While Gareth Evans’ break-out actioner The Raid adhered to a fairly simple throughline as we followed our leads extracting the evil baddies of an apartment complex in high-octane, twisted action, the follow-up ventures into more complex territory. To help lay out the many threads and the expanded action, a new 10-minute featurette has landed.
While the first half deals mostly with setting up the plot, the second half provides an in-depth look at how the major car sequence was handled, my favorite from the film. Around eight minutes in, one can see the close brush with a vehicle and the camera, and a little bit further (and to the right) they showcase how an epic one-shot was pulled off, by handing off the camera to a number of operators (one posing as a passenger).
We were fans of the film at Sundance, saying in our review, “In no ways perfect and sporting violence that is sure to be overwhelming for some, The Raid 2 accomplishes what it sets out to accomplish: a visceral assault on the senses. There is an intrinsic beauty to the rhythm and flow of the camera movement, quick editing and lightning-quick fight choreography that result in unparalleled frenetic brutality.” Set for a release in a few weeks, check out the featurette and theatrical poster below.
Following immediately after the events of THE RAID, RAMA (Iko Uwais) is forced to reinvent himself as an undercover cop in order to provide protection for his wife and child. Working for the anti-corruption taskforce led by the one person he can trust, BUNAWAR, he is given a mission to engage himself as an enforcer for a local mob boss, BANGUN. Finding a way in through BANGUN’s son UCO, RAMA must hunt for information linking BANGUN with police force corruption. All the while, he harbors a dangerous and personal vendetta for revenge and justice that threatens to consume him- and bring both this mission and the organized crime syndicates crashing down.
The Raid 2 opens on March 28th.