Riders of Justice

This subtitled, Danish comedy-thriller is filled with violent action that is explored in a way that also communicates positive feelings and ideals. It affirms human connection where grief, shame, revenge, violence and remorse mix seamlessly with empathy, love, understanding, and caring. The mix is held together by razor-sharp scripting by the film’s director, Anders Thomas Jensen.

The film is set in Northern Europe, close to Christmas time. A bike belonging to a girl called, Mathilde (Andrea Heick Gadeberg), is stolen and the incident causes Mathilde and her mother, Emma (Anne Birgitte Lind) – whose car won’t start – to return home another way. They decide to catch a train home, and it crashes. Mathilde’s father Markus is a Danish military soldier, named Markus (Mads Mikkelsen), and he returns from Afghanistan to care for his daughter, after the train-accident killed his wife. At home, Markus relates to Mathilde roughly, refuses counselling, and struggles to connect with his grief-stricken daughter. A fellow passenger and survivor of the train smash, Otto (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) arrives to tell Markus that he doesn’t think the train incident was an accident, and that foul play was involved. He claims the accident was intended to kill a passenger who was travelling to testify against a criminal bikie gang, called ‘Riders of Justice’. If that story is true, the attack on the train was a carefully planned assassination attempt, and Emma was its casualty. The movie moves into dark, revenge-thriller mode, which is tinged with black humour, and the mix works well. Otto gave up his seat to Emma seconds before the train crashed, and Otto feels guilt for Emma’s death. Otto’s friends include a statistical-probability misfit, Lennart (Lars Brygmann), and a computer whiz, French Horn player, Emmenthaler (Nicholas Bro). Otto and Lennart convince Markus that the crash was a targeted killing connected with the “Riders of Justice”, and Otto, Lennart, and Emmenthaler work together (with great humour) to find out what happened, while Markus enacts revenge on those he thinks have killed his wife.

The film plays fast and loose in a fascinating way with the question: Was the train crash premeditated, or did it result from a series of events that happened by chance, and who were actually involved? As a result of the complexities and ambiguities of finding the right answer, the viewer is exposed to human contradictions, probable events that might have happened but did not (and some that did), and contradictory indications stemming from the known past of the people who were involved. All the characters in the movie are damaged individuals in some way, and events wildly intersect in a chance and pre-determined fashion. The movie is a maze of twists and surprises. As an action film, it totally transcends any standard revenge plotline, and none of the characters are in any way stereotypical. The film is brutal, violent, funny, and humane at the same time, and its unexpected action thrusts turn out to be understandable, so long as one knows the probabilities of what is likely to happen, and the history of the characters involved.

A complex mix such as this one requires excellent direction, and Anders Jensen brilliantly guides the movie in an entertaining, and thoughtful way, until the right answer is provided. The film bridges social satire, physical comedy, human emotions (eg, grief, guilt, sadness, aggression, and revenge), as well as human frailty and vulnerability. The film communicates strong empathy for damaged people, where trauma, coincidence, and statistical probability collide head-on, with Anders Jensen masterfully guiding the mix. This is a highly inventive movie that dramatically and comically communicates that every action in our lives, intentional or not, has a chain of consequences that potentially reflect set statistical probabilities, and chance occurrences – reflecting life, as it has been lived. A smart and stimulating movie, not to be missed.