Film

The Raid

Name: The Raid
Genre: Action, Thriller, Crime
Released: 2012
Cast: Iko Uwais, Joe Taslim, Donny Alamsyah, Yayan Ruhian, Pierre Gruno

A SWAT unit gets trapped on the sixth floor of a tenement run by a drug lord, and must fight their way out one brutal room at a time. Gareth Evans turns the film into pure architecture and adrenaline: pencak silat choreography so fast and clean it borders on dance. Thin on story, thunderous on craft — action cinema stripped to its skeleton, built for pure sensation.

TMDb rating

7.4

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The Raid 22014

Same director, same star, but blown out into a sprawling gangster epic with even more inventive brutality — the kitchen fight and car chase rank among the best action set-pieces of the decade.

But Nearly two and a half hours long, with a labyrinthine plot that dilutes the first film's laser focus.

John Wick2014

Keanu Reeves reinvented the modern action hero here, turning gun-fu into a kind of liturgy. Like The Raid, it trusts choreography over dialogue and lets violence do the storytelling.

But More stylised and mythic than grounded — the world-building leans fantastical, which some find distracting rather than cool.

Dredd2012

Released the same year, with almost the identical premise — lawmen trapped in a tower, fighting up floor by floor against a drug lord's army. Karl Urban is magnificently deadpan throughout.

But Slower and heavier on slow-motion drug-vision visuals; less physically inventive than Evans's fight choreography.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Assault on Precinct 131976

Both films strip action down to one trapped group, one building, and an army closing in — Carpenter's low-budget siege is the direct ancestor of Evans's floor-by-floor nightmare.

John Carpenter's cheap, brilliant siege thriller traps a handful of cops and prisoners in a police station as a gang lays silent, methodical siege outside. It's the blueprint decades before Evans perfected the trick.

But Slower and far less bloody — the tension is atmospheric, not kinetic, and modern viewers might find it quaint.

Ong-Bak2003no page yet

Tony Jaa's breakout showcased Muay Thai with the same no-wire, no-CGI philosophy that makes The Raid's silat so thrilling — real bodies, real impact, genuinely dangerous stunts.

But Rougher production values and a much thinner plot; feels more like a demo reel than a complete film.

Hard Boiled1992

John Woo's Hong Kong classic, with Chow Yun-fat doing bullet ballet through a hospital under siege. It's the gun-fu ancestor of everything The Raid does with fists and blades.

But Dated effects and a melodramatic streak that modern action fans might find corny.

The Night Comes For Us2018

Iko Uwais and Joe Taslim reunite, this time as enemies, in a film that takes The Raid's brutality and cranks the volume up past reasonable limits.

But The gore is extreme even by this genre's standards — it can tip from thrilling into exhausting.

Headshot2016no page yet

Another Iko Uwais vehicle from the same Indonesian action scene, with brutal fight choreography wrapped around a moody amnesia-thriller plot.

But Weaker script and pacing than The Raid — the fights are the whole show, and the film knows it.

Man of Tai Chi2013no page yet

Keanu Reeves directs, and stars as the villain, in this underground fight-club story built around real martial artist Tiger Chen — a curious, stylish detour into similar territory.

But More uneven and less relentless — part character study, part fight showcase, and doesn't fully commit to either.

Nobody2021

Bob Odenkirk as a mild-mannered dad turned unstoppable killing machine — trashy, funny, and packed with the kind of brutal, inventive fight choreography that made The Raid a cult favourite.

But More comedic and cartoonish in tone — it's playing for laughs as much as tension.

Black Hawk Down2001

Swap the drug lord's tenement for Mogadishu's streets and you get the same structural nightmare — a small unit cut off, surrounded, and forced to fight its way out block by block.

Ridley Scott's account of a Mogadishu mission gone wrong turns an entire city into a kill box, soldiers surrounded and fighting street by street through the night — the same clock-and-geography tension, played for real stakes.

But Long, punishing, and based on real events — this is grim, exhausting viewing rather than a thrill ride.

The Act of Killing2012

The Raid turns Indonesian gangsterism into thrilling spectacle; this documentary, shot in the same country the same year, forces you to look at the real culture of violence underneath the fantasy.

An Indonesian documentary, made the same year as The Raid, in which real death-squad leaders cheerfully reenact their 1960s massacres for the camera. It's one of the most disturbing, essential films ever made about violence and impunity.

But This is not entertainment — it's a genuinely upsetting confrontation with real atrocity, with none of the choreography's release valve.