Netflix released the action/gun-fu film Havoc on April 25, 2025. It stars Tom Hardy as Walker, a cop who isn’t straight as an arrow. He’s done some things he’s not proud of. And now it’s causing him and others havoc.
I found the film to be a fun thrill ride. The action was swift. The car chases disorientating (as they should be). And the story is compelling.
As Walker struggles with his decisions, he has to figure out a way forward. Havoc is a story about choices. How they impact you and those around you.
Through all of this, we can look at Havoc with a focus on leadership. There’s plenty of it, good and bad. Let’s do this Reel Leadership thing.
Quotes And Leadership Lessons From Netflix’s Havoc
1. Walker:
You live in this world, you make choices. Choices you try to justify. For yourself, for your family. And for a while it works. Until it doesn’t. Until you make a choice that renders everything worthless.
The film opens with a voiceover by Walker. He’s talking about choices.
He’s made some good ones. He’s made some bad ones.
He lived in a crooked world. One where he and his partners did some bad things. Now, he’s living with the consequences of those choices. Those choices have taken everything away from him.
Leaders must be highly aware of the choices they make. Good, bad, indifferent. All the choices matter.
Your choices will lead you down paths. Some paths you cannot come back from.
Be aware of the choices you’re making and the impact they’re having.
2. Innocent people are often victims of bad leadership choices:
A group of thieves, Charlie (Justin Cornwell), Mia (Quelin Sepulveda), Johnny (Xelia Mendes-Jones), and Wes (Jim Caesar), were attempting to steal a semi loaded with washing machines. But that wasn’t all. The washing machines were stuffed full of cocaine. They could make the score of a lifetime.
They’re fleeing the police, and it is an intense car chase. Cars are everywhere. People are everywhere. And people were hurt.
You see innocent drivers slamming into bridge pillars. Their cars are totaled. Maybe their lives are lost.
Whatever the situation, innocent people were victims of the thief’s actions.
You’re not out there stealing washing machines. You’re not trying to score cocaine. Yet, your actions are intersecting with the lives of others.
Bad business decisions can lead to plant closures. Which then impacts the innocent people you’ve led for years. Or maybe you had to let go of one of your best employees because they chose to break a rule in the handbook. Now, others are picking up their slack.
Innocent people are now working harder, getting frustrated, and more because of bad leadership choices.
3. Waiting until the last minute can limit your choices:
Walker enters a convenience store. It’s Christmas Eve. He wants to buy a Christmas present for his daughter.
There’s not much left. When Walker is shocked and asks the clerk if it is all he has, the clerk responds that it is, and when you wait until the last minute, your choices are limited.
Big business decisions cannot wait until the last minute. Waiting limits your choices.
If a big decision is coming up, examine everything. Pour over the data. Seek answers.
The longer you wait to explore options, the more limited the options become.
4. Pause And Take Things In:
Walker is a homicide cop. He enters the crime scene and pauses.
His mind begins to wander. But not to a bad place. He’s using his imagination.
He envisions what happens. He sees how the perpetrators moved and acted.
His pause led him to a recreation of the crime scene.
We’ve got to pause. We have to stop. We have to use our imaginations to fill in the gaps.
When things are tough, stop. Look at everything you know. What lines up? What doesn’t? What’s new? What’s not? How have things changed?
The more information you take in and process in the pause, the more you can understand the situation you’re walking into.
5. Figure out if the information you have aligns with the evidence you have:
Walker was assigned a new partner. Her name is Ellie (Jessie Mei Li).
They’re provided with a video from the crime scene. The footage shows Charlie and Mia fleeing. They’re holding pistols.
For Walker, something isn’t adding up…
Mia is holding a pistol. That is not the weapon used to kill all of the people in the room. The weapon used was a high-powered assault weapon.
Walker begins to suspect that Charlie and Mia were not the killers, as the information he has doesn’t align with that theory.
We walk into situations where we only have a glimpse of the evidence. There’s not a complete picture but only a glimpse.
We’re also often given an overview and assessment of what’s happened.
When the evidence and overview don’t match, make sure you investigate the situation deeper.
6. The public persona needs to match the inner persona:
Walker brings the video to Lawrence Beaumont (Forest Whitaker). He’s the mayor of the city.
There’s something disturbing in the video. The video shows Lawrence’s son, Charlie, as being involved in the situation.
Lawrence is upset. He wants Walker to help sweep this under the rug. He’s trying to run a mayoral campaign on the promise of cleaning up the city. He’s failing, and he’s also a part of the corruption.
The mayor’s public and personal personas do not align. And that’s a problem.
Major problems arise when your public and personal personas do not match.
If you claim your organization is family-focused but prioritize money above all else, there’s a misalignment. If you claim to love your friends but never spend time with them, there’s a misalignment.
We need to align our words with our true selves. If we don’t, an eternal struggle will destroy you, as we see happen to the characters in Havoc.
7. Everything stems from our choices:
It’s revealed that Walker, along with his partners, Vincent (Timothy Olyphant) and Jake (Richard Harrington), had been involved in the stolen cocaine fiasco. They were trying to recover the stolen semi full of it when everything went wrong.
The whole film happens because of this bad choice. The deaths, the tragedies, the destruction.
Everything from the bad choices Walker, Vincent, and Jake had made.
Once again, I can’t reiterate how much our choices impact our lives. Everything stems from our choices.
8. Beware of your own agenda:
Ching (Sunny Pang) is a loyal triad member who betrays Tsui’s Mother (Yann Yann Yeo) because of his jealousy. He was frustrated to see Tsui (Jeremy Ang Jones) rise to the top of the triad leadership, feeling he should have been in that role.
Vincent, once loyal to the corrupt cop, has begun to work for Ching. He saw it as an easy way to gain influence and wealth. Eventually, Vincent turns on Ching in the film.
Both of these guys were corrupt. Both of them had their own agenda. Both would do whatever it took to see their own agenda fulfilled.
I’ve seen so many leaders have an agenda. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Your agenda is what you want to see done.
However, agendas become dangerous when they lead you to betray others, engage in immoral actions, and cause harm. Our agendas need to align with and serve others. When they don’t, they become dangerous.
9. Vincent:
Hard to tell you’re a cop in the dark.
Walker and Ellie use Ching to meet with Vincent. Vincent believes the drug buyer will be there. He’s not.
As Ching and Vincent meet, one of them tells them to freeze. Walker tells Vincent he doesn’t look like a cop killer. Vincent’s response? It would be hard to tell who’s a cop in the dark.
It’s a great reference to the moral ambiguity Walker has lived in throughout the film. His identity as a cop is hard to tell.
The more you lead in the dark, the harder it is to see you as a real leader. Your choices don’t align with authentic leadership. Your actions don’t align.
Are you a real leader? Or are you just playing one?
It’s hard to tell you’re a leader if you’re not leading well.
10. Ellie:
They didn’t kill your son. You’ve been chasing the wrong people.
Tsui’s mother had been chasing Charlie and Mia because she believed they had killed her son. We all knew that wasn’t true while watching the movie. We knew the actual killer.
Tsui’s mother’s vengeance caused a lot of damage. All because she chased the wrong people.
We cause a lot of damage when we chase the wrong issue, challenge, or shiny object. We need to ensure we’re focused on the right things.
If we don’t, we’ll be going after the wrong thing. Let’s make sure we have the right focus before going after it.
