Fans of action director Gareth Evans (The Raid, Gangs of London) and prolific actor Tom Hardy (Venom, Mad Max: Fury Road) have been waiting for Havoc to drop for what might seem like a lifetime. Although principal photography took place in 2021 alongside COVID restrictions, pickups and edits were still being completed right until the last minute (mainly due to Hardy's increasingly busy schedule but also the SAG-AFTRA strikes). These things often take a lot longer than fans would like to come to fruition even more so when a studio or streamer are on board. However the teasing and titulation along the way no matter how agonizing, kept expectations and levels of excitement at an all time high.
After a week or so of official screenings and PR events, the film finally dropped on Netflix on April 25th and the question is, is Havoc worth the wait and the inevitable hype surrounding it?
In short – yes.
Havoc is a dream come true for action fans made by a team of well, action fans themselves. Of course that team consists not only of Evans but his long-time collaborators, Jude Poyer (stunt coordinator) and Matt Flannery (DOP) as well as many, many more incredible crew members, who had been impeccably prepped by Poyer and were chomping at the bit to bring Evan's original script to life. Evans openly talks about his love of John Woo and Ringo Lam (the Heroic Bloodshed directors of Hong Kong action cinema) as well as the westerns he'd watch with his father as a child directed by Sam Peckinpah and many of those influences are seen throughout his body of work including Havoc which metaphorically wears a modern day Heroic Bloodshed logo proudly front and center on its t-shirt.
The film follows the story of Patrick Walker (Tom Hardy doing what Tom Hardy does best), a grumpy, perpetually exhausted looking homicide cop who is by no means a simplistic character or indeed, good person. His tiredness, of his situation and of the world, oozes through the screen. After being assigned to investigate a drug deal gone horribly wrong, Walker discovers he knows one of the suspects, Charlie (Justin Cornwell of The Umbrella Academy fame), the son of corrupt politician Lawrence Beaumont (Forest Whitaker) who has Walker in his pocket.
All too soon the ‘I'm done with this shit' detective and his ‘not my partner' partner, Ellie played by the phenomenal-needs-to-be-in-all-the-movies Jessie Mei Li find themselves embroiled in gang warfare (special shout-out to Michelle Waterson, a former MMA fighter discovered and championed by Jude Poyer, who is an outstanding silent assassin type antagonist), entrenched political corruption and a team of very unlawful cops including the always on point brooding Timothy Olyphant and wonderful to see reunited with Evans, arrogant Richard Harrington in a city where no one seems to trust anyone else and lo and behold it's also Christmas! And who doesn't love a dirty snow aesthetic when it comes to gritty crime movies?
Quickly on that note, Havoc does utilize CGI for certain scenes and cityscapes. It was shot in Cardiff afterall not a real US city and due to various hold ups throughout production, it was necessary to use in specific sequences. Evans speaks about it candidly, not hiding the fact.
Some fast police work and dodgy exchanges lead to one of the main set pieces people will be talking about, dissecting and inevitably imitating for years to come – the Medusa Nightclub scene. It is difficult to say too much whilst keeping things brief and spoiler free but the entire spectacle is a sight to behold and an absolute joy to watch. From the incredible yet realistic, brutal choreography, Evans and Flannery's stylised cinematography (from intentional disorientating Dutch angles to the fast-moving, steadicam whip-pan shots) to the jigsaw piece editing (which Evans prefers over mass coverage especially during dangerous and time-consuming choreography sequences), the balls to the wall action inside the Medusa will leave you short of breath whilst delivering a standing ovation, fistbumping the air and yelling' ‘Oh hell yeah!'. And if it is even possible, all of that is amplified further by the banging score which, in Evans own words, was designed specifically to make the viewer feel as if they are exiting a club or a concert and when they step out into the street, the ringing remains in their ears making everything surrounding them feel slightly off.
Walker manages to escape the riotous carnage along with a reluctant but now injured Charlie and his partner in life and crime, badass Mia (played excellently by Quelin Sepulveda). The trio set off to Walker's Fishing Cabin in the middle of nowhere but of course the bad guys find out and soon everyone is headed to the now not so secret hideaway.
The concept of a third act siege is in no way a new device, as demonstrated in Peckinpah's 1971 classic, Straw Dogs, and indeed Evans himself raised the ceiling on the concept with episode five, season one of Gangs of London in which Richard Harringon stars. Assault on Precinct 13 (John Carpenter), Dog Soldiers (Neil Marshall), You're Next (Adam Wingard) and many more use this invasion technique and after the earlier Medusa Nightclub extravaganza, bars were set high for this next epic showdown.
And of course, Evans and co. did it again utilizing a ton of always well received gags and stunts whilst incorporating some lovely new stuff as once the seemingly endless bullets do run out, one has to use what's around them and when you're in a Fishing Hut, you got hooks, lines and harpoons to play with…
This is what Evans both excels at and is hugely passionate about and it is all too easy to imagine the glee in his eyes when both pre-visualising this and indeed executing it to perfection. Expect bodies flying through wooden walls and windows, enclosed space brawls, semi-automatic assault rifles with endless ammo (which Evans and Poyer laughed about too, it is a fictional movie after all) and some brilliant instant arming.
Havoc concludes with a perhaps for some rather nihilistic ending, whilst most story arcs are tied up and deserts dished out justly, there is no ‘Blaze of Glory' martyrdom or neat package left for us all tied up in a bow. And that is a very realistic ending to a gritty, dark, R rated action film. Most of the characters are not particularly likeable or good/nice people, perhaps only Police Officer Ellie being the exception with a moral compass but even she doesn't do everything by the book and that sums up what people are really like.
A word of warning, if you are a huge fan of The Raid, Iko Uwais and the Uwais Team's very specific form of Silat choreography and enter Havoc expecting that aesthetic and style, you will likely be disappointed. This is intentionally a very different beast. Uwais and Hardy are chalk and cheese. The Raid was super low budget and made in Jakarta. Havoc had a Netflix budget of many millions. And whilst Tom Hardy the man is an extremely competent MMA fighter especially in Brazilian Ju Jitzu, Homicide Detective Partick Walker is not and so he uses what all cops use; his gun, his fists, his strength and his wits. It is imperative the two are not compared. That being said, Havoc is rather like a feature length version of an episode of Evans' creation Gangs of London if you added a Sin City vibe and moved it to Gotham in winter. And yes that does mean viewers can allocate Havoc to their yearly Christmas movie rotation alongside Die Hard and Lethal Weapon.
Fans of action new and old should enjoy the mayhem, mess and madness Evans has created in the aptly titled Havoc (nominative determinism at its best), delivering on what both he and Hardy promised – a bloody good time. Despite being set in modern times, Havoc is a much welcomed throwback to the actioners of yore and bestows Evans with the well deserved accolade of one of the best action directors of all time.
Havoc is available for streaming now on Netflix.
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