They follow him into an impossibly clean bathroom. (On YouTube this scene is titled “bathroom brawl” or “toilet fight.”) Plot points aside, all you need to know is that Tom Cruise and Henry Cavill parachute into the Grand Palais in Paris and go in search of their target. The fight scene : I’ve mentioned an element of this particular bathroom fight on this here platform before, but the full tableau is too good to not discuss. In the meantime, here are three of my favorite dust-ups in water closets that have informed my cinematic universe. There should be an Oscar category for this. Movies with bathroom fights are inherently creative, as you have to put a lot of action in a smaller space, and my god, the camera placement alone is a logistical puzzle I love to contemplate.

You’d think the genre is restricted, but no, like a stained glass window, the possibilities tessellate. So why not fight it out in there, too? Ashes to ashes, bust to bust.

Often marble-y, with different kinds of founts, for holy water or regular water – you get doused all the same, ritualized cleansings occur. But I want to see it – how are people going to have an altercation in a small space? No room for error, it’s just you and some fists and a lot of tile. The amount of porcelain alone is a threat to anyone’s well being, and no one wants an Elvis-esque death in such proximity to a toilet. When you fight in the bathroom, there is so much at stake. The first rule of Bathroom Fight Club is that I get to talk about it.

Casino royale bathroom fight scene