Kratos’ God of War motion capture stunt actor is an indie action legend

People all over the globe are participating in this week’s game God of War RagnarökOr maybe you’d like to watch some Viking movies. Today, I’d like to teach you a little bit more about your Kratos, because he’s hiding an indie action-movie legend.

Eric Jacobus serves as the coordinator of stunts Ragnarök and also the motion capture stunt performer for Kratos himself (and has been since 2018’s God of War). He’s a terrific filmmaker and stunt man who has made tons of excellent martial arts shorts, with a specialty in action comedies in the style of Jackie Chan’s legendary Hong Kong films.

The perfect starting place for jumping into Jacobus’ non-Kratos work is his excellent pair of “Groundhog Day, but martial arts” shorts, Dope a Rope Rope a Dope 2.. It’s a clever premise, it’s very funny (and without a word of dialogue), and the fights kick ass.

There’s also BlindsidedA 12-minute film in which Jacobus portrays a blind man who kicks lots of butt and his feature-length effort. Contour An action comedy. Death Grip This is a serious drama about martial arts that stars Johnny Yong Bosch, formerly of the Power Ranger.

Boots Riley, director and rapper may be spotted by keen-eyed viewers Dope a Rope — Jacobus and Riley later worked together again on We are sorry to bother youJacobus worked as a performer and stunt coordinator at the YMCA in New York. Jacobus was an active performer, stunt coordinator and action director in 2018, which made 2018 a significant year. We are sorry to bother you (Netflix), Blindspotting (Tubi), The Hindi action comedy The Man Who Doesn’t Feel Any Pain (Netflix) all released that year — not to mention God of War.

Ragnarök is no outlier, either — Jacobus’ video game bona fides are lengthy. Acting as the action director Destiny 2, he’s been doing a lot of motion capture work recently. His non-Kratos motion capture credits include Spider-Man, Mortal Kombat 11,Call of Duty, Warzone, The Last of Us Part II and 2020’s Demon’s SoulsHe was the stunt coordinator.

In his interview on Scott Adkins’ Art of ActionJacobus, a YouTuber, spoke in depth about his love for motion capture and the use of animation to convey movement. He also talks about why he’s stuck with indie filmmaking all these years rather than jumping to big studio productions. It’s well worth the watch.

Jacobus has a YouTube channel that recreates the moves of Street Fighter and Tekken characters (or One-Punch Man, as it is humorously called). He also played Waluigi, in an action parody. Mario Warfare: The Complete Saga Not able to see it, however I’m delighted that I did.

Jacobus started creating YouTube videos that educate on the subject of martial arts cinema. I highly recommend his first video, which thoughtfully breaks down the history of kicking in cinema, but his second video on Donnie Yen’s legendary career is also excellent.

So now when you see Kratos nailing those animations in your next fight, you’ll know the action pedigree it comes from!