2007’s War isn’t the most highly regarded action movie in either Jet Li or Jason Statham’s careers, but it deserves a reappraisal. Directed by Philip G. Atwell, War focuses on the vendetta of FBI agent John Crawford (Statham) and his determination to avenge the murder of his partner Tom Lone (Terry Chen) and his family by a mysterious assassin known only as Rogue (Jet Li). When Rogue re-appears three years later in San Francisco right as a war is on the verge of breaking out between local yakuza and Triad bosses, Crawford is determined to bring down Rogue for good, but as War unfolds, it becomes clear that Rogue has his own unexpected agenda.
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Originally titled Rogue before its retitling to War, the movie marked a reunion of Li and Statham after their previous team-up in The One, but War didn’t become the action movie hit many would have expected and drew an all-around negative reception. While Li and Statham would later team-up again in the Expendables franchise, War has aged into something of an underrated martial arts crime thriller gem that warrants a rediscovery by Statham and Li fans alike, especially for its shocking twist ending.
War Merges Different Action Sub-Genres In An Effective Combo
One of the biggest attributes of War is how well it combines several different styles of action movies into one. Under Philip G. Atwell’s direction, War kicks off as an FBI crime thriller with Statham’s gruff John Crawford determined to get his man at all costs and Terry Chen’s Tom Lone his equally capable but more even-keel partner. War quickly brings a yakuza thriller element into play with Shiro Yanagawa (Ryo Ishibashi) as its arch-villain ruling over San Francisco from afar, with the added dynamic of warring crime families in play with the movie’s conflict between Shiro’s yakuza and the rival Triad family ruled by Li Chang (John Lone).
Naturally, with Jet Li as co-lead opposite Statham and fight choreography overseen by the late action movie great Corey Yuen, War has the heart of a Hong Kong action movie beating in its chest. Finally, War is, when all is said and done, a revenge thriller of Crawford’s vendetta against both Shiro and Rogue for the murder of Tom and his family. War manages quite a lot of hybrid genre storytelling impressively well with all that it has on its plate from the outset, and when it comes to the movie’s revenge element, it saves its best trick for last.
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War Puts Statham & Li Into Their Darkest Movie (& This May Have Caught Audiences Off-Guard)
While the marketing for War sold the movie as a kinetic, fast-paced martial arts action thriller headlined by two of the biggest action stars in the world, it is arguable that this was at least somewhat misleading — not to the point of false advertising, however, to be clear. War has action a-plenty in Crawford’s determination to bring down Rogue and Shiro, but it is also somewhat more conservative in its pace compared to the mile-a-minute speed its trailer and poster sold (Li’s fight scene with Kane Kosugi, while great, is a bit on the short side, with Kosugi still an unfortunately underrecognized martial arts movie star even after his role in 2013’s Ninja II: Shadow of a Tear opposite Scott Adkins.) However, a far more unexpected curveball for audiences surely had to be the dark tone of War.
Compared to the flashiness of the trailers, War is an extremely dark, bitter revenge movie, which wouldn’t necessarily have been a problem for audiences on its own. However, the movie’s third act twist is such a reversal that War becomes a revenge thriller where the vengeance itself feels much more tragic than cathartic. With audiences having been sold on 100 minutes in which (direct quote from the trailer) “Jet Li and Jason Statham are. at. War!”, the final resolution of the movie and its overall bleak tone probably threw audiences for an unexpected loop that they weren’t ready for (I confess, this at first made War a bit of an acquired taste for me personally, as well.) However, looking back on War, the twist in question is a marvelous pay-off to the movie’s dark tale of vengeance in an underworld crime story.
The Twist In War Is Still Amazing (& Completely Pulls The Rug Out From Under The Audience)
When Rogue finally turns on Shiro in the third act of War, engaging him in a phenomenal katana duel that is the movie’s highlight martial arts fight, Rogue reveals the truth to Shiro and the audience — that he isn’t actually Rogue at all. It turns out, when Rogue attacked the Lone family on Shiro’s orders, Lone’s wife and daughter were killed but Lone managed to subdue and kill Rogue. He then burned down the house to fake his death and has assumed Rogue’s identity through plastic surgery and vocal chord alterations, all to get him close enough to enact his revenge on Shiro. However, just before Lone beheads Shiro, the yakuza boss makes his own surprise reveal — that Crawford was an FBI informant in his employ, and was the man to give Lone’s identity and location to Shiro (Lone at the time believing that Rogue was dead and that Shiro’s enforcers were simply going to Lone’s house to “rough you up a bit” in retaliation for Lone’s apparent but failed killing of Rogue in the movie’s opening.)
The twist ending of War is a huge shocker, and one that completely flips Li and Statham’s respective protagonist-antagonist roles in the movie. This also undoubtedly caught audiences unaware, since when Li and Statham finally do meet in the movie’s smashing final warehouse showdown, the dynamic of who the audience is cheering for has completely shifted. What would normally be a typical revenge fight has instead changed into a battle of friends over one’s betrayal of the other. That also makes it a tough pill to swallow when Lone, upon hearing Crawford’s plea for forgiveness after realizing his friend’s identity, declares “Tom Lone is dead. My name is Rogue” before shooting his former friend in the back. Lone may have been genuinely wronged and gotten his revenge before leaving to start a new life, but the reveal that it was Crawford who betrayed Lone is a lot for the audience to absorb after spending most of the movie rooting for his vengeance against Rogue.
While all of these factors make War a bit of a gut punch on its first viewing, giving it enough time to process ultimately shows its great strength as a Jet Li-Jason Statham action thriller. War delivers on the action quotient with excellent martial arts fight scenes and stunts enveloped in a genre-blending sandwich. Best of all, the twist ending of War does exactly what a twist ending should do: leave the audience shocked and still processing it years later. Jason Statham and Jet Li have plenty of modern action classics on their respective resumes, and it can be said that they share a mutually underrated martial arts crime thriller gem in War.
You can stream War on Paramount+.
