THE RAID with Jason Kleeberg!

THE RAID with Jason Kleeberg!

From Die Hard On A Blank by Philip Gawthorne and Liam Billingham

April 1, 2026 · 1h 27m

About this episode

The episode features a discussion on the film THE RAID with guest Jason Kleeberg, exploring its impact on the action genre.

It’s Die Hard in a tower block! Yep things really are coming full circle now as this time the Die Hard-esque mayhem takes place in…a tall building…as we discuss Gareth Evans' furiously intense game-changer THE RAID (aka THE RAID: REDEMPTION) with special guest Jason Kleeburg! Rama (Iko Uwais) is a young police officer in the Mobile Brigade Corps, Indonesia’s spec-ops paramilitary tactical unit. Rama is part of an small MBC squad who are tasked with assaulting an impenetrable Jakarta slum ruled by the notorious gangster Tama Riyadi (Ray Sahetapy). The goal is to extract and arrest Tama, but the bungled operation quickly goes to hell, and soon Rama and what’s left of his unit find themselves trapped inside the building, facing overwhelming opposition from Tama’s seemingly endless hordes of henchmen.  So, are the DHOAB boys ready for a bit of the old ultraviolence? Well, opinions vary. The lads fiercely debate this divisive film’s merits…just like many of the prominent critics did at the time of its release. Is this, as Jason suggests, simply one of the best fight films ever made? Or is it, as Roger Ebert argued, “a visualized video game that spares the audience the…

People in this episode

Hosts: Philip Gawthorne, Liam Billingham

Guest: Jason Kleeberg

Topics covered

  • action films
  • film reviews
  • interviews
  • cinema history
  • fight choreography
  • Die Hard influence

Keywords

  • THE RAID
  • action genre
  • Gareth Evans
  • Iko Uwais
  • film debate
  • ultraviolence
  • cinema influence

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: THE RAID

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