The Raid (2011 film)

Initially intended to be released as Serbuan Maut, which translates literally to "The Deadly Raid";[16] director Gareth Evans came across the idea for the film when he moved to Indonesia to film a documentary about the country's martial art pencak silat, as suggested by his wife of Indonesian Japanese descent. It was in that country that he met Iko Uwais, a Silat practitioner who was then working as a delivery man for a phone company based in Jakarta. Evans then nudged his wife to cast Uwais for Merantau, and then in The Raid.[13]

Following Merantau, Evans and his producers began work on a Silat film project called Berandal (Indonesian for Thugs), a large-scale prison gangster film intended to star not only Merantau actors Uwais and Yayan Ruhian but also an additional pair of international fight stars. A teaser trailer was shot, but the project proved more complex and time-consuming than anticipated.[17] After a year and a half, Evans and the producers found themselves with insufficient funds to produce Berandal, so they changed the film to a simpler but different story with a smaller budget. They called the project Serbuan Maut (The Raid).[13] Producer Ario Sagantoro considers the film to be lighter than Merantau. Evans also considers it to be "a lot more streamlined," stating that "Merantau is more of a drama" while The Raid is more of a "survival horror film."[18] Evans wanted The Raid vastly different from Merantau in terms of pacing.[14] With Merantau, some fans complained the action sequences took too long to appear since the first 45 minutes of the film laid emphasis on character development, backdrop (specifically, the Indonesian culture) and drama.[13] Therefore, Evans designed The Raid to be a "full-on" action film.[14]

Pre-production took about four months, which include finalization of the script (which included translation of the original English-language script into Indonesian) and the work on choreography for the fighting sequences, which were designed by Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhian.[19] The actors that make up the key members of the police squad were sent to bootcamp military training with KOPASKA, where they learned how to use weapons, and how to perform strategic attack and defense techniques.[14]

The crew wanted The Raid to be shot in a quasi-documentary style, that is, the camera is handheld and without the use of Steadicam. To achieve that objective, they shot the film in high definition using Panasonic AF100 camcorder—which had just recently come out of the market—and strayed from using film format while shooting most action and fight sequences. In addition, the camera was frequently attached to a Fig Rig to prevent most scenes from being too jarring, and give the camera operator opportunities to change angles and positions rapidly.[14]

All guns used in the film were Airsoft replicas, to avoid the costs associated with having to deal with firearms. All the shots of the guns' actions cycling, muzzle flashes and cases ejecting were added digitally.[14]

When filming concluded, about 120 minutes of footage was shot; Evans originally intended it to be eighty to eighty-five minutes long. The footage was eventually cut down to approximately 100 minutes. The final stages of post-production took place in Bangkok, Thailand for the color grading and audio mixing processes.[14]

While the film was still in production, in May 2011, Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions acquired the distribution rights of the film for the US market and tasked Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park and Joseph Trapanese to create a new score.[20][21] 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 Evans's previous film Merantau.[22][23] The Raid made its debut in the US with Trapanese and Shinoda's version at Sundance 2012.[24]

Shinoda stated that his score was over 50 minutes and almost all instrumental. After film production, he had room for two more songs, but did not want to sing or rap, so he posted pictures of two music artists.[25] Deftones/††† frontman Chino Moreno guest performed "RAZORS.OUT", which was leaked online on 16 March 2012,[26] as rap group Get Busy Committee performed "SUICIDE MUSIC" for the film.[27]

In Indonesia, the film sold 1,844,817 tickets at the box office in 2012.[34]

Overseas, in its Sony Pictures Classics debut in the United States on 23–25 March 2012, The Raid: Redemption grossed $220,937 from 24 theaters for a location average of $15,781.[35] For its widest opening release weekend in the United States and Canada on 13–15 April 2012, the film grossed $961,454 from 881 theaters, and ranked 11th overall.[36][37] In the United Kingdom, the film grossed $660,910 on its opening weekend.[36] In Indonesia, approximately 250,000 people watched the film in the first four days of release, and it was considered a great turnout for a country that only has about 660 theater screens nationwide.[38] As of 8 July 2012, the film has grossed $4,105,123 in North America. The film grossed approximately $9.3 million overseas outside of Indonesia.[36]

In the United States, the film grossed $10.1 million on DVD and Blu-ray, as of April 2022.[39]

