Top 10 Most Difficult Marvel Movie Scenes Ever Filmed

“Avengers: Age of Ultron” (2015)
Stunt work sells the danger our heroes find themselves in, and Bobby Holland Hanton had to pull double duty on “Age of Ultron.” Hanton doubled for both Thor and Captain America. Hanton claims the toughest part of working on “Age of Ultron” was as the latter character, particularly the chase scene where Cap tries to stop Ultron aboard a speeding truck. Filmed in live traffic, Hanton had to bounce off of the truck’s door, as well as ride it along the top of the road, which he says he needed to be on the top of his game for. Can’t say we’re surprised – pulling some of those moves off makes him a real superhero in our books!

“Spider-Man: Homecoming” (2017)
Anyone who has seen interviews with him will know that actor Tom Holland is every bit as excitable as his character, Peter Parker/Spider-Man. So, it should come as no surprise that he wanted to do as many of his own stunts as possible on “Spider-Man: Homecoming.” However, there’s one stunt he claims he was glad he wasn’t allowed to do. When Spider-Man first encounters the Vulture, the winged villain drops Peter over a lake, from which he’s rescued by Iron Man. Holland was understandably freaked out by the stunt person being flown under a helicopter and then dunked in the lake. Maybe he picked up his own “Peter Tingle”.

“Avengers: Endgame” (2019)
Unique among our entries, this difficulty while filming came as a result not of the movie in question, but of a different one entirely! While filming the movie “Tag,” Jeremy Renner, who plays Hawkeye, broke both his arms while performing a stunt. However, the trooper that he is, Renner kept on filming while going to physical therapy and foregoing pain meds. He was not fully healed while filming “Avengers: Endgame” either, which means that pretty much everything Renner does as Hawkeye in the film, including his famous archery, is done while getting over two broken arms! Hawkeye may not have superpowers, but we’re not so sure about Renner…

“Iron Man 3” (2013)
One of the most thrilling sequences of Iron Man’s third solo film sees the hero rescue around a dozen people who have fallen out of an airplane that’s been depressurized. Although Iron Man himself obviously has some CG applied to him, given that he’s flying, the other actors are actually part of the Red Bull skydiving team. A surprising amount of the sequence was achieved practically, with the stunt people wearing parachutes hidden in their clothes. Overall, it took hundreds of jumps over 8 days, but the results speak for themselves.

“X-Men: Apocalypse” (2016)
While the film may be somewhat divisive, there’s one part of “X-Men: Apocalypse” that everyone loves – Quicksilver saving everyone from the mansion. During an explosion at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, Quicksilver happens by and saves everyone at superspeed, with sight gags aplenty and some amazing slow-motion. The entire sequence was meticulously planned out and took over a month and a half to shoot, plus all the visual effects. There’s a lot of work for something that lasts around 3 minutes, but this is what “sweet dreams” are made of.

“Ant-Man and the Wasp” (2018)
Action scenes can be tricky, but the size of something isn’t always an indicator of how hard it will hit. The toughest scene in “Ant-Man and the Wasp” wasn’t one of the chase or action scenes, but instead the rather comedic scene where Scott Lang visits his daughter’s school. While trying to retrieve his suit, his current version malfunctions, making him grow and shrink to various sizes. There were reportedly many technical details involved in the scene, as the actors had to work out their eyelines, as well as use a lot of props that were of various sizes. The whole sequence may come and go in the film, but for the actors, it took a long time to shoot.

“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” (2021)
Shang-Chi’s fight aboard a bus is one of the MCU’s most technical and exciting fight sequences. But it didn’t get that way overnight. So much went into it, from filming an actual crash on location, to the fight choreography, to rigging up multiple bus rigs with detachable portions for filming, and then blending it all together seamlessly, it’s incredibly involved. Despite the fight lasting nearly 7 minutes onscreen, the scene took roughly a year to shoot in its entirety. Unlike the villain’s fist, there’s nothing razor thin about how amazing this fight turned out though.

“Spider-Man” (2002)
Not everything from the first Sam Raimi “Spider-Man” movie holds up. CGI back then wasn’t what it is today. But one of the more memorable moments of Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker exhibiting his powers was done entirely practically. In the cafeteria, Peter saves Mary Jane Watson from slipping and falling, while also catching all her food from her falling lunch tray. This whole sequence was achieved practically. As you might imagine, it took a long, long time to get right though! In total, a full 16-hour day of shooting and 156 takes, in fact! Nice going, tiger!

“Doctor Strange” (2016)
One of the most memorable aspects of this mind-bending film are the scenes set in the Mirror Dimension, where reality bends and warps in bizarre ways. Naturally, the scene where Doctor Strange and Mordo are pursued through this dimension in New York was highly technical. Along with lots of previsualization and planning, the actors had to run on treadmills to simulate running on unstable ground, as well as get dropped onto a bus, which was done for real. Then there’s all the special effects that went into the insanely trippy scene. The filmmakers actually had to cut the sequence down, because the events became too confusing and abstract for test audiences.

“Avengers: Endgame” (2019)
Yes, this is rather obvious when you think about it. The climax of “Avengers: Endgame” is one of the most complex and massive battle sequences ever put on film, involving dozens of big-name actors, stunt people, and more special effects than you can shake an Infinity Gauntlet at! The VFX in particular took around 1400 artists to produce, and it took them about 16 weeks to complete them all! And with so much going on onscreen at once, having to stitch together practical stunt work, actor’s faces, and digital creations, we fully believe it. This crew must have had their own “Avengers Assemble” moment.