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The Raid, also known as The Raid: Redemption in some countries, is a 2011 Indonesian action thriller film directed, written and edited by the Welsh filmmaker Gareth Evans. The film starring Iko Uwais who worked in Evans's previous film, Merantau.

In the movie, a SWAT team is sent to raid an apartment that belong to a drug lord, Tama and tasked to kill him but have to traverse through the 15 floor apartment in order to reach him.

This movie shows Silat, an Indonesian martial art used in the film by many of its characters.

Synopsis[]

At an apartment block in Jakarta's slums, a 20-man elite police squad arrives undetected, including rookie Officer Rama, Sergeant Jaka, and Lieutenant Wahyu. The team intends to kill crime lord Tama Riyadi, who owns the block and lets criminals around the city rent rooms under his protection. After the team sweeps the first floors and subdues various criminal tenants, they temporarily detain an innocent tenant delivering medicine to his sick wife. Continuing undetected to the sixth floor, the team is spotted by a young lookout, who raises the alarm before he is shot and killed by Wahyu.

Tama calls in reinforcements, who successfully kill and maim a majority of the police. Cutting the lights, Tama announces over the PA system that the police are trapped on the sixth floor stairwell, and he will grant free permanent residence to those who kill the intruders. In the darkness, the team is soon ambushed by shooters from above and behind, and Jaka learns from Wahyu that the mission is not officially sanctioned by the force; nobody knows their location and no backup or reinforcements will arrive. Fleeing into an empty apartment, Bowo is shot and injured. To save him, Rama improvises an explosion that kills the pursuing tenants. With more antagonists approaching, the team splits into two groups covertly: Jaka, Wahyu, and Dagu retreat to the fifth floor, while Rama and Bowo ascend to the seventh. Will they survive?

Plot[]

Rookie Brimob officer Rama joins a 20-man squad led by Sergeant Jaka and Lieutenant Wahyu for a raid on an apartment block with the intent of arresting crime lord Tama Riyadi. Together with his lieutenants Andi and Mad Dog, Tama runs the block and allows criminals and addicts to rent rooms under his protection. Arriving undetected, the team sweeps the first floors and subdues various tenants; they also meet a law-abiding tenant named Gofar delivering medicine to his sick wife. Continuing to the sixth floor, the team is spotted by two young lookouts, one of whom raises the alarm.

Tama calls in reinforcements and the team suffers casualties. Tama cuts the lights and announces over the PA system that the officers are on the sixth-floor stairwell, and that he will grant permanent residence to those who kill them. The remaining team members are ambushed by shooters from above, and are almost completely wiped out. Prior to the gunfight, Wahyu confesses to Jaka that he staged the mission so he can eliminate Tama, who is in league with corrupt police officials, including himself; the mission is not officially sanctioned by police command, and there will be no reinforcements.

The remaining officers—Rama, Bowo, Jaka, Wahyu, Dagu and three others—retreat to an empty apartment and are cornered by more armed thugs. Rama uses an axe to create a hole in the floor so the team can descend to the lower level. Dropping to the room below, the team struggles to fend off Tama's thugs; the three other officers are killed and Bowo is gravely wounded. Rama uses a propane tank to construct an improvised explosive device that eliminates the invading henchmen. With more of Tama's reinforcements approaching, the team splits into two groups: Jaka, Dagu and Wahyu retreat to the fifth floor, while Rama and Bowo ascend.

After fighting a group of assassins, Rama and Bowo locate Gofar's apartment, and Gofar reluctantly hides the officers inside. A gang wielding machetes search the apartment, but fail to find them. After tending to Bowo's wounds, Rama leaves to search for Jaka's group. Rama encounters the machete gang and defeats them in a long fight, tackling their leader through a window and plummeting onto a fire escape below. On the sixth floor, he finds Andi, who has murdered two of Tama's men. Andi is revealed to be his estranged brother, whom Rama signed up for the mission to search for, at the urging of their father. Rama refuses to leave the building without his comrades, and Andi refuses to abandon his criminal life. Rama parts ways with his brother to search for his surviving colleagues.

Mad Dog discovers Jaka and his group on the fourth floor. Wahyu runs off, and Jaka instructs Dagu to protect him. Mad Dog challenges Jaka to hand-to-hand combat; he ultimately gains the upper hand and kills Jaka, by breaking his neck. Mad Dog then meets up with Andi to report back to Tama. Tama, having learned of Andi's treachery through his surveillance cameras, attacks and incapacitates Andi. Rama regroups with Dagu and Wahyu, and they head for Tama on the 15th floor, fighting through a narcotics lab along the way. Rama separates from Dagu and Wahyu when he discovers Mad Dog torturing Andi. Mad Dog lets Rama free Andi, and fights them both. After a long and brutal fight, Mad Dog is ultimately killed by Rama and Andi.

Meanwhile, Wahyu and Dagu confront Tama. Wahyu kills Dagu before taking Tama hostage. Tama taunts Wahyu by revealing that he knew they were going to raid the building, and that Wahyu was set up by his corrupt superiors and will be killed regardless. Wahyu kills Tama and then attempts suicide, only to find he is out of ammunition.

Andi uses his influence to allow Rama to leave with the injured Bowo and a detained Wahyu. Andi also hands over blackmail recordings Tama made of the corrupt officials he dealt with, telling him to contact Officer Bunawar. Rama asks Andi to come home, but Andi refuses, and asserts that he can protect Rama in his role as a gang boss, but that Rama cannot do the same for him. As Andi turns around and walks back to the apartment block, Rama, Bowo and Wahyu leave.

Production[]

Development and pre-production[]

Initially intended to be released as Serbuan Maut, which translates literally to "The Deadly Raid"; 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.

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. 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). 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." Evans wanted The Raid vastly different from Merantau in terms of pacing. 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. Therefore, Evans designed The Raid to be a "full-on" action film.

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. 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.

Filming[]

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.

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.

Editing[]

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.

Soundtrack[]

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. 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. The Raid made its debut in the US with Trapanese and Shinoda's version at Sundance 2012.

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. Deftones/††† frontman Chino Moreno guest performed "RAZORS.OUT", which was leaked online on 16 March 2012, as rap group Get Busy Committee performed "SUICIDE MUSIC" for the film.

Release[]

The film was marketed internationally through Celluloid Nightmares, a partnership between US-based XYZ Films and France's Celluloid Dreams.

Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions acquired the film's distribution rights for the United States, Latin America and Spain, revised the film score, and changed the title to The Raid: Redemption for the US release. Distribution rights to other countries were sold to Kadokawa Pictures for Japan, Koch Media for Germany, Alliance Films for Canada, Momentum Pictures for the United Kingdom, Madman Entertainment for Australia, SND HGC for China, and Calinos Films for Turkey. Deals were also made with distributors from Russia, Scandinavia, Benelux, Iceland, Italy, South Korea and India, during the film screening at the TIFF.

Home media[]

On DVD and Blu-ray, the film grossed $9.4 million in the United States.

Trailer[]

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