The Raid: Redemption was released in 2011, directed and written by Gareth Evans, and stars Iko Uwais as Rama. He’s part of a task force sent into a huge tower block, where a crime lord calls the shots from the top floor. The movie is remarkable for many reasons, but it also transcends genres.
Martial arts fans adore The Raid for Uwais’ incredible showcase of Pencak Silat. Combat in the tower block also feels raw and claustrophobic thanks to the tight corridors offering little room for error, let alone escape. Even if you’re not usually interested in martial arts, The Raid boasts an intense action movie with a siege story at its core.
The Raid: Redemption quickly garnered an audience worldwide, and fans got more of what they loved in 2014 with The Raid 2. Its story continues from where the original left off with some scenes, like the kitchen fight, arguably surpassing those in the original.
The Raid movies are classics, but it’s surprisingly difficult to find other titles that offer the same things. There are plenty of action films with fist fights, but The Raid movies boast non-stop action on top of their stellar martial arts. They are a tough act to follow, but there are still some titles guaranteed to please fans.
Whether you enjoy the movies for Iko Uwais and his stylish fighting style or its unforgiving locale where there is no escape, here’s a selection of movies to watch if you love The Raid: Redemption and The Raid 2.
10
Monkey Man (2024)
Monkey Man has a slower, more emotional buildup than The Raid, but they overlap thanks to their brutal martial arts showcases where our hero faces impossible odds. That hero is Kid (Dev Patel), a masked prizefighter whose identity is shrouded in secrecy.
Kid uses the fight circuit to prepare himself for a blood-soaked revenge quest against those who committed atrocities he witnessed as a child. He enters a world of rich, powerful individuals, using his fists and fighting skills to climb to the top.
Monkey Man is arguably closer to John Wick than The Raid in its story, though the fight scenes are tightly choreographed and well shot. Kid is a great protagonist and the movie’s star also wrote and directed the title.
9
Upgrade (2018)
Upgrade may seem like a wild pick considering it’s a sci-fi movie. However, it has more in common with The Raid than you may realize, with fierce combat and a protagonist who becomes a one-man-army. The movie stars Logan Marshall-Green as Grey Trace in a cold revenge story.
Trace is badly injured by criminals, but is given a lifeline by a high-tech computer chip called STEM. It gives him fighting abilities far beyond any normal human, and he uses that power to hunt those who turned his life upside down.
Much like The Raid, the fighting scenes are highlights of Upgrade. The movie doesn’t feature traditional martial arts, but battles are tightly choreographed and visceral as our unlikely hero becomes a deadly fighter.
The Raid is beloved for Iko Uwais’ impressive martial arts, but another selling point is how fast it gets into the action, and never relents until the credits. Extraction is fairly different in setting, but arguably just as intense, starring Chris Hemsworth as Tyler Rake, a highly trained mercenary.
Rake has a troubled past and is hired to rescue the child of a crime lord from a rival gang leader. The issue is that the entire city turns on Rake the moment he locates his target, and he faces impossible odds if he’s to escape alive.
Extraction is full of incredible action scenes, including one that appears as if it were shot in a single take. Rake is caught in a frantic fight for survival without a chance to catch his breath, and fans of The Raid will appreciate the non-stop action.
7
Undisputed II: Last Man Standing (2006)
The prison locale of Undisputed II: Last Man Standing is quite different from a tower building. However, the movie quickly gets into the action, and the grimy prison fighting ring becomes the platform for some exceptionally visceral martial arts.
It may seem strange to recommend the second movie in a franchise, but it’s actually the first in the series starring Scott Adkins as Yuri Boyka. He’s a dominant powerhouse, feared in the ring. Michael Jai White is George Chambers, framed for a crime he didn’t commit. He reluctantly enters the fighting circuit for his freedom.
Boyka is a final boss-level threat, much like Mad Dog in The Raid. Both enjoy the thrill of combat, and Boyka is an intimidating antagonist with a character arc greatly expanded in Undisputed III: Redemption.
6
Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior (2003)
The story of Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior is fairly different from The Raid, though it makes the list for Tony Jaa’s incredible mastery of Muay Thai and its intense fight scenes.
