Havoc

TV-MA • Netflix

Christians often have a mixed relationship with action movies. On the one hand, we love battles of good vs. evil. On the other hand, there’s a fear that portraying violence—particularly when it’s graphic—glorifies that violence. But telling when violence is being glorified rather than just depicted is often trickier than it sounds.

Case in point: Havoc. This Netflix action film by celebrated director Gareth Evans (The Raid: Redemption, Raid 2) has a stronger moral core than many movies—action or otherwise. But the brutality of its stylized violence will be a nonstarter for many viewers.

Walker (Tom Hardy) is a bruised detective fighting his way through the criminal underworld threatening to engulf his entire city. In the aftermath of a drug deal gone wrong, Walker finds himself with a number of factions on his tail: a vengeful crime syndicate, a crooked politician, and his fellow cops. When attempting to rescue the politician’s estranged son—whose involvement in the drug deal starts to unravel a deep web of corruption and conspiracy—he is forced to confront the demons of his past.

Many consider Evans to be one of the greatest living action directors, and Havoc definitely shows why. The film is a high-octane thrill ride that starts out at 100 with a manic car chase and never lets up. The action is some of the most intense and well-choreographed one can imagine, combining the blood splatter of Tarantino, the stylized creativity and neon-light aesthetic of a John Wick film, and the unpolished grit of The French Connection. It’s like a heavy metal ballet that never stops, with the beats of the fights matching the flipping and spinning of the camera. The actors, from Tom Hardy to Forest Whitaker, also turn in beautifully intense performances that match the unhinged energy of the fight scenes.

But the violence in the film is brutal and constant. Heads splatter in blood. Bones break. Hundreds die. Often, lovable characters are dispatched abruptly and unflinchingly.

Despite this, the film’s moral core is stronger than even most nonviolent films. Havoc is always clear that the people doing bad things—whether it’s violence or civic corruption—are doing bad things. Even Walker himself knows that the dirty work he did as a cop is unjustified. We watch his motives for saving the mayor’s son go from selfish to selfless and cheer as he commits to owning up to his own bad behavior in an honest way, without trying to ride off into the sunset or get off easy by dying.

For those comfortable with more graphic levels of violence in movies, Havoc gives such viewers an inspiring and redemptive moral core. But given that the movie is 90% violence and 10% redemption, many will opt to see what else is playing on Netflix instead.