What martial art is used in The Raid movies?

The Raid is a series of movies that are set in Jakarta, Indonesia, and stars Iko Uwais as the main star. In these films, he plays Yuda, who is an Indonesian S.W.A.T team member that has to raid a dangerous building run by a drugs kingpin. In general, it’s typical action movie stuff but what sets it apart from other films is its reliance on martial arts and there’s a lot of time and detail dedicated to the martial arts scenes in the movies.

This can be seen with the cast of who many are well trained in martial arts, as well as the fight scenes themselves which put this into action. As a result, many viewers have taken to the internet over the years to ask the question, what martial art is used in The Raid movies? Well, here’s the answer.

The Raid uses Pencat Silat

Pencat Silat is an Indonesian martial art that dates back to the 6th century but was formerly created in 1980. In short, it’s an umbrella term of fighting methods that can be taught in unison by Pencat specialists. Typically, this involves striking, grappling, and weapons training. So, it’s no surprise to see these three elements used in The Raid.

With this in mind, it’s best not to think of Silat as a standalone martial art such as Judo. Instead, it’s more like Kung Fu or Wushu, where’s it’s a combination of all sorts of disciplines from over the years. As Indonesia is made up of over 6000 inhabitable islands, it’s easy to understand why SIlat has so many different forms and variations. There’s even competitive Silat which doesn’t allow strikes to the head, which is a far cry away from the more brutal forms of Silat that are based on weapons and how to use them.

When applying this knowledge to The Raid, it’s easy to assume it’s a mix of various styles of different martial arts, whereas really it’s mostly just Silat.

Iko Uwais and his Pencat Silat background

As mentioned, it’s no surprise that Uwais was cast for the starring role in The Raid. It turns out that he’s trained Silat extensively for years and there are also videos of him online teaching it to classes. Whilst Uwais may not be the greatest Silat fighter in the world, it’s proof that his skills helped during his role in the movie and it meant that time didn’t need to be wasted on training him or teaching choreography whilst filming.

As seen in the video above, Uwais is genuinely a skilled martial arts practitioner. You could argue that his fighting style is also perfect for the big screen too as it looks stylish and flows quickly. It’s also not just Uwais who has a background in this martial art. Co-star Yayan Ruhian had also trained Silat for many years before appearing in The Raid.

What does Silat look like in The Raid?

So far, we’ve established that Silat is a real fighting system and is used in The Raid, however – how does it look? The answer is that although Silat is used, it’s certainly got a bit of Hollywood magic thrown in. Put another way, whilst there are real Silat techniques shown in The Raid, it’s also fair to say that a lot of the time they’re embellished for entertainment purposes.

For example, in some cases Uwais manages to defeat armed attackers whilst heavily outnumbered. Even though Silat is effective, it doesn’t make you invincible either, which is what is almost shown at times during The Raid. Remember, this is a movie series though so it shouldn’t be taken too seriously either. If you enjoy watching high tempo fight scenes with great choreography though, then check out The Raid if you can.

Conclusion

When looking at the success of The Raid movies, credit has to be given to director Gareth Evans who successfully incorporated Silat into many of the fight scenes of the movies. Unlike most generic action films, it seems that he genuinely spent time researching what art would look the best and also paid homage to the film’s Indonesian roots in doing so.

The result is that The Raid franchise is often considered as one of the best when it comes to realistically applying martial arts to movies which is not an easy task. This serves as a welcome example to movie directors that if you spend time focusing on smaller details of movies then it can have a big pay-off in the future. The sad news is that outside of Indonesian movies, Silat is rarely found in global cinema. Hopefully though, the success of The Raid will spur others on to use it though in the future.

If you’d like to learn more about the Indonesian martial art of Pencat Silat, then check out this book here which is written by Herman Suwanda, one of the most decorated Silat martial artists in history.