How The Raid Changed (And Didn’t Change) Action Cinema Forever
******Spoilers Up Ahead*******
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Back when Nintendo Power created its first list of the greatest games of all-time in 1997 (Super Mario 64 was #1 by the way, and I still agree with that), they had Mega Man in the #20 slot. They mentioned that the game had such a simple formula for its success, yet they were confused as to why the recipe isn’t repeated that often. This is my stance on The Raid. Back in 2011, this movie should have changed all the rules in action films, as it was an explosive claustrophobic trip that never lets go of your throat until the final frame by layering the drama like jenga blocks before having it all tumble over with its influx of insanity.
The Raid was hands-down the best action movie since Legend of Drunken Master back in 1994, and remains one of the best you’ll ever see in filmmaking. The fights are intense, the shootouts are brutal, the takedowns are creative, the carnage was immersive and relentless, and the flawless blend of skillful choreography and sinister cinematography made this an enjoyable albeit very rough watch. My experience in the theater resulted in half the audience not being able to survive and leaving because the violence wasn’t overwhelming, it was uncomfortably realistic.
But what really makes this film work is the technique of video game pacing, which is something you honestly never see in action movies, which is the one genre that would most benefit from such a style of telling the story. Even the best action movies like Die Hard, Terminator 2, The Matrix, and Peak Jackie Chan didn’t organize their action sequences. In video games (good ones anyway), the challenge progresses simultaneously with the story. You will never see a video game have their first boss battle be the most difficult and impressive one. You need to get your feet wet, and then skillfully build your way towards becoming experienced enough to take on what comes your way. Super Mario 64, Nintendo Power’s #1 pick back in 1997, gave you three big battles against Bowser. The first time you needed to hit him once. The final battle required 5 hits while he moved faster, jumped higher, and also started destroying the platform underneath you. This is good video game design. A good action movie design should do the exact same thing.
Save your best tricks, your biggest foes, and your most intense moments for the climax. Allow for your movie to build the tension, build the suspense, and rev up the cinematic power so you remain hooked. What good is it to have the best action sequence in the beginning or in the middle, making the third act not as dramatic? The Raid felt like a video game because each time we were presented with another action sequence, it was better than the previous one. With this realization, you sit there, engaged with the story and just pondering what the heck could possibly happen next?
In The Raid, you had the shootout with the swat team going up against an ambush, only you killed off nearly everybody and managed to unarm most of the remaining survivors (the writers were meannnn to their characters). By the end of the first act, our hero (Iko Uwais, who for some odd reason doesn’t get more role offers) doesn’t have a gun, doesn’t have backup, and still faces an entire building complex full of people ready to kill him. By the time you reach the final fight (after multiple hallway fights, a mid-boss-like battle against the eventual final boss, and a final treacherous climb to the top floor), you have a man (Mad Dog) that is trained to kill with his bare hands taking on the main character (who is pretty close to death) and his brother, who by the way has a hole on one of his hands and several broken ribs after being tortured.
So naturally, we are treated with a ridiculous 7-minute sequence that ranks as among the best fights ever filmed.
The Raid should have changed the entire film industry with its imitation of Call of Duty and video gaming in general. Instead, the film industry didn’t learn its lesson and to this day Hollywood has yet to throw anything that comes even close to the madness and action-packed glee of The Raid. But of course, there’s more.
The Raid 2.
The Raid 2 is completely different from the original Raid film, but yet still has many video game mannerisms, and then exclaims its superiority in a very clever way. It also escalates in challenge, but takes longer before you start seeing the escalating insanity. In The Raid 2, you are treated to a couple great scenes, but has a story to tell in the opening act. It actually begins more like an RPG, as you are immediately introduced to the conflict, the series of characters, and the stakes involved. One of the characters is played by the same man who was the “final boss” in the original Raid. There were complains about his character being pointless in the film, but there was a purpose and it had nothing to with the narrative.
Yayan Ruhian (Mad Dog from Raid 1) this time plays an assassin with a backstory, but he quickly gets offed at the end of the first act because The Raid 2 wanted to show you that this film is even bigger than the first—-by eliminating the most impressive fighter in the original movie, and introducing you to the main boss in the same exact scene—The Assassin, a silent bloodthirsty maniac that immediately demands your attention with his precision. The scene where The Assassin slices up the other man in seconds shows you one thing: The Raid 2 by the end will be bigger, badder, and more challenging than the original. Like every good sequel, the stakes are raised and so is the intensity. The snow assassination scene does little to the narrative, but displays a warning that the movie is about to go off the rails.
There were still two more acts to go. And off the rails it went. Oh dear God, the car chase scene…..
The Raid 2 is the only film since The Raid to video game it up and progress in every category up until the final massive sequence—which instead of one final boss our main hero deals with THREE of them. THREE assassins instead of one—each with their own signature weapons. Adding up the runtime of both fights and the “final level” preceding it, we have a dozen minutes of uninterrupted battling. The best tricks and the best fights were saved for last, which makes the entire experience much more satisfying. Gareth Evans and company knew that to make each scene have a satisfying payoff, you constantly leave them with the promise and guarantee that what happens next will be even crazier and more impressive than the sequence prior. Another example is before the final epic duel between the main character and The Assassin, they actually meet and fight towards the end of the second act. The fight was good, but short—-you knew they were going to meet again, and this time it was going to be to the death.
If you are an action fan, then the Raid movies will satisfy you to no end. The formula is simple: throw a good story, give us a hero worth giving a damn about, and raise the stakes every time a conflict arises. The Raid and The Raid 2 are the top action movies this millennium with Mad Max: Fury Road somewhere nudged in between. And this is because of the video game style of giving you samples of what’s about to happen, and improving on the action every time the story dials it up to the next level. American filmmakers and studios need to take notes, because we’ve had movies with budgets of $200 million more than The Raid (looking at you DC…), yet couldn’t be as awe-inspiring as the carnage of the 1-2 Indonesian cinema punch. You need to save that budget, save all your best action ideas for last. Otherwise, that final payoff just won’t be as satisfying.
Action movies need to be more like video games. The Raid, and The Raid 2 are your best pieces of evidence for this movement.