Havoc’s ending was all about saving Charlie and Mia from the wrath of the Chinese Triads and a trio of corrupt police officers. In order to pay off Mia’s debt, Charlie, Wes, and Johnny conducted a drug heist, which resulted in the death of a police officer, Cortez. The four amateur robbers went to Tsui to get their money, but the transaction was interrupted by three masked gunmen, who turned out to be Jake, Vincent, and Hayes. Charlie and Mia make it out of the shootout alive. Now, while Jake, Vincent, and Hayes want to kill those two for killing Cortez, the Triads, specifically Tsui’s mother, want them dead for allegedly killing her son. The only person standing between these non-professional criminals and the armies of seasoned mercenaries was Walker. No, he didn’t love Charlie and Mia or anything like that; saving Charlie, the son of a corrupt politician named Lawrence, was Walker’s only way of settling his debts with the self-proclaimed anti-drug public servant. Well, did Walker succeed or die trying? What were the themes explored in this journey? Can we hope to get a Havoc 2? Let’s find out.
Spoiler Alert
Sins of the Sons
Unable to find Charlie, Tsui’s mother violently kidnapped Lawrence. She could’ve just killed Lawrence, but since she thought that Charlie had killed Tsui, she wanted Lawrence to feel the pain of losing a son. But as time went by and both of them kept waiting for some information on Charlie’s whereabouts, the parents sensed the error of their ways. Although not much about Lawrence and Tsui’s mother’s origins was revealed in Havoc, it was evident that they were rich and influential. They could have given Charlie and Tsui a life away from crime. However, they failed to do so in very different ways. While Tsui’s mother gave Tsui the keys to the drug trade, Lawrence neglected Charlie. So, Tsui’s corruption was a result of his mother’s greed, and Charlie’s was a result of his father’s indifference. During the climactic moments of the film, when Walker’s phone call led Tsui’s mother and Lawrence to Charlie and Mia, who were at Walker’s shack, and they saw Charlie putting his life on the line for Mia and claiming that they weren’t the guilty party, and that it was the dishonest cops, the parents realized how much they had erred. In that brief moment, they probably felt how differently they could have handled their respective sons’ lives. Sadly, that enlightenment came a little too late. Jake killed Lawrence whilst aiming at Charlie. That started an all-out gunfight, during which Ching, Tsui and his mother’s right-hand man, killed Tsui’s mother. As the light faded from his eyes, Lawrence probably took some solace in the fact that he had done at least one thing right in his whole damn life, i.e., saving Charlie. Also, he got to acknowledge that his son had grown so much that he was ready to take on responsibility for Mia’s life. Tsui’s mother didn’t even get that. It was sort of tragic, but both of these characters deserved the end they got.
Corruption and Jealousy
I have mentioned that Ching was Tsui’s right-hand man. But in all fairness, Ching was only loyal to Tsui’s father, who is referred to as Big Brother. So loyal that he thought he deserved to lead the Triads, or at least the drug trade, in the United States of America. When he didn’t get that and was made to be Tsui’s servant, he orchestrated a betrayal with the help of Jake, Vincent, Hayes, and Cortez. I’m not all that sure about Cortez’s involvement because the man didn’t have a single line of dialogue. I’m guessing that Cortez wanted to be an honest cop, but, by association, he was roped into these dubious situations. Either way, he died because of his involvement with Vincent, Jake, Hayes, and Ching; case closed. Now, Ching wanted in on the cocaine smuggling business, and he made a deal with an anonymous buyer. He knew that the coke was being transported in those trucks. I am guessing he ordered Jake, Vincent, Hayes, and Cortez to catch Mia, Charlie, Wes, and Johnny in the act, get ahold of the coke, deliver it to Ching, and get their money. When that went wrong, Ching drew up an alternate plan: the kids deliver the coke to Tsui, Tsui brings out the money, the corrupt cops kill everybody, Ching gets the drugs, and the cops get the money. That plan went down the drain when Charlie and Mia ran away with the money, and the cops had the coke (that they desperately wanted to get rid of) that Ching’s buyer didn’t want. This particular conundrum allowed Ellie, Walker’s on-again-off-again assistant on this particular case, to force Ching, Jake, and Vincent (Hayes had died during an earlier fight between the cops and the Triads) to meet each other, where she held all of them hostage and took them to Walker’s shack. Jake was killed by Charlie, Ching was killed by Vincent, and Vincent was killed by Walker. But, to be honest, it was jealousy that killed Ching, and corruption that killed Vincent, Jake, Hayes, and Cortez. Professional jealousy is fine, but if you want to defeat your rival, even if it’s in the drug business, it’s better to just be more competent than whoever you envy. If you want to cure your jealousy with betrayal, it’ll never end well. As for the corruption of the police, it’s true that cops don’t get paid what they deserve. However, that’s no excuse to get into the drug trade and earn money from the people you are supposed to be arresting. At this point, though, I might as well be talking to a wall, because the police and systemic corruption are inseparable.
