The Raid

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
And 100 minutes of pure awesomeness.
And don't forget....Have fun
—Tama

Titled originally Serbuan Maut (Deadly Assault), directed by Gareth Evans, and starring martial artist Iko Uwais. This is their second team-up after their first film together, Merantau.

Deep in the heart of Jakarta's slums lies an impenetrable derelict apartment building which became a safe house for the world's most dangerous killers and gangsters. The rundown apartment block has been considered untouchable to even the bravest of police. Cloaked under the cover of pre-dawn darkness and silence, an elite team is tasked with raiding the building in order to take down the notorious drug lord who runs it. But when a chance encounter with a spotter blows their cover and news of their assault reaches the drug lord, the building's lights are cut off and all exits are blocked. Stranded on the 6th floor with no way out, the unit must fight their way through the city's worst criminals to survive their mission.


Tropes used in The Raid include:
  • Aerith and Bob: Tama's two henchmen, Mad Dog and Andi.
  • Exclusively Evil: The building residents, with very few exceptions. It is justified though. Most of the residents are gangs and killers in hiding from police, authorities, or rival syndicates.
  • Ax Crazy: Mad Dog.
  • An Axe to Grind
  • Badass: Everyone in this film, especially Rama, Jaka and Mad Dog. Apparently, actors that make up the key members of the SWAT team were sent to Indonesian Special Forces boot camp.
    • Joe Taslim (Jaka) is an accomplished judoka, having won medals in both national and international competitions.
  • Badass Bystander: the middle-aged guy living with his wife.
  • Because I'm Good At It: Andi's reason for staying with the crime syndicate. He thinks it's the only thing he's ever good at.
  • Big Bad: Tama, the drug lord that controls the apartment.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Tama, Mad Dog and most of their goons are dead, and the corrupt Lieutenant Wahyu has been arrested. Rama has saved both Bowo and Andi. However, Jaka and all but two of his squad are dead and Andi chooses to stay behind and restart the crime syndicate under his command.
  • Blood Knight: Mad Dog, who considered shooting people with guns no different than ordering a take-out and feels that beating people with his fists is the real deal and much more fun.
  • The Brute: Mad Dog.
  • Cain and Abel: Andi and Rama. They parted peacefully though.
  • Chekhov's Skill: Rama's martial-arts practice in the opening scene features a flurry of close punches as a finishing move. Guess what he uses to finish off Mad Dog.
  • Cold Sniper
  • Destination Defenestration: Several times.
  • Die Hard on an X
  • The Dragon: Mad Dog.
  • Driven to Suicide: Lieutenant Wahyu; unfortunately, he ran out of bullets.
  • Drop the Hammer: Tama uses one to kill his last hostage.
  • Establishing Character Moment: Tama starts the film by shooting a group of hostages in the back of the head. Running out of bullets when moving to shoot the last one, he decides to pick up a hammer from the drawer to do the deed, rather than the bullets surrounding it.
  • Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting
  • Evil Genius: Andi manages Tama's criminal enterprise.
  • Excuse Plot: The actual story is pretty good, but it's very simple and pared down to its bare bones in terms of how much screentime is devoted to exposition. And frankly you could work out a very good approximation of the story on your own if you watched the film without subtitles.
  • Eye Scream: One of the police gets shot through the eye.
  • Face Heel Turn: The Lieutenant, more or less
  • Good Old Fisticuffs: Mad Dog prefers this.
  • Guns Are Worthless: The primary appeal of this film is the silat fight. Both sides, though armed with heavy rifles, eventually settle on hand-to-hand combat. Justified for the good guys, considering they pretty much run out of bullet in the beginning of the movie.
  • Heel Face Turn: Andi
  • Hell Flop House
  • Improvised Weapon:
    • A small LPG tank put inside a fridge makes a good directional explosive.
    • Rama uses a broken fluorescent light tube to kill Mad Dog.
  • Jittercam
  • Kick the Dog: The first scene with Tama. Also an Establishing Character Moment
  • Knife Nut: Rama and most of the mooks.
  • Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: Mad Dog really believes in this. Abandoning his gun for a fight (against Jaka) is one thing. But against Rama, he allows him time to unchain, untie and even bandage Andi's hands before commencing fisticuffs.
  • Machete Mayhem
  • More Dakka: The start of the film, when both sides are using large numbers of assault rifles.
  • Neck Snap: Mad Dog's Finishing Move on Jaka.
  • Never Bring a Knife to A Fist Fight: One good guy. Four machete-armed bad guys. Good guy wins.
  • Noble Demon: Mad Dog
  • Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Seriously, Mad Dog is shorter than many of the cast. It's only when he start fighting that people realizes how badass and dangerous he really is. He manage to kill Sergeant Jaka and it took both Rama and Andi double teaming him to finally kill him. Even then, he almost always had the upper hand in the fight and almost killed both of them.
    • To be fair, Rami and Andi were both beat to shit at that point; Rama had been through several brutal fights, and considering how much damage Mad Dog can do to a person who can defend himself, it was a miracle Andi could even stand after the unrestricted pounding he was receiving. Mad Dog had only been in one fight before that, and he'd had plenty of time to recover.
  • Rated "M" for Manly
  • Rule of Cool
  • Sacrificial Lion:Jaka, who dies two thirds of the way through the film at the hands of Mad Dog.
  • Sequel Hook: The movie ends with Andi taking over the Tama's crime syndicate, setting out the basic for the sequel, Berandal.
  • Shell-Shock Silence: Happens when Bowo gets shot in the ear.
  • Sibling Team: Rama and Andi, taking down Mad Dog together.
  • Star-Making Role: While Merantau brought Iko Uwais some awareness, this movie pretty much solidifies his popularity for the movie-going crowd.
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Jaka's signature kill. 3 point-blank headshot while holding said target's head.
    • When the residents attack the cops in the van, they open up on full-auto and just keep firing.
  • World of Badass
  • Would Hurt a Child: That spotter mentioned in the summary? A child, who is killed but not before he gives the game away.
  • Wrestler in All of Us: Among others, Mad Dog uses a spinning neckbreaker against Jaka before finishing him off.
    • The machete gang leader does an alley oop on Rama.
    • Rama uses a facebuster variation on one of the machete gang onto a broken doorframe. Ouch.
  • Wretched Hive: The apartment.