Jiu Jitsu and Skylines show a new emerging trend in sci-fi movies incorporating martial arts. Sci-fi being blended with martial arts isn't anything new, with The Matrix franchise being perhaps the most well-known example. Other popular movies have also brought martial arts into a sci-fi setting, from 80's b-movies like Jean-Claude Van Damme's Cyborg to the dystopian world of cyborg warriors in Alita: Battle Angel, while the upcoming The Matrix 4 is sure to carry over the wire-fu driven action of the original trilogy.
However, a new trend in sci-fi is really starting to gain traction, namely sci-fi movies that bring martial arts action into alien invasion stories. As a modern sci-fi gimmick, this first kicked off in 2017 with Beyond Skyline, a belated sequel to 2010's Skyline. Taking place during the same alien invasion seen in its predecessor, Beyond Skyline changed things up radically by not only taking a more head-on look into the alien attackers themselves but also bringing in Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhian of The Raid movies to throw a little Silat into the mix. It culminated in a humans vs aliens showdown in an ancient temple, with Uwais and Ruhian teaming with Frank Grillo to battle alien soldiers with blades, fists, and feet.
Writer-director Liam O'Donnell followed Beyond Skyline with the third chapter Skylines in 2020. This marked another shift in gears from the large-scale extraterrestrial invasion of Earth to a premise more akin to Aliens with human soldiers battling the aliens on their own turf. Lindsey Morgan portrayed the heroine Rose while Daniel Bernhardt and Cha-Lee yoon were on hand for the martial arts side of the story, and Yayan Ruhian also made an applause-worthy return after his supposed death in Beyond Skyline.
Just ahead of the release of Skylines came the debut of Jiu Jitsu. Based on the 2017 comic book created by director Dimitri Logothetis and co-writer James McGrath, Jiu Jitsu centered on a band of human warriors tasked with defeating a sword-wielding alien visitor every six years. Frequently described in the press as Mortal Kombat meets Predator, Jiu Jitsu brought in an ensemble of martial artists including Alain Moussi, Tony Jaa, JuJu Chan Szeto, and Marrese Crump, with Frank Grillo and Nicolas Cage also showing up for the fun. At 102 minutes of almost nothing but wild smackdowns, Jiu Jitsu rode the same aliens-versus-human wave that the Skyline sequels kicked off, and the trend seems to be growing more popular.
Both Jiu Jitsu and Skylines have seen a renewed audience surge with their recent additions to Netflix, and though it's been less than six months since the two were released, both are perfectly suited to have a second explosion in popularity on the streaming giant. Like Beyond Skyline, Skylines is a global scale battle for the fate of Earth against an extraterrestrial enemy (which it does quite well for a fairly modest budget), while Jiu Jitsu is great B-movie fun, and all three are entertaining hybrids of martial arts with an alien invasion premise. Best of all, both Jiu Jitsu and Skylines tease more in their respective endings and judging from their expanding popularity, the new trend of humans battling aliens with martial arts might just keep on rolling.
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