In the United Kingdom, it was 2012's fifth-best-selling foreign-language film on physical home video formats.[40] It was later the UK's overall best-selling foreign-language film of 2013 on home video.[41]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 87% based on reviews from 172 critics, with an average score of 7.50/10. The website's consensus reads, "No frills and all thrills, The Raid: Redemption is an inventive action film expertly paced and edited for maximum entertainment."[42] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 73 out of 100 based on reviews from 31 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[43]

Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film 5 out of 5 and said, "This violent, intense and brilliant bulletfest from Indonesia puts western action movies to shame."[44][45] Bilge Ebiri of Vulture.com wrote, "Once the action starts—and it starts very quickly—The Raid is relentless, breathtaking in its sheer propulsive majesty. But it's also shot through with moments of bleak poetry amid the carnage."[46] Robert Koehler of Variety praised the director, writing, "Taking the genre to a higher level of intensity, the Welsh-born Evans continues what he started in previous Indonesia-set actioner "Merantau," but this picture will seal his cult status."[47] Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune wrote, '"The Raid" is maniacal in its pacing and assault tactics. It's also, absurdly, rated R. Fantastic. I love that a film this gory secured the same Motion Picture Association of America rating as "The King's Speech."'[48] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly called it "fists of fury mixed with torture porn," noting the variety of gory action sequences but criticizing the incoherent narrative. He gave it a B− grade.[49]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film one star out of four; he criticized the lack of character depth, and noted, "the Welsh director, Gareth Evans, knows there's a fanboy audience for his formula, in which special effects amp up the mayhem in senseless carnage."[50] Ebert was criticized for his assessment, and later published a defense of his review.[51]

While developing The Raid in script form, Evans started to toy around with the idea of creating a link between it and his initial project, Berandal. It was later confirmed that Berandal would serve as a sequel to The Raid.[61][62] Evans has also stated his intention to make a trilogy.[63] Sony pre-bought the US, Latin American and Spanish rights to the sequel. Alliance/Momentum bought the rights to the United Kingdom and Canada; Koch Media acquired the film for German-speaking territories; Korea Screen acquired the rights to Korea; and HGC acquired the rights to China. Deals for other major territories were also in negotiations.[64] Subtitled Berandal for the Indonesian market and simply The Raid 2 for the US and English-speaking market, the sequel had a "significantly larger" budget than its predecessor, and its filming included approximately 100 days of shooting.[65] Pre-production began in September 2012 while filming began in January 2013.[66][67]

On the release of The Raid 2 in 2015, Evans said he had ideas for The Raid 3 but that nothing had been written yet and a third film was not likely to happen before 2018 or 2019.[11] In a 21 November 2016 interview with Impact Online, director Evans revealed the sequel was on hold with the franchise likely having ended, stating "Moving back to UK felt like a closing chapter on that franchise—we ended the story pretty neatly (I feel) in Part 2. I'm aware there's an interest for it [...] So never say never, but it's unlikely to happen anytime soon."[12] In September 2018 Evans again stated that he felt the story was complete and that a third film was highly unlikely.[68][69]

A few months after Sony acquired the film's North American distribution rights, it was announced by The Hollywood Reporter that its subsidiary company, Screen Gems, had begun negotiations to produce a Hollywood remake.[70] The deal was completed in November 2011, with writer-director Gareth Evans to serve as an executive producer of the remake. XYZ Films, executive producers on the original Indonesian version, will be producers on the American version.[71] Screen Gems also wants the same choreographers from The Raid involved with the remake.[19] On 21 February 2014, the studio picked Patrick Hughes to direct the remake.[72] A day later, reports stated that both Chris and Liam Hemsworth were being eyed for roles by the studio.[73] On 27 May 2014, Variety reported that the film's production was delayed until early 2015.[74] On 13 June 2014, Frank Grillo was the first to be announced to star in the remake, and is a fan of the original.[75][76] On 16 June 2014, Geek Tyrant revealed that the remake will be set in the near future.[77] On 4 August 2014, TheWrap reported that Taylor Kitsch has been cast in the lead role, and also that XYZ Films is returning to produce the remake, which is expected to hew closely to the original film.[78] On 22 August 2014, Hughes revealed that describes his version as being in the vein of Black Hawk Down and Zero Dark Thirty with 12 integral roles.[79] According to Tracking Board, on 23 October 2015, both Screen Gems and Kitsch had dropped out of the project and Hughes also dropped out as director.[80] In February 2017, XYZ Films revealed that Joe Carnahan will produce and direct the remake with Evans as a producer.[81] On 10 January 2022, Deadline reported that the remake will premiere on Netflix with Patrick Hughes directing alongside Michael Bay producing and Evans executive produced.[82]