5. The Raid: Redemption
One of the most shocking and spectacular scenes in Gareth Evans' ultra-violent martial arts maelstrom can be summed up in the phrase 'two-against-one', although this says nothing of the carnage contained within. As a SWAT team swarms a Jakarta tower block, the resident crime lord and his henchmen unleash one wave of fury after another until every floor is littered with bodies. And their secret weapon, a one-man army known as Mad Dog (Yayan Ruhian), can make the entire building tremble; tearing his way through just about
everything: his feet a blur, his fists a machine gun. When pitted against protagonist cop Rama (Iko Uwais) and his brother, he turns a video game showdown into a gladiatorial fight to the death; long, brutal and relentless. He also turns a tired action trope into the most exhilarating action sequence ever squeezed into a taut ten minutes. The three men are smashed head-first into the walls and floor, their screams echoing around the bare, grey cell. Just when things appear to have reached a bloody end, with Rama slamming a broken fluorescent light tube into Mad Dog's neck, the action is pumped up to another level. You worry that, despite the spray of red dotted across the floor, Mad Dog may actually be invincible - immortal, even. For he's significantly stronger than before, an unbelievable force of nature. Yet the brothers' inspired teamwork sees them breaking every bone of their opponent's body; first his arms, then his back, and then, finally, his neck. Dragging the jagged light tube across his jugular may seem like overkill, but is there another word that can encapsulate the entire film?