Netflix’s Havoc tells the story of a dirty cop trying to clean up his act by saving the son of the drug lord who originally hired him. The film is a complete bloodbath with nearly nonstop gunfights. And viewer’s ears are assaulted, too, with more than 130 uses of the f-word alone.
Wrong place, wrong time.
Man, ain’t that just the story of Walker’s life.
When Walker worked narcotics, he and his partners on the police force turned dirty, stealing and selling the drugs they were supposed to be confiscating. Then, one day, an innocent man was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He died. And Walker was at least partially to blame.
But Walker’s buddies covered it up. And the only other person who knew about his involvement was their boss, mayoral candidate Lawrence Beaumont.
Beaumont’s going clean now, declaring a war on drugs to boost his standing in the polls and blackmailing Walker into covering up his past.
Unfortunately, Walker is about to experience another instance of someone being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
It involves Beaumont’s son, Charlie. He finds himself in a pickle when his girlfriend, Mia, becomes indebted to Fong Tsui, a drug lord. To pay off Mia’s debt, Charlie and his buddies steal a shipment of drugs from a rival gang. But upon delivery, goons from that gang show up and kill Tsui.
Charlie escapes, but since he and Mia are the only ones seen leaving the scene of the crime, the police think they did it.
Walker knows better. For starters, Charlie and Mia were outnumbered. But the guns they carried also weren’t powerful to cause the massacre at Tsui’s.
Beaumont tells Walker that if he can find Charlie and get him to safety, they’ll be square. No more favors. No more dirty money.
Walker will need to move fast to locate Charlie before the rest of the police do. But he’ll need to move even faster if he hopes to keep Charlie safe from Tsui’s mother, who also believes Charlie is responsible for her son’s death and has a lot more resources at her disposal.
Although Walker is a dirty cop, he’s at least trying to fix some of his mistakes of the past. He attempts to keep a rookie cop, Ellie, from getting too involved in Charlie’s case, since he wants to protect her. But when he realizes she’ll only keep digging, he tries to keep her hands clean, even advising her to arrest him.
Walker’s guilt about his actions led to him walking out on his family a year before. He truly loves his daughter, which is to be commended, but even he recognizes that he is letting her down. And that spurs him on to try even harder to get out from under Beaumont’s thumb, so he can finally lead an honest life again.
Walker’s ex-wife, for her part, is trying to protect their daughter from emotional trauma. And even though she struggles to keep up with bills, she refuses to condone Walker’s actions, rejecting any money that wasn’t earned honestly.
Charlie and his dad are estranged due to a misunderstanding about how Charlie’s mom died. But when Beaumont is forced to choose between saving Charlie or Mia, he listens to his son’s pleas to save Mia, leading to a reconciliation between father and son.
Tsui’s mom and Charlie’s dad, for all their faults, do love their children. Two men sacrifice themselves to save the ones they love. Charlie and Mia seem to resolve to live a crime-free life when it’s all over. For the most part, Ellie isn’t a perfect cop, but she always strives to protect the innocent.
“O Holy Night” plays in the background while a brutal gunfight takes place onscreen. Someone describes the goons who killed Tsui as “demons.”
People dance and kiss at a club. A few women wear revealing outfits. Walker mistakenly believes that a man is protecting Mia because he’s having sex with her. (He later learns the man is her uncle.)
One character is portrayed by a trans actor.
Gunfights and bloodshed are practically nonstop. When bullets run out, cleavers, batons, pipes and other sharp objects make do. One woman is shot through the neck with a harpoon gun, briefly holding her body aloft by the cords from the weapon. We also see plenty of punches, kicks, body slams and more as various combatants scuffle to gain the upper hand. We hear bones snapping more than once. And people are thrown through glass doors, windows and even tables.
Unfortunately, that’s not all. During a high-speed car chase, a man clings to the open door of a truck, nearly getting crushed by other passing vehicles. Some innocent drivers do wind up crashing after swerving to avoid the turmoil. And a police officer winds up in the ICU after a washing machine gets tossed from a semi into his windshield.
A man chokes on his own blood after suffering a blow to the head. He’s then shot in the head to prevent anyone from saving him. Elsewhere, we see other people suffering from gunshot and stab wounds. Walker presses his thumb into an antagonist’s gunshot wound to get information out of that person.
A doctor attempts to patch up a guy in a makeshift clinic. But when the man begins to threaten him, the doctor then slits the guy’s throat. In a hospital, a patient, his wife and the guard set to protect him are all gunned down.
Ellie investigates a domestic disturbance after overhearing the abuser threatening his victim. The guy winds up falling down several flights of stairs, claiming that Ellie tripped him. (It’s unclear if she did or not.) Elsewhere, an arrested man resists being carried into a police precinct. And Walker gets a guy manhandled by the police by claiming the guy has a gun.
We hear more than 130 uses the f-word alone, sometimes said in Cantonese (and translated in subtitles), occasionally paired with “mother.” Accompanying that hefty f-word tally are 25 instances of the s-word, along with multiple uses of “a–,” “a–hole,” “b–ch,” “h—,” “p-ss” and “pr–k.” God’s name is also abused a handful of times. And Jesus’ name is abused seven times, once paired with the f-word.
Much of this film’s plot revolves around the illegal drug trade, but we don’t witness any drug use onscreen. That said, we do see bricks of cocaine sold, stolen and spilled.
Beaumont says he’s against drugs now, but he certainly wasn’t in the past. But rather than serve time for his complicity, he orders Walker to cover it all up.
People drink at various venues. A few people smoke cigarettes. A club bouncer is accused of admitting underage girls (though it’s unclear if this is true).
Walker and a handful of other cops commit several illegal actions for personal benefit. We hear that a back-alley doctor is kept on the police payroll so they can interrogate potential suspects. Mia’s uncle creates fake passports for her and Charlie. Many betrayals occur. People lie.
Havoc is a complete bloodbath. At least twice, I saw someone’s face get completely blown off. It’s one of those films where you could leave the room in the middle of a fight scene to grab a snack, and that same fight scene would still be going on once you returned from the kitchen.
Add in the fact that pretty much every heinous death that occurs is the result of warring drug lords, and the film gets really grim, really quickly. And that’s to say nothing of the assault on viewer’s eardrums. More than 130 f-bombs are dropped, among other profanities.
All in all, Netflix’s aptly titled Havoc is complete havoc for any families that might’ve considered watching.
Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.