Jaa stars as Ting, and criminals have stolen the head of a sacred statue from his village. He heads to the mainland and Bangkok to find it and learns that a crime boss linked to an underground fight circuit now has it. Ting is reluctant to fight, but is forced into the ring for the chance of retrieving the artifact.
Ong-Bak introduced many audiences in the 2000s to Muay Thai in a similar way to how The Raid showcased Pencak Silat. The setting is different, but if you enjoy The Raid for its jaw-dropping combat, you won’t be disappointed.
5
The Protector (2005)
The Protector is the 2nd Tony Jaa movie on the list, though it’s an important inclusion as it’s arguably even closer to The Raid in tone than Ong-Bak. Jaa stars as Kham, a young man who grew up alongside elephants. An Australian gang steals one, prompting Kham to travel across the globe to get it back, fighting anyone who stands in his way.
The plot is straightforward, but that’s the point. Sydney becomes the platform for a busy action movie showing off Jaa’s trademark athletic Muay Thai. He’s more of an action hero as Kham, and many of the fight scenes are bloody and brutal with plenty of flying knees and broken bones.
Fewer mainstream audiences know about The Protector compared to Ong-Bak, but it’s a superb Jaa movie with plenty of overlap with The Raid.
4
Kill (2023)
Kill is one of the newest movies on the list, and feels like The Raid on a train in many ways. Lakshya stars as Amrit. He’s a military commando, and his training kicks in when an armed gang attacks.
Amrit’s quest has personal stakes, because Tulika (Tanya Maniktala), the woman he loves, is also on board. Fights in Kill are bloody and ferocious, and feel very similar to those in The Raid as the train carriages are cramped and claustrophobic.
The more compact setting adds to the intensity in Kill, and the action is surprisingly dark at times. The movie feels oddly grounded as Amrit goes through hell on the train, which affects him mentally and physically.
3
Headshot (2016)
Headshot is far less well-known than The Raid movies, though both star Iko Uwais. He plays Ishmael, a man left for dead after being shot in the head. Ishmael is suffering from amnesia after the attack, but his old life comes back to haunt him.
Ailin (Chelsea Islan), a doctor, names him Ishmael as he cannot remember anything about his previous life. Members of a gang who knew him previously kidnap Ailin, forcing him back into a life of violence. Ishmael quickly realizes he possesses all the skills of a deadly fighter as he starts to learn about who he once was.
Headshot will be a hit with fans of The Raid because Uwais is just as exceptional as the lead in both titles. It’s not a siege movie, but it is tonally similar.
2
Dredd (2012)
It may seem strange to put Dredd so high on the list, especially when it lacks the tightly choreographed martial arts of The Raid. However, both movies boast an eerily similar plot considering they were released so close together, and non-stop action from start to finish.
Karl Urban stars as Dredd, a judge in Mega City One. He’s a veteran and takes Anderson (Olivia Thirlby), a rookie, under his wing. The duo is sent to investigate murders in a massive apartment complex. However, Ma Ma (Lina Headey), the crime lord controlling the area, has other plans. She seals the complex when they arrive, with no way to escape.
Dredd is action-packed from the moment our heroes set foot in the Peach Trees complex. They are hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned but must press on if they hope to leave alive.
1
The Night Comes For Us (2018)
The Night Comes For Us boasts an incredible cast for fans of The Raid: Redemption and martial arts in general. The movie stars Joe Taslim as Ito. He’s an elite gang enforcer who makes a snap decision that turns his comrades against him. Taslim is also the same actor who played Jaka in The Raid.
Ito is desperate to leave his former life behind, but the Triads have other plans. They send everyone from nameless henchmen to deadly assassins to take him down. Those assassins include his friend Arian, played by Iko Uwais.
The Night Comes For Us is an intense action movie that includes numerous actors from the 2011 hit, in an entirely new setting. The fight scenes are as slick and stylish as you’d expect, with another surgical showcase of Pencak Silat and high-intensity action set-pieces.
- Release Date
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March 23, 2012
- Runtime
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101 minutes
- Director
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Gareth Evans
- Writers
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Gareth Evans
- Producers
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Ario Sagantoro
