The Raid

THE RAID (Redemption)

 

The Raid: Redemption (Indonesian: ”Serbuan maut”) is an Indonesian action film directed by Gareth Evans and starring Iko Uwais which was released worldwide in March 2012. This is the second collaboration of Evans and Uwais after their first action film, Merantau released in 2009. Both films showcase the traditional Indonesian martial art Pencak Silat. The fight choreographers of The Raid are Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhian who also worked on Merantau. The U.S. release of the film features music by Mike Shinoda of nu metal band Linkin Park and Joseph Trapanese.

After its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), critics and audience alike hailed The Raid as one of the best action films in years

Due to a trademark issue in U.S. and the plan of a trilogy, the original English title for U.S. distribution has been slightly changed to The Raid: Redemption.

Plot

Deep in the heart of Jakarta‘s slums lies an impenetrable derelict apartment building which became a safe house for the city’s most dangerous murderers, killers and gangsters. The rundown apartment block has been considered untouchable by rivals of the notorious crime lord Tama Riyadi and even the police. It all changes when an elite team is tasked with raiding the building in order to take down Tama once and for all.

Cloaked under the cover of pre-dawn darkness and silence, devout Muslim, expectant father and rookie cop Rama and a 20 man SWAT team, led by Sergeant Jaka, arrive at the apartment block under the guidance of Lieutenant Wahyu. Starting from the ground floor and moving up, they slowly and tactfully infiltrate the apartment block until they reach the sixth floor. The team is spotted by a child who runs off to warn Tama and sounds an alarm before he is shot and killed.

Tama hears of the presence and announces to the whole block that he will grant sanctuary to those who kill the SWAT team. Sergeant Jaka soon learns that the mission was not sanctioned by the department but only by Lieutenant Wahyu, thus no reinforcements or rescue will ever arrive. After a lengthy battle the team is stranded on the 6th floor and left outnumbered, out of ammunition and being hunted down. The members that survived the ambush are: Sergeant Jaka, Lieutenant Wahyu, Bowo, Dagu and Rama. After narrowly escaping an explosion improvised by Rama that kills a large number of criminals, the team split into two groups: Jaka with Wahyu and Dagu on the 5th floor and Rama with Bowo finding safety on the 7th floor.

After Rama survives an attack by a machete gang while hiding in the apartment of the only resident who is a law-abiding citizen, he is captured by Andi, Tama’s right hand man. At the same time, Jaka and his group are found by Mad Dog, Tama’s ruthless henchman. Wahyu and Dagu get away as Mad Dog fights and eventually kills Jaka. Andi is revealed to be Rama’s estranged brother who chose to leave the family and left no trace of his whereabouts. Andi lets Rama know when it will be safe as he meets up with Mad Dog. Tama learns of the betrayal and stabs Andi through the hand before turning him over to Mad Dog (who already hated Andi) for disposal.

Rama regroups with Wahyu and Dagu and assault the 15th floor where Tama is located. Rama frees Andi from Mad Dog as he’s being beaten to death and the two have a lengthy fight that finally ends with Mad Dog being killed. Wahyu and Dagu grab Tama, and Wahyu promptly shoots and kills Dagu before telling Tama that the gangster is his ticket out of the building. Rama and Andi approach the two, while Tama gloats to Wahyu that he is just a nobody on a thoroughly corrupt police force, where many officers already do business with Tama and will continue to do so after they arrange for Wahyu to be either killed or arrested himself. Wahyu angrily ends this spiel when he murders the gangster, but his effort to commit suicide fails because his gun is out of bullets. Andi then orders the building residents to stand down and gathers information on corrupt cops for Rama, telling his brother that not every cop is rotten and giving the name of one officer who is a good man, implying the facts should go to him. Andi then walks Rama, Bowo and Wahyu out of the building, but declines Rama’s offer to join them. The cops head away and Andi returns to his uncertain future as the film ends.

Cast

• Iko Uwais as Rama, main protagonist and member of the rookie SWAT raid team who is hiding a (non-corrupt) secret.
• Donny Alamsyah as Andi, Tama’s right hand man and the brain of Tama’s narcotics business.
• Ray Sahetapy as Tama Riyadi, merciless and cunning druglord in charge of the criminal-sanctuary apartement building, main target of the SWAT raid operation, and the main antagonist.
• Yayan Ruhian as “Mad Dog”, Tama’s brutal hitman and right hand man with deadly fighting skills.
• Pierre Gruno as Lieutenant Wahyu, a corrupted senior police officer who ordered the ill-fated raid who has a history with the druglord Tama.
• Joe Taslim as Sergeant Jaka, team leader of the ill-fated SWAT raid operation.
• Tegar Satrya as Bowo, temperamental member of the rookie SWAT raid team.
• Eka “Piranha” Rahmadia as Dagu, member of the rookie SWAT raid team.
• Verdi Solaiman as Budi, member of the rookie SWAT raid team.
• Ananda George as Ari, member of the rookie SWAT raid team.

