Deep in the heart of Jakarta's slums lies an impenetrable safe house for the world's most dangerous killers and gangsters. Until now, the run-down apartment block has been considered untouchable to even the bravest of police. Cloaked under the cover of pre-dawn darkness and silence, an elite swat team is tasked with raiding the safe house in order to take down the notorious drug lord that 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 and all the exits blocked. Stranded on the sixth floor with no way out, the unit must fight their way through the city's worst to survive their mission. Starring Indonesian martial arts sensation Iko Uwais.
Ratings
Curator score: 8.2/10
IMDb: 7.6/10
Letterboxd: 4.03/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 87%
Metacritic: 73
TMDB: 7.4/10
Director
Gareth Evans
Production
Celluloid Dreams, PT. Merantau Films, XYZ Films
Cast
Iko Uwais, Joe Taslim, Donny Alamsyah, Yayan Ruhian, Pierre Gruno, Ray Sahetapy, Tegar Satrya, Iang Darmawan, Eka 'Piranha' Rahmadia, Verdi Solaiman, Godfred Orindeod, Rully Santoso, Melkias Ronald Torobi, Johanes Tuname, Sofyan Alop, R. Iman Aji, Ananda George, Yusuf Opilus, Mus Danang Danar Dono, Sunarto
Where to watch
Hulu
Curator Review
Verdict
A ferocious, tightly engineered siege-action film with exceptional hand-to-hand choreography, relentless momentum, and a brutal sense of spatial clarity. It’s thin on character depth, but as a pure action experience it’s one of the modern benchmarks.
Best for
action fans who want practical, clearly staged fight scenes
viewers who like survival-thrillers with escalating chaos
fans of martial arts cinema and hard-edged crime stories
people looking for a lean, high-adrenaline watch
Skip if
you want a character-driven drama
you’re sensitive to graphic violence and bone-crunching combat
you prefer slower-burn thrillers
you dislike intense, claustrophobic, almost nonstop action
Overview
The Raid is a pressure-cooker action movie built around one devastating idea: trap a SWAT team inside a hostile tower and let the violence escalate floor by floor. Gareth Evans stages the action with rare precision, so every kick, elbow, and desperate scramble reads cleanly. The result is exhausting in the best way, a film that feels designed to test your pulse.
Worth noting
What makes it stand out is not just the brutality, but the discipline. The geography is easy to follow, the choreography is athletic and inventive, and the film never loses sight of momentum. It’s lean, mean, and almost absurdly efficient, with just enough story to keep the engine running.
Bottom line
If you come for action, this is close to a must-see. If you need emotional complexity or a broad narrative canvas, it won’t be your movie. But as a showcase for modern fight filmmaking, it remains a high-water mark.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Todd Gaines (5★) · 2163 likes
An elite squad of cops raid a ruthless-as-fuck drug lord's dungeon of death. A hyper-intense workout. Kissing your wife goodbye and hoping like fuck you will see her again. Headshot. Headshot. Headshot. Headshot. Catching a lucky break for a split-second. Hammer to the fuckin head. A bad lieutenant. A noble-as-fuck sergeant. A badass rookie with a secret agenda. Your last TV show. Shit-stained pants. The alarm of doom. The one honest guy in a building full of crazed fuckers. Hallway… more An elite squad of cops raid a ruthless-as-fuck drug lord's dungeon of death. A hyper-intense workout. Kissing your wife goodbye and hoping like fuck you will see her again. Headshot. Headshot. Headshot. Headshot. Catching a lucky break for a split-second. Hammer to the fuckin head. A bad lieutenant. A noble-as-fuck sergeant. A badass rookie with a secret agenda. Your last TV show. Shit-stained pants. The alarm of doom. The one honest guy in a building full of crazed fuckers. Hallway… more
Grooveman (4.5★) · 1995 likes
My face hurts from smiling for the last 100 minutes.
russman (3.5★) · 1787 likes
The things people do for free rent
elvisthealien (4★) · 1421 likes
some of the best fight choreography I've ever seen
2010 · Action, Thriller, Crime · 1h 59m · R · Curator 8.1/10 (58.9K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, fuboTV, Peacock Premium, MUBI, Rakuten Viki, Hi-YAH, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Peacock Premium Plus
A lean, emotionally driven action thriller that builds toward intense, hand-to-hand violence.