In the history of mankind there have been many struggles; some of the most epic were, man against nature or even man against man, but none more epic than man versus beast. Primarily due to the fact that beasts are generally pretty tough and they tend to have crazy teeth and really cool fur, feathers, or scales.

At the dawn of time, early humans in search of food and clothing had to face some of the most fearsome creatures to ever walk the earth. We admire and salute those scantily clad early humans, who basically had to go toe to toe with their dinner before they could eat it. Bravo historical dudes (and fur bikini clad ladies), you fought the good fight and occasionally won.

Inspired by the film 10,000 BC, here is CraveOnline's Top 11 Man Vs Beast Encounters in Movie History!

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11. The Dude Vs the Weasel:  The Bathtub Battle (The Big Lebowski) - Mistaken identity can ruin a perfectly good bath. "The Nihilists" (featuring Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers) descend on an unassuming Jeff Bridges, turning his Calgon moment into a screaming-weasel splashfest.

10. Samuel Jackson Vs Snakes (Snakes on a Plane):When time-release crates full of venomous snakes open on an airplane and people start dying, who better to come to the rescue than Sam Jackson?! Don't worry, it's a rhetorical question; there is no one better than Sam. That's essentially the basis of this instant cult-classic from 2006, which gave us all one more reason to stay the hell off of airplanes.

9. Ron Burgundy's News Team Vs Bear family (Anchorman):"Hold on... it's clear now. We go into the bear pit." With that line, Will Ferrell's Ron Burgundy and cohorts jump into a grizzly bear enclosure to save the lovely Christina Applegate, whose hair evidently smells like cinnamon. These anchormen engaged in a valiant fight against a magnificent and furry beast.

8. Family Vs Dog (Cujo):Stephen King's digressive story about a rabid St. Bernard was shortened for film, centering solely on a cheating wife who's karmic balance is getting trapped in a car with her kid while the dog waits outside. Will she and her son starve, or take their chances against the massive beast? We bet you can guess.

7. Kevin Bacon Vs Dirt Monsters (Tremors): Kevin Bacon puts hits Footloose moves to good use, scrambling across the desert to escape a monstrous, vicious worm-snake in this cult classic, set in a one-horse ramshackle town called Perfection.

6. Crispin Glover Vs Rats (Willard): In a role seemingly made for him, Glover shines as the rodent-loving title character who turns on his thousands of pets when he can't feed them anymore. The rats nearly kill him, but Glover survives to weird us out another day.

5. Bill Murray Vs Gopher (Caddyshack): This 1980 gem featured comic heavyweights of the time Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield and, of course, Bill Murray, whose infamous golf-course gopher battle lands this side-splitter at number 5.

4 People Vs Dinosaurs (Jurassic Park): Scientists bastardize nature by genetically engineering a pre-historic theme part, full of massive beasts extinct for millions and millions of years. Guess what?Something goes wrong. The dinosaurs get free. Cue two lifeless sequels, with a fourth film currently in development.

3. The Civilized World Vs Giant Gorilla (King Kong): The big guy wasn't evil, just misunderstood. In one of the more well-known man-versus-beast films, Merian C. Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack's original version of the story still tells it best, capturing both our desire to dominate the animal kingdom and our basic fear of returning to it.

2. Everybody Vs Birds (The Birds): This 1963 Hitchcock film about a flock of birds terrorizing a coastal California town is a genius timepiece, emphasizing old Alfred's panache for panicked suspense with considerably artistic style.

1. Everybody Vs Giant Shark (Jaws): Absolutely terrifying to the end, the original Jaws film is a work of art. It defined the suspense thriller genre, and kept millions of kids out of the ocean for years (this kid included).