions are seamless because that’s what Kali trains: environmental adaptability. You don’t need a traditional weapon—everything becomes a weapon. That makes it a perfect fit for modern action storytelling.

Let’s look at some key examples:

• The Bourne series brought in Jeff Imada, a JKD/Kali practitioner and stunt coordinator, who injected the raw, improvisational flavor of Kali into Bourne’s fighting style. It gave the audience something new – tactical, violent, fast, but believable.
• John Wick ramped it up. Keanu Reeves trained with Tuhon Dan Inosanto’s lineage (Bruce Lee’s protégé) to learn weapons transitions, close-quarters gun handling, and blade movement. That’s why Wick looks so different from typical Hollywood brawlers—there’s an elegant brutality to his motion, a rhythm straight from the drills of Kali.
• The Hunted (2003) is another underrated gem. The knife fights between Benicio del Toro and Tommy Lee Jones were choreographed using Filipino blade work—tight, fast, brutal. There’s no spinning jump kicks. Just calculated, lethal movement.

But the influence doesn’t stop at choreography. Kali brings something deeper: the logic of combat. It teaches timing, footwork, body mechanics, flow. It builds a foundation of realism that actors can adapt to any narrative, whether it’s a spy thriller or a post-apocalyptic survival story.

And let’s not forget its influence beyond Hollywood. Southeast Asian cinema (especially Indonesian and Filipino action films) is pushing Kali back into the spotlight, not as a borrowed influence but as a core cultural element. Movies like BuyBust and On the Job embrace this authenticity fully.

So why does Kali work so well on camera?

• It’s visual – The lines of motion are tight and clean, making for crisp silhouettes and readable action.
• It’s adaptable – From blade to baton to bottle, it flows between tools and contexts.
• It’s real – Audiences are more discerning today. They want their action grounded in something that could actually work.

As someone who practices and teaches these arts, I find joy in seeing Kali earn its place on-screen – not because it makes the art more popular, but because it shows the world that beauty and danger can co-exist. The Filipino martial traditions aren’t just practical—they’re cinematic by design.

The next time you see a brutal knife scene or a stick fight in a film, look closer. You might be watching a thousand-year-old blade tradition being reborn in a new medium. That’s not just choreography—that’s cultural transmission.