The Two-Part Hallway Fight In The Raid: Redemption Is The Best Action Scene Ever
(Welcome to Best Action Scene Ever, a column dedicated to breaking down the best, most effective action sequences throughout the genre. In this edition, it's time to take a look at the bone-crunching brutality of the extended hallway sequence in Gareth Evans' "The Raid: Redemption.")
There has never been one "right" way to film action. Hong Kong cinema has obviously made its mark on multiple generations of directors and 1980s filmmaking may have popularized the musclebound, quasi-superhero lead who can take even more punishment than they dish out. (Don't worry, we will absolutely get around to "Die Hard" in this column at some point.) In more recent vintage, you have the frenetic, shaky-cam chaos of the "Bourne" movies that somehow managed to coexist along with the almost balletic precision of "John Wick."
Somewhere in that wide-ranging spectrum, Gareth Evans' "The Raid" movies carved out their own unique space as one of the most memorable and instant-classic additions — not just to Indonesian filmmaking, but to the entire genre, as well. "The Raid: Redemption" burst onto the scene in 2011 and all but demanded that audiences sit up and take notice. Written, directed, and edited by Evans, the claustrophobic action/thriller follows a SWAT team leading a daring and ultimately misguided raid on ruthless drug lord Tama Riyadi's (Ray Sahetapy) apartment complex, which might as well be a fiefdom filled to the brim with soldiers ready to die to defend their turf.
Pretty much right from the start, the squad's mission goes horribly awry and soon the fire-team made up of roughly two dozen men are whittled down to just a handful, desperate to merely survive the nightmare they've blundered into. When they get separated, however, we're soon treated to one of the most spectacular two-part fight sequences of the last decade.
The scene
With their squadron of hard-nosed but overmatched cops scattered to different levels of the apartment after a disastrous early engagement sets the tone for the rest of the film, "The Raid" makes the first of several intuitive storytelling decisions. Director Gareth Evans splits up the remaining group of cops in order to fully maximize the drama and stakes. Although the movie initially sold to audiences might have seemed like a barebones and nonstop fight sequence, the very structure of the script makes room for lengthy pauses to help with the pacing, several resets to prevent the action from becoming too numbing, and propulsive set pieces that cleverly mix up the choreography, weapons, and stakes to constantly provide a new experience throughout the 100-minute runtime.
The most effective of these comes when the rookie of the group, a shockingly empathetic young man named Rama (Iko Uwais), finds himself separated from the rest of the team and is forced to look after the heavily injured hothead Bowo (Tegar Satrya). This premise alone already makes things more dire, as Rama has to defend both himself and his teammate (with whom he's almost come to blows over previously, as Rama defended an obviously innocent apartment tenant trying to get to his room ahead of the raid) with one arm essentially tied behind his back. By narrowing the scope from the overall raid and focusing solely on Rama desperately trying to find safe sanctuary to patch up Bowo's wounds, "The Raid" treats us to one of the movie's greatest fight sequences.
Funneled into a narrow corridor filled with rooms containing potential hostiles, the pair are soon forced to defend themselves from several goons. With no firearms on hand, the close-quarters combat adds a whole new dimension to the action.
Why it works
The hallway fight stands apart from many other similar concepts over the years thanks to its refusal to gawk at its own spectacle. With all due respect to the Netflix "Daredevil" fans out there, this sequence shows the necessity of purposeful cuts over flashy but largely tension-less fight scenes filmed as one single shot.
The brutal fight that follows isn't designed to look cool (although it certainly does) or call attention to its craft (which is fairly self-evident), but to finally show viewers what Rama's made of. His shockingly selfless worldview of saving others — predominantly influenced by his pregnant wife waiting for him at home and another family member hiding within the apartment itself — shouldn't be as effective as it is in the tight quarters of a drug lord's mini-empire. But even with Bowo slowing him down and putting both of them at risk, Rama's sheer determination counts just as much as his actual hand-to-hand skills.
And what skills they are, as Iko Uwais pulls off one impossible move after the other in some of the finest fight choreography of the 21st Century. Constantly put on the defensive, Rama's desperate acts of self-defense transform the otherwise unremarkable hallway into a labyrinth where certain death remains only a door away. Without any guns in sight, the emphasis is placed on much more on visceral thrills, and every performers' guttural scream helps reduce these characters to their basest, most savage level. It's impossible to overstate just how much harder it hits when a movie makes full use of the geography and environment at hand during a particular sequence, too. Though the "John Wick" movies set a whole new bar for characters physically interacting with their surroundings, "The Raid" beat it to the punch by a scant few years.
The key moment
But wait! Even when Rama fends off all the attackers and manages to get Bowo to safety in the room of the man he and Bowo previously encountered at the beginning of the film, "The Raid" doesn't let up for long. We get a brief respite for Rama to patch up his comrade, but the danger isn't nearly over with as a fearsome gang of machete-wielding enemies only have to follow the trail of bodies leading up to their makeshift hideout. When they track them to the room, the movie delivers a very different kind of tension as the two cops barely avoid their pursuers by hiding within the walls of the room. With the coast seemingly clear, Rama leaves Bowo behind and ventures out on his own to reunite with the remaining SWAT team ... only to stumble right into even more deadly enemies.
This second and even more merciless hallway fight elevates this entire portion of the film to all-timer status. Stretching out over 5 relentless minutes, the extended second half of the sequence delivers some of the nastiest kills, most iconic visuals (such as the camera tilting nearly onto its side when Rama encounters a locked door, trapping him in another hallway with his bloodthirsty foes, who line up against him on the opposite end), and thoroughly inventive choreography to make up for Rama's lack of any physical weapons at all — beyond the use of his own fists, elbows, and feet, that is.
Granted, the action descends multiple stories and spans multiple different locations (including a stairwell, a neon-lit room, and a final jump out the window to a fire escape several feet below) in this second "hallway" fight. Still, this is undoubtedly the moment "The Raid" truly came into its own.