Spoiler Alert:

I shall be analysing each level of The Raid: Redemption, exploring every angle and walking through the construction step by step to determine if the film is suite or a big gaff. So read on only if you’ve already seen The Raid: Redemption, or don’t plan to.

“We’re the exterminators!”

0:02:06 Rama (Iko Uwais), a very fit young Asian cop (for whom I’d like to take a massage / try ‘tie’ sports / enjoy some man-ga), is leaving his pregnant wife at dawn for work.

Wife: I told you to wake me.

Uhm, I tried, but you’re already awake.

0:02:44

I’ll bring him back.

Rama to his ancient father who wears button up shirts at 4am to formally greet the dawn.

Bad Neighbour Hoodie

0:3:21 Indonesian SWAT commander (Joe Taslim as Sergeant Jaka) briefs his team about taking a building run by Tama Riatti (Ray Sahetapy), the crime lord. The building is a tower block for lowlife criminals and dealers looking for a place to lie low. Their Home Weed Home / Home Sweat Home / Home Speed Home.

0:05:11 Tama (with his thugs: Andi the brains (Donny Alamsyah), and Mad Dog the brawn (Yayan Ruhian)) sets down a bowl of noodles then strolls over to a bound and gagged (but not in the fun way) bloke kneeling on plastic and casually shoots him in the back of the head. Then the next chap and so on down the line. When he runs out of ammo, he returns to his desk and chooses a hammer over the bullets before playing handyman with the last bloke, who plays the unenviable role of the nail. #hammered #NailedIt

0:11:41 It would seem there are also civilians living in the building, as a bespectacled professorial looking geezer (Iang Darmawan as Gofar) wants to take medicine to his sick wife. Which means he’s taking drugs [think about that joke and, like a surprise package, you'll get it when you least expect it].

0:17:17 WTF!? The SWAT team does a room by room sweep of the criminals and it’s only when they get to the fifth floor that Tama with his wall of surveillance video screens knows the cops have arrived? I’ve seen better security in a McDonald’s toilet.

0:18:41 Snipers in the neighbouring building begin shooting SWAT members one at a time. Indonesian take out.

Flirting with death

0:19:16

5th floor secure

Criminal into the interphone

WTF!? The first order Tama gave was to cut communications! What communications were stopped? Love notes and smoke signals?

0:21:57 Tama makes a general announcement to the building that anyone who kills a police officer can stay in the building for life, free of charge.

And please, please enjoy yourself.

But not grammar. #yourselves

About to shoot his mouth off

0:22:34 Lieutenant Wahyu (Pierre Gruno) tells Sergeant Jaka that no one else knows they’re there. Wahyu must have wanted to have a secret mission in the worst way.

0:24:16 A large number of criminals open fire on the police from the level above with automatic weapons. #StairwellToHeaven.

0:26:14 Andi, the brains of the illicit operation, sees our handsome hero from the beginning on the video monitor. We’re reminded of how our hero told the old man he would bring ‘him’ back, so we assume the cop and the criminal are brothers. Sibling rivalry: Gangsta level.

0:28:57 Lovely fight scene where the police cut through the floor with an axe to make it to a lower level where they’re greeted by unarmed thugs who give them a fighting chance.

0:31:23 Very cool bomb idea. First time I’ve seen gas go in the fridge and not come from it. #fartjoke

0:42:29 Gofar (the husband from earlier) lets Rama and an injured officer (Tegar Satrya as Bowo) into his flat with his sick wife, because he arrived there hours ago. Seems the civilian’s survival skills are better than the commandos’.

0:43:13 WTF!? The nerdy husband has a secret hiding wall. It’s a fake wall he opens with a crowbar so that Rama and Bowo can hide in the crawl space. Meanwhile, the gang members go on a flat by flat search for the officers in a new version of apartment hunting.

0:46:25 The hoodlum pokes his machete into the faux wall – either suspecting it’s false and can’t be bothered to investigate really, or he just hates walls – and he gives Rama’s cheek a stabbing pain. Our hero has to pinch the blade to clean off the blood when the hoodlum withdraws the sabre. Like my driving in London, this a ridiculous concept but suspenseful.

