Havoc spent nearly four years finished and unreleased before Netflix finally put it out in 2025, and that gap shows in a strange way — this is clearly a film shot in 2021 that's been waiting its turn, arriving at a moment when its burnt-out-cop archetype has been done many times over since. What still sets it apart is writer-director Gareth Evans working in a Western setting for the first time since making the Raid films in Indonesia, bringing the same appetite for sustained close-quarters violence to an American city buried in snow. Tom Hardy plays Walker, a detective as physically and morally worn down as the city around him, chasing a missing kid through a night that keeps getting worse.
The plotting is dense to the point of overstuffed — crooked politicians, a vengeful crime matriarch, internal-affairs pressure, and a betrayal or two all compete for screen time — but Evans stages the action with the same geographic clarity that made his Indonesian films so distinct. A nightclub shootout midway through is the clear highlight, sustained and brutal in a way few American action films attempt, staged with camera discipline that lets you track exactly who's where and why they're about to get hurt. Forest Whitaker and Timothy Olyphant give the corruption plot some weight even when the script races past character work to reach the next set piece.
The Raid's choreography transplanted into a snowbound American crime plot — the fights outclass the story around them.
If you came to this for Evans's action sensibility transplanted into a Hollywood budget, you'll get it — the choreography and camerawork are a clear step above most studio action from the same year. The plot around it is the weaker half, functional rather than memorable, so go in expecting a movie that's stronger in its bursts of violence than in the scenes connecting them.
Havoc was written and directed by Gareth Evans, marking his second collaboration with Netflix after the 2018 horror film Apostle, and his first English-language action film since the Raid series made his name in Indonesian cinema. The film shot over a 79-day schedule from July to October 2021 through Severn Screen, One More One, and XYZ Films, with Tom Hardy leading a cast including Forest Whitaker, Timothy Olyphant, Jessie Mei Li, and Luis Guzmán. Despite wrapping in 2021, the film sat unreleased for close to four years due to the 2023 Hollywood strikes and additional reshoots before finally premiering in April 2025.
Havoc debuted on Netflix to a mixed critical response but strong viewership, landing at number two on the platform's US Top 10 movie chart in its opening days. Reviews generally singled out the action choreography, especially a sustained nightclub sequence, as the film's strongest asset, while criticizing an overloaded plot juggling too many factions and betrayals. It reinforced Evans's reputation as one of the more technically skilled action directors working, even as reviewers noted the story struggled to match the fights.
