The Jungle Fight In The Incredibles Is The Best Action Scene Ever
(Welcome to Best Action Scene Ever, a column dedicated to breaking down the best, most effective action sequences throughout the genre. In this edition, one of the best superhero movies ever made gets its due thanks to its best action scene: the jungle fight in "The Incredibles.")
As a famous filmmaker has said over and over again: Animation is cinema. When he isn't spreading the good news of scary cinematic monsters or publicly expressing his support for Greta Gerwig's "Barbie," you can usually find director Guillermo del Toro standing up for the under-appreciated virtues of animation. "Thankless" doesn't even begin to describe the superhuman work that goes into the creation of any animated movie or show, to say nothing of the fact that writers in this medium aren't even eligible for inclusion among the Writers Guild of America (although, thankfully, that may soon be changing.) So in the spirit of solidarity and celebration amid the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA efforts to achieve a fair deal with the AMPTP, it's about time that this column once again featured a worthy animated entry.
This week, it comes in the form of the breathlessly-paced jungle fight taking place about two-thirds of the way through "The Incredibles." The 2004 film has earned all sorts of comparisons to storylines such as the "Fantastic Four" or even "Watchmen," but this one sequence proved beyond a doubt that writer/director Brad Bird intuitively understood the advantages of telling this tale through animation. When it was all said and done, the highly effective set piece depicting the Parr family truly coming together as one for the first time would end up passing the test of time to become one of the all-time greats.
The scene
The super-powered Parr family has never been more scattered and alone. Discovering that patriarch Bob (aka Mr. Incredible, voiced by Craig T. Nelson) has been lying for months about his fancy new job and increased pay, unable to set aside his superhero ways like the law requires of them, his wife Helen (aka Elastigirl, voiced by Holly Hunter) tracks her husband down and travels to the remote island location where he was last known to be. Her two children Violet (Sarah Vowell) and Dash (Spencer Fox) end up stowing away on the journey, although they soon become stranded when their fancy jet is shot out of the sky. Forced to develop their powers for the first time in their lives, the kids are left to fend for themselves while Helen mounts a rescue of Bob from the clutches of the villainous Syndrome (Jason Lee).
The deceptively complex chase sequence begins when Dash and Violet inadvertently trigger the island's defense systems, sending them on the run with absolutely no backup from the high-flying goons sent to take them down. From the thick of the jungle to the open water to a dangerous cave system, the action spans several different locations and never once runs the risk of feeling stale. And without having to abide by the logistical constraints that would've plagued any live-action recreation of this scene, Brad Bird and his army of animators were free to develop the most visceral, thrilling, and surprisingly hard-hitting sequence that they could build from scratch — one that never once lost sight of how to tell character through action.
Why it works
What sets up this entire stretch of film for success isn't necessarily what takes place during it (although that helped!), but what happened before. Prior to Helen going off on her own to find Bob, she gives both Dash and Violet a sorely-needed pep talk while hiding out in a cave in the aftermath of narrowly surviving their plane crash. After spending a lifetime implicitly drilling into the children's heads to conform with society by hiding their powers, she expressly encourages them to use their gifts and trust their own instincts to save their lives. Unlike the cartoons and stories they remember growing up, likely passed down from their own parents as they relived and mythologized their glory days as publicly embraced superheroes, Syndrome's private army won't hesitate to shoot to kill, adding a tangible and all-too-rare sense of danger and stakes into this superhero story before any of the bullets even start flying.
Once they do, viewers have already been expertly primed to root for them to overcome such long odds and, more importantly, trust in their own abilities. For Dash, his mom's simple instructions to "Run as fast as you can" gives him all he needs to stay one foot ahead of his pursuers: flying high-tech saucers with razor-sharp edges. In scenes that put any live-action speedster moment within the last 20 years to shame, young Dash fully comes into his own as he leads the goons on a merry chase through the jungle, across cliffs, and finally over the water itself as he discovers a new wrinkle to his powers. For Violet, her hero moment comes when she instinctively shields her little brother from harm with her force fields, combining her powers with his running to pose a whole new threat to the henchmen.
The key moment
Once Helen and a newly-freed Bob join the fight later on in this nearly eight-minute sequence, it quickly becomes apparent that the stakes of this battle aren't necessarily about finding a way off the island — it's about watching this fractured family finally become a working unit for the first time in the entire movie. As in any good superhero movie, this is expressed through how they use their powers in perfect tandem with one another. Brad Bird and the entire Pixar team understood that flash and style and iconography are all important, sure, but they can never take precedence over the simple fact that audiences need something altogether more meaningful to root for. Allowing us to do so by watching this nuclear family put the hurt on a bunch of nameless goons was exactly the cathartic release we needed at this point in the story.
The fact that, for all this, their escape attempt ends abruptly when Syndrome finally swoops in to put a stop to such mayhem only makes this an even bolder narrative choice. The Parrs might have finally become a functional family in this moment, but they have to endure a taste of defeat before truly overcoming all of their flaws. That means staging another rescue — but, this time, together as a family of heroes with complimentary talents. Before parents and children alike even knew it, Brad Bird and his creative team had done all the hard work necessary to get audiences to completely buy in and become invested in what happens to these characters. And while some may point to the concluding set piece in the city as the one to beat, it'll always be this earlier action sequence that put "The Incredibles" on the map for good.