Comic-Con 2011: Michael Fassbender gets violent in Haywire

Footage from Steven Soderbergh’s new action thriller Haywire aired at Comic-Con today, and it packed one hell of a punch.

Literally, because it showed off Gina Carano busting Michael Fassbender's chops as super soldier Mallory Kane.

She’s betrayed by her team, and singled out for assassination. Fassbender’s the hired killer enlisted by Ewan McGregor to terminate Kane.

In the scene shown at the Con, the two go to a hotel room together for what we assume is a romantic rendevous. Once they’re inside, Fassbender makes his move.

That is to say, he attempts to beat Carano into a bloody pulp. Except she’s no wimpy Charlie’s Angels chick, holding her own in the ensuing, brutal action scene; neither party goes easy on the other.

Fass punches Carano, Carano returns the love. The two smash into walls, shatter glass shelves and finally end up in a violent pseudo-sexual clinch on a bed. It’s effortlessly stylish and borderline iconic.

“Each fight was separately special in all the right ways,” says Carano of her many scuffles, which she did without the help of a stunt double.

“Ewan McGregor’s scene, we were on a beach and we were struggling through sand, so that was probably really fun to cut.

“The Fassbender scene was just wreckless, I loved being banged into all that stuff. It was a blast. It was incredible.”