Whilst out on deployment in Afghanistan, Markus (Mads Mikkelsen) is given the tragic news that his wife has been killed in a train accident. Returning home to care for his daughter Mathilde (Andrea Heick Gadeberg) his life is further turned upside down when Otto (Nikolaj Lie Kaas), a statistician and survivor of the crash turns up at his door. Is it possible that the accident that claimed his wife’s life was not a random occurrence and was actually an assassination of a key witness against the biker gang ‘Riders of Justice’? 

Put simply, Riders of Justice is a gem of a movie. Whilst the marketing department may present it as a revenge movie about a man getting retribution for his wife’s death, it is far more about statistics and events and how they shape everything that we do. 

When we first meet Otto and his friend Lennart (Lars Brygmann) they are pitching the importance of an algorithm that they have created that predicts future events. The issue of course is that it does not work. The reason being is that it does not have the relevant volume of data to make correct inferences from. This Otto argues is the same reason that humans consider certain events to be coincidence, because we are unable to process the data around us. 

This entire subject is infinitely fascinating. All of our characters have suffered from trauma in some way and the film forces you to consider how each of those traumas has shaped their behaviour and led them to where they are. Markus is a soldier and is used to violence. Otto suffered a bereavement due to a misadventure in his youth. Lennart was abused as a child. Whilst the final member of Otto’s friendship group, Emmenthaler (Nicolas Bro) was unable to continue to play the French Horn when he became too old to play in the school band. There is even a discussion around belief in God is simply an antiquated mechanism to help us manage the sense of dread caused by the inability to process what our brains can only see as hopeless coincidence and the fact that therapy should be the modern replacement. 

On top of this brilliant and interesting analysis the film adds two other feathers in its cap. It is hilariously funny and features very tense action sequences. Our techie group of nerds are hilarious. Otto, Lennart and Emmenthaler spend their time bickering and fighting with each other to great comic effect. Emmenthaler is also prone to bouts of ‘potty mouth’ that I could not help but laugh uncontrollably too. Whilst Mikkelsen brings an imposing towering performance to his military trained Markus. 

What is perhaps most impressive is that co-writer and director Anders Thomas Jensen ties a seemingly unrelated prologue and epilogue into the film that perfectly sums up the entire point of the story. 

All in all it is a must watch film.