The Raid: Redemption

The Raid is the most purely kinetic action film ever made. A SWAT team raids a 30-story Jakarta apartment building controlled by a drug lord, and within 20 minutes everything goes wrong. The remaining 80 minutes are a floor-by-floor battle for survival that never lets up. Gareth Evans’ direction is so precise and relentless that the film feels like a controlled detonation.

Iko Uwais is a revelation. His pencak silat fighting is breathtaking — every strike, every throw, every counter is captured in long takes that showcase the full extent of his abilities. The hallway machete fight, the two-on-one battle with Mad Dog — these are some of the greatest fight sequences ever filmed, performed by martial artists at the peak of their craft.

On a micro-budget of $1.1 million, The Raid outclassed every Hollywood action film of its era in terms of choreography and intensity. It proved that action cinema does not need blockbuster budgets — it needs skilled performers, a director who knows where to put the camera, and the discipline to show the work.