The Raid: The Indonesian Action Film That Shocked Hollywood!

If you're a fan of action movies, real action, not the Hollywood fake kind where everyone survives explosions without a scratch, then you've probably heard of The Raid or The Raid Redemption as it's called in the U.S. And if you haven't, get ready because this is one of the most important films ever to come out of Indonesia. This movie didn't just entertain people, it changed the way the world sees Indonesian cinema. Hi, I'm Kate and after suggestions from many of you who viewed my video about the Indonesian film Abadi Nanjaya or The Elixir in English, I had to watch The Raid or as it's known in the U.S., The Raid Redemption. Well, this 2011 Indonesian movie stunned me, but more importantly, it stunned audiences around the world. It won multiple awards and became a global benchmark for martial arts filmmaking. Let's take a look at how this amazing movie showed the world that Indonesia filmmaking was ready for the global stage. Let's start at the beginning. When The Raid premiered in 2011 at the Toronto International Film Festival, it instantly created a buzz. Imagine a packed theater filled with movie critics from all over the world who had no idea what they were about to see. Then the lights go down, the movie starts, and boom, people were glued to their seats. By the time the credits rolled, the audience was cheering, seriously cheering. Pretty unusual for a bunch of critics to be cheering, but The Raid earned it. You know, when I watched The Raid, I was captivated right from the beginning. One of the first things that I noticed was the main character is talking to his wife who's in bed. He gets up early to go to work and she's pregnant and he tells her he loves her and then he talks to the baby still in his wife's body and he says, now you wait for daddy to come home. Well, that was captivating right there. Right then you know you're going to have to root for this guy to make sure he gets home, right? Yeah. And then when he's out and he's got his team, the team is made of new recruits pretty much. And so that was also very captivating. He meets up with another very experienced guy who says, you know, your guys are new, they don't know what they're doing. He says, don't worry, I'll keep them far behind. And so now you're also caring that these young guys, this new team, new recruits for police work are going to make it through and end up back on the bus, big van, whatever it was, going back to the station because the leader had said, make sure there are no empty seats on this bus when we go back. So you had two big reasons there. The pregnant lady, the baby not yet born, wait for daddy and the young recruits who still are nervous and anxious and they don't know exactly what they're doing. You've got these two things that captivate you and you've got to see whether daddy gets back before the baby's born and the recruits all make it back. You've got to find out. And the critics praised everything. The cinematography, the choreography, the pacing, the tension, the soundtrack, and of course the action. Reviewers used words like relentless, genius, jaw-dropping, and even a new standard for action films. For an Indonesian movie to dominate an international festival like that, it was huge. Now, one funny detail, well, not exactly funny, but unusual. In Indonesia and much of the world, the movie is simply called The Raid. But in the United States, a small issue came up. Sony Pictures Classics, they were the ones who got the rights for distribution, they couldn't secure the rights to the title The Raid. Someone else already had that. So they added the word redemption in order to have a unique name that was available. That's how Americans ended up calling it The Raid Redemption. But in fact, that worked out perfectly because the director, Gareth Evans, said it gave him space to create future titles like The Raid 2, Berandal, with a consistent theme. Sometimes a legal problem actually turns into a marketing blessing. And speaking of director Gareth Evans, this Welsh director is one of the main reasons Indonesian action cinema suddenly exploded internationally. He fell in love with Pencak Silat, the Indonesian martial art, and he knew instantly that it needed to be on global screens. And wow, he really delivered. But of course, a director can't do it alone. The real magic came from Iko Uwais and Yayan Bruhian. Their Silat choreography was so intense, so raw, so beautifully brutal that international audiences had simply never seen anything like it. Hollywood fights often look rather clean, polished, choreographed. The Raid fights look real. They look dangerous. They feel dangerous. Every punch, every knife slash, every flip and takedown, they all look like it's the real thing. It looks like it's powered by survival instinct. And that realism is exactly what made global audiences suddenly take Indonesia filmmaking very, very seriously. Now, here's something a lot of people don't know. The American version of the film, the one released on DVD and Blu-ray in August 2012, had a special musical score created by Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park Music Group and composer Joseph Trepanese. When Sony picked up the distributing rights to the movie, they wanted music that Western audiences would immediately connect with. And Shinoda's music helped pull in a new fan base. The combination of intense Indonesian action and Shinoda's powerful music created a perfect cultural bridge. But even without the Hollywood soundtrack, the movie was a masterpiece. It won multiple awards at film festivals all over the world, including the Midnight Madness Award at the Toronto Film Festival and the Audience Award at the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival. Critics in the U.S., the U.K. and Europe listed it as one of the best action movies of the decade. Not just of the year, but of the decade. It made it into the list of top films of the year by major newspapers and magazines. And the plot? Honestly, it's simple. And that's the brilliance of it. A police squad enters a high-rise apartment building controlled by a brutal crime lord. Their mission? Get him, arrest him, and get out. What happens instead? Well, everything goes wrong. And from that point forward, the movie barely gives you a chance to breathe. It's like watching a video game that has come to life. One level, then another, then another. Except the stakes are painfully real. Every hallway, every staircase, every broken door becomes a battleground. That simplicity is what helped critics compare The Raid to classic action films like Die Hard. But unlike Hollywood, The Raid did not rely on computer-generated imagery or big budgets. It relied on skill, timing, choreography, and pure physical performance. The action world was shocked. Indonesia had made something better than many Hollywood blockbusters, but on a fraction of the budget. What really makes the movie timeless, though, is how it introduced the Indonesian martial art Pencak Silat to the mainstream. Before The Raid, most people outside of Southeast Asia barely knew anything about this martial art. After the movie, Hollywood wanted Iko Uwais in everything. Directors started studying Silat techniques. Martial arts fans called The Raid's the new benchmark. It didn't just entertain people, it reshaped the global action genre. The success of the first movie paved the way for the sequel, The Raid 2, Berandal, which many critics felt was even more ambitious, deeper in storytelling, and equally ruthless in action. Suddenly, Indonesia was recognized as a place where groundbreaking cinema could come from, high quality, expertly produced, and visually unforgettable. And honestly, there's something incredibly satisfying about that. Indonesia has always had incredible creative talent. The world just hadn't seen it yet. The Raid changed that. It opened doors for Indonesian filmmakers, actors, stunt performers, composers, and choreographers. It proved that Indonesian stories told in Indonesian style could succeed on the world stage. More than a decade later, people still talk about The Raid. New filmmakers say it inspired them. Hollywood directors like the Russo Brothers from the Avengers series openly praise it. Action YouTubers break down its scenes frame by frame. It's not just a movie, it's a legacy. So, if you haven't watched it yet, I highly recommend that you do. But fair warning, this is not a soft, relaxing movie. It's intense, thrilling, and absolutely relentless. And if you're Indonesian, you can watch it with pride because this film helped show the world just how powerful Indonesian filmmaking is. And thanks to all of you in the comments who recommended I watch it. Because otherwise I might not have had the chance to watch it. So, thank you. So, please leave a comment. Have you seen The Raid? Redemption? What did you think? Thanks for watching this little tour into Indonesian films. And I'll see you in the next video. Thanks very much. Bye for now.