Bloody cheeky

0:47:44 Because Gofar has no knives in his flat (WTF!?), Rama has to dig a bullet out of his mate’s leg with a spatula. Fortunately, the gang cannot hear him scream because they took reality with them when they left.

0:48:46 Andi discreetly takes out 2 of his own henchmen in an elevator, and I don’t mean on a date.

Raid Redemption 08 Henchman GIF (WTF Saint Pauly)

Being a henchman is back breaking work

0:53:25 Another extremely well choreographed fight scene. The director doesn’t have to hide his incompetence by blurring everything.

0:55:39 Rama grabs hold of a henchman and uses him as a shield when he goes through a window and then as a mattress when he lands on the fire escape below. One should always carry a henchman with one, for just such emergencies.

0:57:26

What the fuck are you doing here?

Andi accosts his brother (Rama) in the corridor

Kicking ass, it would seem. As well as promoting my website. #shoutout

1:05:15 Jaka gets his neck broken by Mad Dog, the short, skinny chap, who is the brawns of the gang, despite his height (or lack thereof). What’s short for ‘brawn’? Ah, he’s like the ‘bra’.

“Have you seen Snow White? I’m Sleazy, the 8th dwarf.”

1:07:09 The brothers (good cop – bad guy) catch up after not having spoken for six years. Here’s how that might have gone.

Rama the Cop: So how’s business?

Andi: It’s murder. And yours?

Rama the Cop: Very arresting.

1:12:19

We go up. We attack. We get who we came here for, and we use him to get out.

Rama

This is the new plan. It’s better than their previous plan of ‘get shot and die’.

Solitaire Russian Roulette

1:17:21 A team of three (Rama, Lieutenant Wahyu, red shirted agent Dagu – Eka ‘Piranha’ Rahmadia) have another fight scene, this time in a drug lab. All You Need Is Drugs / Let Me Put My Drugs Into You / I Would Do Anything For Drugs (But I Won’t Do That)

1:20:58 Mad Dog ties up Andi and beats him like a red-headed step child. When Rama arrives, Mad Dog lets him patch up his brother before they both take on Mad Dog in a three-way where no one has any protection.

1:23:53 In the meantime, Wahyu and Dagu make their way to the gang leader’s office where Wahyu kills Dagu AKA Officer Red Shirt. Then Wayhu gives Tama a chance to escape. Wahyu might want to hold on to that though, as he’ll soon be needing it himself.

1:25:51 In the meantime, the two brothers are still fighting Mad Dog in a martial arts scene best described as ‘tantric’. The choreography, however, is better than sex.

1:28:54 Andi stabs Mad Dog in the neck with part of a broken florescent light, yet this pain in the neck only serves to make him a better fighter. WTF!? At least until Rama drags it from one side to the other.

Bright idea

1:29:59 WTF!? For the beat down they just had handed to them, the two brothers leave the room surprisingly unharmed. Far more resilient than they have the right. I look worse leaving for work on Monday mornings.

1:30:22

What the fuck are you doing?

When Lt. Wahyu walks down the stairwell with Tama as a hostage, Rama promotes my site!

1:21:59 Lieutenant Wahyu thought he was leading the intervention because the higher-ups at HQ wanted him to replace the king pin. In fact, they were sending him on a suicide mission because they’d warned Tama beforehand. Wahyu was stabbed (and punched and kicked and shot) in the back.

One way to hit the ground

1:32:32

Be quiet.

Wahyu shoots Tama in the temple

The first plan today that works.

1:33:27 He tries the same plan on himself but it backfires, as there are no bullets in his gun.

1:34:32 Andi gives Rama a computer disc containing the records of every crooked police chief. It’s a hard drive… to secure.

1:36:44 Rama, Bowo, and Wahyu (now in custody) walk away from the tower. Andi is the new king on the block.

“Help! I’m floating away!”

Roll credits

Tally Ho’

WTF!?’s: 5 solid ones
When to Follow: When you’re eyes are thirsty for visual caffeine. You don’t even need to be a fan of martial arts films to enjoy this one.
Where’s This Found: Out of a possible 10, I have 8 F’s to give

8 Fs