REVIEW: ‘HAVOC’ Is A Messy, Gritty, Blood-Soaked Thriller

HAVOC (2025) is a gritty Netflix Original action thriller written and directed by Gareth Evans’ where Tom Hardy plays as a worn-out veteran homicide Detective, Walker, navigating a web of corruption and deceit, alongside an impressive supporting cast featuring Forest Whitaker, Timothy Olyphant, Jessie Mei Li, and Yeo Yann Yann.

Chaos ensues on Christmas Eve when a police chase and drug deal go awry, plunging Detective Walker into a tangled web of conspiracy and betrayal. He’s now tasked with finding a politician’s estranged son tied to the scene of the drug deal. Walker’s mission puts him in a race against dirty cops and a brutal crime syndicate who have their eyes on his target, too. The city’s criminal underworld threatens to consume everything, and it is up to Walker to face enemies on all sides and some guilt from his past before it’s too late.

HAVOC (2025) is inspired by Hong Kong action films, and it is a decent genre entry that spares no punches or bullets. HAVOC (2025) is packed with violent, bone-breaking fights and blood-soaked shootouts. Evans’ film work is immersive and excels at making the audience feel part of the action by using dynamic shots that play on various perspectives.

HAVOC’s (2025) most striking element is its embrace of Gun Fu, a hyper-stylized blend of martial arts and firearm combat made popular by Hong Kong action cinema. Evans leans heavily into this action style, staging explosive, bone-rattling set pieces where bullets fly with frenzied inaccuracy and bodies drop after getting riddled with dozens of slugs.

The action is intense in HAVOC (2025), sometimes too intense.

The shootouts are especially relentless in this film. Often, it is a bit excessive, with blood spraying like paint across the rooms. More than once the level of violence borders on overkill. However, the action choreography is undeniably cool at its best moments. These moments are visceral, brutal, and designed to hold the viewer’s attention and keep their pulse racing.

HAVOC (2025) tries to juggle a lot, sometimes too much for its good. The story feels overstuffed in some parts and empty in others. The pacing sputters from one burst of intense action to the next. The use of flashbacks, scarce exposition, and cryptic dialogue does its best to fill in the story’s gaps. While that approach makes sense for a fast-paced thriller, it comes at the cost of a more cohesive narrative and developed characters.

There just isn’t time for any meaningful character development in HAVOC (2025). Instead, the audience must keep up and accept the circumstances unfolding. Nonetheless, Tom Hardy and Jessie Mei Li’s performances find moments of chemistry that help move the story forward and bring some emotional closure by the film’s end. Though not explored deeply, their gritty hardboiled veteran detective and the uniformed by-the-book rookie dynamic works well, adding a much-needed human element to the film’s chaos.

Detective Walker could have benefited from deeper character development. It’s unclear whether he was initially a good, by-the-book cop or when exactly he became a dirty cop, but there’s a sense that he once had a moral line he refused to cross. That line, however, was breached before the film’s events, leading to a loss of his moral compass, driven by guilt and the constant fear of his secret coming to light.

Yeo Yann Yann’s character deserves a real name, not just “Mother.”

Yeo Yann Yann also performs well in her supporting role as the ruthless boss and mother of the crime syndicate. Her character commands every room she walks into with cutthroat precision and bottled rage. Yet beneath her hard exterior, Yeo’s performance also captures the duality within her character. Through her performance, Yeo also shows a vengeful grieving mother seeking answers and retribution for her son’s death.

Unfortunately, like a handful of others in this film, her character is not given a name. The credits only refer to her as “Tsui’s mother.” Although Yeo is a supporting antagonist, her character’s presence is not minor. For a character that is layered and plays an integral part in the film, she at least deserved the dignity of a name.

HAVOC (2025) is a messy, gritty, blood-soaked thriller that puts its visceral action front and center. The film does too much in some shootouts and falters in pacing and character depth. But it shines during the explosive set pieces, Gun Fu combat. Intense performances from Tom Hardy and Yeo Yann Yann make it worth a watch for action fans. In the end, HAVOC (2025) is less about precision storytelling and more about the spectacle of survival in a corrupt system.

HAVOC (2025) is streaming exclusively on Netflix on April 25.