10 Things You Didn’t Know About The Raid 2: Berandal

I can say without any doubt or brown-nosing that two of my favorite movies of the past 5 years have both come from director Gareth Evans. The tragic thing about that is that Evans has only made two action films over the past 5 years so we have to hope and pray that the success of his earlier work will propel him to bigger and bountiful budgets. The saddest part about the movies that find their way into my Blu-ray player or across my TV via streaming service is that many of the directors that are making these amazing action films are doing so with minuscule budgets comparatively speaking. The best way we can ensure that they keep getting their proper due is to keep the word of mouth going and that’s where we come in. I’ve been told many times that I have quite the mouth on me (feel free to take that as a sexual innuendo) and spreading some fun trivia about one of the best action movies of the decade is something that I take great pleasure in. This is 10 Things you didn’t know about The Raid: Berandal.

1. There was an attempt to differentiate this sequel from its predecessor in the first few minutes of the film. The opening shot is a long composition shot, unlike the breakneck pace of the first film. Also, a major character from the first film is taken out of the equation in the beginning of the movie and it adds so much depth to the character of Rama (Iko Uwais).
2. The first fight sequence in the prison toilet was filmed in a few different sized cubicles. Some had walls that were on hinges so they could swing them open in order to get different camera angles and to also allow the camera to rotate 180 degrees or bring the action in close or open it up.
3. The rain/mud prison fight took around 8 days to film. It was done in an area named Gombong, an old Dutch fort. The mud had to be imported because they couldn’t get enough locally. As the scene progresses, you can tell that the texture of the mud really changes as they had to continue to add more and more mud to the pit throughout filming.
4. When Uco (Arifin Putra) and Rama (Iko Uwais) visit the porn den, all of the TV monitors are meant to be showing people “bumping uglies” but it’s really just the AD bumping his elbows together to give the appearance of sex. Gareth Evans didn’t want to have to edit the screens in post production because he knew the Indonesian censors would not allow that type of nudity.
5. Snow in Indonesia? Many Indonesian fans, along with anyone who has an idea of the climate situation in the small nation, took real issue with the scene having snow falling during it. Director Gareth Evans gave a pretty detailed reason as to why he wanted to have snow in his film but I’ll save the time of having to type it up and just tell you that the scene rules whether it’s 100% weather-wise or not. Get over yourselves people!
6. The coin spin that we see in the Hammer Girl/Baseball Bat Man scenes had a backstory of its own. The brother and sister duo, while not given much to do onscreen except for killing people in awesome and amazingly unique ways, were said to have grown up with a violently abusive father. A father who would flip a coin and beat his children based on which side turned up. Eventually, the duo would kill their dear old dad and be taken in by mobster Bejo (Alex Abbad), and raised and trained to be assassins for his crew.
7. The car chase scene took almost 13 days to complete. They delayed certain roadways to the point that they heard news broadcasts describing major traffic issues because of their shutdowns.
8. The film takes place 2 hours after the first film ends before fast-forwarding 2 years into the future.
9. Hammer Girl actress Julie Estelle had no martial arts training before winning the role. Estelle was a major actress in Indonesia at the time so the filmmakers weren’t sure that she’d want to take the role, let alone audition for the role. She trained for months and really impressed all of the fight choreographers with her skills before the shoot was over.
10. Several of the kills in this movie are ones that I would say “push the censor guys to their limits”. Surprisingly, Evans never had to edit out any of the major death scenes in order to secure the R rating that they were looking for. Shotgun blasts to the face, baseball bats to the head, and dudes getting their faces melted on iron skillets; every beautiful scene was kept in its entirety.