Netflix writing a big fat check to the filmmaker who gave us the gonzo Indonesian action franchise “The Raid” was a smart move.

But even fans of the over-the-top mayhem that is writer-director Gareth Evans’ trademark may be moved to mutter, “Damn, how many rounds does that shotgun/pistol/assault rifle HOLD?” in “Havoc.”

Stylized, lurid, with a “Streets of Fire/Sin City” look and vibe, “Havoc” is a guns-blazing “Free Fire” style shoot-em-up where the action’s so fierce it’s a wonder anybody has time to think about reloading, including the script supervisor, the person on set in charge of continuity, the one voice who might say “Hey, shouldn’t Tom Hardy ‘reload’ after all that?”

“Havoc” is what Hardy’s character Walker wreaks in a furious display of dirty cop on dirty cop violence, all of it triggered by killing the wrong Chinese Triad gang family heir (Jeremy Ang Jones).

The guys blamed for that just pulled off a tractor trailer hijacking, dumping their washing machine cargo onto cop cars in a furious chase through an unnamed, grimy and grey, neon-spattered city. The leader of that pack (Justin Cornwell) just might be the son of the city’s next mayor.

That candidate (Oscar winner Forest Whitaker) just got an investigation “fixed,” and now he’s ready to “fix” the city. Fat chance of that, as he’s corrupt to his core, with corrupt cops — specifically Walker — at his beck and call.

“Dirty Money” Walker is sent to find the son and his girlfriend/accomplice (Quelin Sepulveda) before the Dragon Lady of the Tsui Triad (Yann Yann Yeo, fierce) does. Not that he’s happy about that.

“Your son s–t the bed so bad it’s gonna take a magic WAND to clean this up!”

Other dirty cops, led by Vince (Timothy Olyphant) are also in on the hunt.

The disheveled, slovenly homicide detective Walker, saddled with a do-gooder “uniform” (Jessie Mae Li) as Ms. “We’re not partners, awright?,” struggling to get a pawn shop-purchased gift for his six-year-old daughter this Christmas Eve, has to investigate, torture and shoot his way through legions of mostly-Chinese hoodlums, with a few murderous cops tossed in, to “save” the son and/or stop a gang war.

The British-born writer-director Evans pins us to our seats with that reckless/heedless opening car/truck chase and shootout, and rarely takes his foot off the gas. That’s his style.

The threats are pithy, and terminal.

“I flew halfway across the world to identify my child,” Ms. Tsui growls on the phone to candidate Lawrence. “Now I’m coming for yours.”

“Havoc” is a movie bathed in corruption, with even the uncorrupted aware of what’s going on and tolerating the dirty cops, dirty politicians and dirty money. This is the ultimate dystopia, one brought on when the rule of law is abandoned. It’s anarchy created by oligarchy.

Not all of it makes sense, and a lot of what happens hews too closely to formula. Why do cops always have an old “cabin by the lake” that their old man left them? So they can have a proper setting for the climactic shoot-out.

But the fights — featuring fists, feet, swords and knives and guns — are breathtaking.

And Hardy’s a stoic, steely presence at the center of it all, a tough guy among tough guys, dirtied and bloodied, but moral in that sort of John Woo killer’s code. He makes buying-in easy as we follow a bloody, unsentimental off-the-books “investigation” through confrontation after confrontation on our way to an epic conclusion.

It’s amazing how much “Havoc” you can create when almost nobody pauses to reload.

Rating: TV-MA, bloody violence from start to finish, gunplay, profanity

Cast: Tom Hardy, Jessie Mae Li,
Quelin Sepulveda, Justin Cornwell, Yann Yann Yeo, Timothy Olyphant and Forest Whitaker

Credits: Scripted and directed by Gareth Evans. A Netflix release.

Running time: 1:47