The Night Comes For Us, the new film from director Timo Tjahjanto packs a serious punch, especially when it comes to its ending. The Indonesian gangster story contains some of the gnarliest action scenes of the year - not much of a surprise, considering The Raid star Iko Uwais serves as choreographer and a central cast-member. But like all great action movies, the sequences are made dramatic and meaningful by the narrative, and The Night Comes For Us also tells a bittersweet, beautiful tale of betrayal and redemption in the dog-eat-dog world of the Triad.
First made into a graphic novel before Tjahjanto was able to make it a motion picture, The Night Comes For Us follows high-level mob hitman Iko after he goes rogue to save a young girl for a village he was sent to destroy. Betrayal is not something the people Iko works for tolerate, and he and his small crew back home are forced to battle for their lives against the most vicious of the South-East-Asian Triad and their armies, leading to a climactic hand-to-hand confrontation that'd give any UFC pay-per-view a run for its money in drama.
- This Page: How The Night Comes For Us Ends
- Page 2: Unanswered Questions After The Night Comes For Us
How The Night Comes For Us Ends
The final act is split across two locations – Ito's apartment and the warehouse. Ito takes a call from Arian, an old friend of his, to meet him at a warehouse they used to work from. Arian has been hired to kill Ito, being promised a spot on the Six Seas, an elite group of Triad mercenaries, if he succeeds. Meanwhile, the Operator, a mysterious female assassin who wishes to collect the reward for Ito's death, decides to help Ito by protecting Reina, the young girl he saved, at his building while he's at the warehouse.
Soon after Ito arrives at the warehouse, he begins making his way through all the young men that are there in a blistering fight sequence that involves all manner of damage to the human body. Arian waits in another part of the warehouse for a face-to-face, stopping a sniper from picking off Ito so they have settle their grudge once and for all.
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The Operator's methods are different to Ito's, but the results are similar. Using a mixture of guns, explosives and martial arts, she very effectively fends off all who step forward. Then, two Lotus members, another set of operatives working for Chien Wu of the Six Seas, Alma and Elena, enter. In a twist, together they are no match for the Operator who kills both by their own means – one is choked to death by her yo-yo-like choking wire, and the other is severely cut up and has her throat slit. The Operative then takes Reina and makes a move.
Ito and Arian's fight is one of the longest and heftiest in the movie. Arian betrayed his old crew by giving away their location towards the beginning of the film, and Arian feels betrayed by Ito because Ito became one of the Six Seas without him. The two battle long and hard, Arian having the upper-hand at first because of his greater agility, but Ito's endurance and field experience wins out. Their bloody tussle ends when Ito almost cuts Arian's neck, but spares him. Arian tries to shoot him but can't, and Chien Wu, seeing that Arian has failed, has him executed before following Ito.
Ito and the Operative meet, Ito gives Reina her new passport and sees her off on a boat to an unspecified location. The movie ends with Ito driving his car head-on towards Chien Wu and his henchmen while they open fire.
Page 2: Unanswered Questions After The Night Comes For Us
Who Are The Six Seas?
The Six Seas are six men and women who're given free reign to keep those under the thumb of the Triad in-line. In the time of the film, the South-East Triad hold 80% of the drug and weapons trafficking trade, and the Six Seas are the specially chosen and most dangerous enforcers they have to keep such an expansive empire in check. Their methods are merciless and their objectives are often part of setting an example; only a few inhabitants of the village Ito was sent to kill were acting against the Triad, but that didn't matter.
Becoming a Six Seas means working your way up the ladder of trust within the Triad, until, as the proposal Arian received highlights, either an active member dies or betrays the cause and requires taking out.
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In the spirit of John Wick, the film approaches organized crime with a layered mythology. Alma and Elena are regarded as numbered Lotuses, third and fifth respectively. They serve Chien Wu, one of the Six Seas' beck and all, doing the dirty work so he doesn't have to. The implication is that the Lotuses are another elite group, perhaps more removed from the Triad, who occasionally work in tandem with the Six Seas.
Who Is The Operator?
The Operator, played by Julie Estelle, is the most mysterious character in the film, having no backstory provided even by the time the movie ends. She appears in the parking lot during the first wave of attacks from Chien Wu, then tries to kill Ito in his apartment before his story convinces her to fight with him instead of against. She's the only one acting independently, having just heard there was a reward on Ito's head, with no explicit or implicit affiliation in her actions.
She represents the Triad not being as powerful as it thinks it is. Her power, resources and capabilities are incredible and very distinct to what the Triad has at hand. She has military-grade explosives, guns and other equipment, and a very strong supply of them, and her martial arts prowess is possibly the greatest among all the characters. She also identifies Alma and Elena, meaning she knows the systems she's working against here, possibly hinting that she was once part of it before somehow getting out. Either way, she is an invaluable asset to Ito and a not-so-implicit blessing to Reina.
Where Was Reina Going?
The boat Reina ends up on has no destination displayed. The movie takes place in Macua in Indonesia, so there are several possible places she could be headed – Philippines is likely, being easily accessible by boat, but there are other islands and countries in the vicinity too. What's important is that she got on the boat and is now effectively lost to those that were hunting her. By making sure she can have a new life, Ito's redemption arc is complete.
This whole thing was put in motion because Ito couldn't shoulder the kind of ruthlessness the Triad and the Six Seas require. No regrets, second thoughts or second chances. By saving her, he figured he would be doing some good that would put him on a path of righteousness after a life on the wrong side of the street. He knew he wasn't going to get out alive, and even though it hurt, his crew knew the risks of the life they were leading too. Reina had a chance to know a different way of existing, free from mob rule, and in freeing her, maybe - just maybe - his soul could be redeemed. The film doesn't give a definitive answer, but as she sails away Ito goes out fighting on the right side, and that definitely counts for something.
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