Havoc (2025)
Tom Hardy is no stranger to playing gritty roles in TV and film, taking on historical figures and criminals in period pieces as well as iconic villains. Now the Oscar-nominated actor will star in the upcoming action-thriller HAVOC.
Get a sneak peek at the bloodshed to come in the full trailer below.
The high-octane film follows Walker (Hardy), a bruised detective fighting his way through a criminal underworld that threatens to engulf his city. After a drug deal gone wrong, Walker finds himself with several factions on his tail, including a vengeful crime syndicate, a crooked politician, and his fellow cops.
While attempting to rescue the politician’s estranged son, whose involvement in the drug deal starts to unravel a deep web of corruption and conspiracy, Walker is forced to confront the demons of his past.
Havoc sees Gareth Evans return to feature filmmaking in ferocious form. A relentlessly brutal neo-noir punctuated by two of the best action sequences of the decade, it’ll put a lump in your throat and then drop kick it out. Tom Hardy is on fire. Timothy Olyphant is silky smooth as ever. A banger….(letterboxd.com)
A brutal bullet-hell, bloodsoaked battle arenas and a brutish performance from Tom Hardy. Gareth Evans’ latest film has all the hallmarks of a modern classic action movie but falls just short of greatness.
I was lucky enough to catch this at the Prince Charles cinema with Evans present. He revealed his inspirations in the Q&A afterwards, drawing heavily on bullet ballet bloodshed classics such as The Killer and Hard Boiled. However in those films each character’s motivations and intentions are clearer. Hardy’s protagonist seems to be haunted by past mistakes and he has a soft spot for young people with strained relationships with their parents, but his tough guy, morally grey, messy detective persona doesn’t quite reach the emotional complexity that the Hong Kong classics achieve.
Havoc is missing the “boss battles” (memorable unique enemies that force the protagonist to problem solve and get creative in a fight), barring one near the end. The “boss battles” helped make The Raid movies classics – I still think about the karambit guy and the baseball bat and hammer duo. The endless grunts led to a lack of real peril for Tom Hardy’s protagonist.
Overall, Havoc is a great time that honestly deserves a wider cinematic release. My issues stem more from knowing how good Evans’ films can be but he still is undoubtedly one of the best action directors working right now. Hearing him tease wanting to make another “martial arts film back in Indonesia” fills me with anticipation for a return to his brilliant melee combat sequences. (letterboxd.com)
