Name: Recreating Game Of Thrones' Dragon Battle
Uploaded: 2026-03-13T17:17:02.000Z
Duration: 5 min 24 s
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How do you stage a battle scene that features three aggressors who have never been pitted against each other on film before?

Well, if you're the team at Game of Thrones, you're in luck.

Adverbs of degree

Because although there is no one battle that's configured quite like the Loot Train Attack from this Sunday, that's a ridiculous name.

Film and TV history is full of creative ways to tackle each one individually.

All you have to figure out is how to fuse them together into one giant Frankenstein monster battle.

In fact, all cinematic battles work this way.

Like a great oral tradition that continually builds on and reconfigures what came before, the DNA of one battle lives on in the battles that follow.

And you can see that DNA everywhere in the Loot Train Attack.

So much so that I think you could essentially reconstruct the sequence with other movies.

I love that this battle starts with the thunder of Dothraki horses arriving before they do.

You can find that same effect in both 300 and Troy.

In Lord of the Return of the King, you have a similar situation where the orcs like the Lannisters, have to reform ranks at a moment's notice to face an enemy that's just about to appear over the ridge.

The Dothraki are based on a combination of horse riding tribes like the Mongols or the Huns.

So you can look at movies like the 2007 Russian film Mongol to find battle cries and weapons just like these.

But the Dothraki are also based on Native Americans, so it makes sense that Matt Shackman, the director of this episode, would cite the classic John Ford film St.

Stagecoach as an inspiration for this scene.

And clearly the landscape is nodding to Monument Valley in Utah and Arizona, where Ford set many of his famous westerns.

And you do have a few shots that are completely unique.

Now, when it comes to fire breathing dragons, you have plenty to choose from in film history.

You've got the Hungarian Horntail from Harry Potter, You've got Vermithrax Pejorative from Dragonslayer who roast some people of his.

You've got the dragon from Eragon, and of course you have Smaug.

All of these no doubt influence the depictions of Drogon in this scene.

But I think there's a few other sources that have an even greater influence here in terms of the devastation that Drogon visits on the battlefield.

The clearest analog I can see is the helicopter and napalm attacks from Apocalypse Now.

In fact, in the Hollywood Reporter, Shakman cites this as Another inspiration.

And some of the shots are uncannily similar.

I mean, this is just a beautiful mix of practical and digital effects.

The point of view shots of Daenerys on Drogon's back are a lot like the POV shots from the helicopters in this scene from Apocalypse.

On the ground, you'll find some similarities to the first scene in Gladiator where the Romans rain down fireballs and fire arrows on the Germanic tribes.

Ridley Scott does a great job of depicting the chaos of a battlefield on fire.

Of course, Shackman and crew can't resist adding their own flair here as well, with a few soldiers literally roasting in their armor.

Game of Thrones isn't just sighting from other properties, sights from itself too.

Though this wonderful handheld long shot featuring Bronn making his way across the battlefield resembles the Lubezki camera work in the Revenant and even Children of Men.

I think the real touchstone is this long shot from the Battle of the Bastards last season.

Director Miguel Sapochnik crafted one of the best sequences in the history of war cinematography, and

The last thing that Shakman cites explicitly is Saving Private Ryan.

No doubt an inspiration for any war filmmaker.

These here Thrones mimics that effect when the real sound fades out and we focus in on the shock of the commander as he surveys the field of carnage.

Finally, the ending of the scene plays out like the end of the fight against Smaug in the Hobbit Battle of the Five Armies, when the dragon goes up against a man with a giant arrow and gets wounded.

As you can see in filmmaking like this, there's barely anything that's new.

But the team at Game of Thrones, from the director on down, did a wonderful job of combining multiple sources to make a battle that's tense, intelligible, and

For those who ever want to compose a cinematic battle of their own, this is how you do it.

That doesn't mean that something new can't be written.

Hey everybody, thank you so much for watching.

I'm so excited that Game of Thrones is finally back, and

I forgot how much I appreciated watching a show that's not bingeable.

Like getting together with friends every week.

Don't get to do that much anymore and I'm really enjoying it.

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Enjoy game of Thrones guys while it lasts and I'll see you next week.