When a film’s title contains an exclamation point, you’re already off to a good start. Just look at acclaimed projects like The Informant!, Mars Attacks!, and Everybody Wants Some!! A new film being released in the U.S. by IFC Films, however, is a bit more serious than these aforementioned titles.

Mayhem! is an acclaimed new film that was featured at last year’s Beyond Fest in Southern California to a pleasantly rowdy crowd that was wincing, cheering and hollering at various set pieces throughout this international bonanza. The story follows an ex-con named Sam (Nassim Lyes) who finds himself running from his former, crime-laced employers in France all the way to Thailand to start anew. But the past ain’t through with us, as they say. The rest of the film is a gritty, hard-R-rated revenge saga that may just leave you fist-pumping and cheering for Sam as he tracks down a wide variety of villains.

We recently caught up with Lyes, writer-director Xavier Gens, and fight choreographer/stunt coordinator Jude Poyer to learn more about how they pulled it all off both behind and in front of the camera.

Taking Us Somewhere ‘Exotic’

Gens crafts quite the modern-day crime thriller with Mayhem!, on top of the countless action set pieces. The end result becomes a thought-provoking statement on society, particularly the struggles that ex-cons face upon re-entering civilian life. “For me, it was reading articles about people going into Thailand to reinvent themselves,” Gens told MovieWeb. “Weirdly, in France, there’s a lot of people who have been in jail and, as soon as they’re outside, they want to ram on themselves, restart, and reboot their life.” He added:

And they go there, and they start rebooting their life. Some of them go in the good way, trying to build up small business, like restaurants, these kinds of things. And some also are taking the wrong way. So we decided to tell the story of someone taking the wrong way.

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And this “wrong way” story certainly tickled the fancy of star Lyes, who already had a bit of a working relationship with Gens before production of Mayhem! officially began. “Funny story, behind the scenes,” said Lyes. “I was a huge fan of Gangs of London, season one. And so I was in New York with my girlfriend, and I had to send a self-tape for season two of Gangs. And I was like, ‘Oh, I can see that [Xavier and I] have a lot of common friends, which is apparent on Instagram, so I’m gonna give it a try. And so then, Xavier said I’m not going to be part of season two, ‘but let’s have a drink, a coffee when you’re back in Paris.'”

“So we had that very early coffee, and Xavier was pitching me Mayhem! I was like, ‘That’s crazy because I’ve been waiting my entire life to have this kind of script.’ I have a fighter background, and I was doing Thai boxing for 15 years. So it was like a dream come true. And then at the end of the conference, he was like, ‘But unfortunately, I already have an actor for that part, that role.’ So I was like, ‘Ah, okay, cool.’ I was really sad. And then three weeks later… he called me and he was like, ‘The actor is not available. So would you like to be part of it?’ And I was like, ‘Of course!’ I jumped in.”

On top of the aforementioned violence, thrills and true-crime components, Mayhem! at the end of the day has a heart. “What I loved in this script, it’s not only an action movie,” said Lyes. “Sam is not only an action hero, he has this emotional core to it… because there are so many action movies where the heroes don’t have this weakness. And that’s really what I loved about Sam’s character.”

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That Elevator Scene: ‘The Crescendo of the Action’

But thanks to Sam’s action-hero antics, there are a number of groundbreaking fight sequences throughout the film. We had to ask Poyer — who was instrumental in putting them all together — which was the most memorable. “I think the elevator fight, which had to be the crescendo of the action,” he said. “When Xavier first talked to me about the movie project, he just gave me a very rough outline. But he knew that he wanted this fight in an elevator. And before we get into the choreography… Xavier and I liked to talk about the emotion and the drama that’s driving that sequence. And for me, that fight is a fight about survival.” He added:

“And one thing I love to do is, sometimes, to misdirect the audience or lead the audience in one direction, and they think it’s going to go one way. So in the case of this sequence, we’ve had this fight in the corridor where Sam makes pretty easy work of a lot of bunch of people, a lot of armed people. And then it switches, and now I want the audience to really feel that he could die and that his life’s in danger.”

Lyes was certainly in agreement about the elevator scene being memorable, particularly because of the multiple ways in which it was challenging. “It was the size of a real elevator,” he told us. “We spent four days [in it], and the temperature was really high. And in terms of intensity, there’s almost 100 shots for that sequence. And every shot is like one or two seconds, but you have to put the same intensity every time. And Jude is editing live on set, so he knows when we can move forward or not.”

And sometimes… I had to repeat the the same movement over and over again with the same intensity. And I remember I almost passed out… But when you see the results, you have no regrets. And if I had to do it again, I would jump on the occasion.

Besides Lyes’ character, there’s another daunting figure in the film: French crime lord Narong, played with ultimate sleeze by Olivier Gourmet. Watch out for a nerve-wracking fistfight between the two that will probably leave you shielding your eyes. “Olivier was huge,” said Lyes. “I stupidly told him, ‘When you choke me, do it a bit more.’ But it was four in the morning, I was super tired, and I almost passed out the second time because he was choking me. And you see in the shot, my eyes are almost out.”

Check out the scene for yourself! From IFC Films, Mayhem! is now in theaters.