Production

Gareth Evans has been fascinated by Indonesian martial art of Silat and as a filmmaker he wanted to promote the little known art to international audience through his movies. Following Merantau, Evans and his producers were working on another Silat movie project called Berandal (eng: delinquent/thugs), a large scale prison gang movie intended to star not only Merantau stars Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhian but also an additional pair of international fight stars. A teaser trailer was shot, but the project was proven a bit more complex and time consuming than anticipated. After a year and a half they couldn’t find enough money to start it. They then decided to find a new idea and make a different movie with all the money they already have. Rather than try to shoot Berandal on a limited budget and lose the scope and size they wanted from it, they would shift focus and tell a different story altogether, one they could make without sacrificing quality and keeping investors happy. Thus a new project called Serbuan Maut (The Raid) was conceived, with much lesser budget and simpler story than Berandal. Producer Ario Sagantoro considers the film to be lighter than the previous film, Merantau.

The pre-production process took about four months, including finalization of the script and the work on the choreography for fighting sequence which was designed by Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhian. Actors that make up the key members of the SWAT team were sent to bootcamp military training with KOPASKA, going through intensive course to learn the basics of weapons use, strategic attacks and defense techniques.

Filming began in March 2011. The Raid was shot using Panasonic AF100.

Music

Score

While the film was still in production, in May 2011, Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions acquired the distribution rights of the film for the U.S. and tasked Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park and Joseph Trapanese to create a new score for U.S. market.

The film premiered at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival with the original score from the Indonesian version which was composed by Aria Prayogi and Fajar Yuskemal, who also composed Evan’s previous film, Merantau. The Raid made its debut in the U.S. with Trapanese and Shinoda’s version at Sundance 2012.

Soundtrack

On his blog, Mike Shinoda stated that the film consist of over 50 minutes of instrumental score and he found room at the end for two songs with vocals. He didn’t want to do sing or rap and decided to call on some friends.

On March 16, 2012, a new song for the film has leaked out online. The leaked track is titled “Razors Out” and features a guest turn from Deftones/††† frontman Chino Moreno. Another song is by GBC titled “Suicide Music” is also available.

Reception

Reviews for The Raid: Redemption have been highly positive. Based on 82 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, the film currently holds a 85% fresh rating, and an average score of 7.6/10. The website reported the critical consensus as “No frills and all thrills,” and lauded the film as “inventive action film expertly paced and edited for maximum entertainment.” Conversely, Roger Ebert gave the film a single star out of four, noting that “Welsh director, Gareth Evans, knows there’s a fanboy audience for his formula, in which special effects amp up the mayhem in senseless carnage”.In IMDB, this movie had a 7th place in “most popular action feature films” with 8.4 rating.

Awards

• Midnight Madness Award at TIFF 2011
• Dublin Film Critics Circle Best Film and Audience Award at Jameson Dublin International Film Festival (JDIFF) 2012

U.S. remake

Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions has acquired the distribution rights of the film for the U.S. and has tasked Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park and Joseph Trapanese to create a new score. The distribution rights for other territories were also sold, including Alliance (Canada), Momentum (United Kingdom), Madman (Australia), SND (France), Kadokawa (Japan), Koch (Germany), HGC (China), and Calinos (Turkey). Deals have also been made with distributors from Russia, Scandinavia, Benelux, Iceland, Italy, Latin America, Korea and India during the film screening at the TIFF. A few months after Sony acquired the film’s North American distribution rights, it was announced by Hollywood Reporter that its subsidiary company, Screen Gems, is in negotiations to produce a Hollywood remake. The deal was sealed on November 2011 with Writer-director Gareth Evans will serve as an executive producer on the remake. XYZ Films – executive producers on the original Indonesian version – will be serving as producers on the English version. Screen Games also wants to get the same choreographers from The Raid involved with the remake.

Sequel

While developing The Raid in script form, Evans started to toy around with the idea of creating a link between it and the initial project; Berandal. And it’s now confirmed that Berandal will serve as a sequel to The Raid.Evans has also stated his intention to make a trilogy. Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group has pre-bought U.S., Latin American and Spanish rights to the upcoming sequel. Alliance/Momentum has pre-bought for the United Kingdom and Canada; Koch Media has acquired the film for German speaking territories; Korea Screen has pre-bought Korea; and HGC has pre-bought China. Deals for other major territories are also in negotiations.

Tentatively titled Berandal for the Indonesian market and as The Raid: Retaliation for U.S. market, the sequel will have a “significantly larger” budget than its predecessor, and its shooting schedule is to include approximately 100 days of physical production. The pre-production is expected to begin in September 2012 while the filming is expected in January 2013.