He’s back – the one, the only, the great Gareth Evans. The man who blew the world away with martial arts movie perfection with his directorial debut of “Merantau” and the instant classics of “The Raid: Redemption” and “The Raid 2”. Jumping into his first movie in seven years, and his first full-blown action movie since “The Raid 2”, Gareth Evans’ “Havoc” lands with a thunderous boom with the kind of tough as nails, hard boiled action its title implies. Indeed, “Hard Boiled” is a somewhat pertinent term for “Havoc”, which Evans packages as a love-letter to Hong Kong gun fu and heroic bloodshed action flicks in the movie’s tale of uncompromising Detective Patrick Walker (Tom Hardy) in his determination to bring down the war of crime families tearing apart his city and rescue the son of the duplicitous Mayor Lawrence Beaumont (Forest Whitaker). Evans also brings a nice helping of martial arts action into play in “Havoc”, most prominently with the villainous role of MMA champ Michelle “The Karate Hottie” Waterson, a break-out action star turn from a side antagonist character if ever there was one in “Havoc”.
Tom Hardy Is A Grizzled, Dynamic Cop Movie Action Hero
When it comes to leading men with a gruff and grit demeanor, Tom Hardy’s made both essential elements of his on-screen persona from “The Dark Knight Rises”, “The Revenant”, and “Mad Max: Fury Road”. With a resume like that, one would have expected Hardy to have tackled the role of “determined street cop who cannot be stopped” several times well before “Havoc”, but he makes up for lost time with his blend of solitude holding back an unstoppable force as Detective Patrick Walker. Hardy’s Walker is as aggressively up-close-and-personal in his police interrogations as one can get, with the added seasoning of Hardy’s prickly Brooklyn accent in the role (between “Havoc”, “Warrior”, and the “Venom” movies, I can’t be the only one repeatedly shocked by the reminder of Hardy’s English accent in interviews, right?) Hardy, of course, also throws himself in the stunts and heroic bloodshed action that Gareth Evans’ direction of “Havoc” demands from the outset with the abandon of a “Lethal Weapon” franchise veteran.
Gareth Evans Is Most Associated With Martial Arts & Gunplay, But He Can REALLY Deliver On Car Chases, Too!
With “Havoc” marking Gareth Evans’ long-awaited return to the action movie scene, the influences of Hong Kong heroic bloodshed are written all over the movie with its epic John Woo-inspired gunplay. At the same time, there’s also another spotlight that “Havoc” shines on what now seems like a shockingly overlooked side of his career as an action moviemaker, that being the fact that the man can direct one hell of a car chase.
That much was already crystal clear from the phenomenal car chase sequence of “The Raid 2” that is still a Top 10 luminary, but with “Havoc”, Evans doubles down with two spellbinding police chases, the first being the movie’s opening action sequence that gets things rolling with the power of pure lightning. With the second also outstanding car chase in the movie’s second act, movie’s urban landscape with sweeping photography as a kind of urban obstacle course, Gareth Evans shows just how comprehensive his command of action is to the three skeptics still out there. The cherry on top is that it’s also a nice treat for the converted to see the same revelation brought to life in two car chases that all but clinch the award for 2025’s best by far, and highlight chase sequences as an overlooked but nevertheless electrifying asset in Evans’ action directing tool chest.
“Havoc” Hits Hard In Its Two Highlight Fight Scenes
While martial arts isn’t as centralized to “Havoc” as is the case in “Merantau” or “The Raid” films, Gareth Evans is still one of the best in the game. Under the direction of stunt coordinator and Hong Kong action vet Jude Poyer, the heroic bloodshed and car chases of “Havoc” are also complimented with a nice seasoning of superb fight choreography, highlighted especially in the two main fight sequences of “Havoc”. The first unfolds in a night club awash in red neon, with Walker and a handful of allies fighting their way through a wave of Triad assassins that’s as powerful and heart-pounding as any Gareth Evans fans could yearn for. In turn, the nightclub brawl leads into the finale of “Havoc”, a last stand of pure Hong Kong heroic bloodshed glory that also sets into motion the biggest fight highlight of all in the movie.
Michelle “The Karate Hottie” Waterson Owns The Finale Of “Havoc”
You might know her from her days as an MMA champion, or from her time on American Ninja Warrior, or from her demos of her amazing kicking skills in the academy of Master Ken on “Enter the Dojo”. Wherever you’ve seen her before, you will undoubtedly concur in the capacity of Michelle “The Karate Hottie” Waterson to kick butt on a galactic scale, a talent well-utilized in her role as a nameless female assassin in “Havoc” (between Michelle in “Havoc” and Cecep Arif Rahman in “The Raid 2”, Gareth Evans, it seems, has a predilection for casting martial artists as characters simply dubbed “The Assassin” in the end credits and sending them off to future martial arts movie stardom.)
Amid the typhoon of gunplay the frames the finale of “Havoc”, Michelle’s Assassin goes mano-a-mano with Hardy’s Walker in a whirlwind of kicks combining Michelle’s karate power and Wushu fluidity with Hardy’s bare-knuckle boxer resolve. I say without exaggeration that Walker’s showdown with the Assassin hits it out of the park so thoroughly, I rewound the movie to play it again in its entirety before proceeding with the rest of the bombastic ballistic battle of the “Havoc” finale. Years from now, many will point to “Havoc” as the point where Michelle Waterson jumped from MMA great to action heroine, and it marks a splendid career transition indeed.
Seven years is a long time for most action filmmakers to be on the bench, but Gareth Evans, of course, isn’t most action filmmakers, and “Havoc” is a glorious return for one of action cinema’s greatest modern auteurs. As a throwback to Hong Kong heroic bloodshed action with a generous helping of martial arts action and two strong nudges to Evans’ command of car chase sequences, “Havoc” is one of the best action movies of 2025 and one of the best ever produced by Netflix in one package. In future trailers for Gareth Evans actioners, “Havoc” surely belongs right next to “The Raid movies” in the trailer’s “From the director of” tagline – and one certainly hopes if Evans endeavors to make “Havoc 2”, Michelle Waterson returns for her own Yayan Ruhian “Raid 2”-style jump from one butt-kicking character to another!
