Nobody 2's Director Already Made The Most Violent Action Movie Ever

This weekend sees the release of "Nobody 2," and it's a landmark occasion. Not necessarily for star Bob Odenkirk; while it's great to see the "Mr. Show" and "Better Call Saul" star continuing to stretch his legs by delving even further into the action genre, much of the novelty has already worn off since the release of the first "Nobody" back in 2021. Instead, "Nobody 2" involves a different debut, that of director Timo Tjahjanto making his first Hollywood studio film. A native of Indonesia, Tjahjanto has been working steadily in genre films for the past two decades. His first foray into filmmaking was as one half of The Mo Brothers, where he and Kimo Stamboel teamed up to make three features before striking out on their own. These movies ran the gamut from horror to action-horror and pure action, proving both men's prowess within those genres. In between those movies, Tjahjanto also dipped his toes into the indie horror world, lending his talents to a pair of horror anthologies. For "The ABCs of Death," Tjahjanto made "L is for Libido," and for "V/H/S 2," he and Gareth Evans co-directed "Safe Haven," which is both the best single segment of any "V/H/S" film and one of the greatest anthology shorts ever made.

From there, Tjahjanto was able to get some features made in Indonesia, most of which found distribution Stateside through Netflix. With each successive film, Tjahjanto seemed to be reaching for some non-existent award for the bloodiest, goriest movie ever made. Despite having directed two horror films solo ("May the Devil Take You" and "May the Devil Take You Too"), Tjahjanto's action features may actually be more bloody. They're certainly more violent, as the characters in his action movies don't just get cut, bruised, and bleed a little; they get freakin' destroyed. Although "Nobody 2" is being advertised on the strength of its brutal, hard-hitting action sequences, even they can't hold a candle to one of Tjahjanto's earlier films, which may actually be the most violent action movie ever: 2018's "The Night Comes for Us."

For anyone reading a brief synopsis of the plot to "The Night Comes for Us," they might think it's just an average run of the mill action flick. The film is about Ito (Joe Taslim), a former member of the Six Seas, who are enforcers for the South East Asian Triad. During a Triad operation in which they order the Six Seas to massacre a village thanks to a couple locals stealing drugs from the syndicate, Ito comes upon a young girl, Reina (Asha Kenyeri Bermudez), who causes him to have a crisis of conscience. Immediately leaving the Six Seas (by killing his fellow Triad soldiers, naturally), Ito decides to help Reina escape from the wrath of the Triads, setting off a chain of events that sees an increasingly large number of killers come to take a pound of flesh from Ito.

In general, there's a lot on offer in "The Night Comes for Us." For starters, it re-teams Joe Taslim and Iko Uwais from Evans' groundbreaking action thriller "The Raid," with Uwais playing Arian, an assassin looking to kill Ito in order to take his place in the Six Seas. In fact, the film is essentially a "Raid" reunion, with Julie Estelle and Zack Lee from "The Raid 2" also turning up in major roles. The film's martial arts work, generally favoring Uwais' full-body pencak silat style, is top notch as well, and it's exhilarating to watch these actors and stunt-people literally throw their bodies around. Yet, the extra sauce that Tjahjanto adds on top of everything is the sheer gnarly impact of the violence. Each body blow, kick, bullet hit, knife slice, and more are engineered for maximum effect, making the film that much more intense. Where "The Night Comes for Us" could've been a John Woo or Ringo Lam knock-off (or even felt too beholden to Timo's pal Evans), it sets itself apart by being delightfully gruesome.

Perhaps the main reason why "The Night Comes for Us," "Nobody 2," or any of Tjahjanto's films don't feel like derivative action movies is because Tjahjanto's primary influences aren't action movies; they're actually horror films. In interviews, the director has cited movies like "Friday the 13th" and "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" as being his inspiration more than Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan films, and this speaks to his unique approach to action sequences and action cinema in general. Tjahjanto's work is just more proof that horror filmmakers bring an increased intensity and a heightened experience to action movies. "The Night Comes for Us" has a lot of talented martial artists doing their thing, to be sure, but the film is able to stand out that much more thanks to the sheer amount of gory gags that Tjahjanto executes.

Of course, this game of ever-increasing violence can backfire. As /Film's Chris Evangelista pointed out when discussing Tjahjanto's action epic follow-up to "Night," 2024's "The Shadow Strays," a perpetually raised bar of excessiveness can begin to be more exhausting than thrilling. Ironically, this is where "Nobody 2" runs into some trouble, as Tjahjanto (whether intentionally or otherwise) reins in his usual amount of gore. Make no mistake: "Nobody 2" is bloody, but when compared to "Night" or "Shadow," it seems almost tame. Fortunately, Tjahjanto's past experience helps make up for this in the way he's able to utilize every environment in the film in clever ways, incorporating various objects and tools into the action rather than just using the standard sharp objects, guns, and grenades.

While "Nobody 2" isn't even a contender to beat "The Night Comes for Us" for the title of Most Violent Action Movie Ever, it does seem to promise that Tjahjanto has more nuance up his sleeve than perhaps initially thought. It remains to be seen whether Tjahjanto will continue in this more muted mode in his future Hollywood films, or if "Nobody 2" is being used as a backdoor to allow him to sneak into the studio system, paving the way for him to make a truly twisted mainstream action movie next. Obviously, I'm hoping the latter is the case.

"Nobody 2" is now playing in theaters.