Lack of Communication
At any point while watching Havoc, if you wondered why these characters don’t just talk about it and clarify the fact that Charlie and Mia weren’t responsible for Tsui’s death, Vincent’s men were, don’t worry, you are not alone. Right before the climactic shootout began, Charlie was screaming at the top of his lungs that they were victims of the lack of proper communication. I mean, Walker was the only one who saw the CCTV footage, noticed that Charlie had a pistol in his hand, examined all the rifle casings strewn across Tsui’s place, and came to the conclusion that Charlie wasn’t the guilty party. But Tsui’s mother and the rest of the Triads jumped to conclusions so quickly that they never stopped to think whether they were going after the wrong people or not. It’s a good thing that at the end of the movie, Charlie and Mia survived. The Triads had already killed Wes and Johnny. So, killing Charlie and Mia wouldn’t have made much of a difference to them. I’m just saying that maybe the movie was trying to make a point that communicating properly could avoid unnecessary violence or, to be specific, misinformed violence. Vincent, Jake, Hayes, and Ching deserved the Triads’ hate, and they would’ve gotten away with all the coke and the money if people like Walker and Ellie didn’t step in to look at the details and create an opportunity for Charlie to speak his piece. I guess the Triads paid for their stupidity and trigger-happy nature by, well, dying in a shootout. No need to sympathize. Just remember to have a proper channel of communication before you take up arms and go to battle.
The First Step Of Redemption
The conclusion that Walker got at the end of Havoc was perfect. Not the part where he safeguarded Charlie and Mia and then killed Vincent. I am talking about the part where he stopped Ellie from delivering that last-minute gift that he had bought for his family. As the cops arrived to analyze the crime scene, Walker had the realization that he didn’t deserve to be in the lives of his wife, Helena, and his daughter, Emmy. Approximately 18 months ago, Walker had gone down the path of corruption by associating with Lawrence. Now that he had gotten weary of that life of debauchery, he wanted out, and he made a deal with Lawrence that if he saved Charlie from the Triads and Vincent’s men, he was free to cut ties with Lawrence. Walker technically achieved that because everyone who was after Charlie’s life was dead, and Lawrence had perished in the process as well. So, everything that connected him to the underworld was gone. However, that didn’t mean that Walker had redeemed himself; he had just taken the first step towards atoning for his sins. This, I feel, was a good subversion of a trope that we always get to see in action movies where a character’s dark past gets washed away after one night of righteous violence. They get to go home to their friends and family, who accept the hero with open arms, because how can one not respect someone who is capable of that much bloodshed, right? Now, simplistic and cliché as that may be, that just sends the wrong message. What Walker did was not only mature but complex as well. It showed that even after doing so much heroic stuff, Walker didn’t feel cleansed. Instead, he was finally seeing (as underscored by the extreme close-up of Tom Hardy’s eyes) the world that he belonged to and how unfair it was for him to claim that it was okay for him to support his wife and daughter with the wealth he was earning from this gutter. He had grown so arrogant that he scoffed at Helena for “depriving” Emmy of the money that he had stashed away for “her.” Thankfully, he understood that he was wrong and that his family deserved someone better than him. Unless Walker dies from the wound on his gut that he sustained after getting shot by Vincent, I hope that he’ll change and become a hero in the truest sense.
Sequel Expectations
In Havoc’s ending, Ellie told Charlie and Mia that they were on the “wanted” lists of many people. So, it was best for them to turn themselves in and stay in police custody until things were relatively safe. But after seeing what cops were capable of, Charlie and Mia decided to hit the road, probably heading to Mexico, in the hopes of starting a new life there, away from the Triads and corrupt law enforcers. Walker was guilty of killing Vincent, working for Lawrence, and also aiding in the murder of an undercover cop in the past. However, instead of going on the run with Charlie and Mia, Walker decided to stay put and face the music. Now, if Havoc 2 miraculously gets greenlit, I don’t expect one half of the film to be about Charlie and Mia’s road trip with the other half focusing on the trial of Walker. Gareth Evans is an action movie director. So, based on his sensibilities, I think we are going to see the Triads joining hands with the cartel or the mafia, assuming one of them was Ching’s anonymous buyer, to go after Charlie, Mia, Ellie, and Walker because they are the reason why they didn’t get the money or the coke. Charlie and Mia will probably give themselves up to the police, let’s say the precinct where Ellie and Walker are stationed. And then we’re going to get an Assault on Precinct 13-esque, one-location action extravaganza. It’d be a reversal of the premise of The Raid: Redemption, which had the police going into a criminal’s den, while this one will have the police defending their den. If Evans wants to continue his commentary on police corruption, I suppose he can show us all the secrets hiding in that precinct, thanks to all the dishonest cops who have come and gone, thereby making Walker’s sins pale in comparison. Anyway, those are just my thoughts on the end of Havoc and what I expect to see in its yet-to-be-announced sequel. What are your opinions on the same? Let me know in the comments section below.
