Havoc

• Written and Directed by Gareth Evans
• April 25, 2025
• Netflix

A corrupt detective must fight his way through the criminal underworld to rescue a politician’s estranged son.

I gave Havoc a shot mostly because of Tom ‘Shinzon’ Hardy. I figured it might be worth watching for the action alone. The action in Havoc was good and there was plenty of blood but not much else. It is filled with terrible people with dark secrets who have done horrible things and we’re supposed to care what happens. It’s tough to do when it’s practically cliché in these wannabe edgy thrillers.

Tom Hardy’s character of Det. Patrick Walker is a hyper damaged cop that should probably be in therapy rather than on the police force. He screams “Not okay.” He has a bitter ex-wife who knows he’s corrupt but has not reported him to the department. At least Walker has that going for him.

Forest Whitaker is corrupt real-estate-mogul-turned-politician Lawrence Beaumont that Walker reports to but has a very cordial relationship with. They ain’t pals but are far friendlier than one would expect. In their first onscreen pairing Walker tells Beaumont he’s out after this latest job with Beaumont being very cool about the whole thing. Beaumont’s estranged son Charlie (Justin Cornwell) and some pals stole a washing machine filled with cocaine and now everybody is pissed over the situation for one reason or another.

All this and it’s set around Christmas time with Tom Hardy doing one of his American working-class accents. Technically, you can release a film at any time of year, but if Christmas is going to be featured in some way you don’t really put a movie out at the beginning of summer. It makes suspension of disbelief tough. Walker knows all the right people to go to. He doesn’t do any investigation. Nobody points him in a direction or somebody to go to.

Vincent (Timothy Olyphant), Hayes (Gordon Alexander), and Jake (Richard Harrington), a group of narcotics squad detectives, are after Charlie because they are corrupt scumbags and want revenge over the injury of their friend Cortez (Serhat Metin) who may or may not have been as shitty as them as well as to get the drugs to a local triad. This movie is all about the violence but does not always give clear reasons why.

It wants to be a dangerous and edgy thriller about a damaged man coming to terms with how damaged and corrupt he is, but it all happens just because. You don’t get much of a sense of any of the characters. Motivations are murky and things happen to progress the film rather than as an outgrowth of some aspect of plot.

As a film Havoc has all the ingredients to be what it is trying for. It just does not know how to put them together. It’s like tossing Legos in a plastic bag and shaking and hoping that airplane on the box is what you get when you’re done. It will not happen.

There is obvious green screen and virtual sets used. It’s very noticeable in the flashback to the narc detective who got killed and during the climax when everybody’s fighting at a cabin in winter. It just looks so fake to me. Then again by that point I was kind of doubting my choice of watching this movie because it thinks it’s something it’s not. There is so little to invest you in the story.

There is a strong undercurrent of a Steven Seagal thriller immediately following his heyday. I just could not escape that vibe while watching this. It is all dumb brawn and no brains. The only thing missing was an appearance by the fat man himself. It mistakes violence and dysfunction for drama and complexity.

Havoc could’ve been something special but as it is it’s just a hyper violent movie about a bunch of terrible people doing terrible things until one of them tries to be good. It’s good background noise but not worthwhile viewing.