In 2007, Elite Squad became one of the most popular films to come out of Brazil in years with critics giving it universal praise and audience goers loving every minute of it. Like in the states, when a movie is wildly popular it only makes sense that the movie’s studio, along with its director and co-writer José Padilha, would want to make a sequel. That dream has now been realized because on November 11th, the most popular film of all time in South America, Elite Squad: The Enemy Within (Tropa de Elite 2 – O Inimigo Agora É Outro), will be hitting theaters here in the US and to say that it was a solid action crime drama would be a severe understatement.
Elite Squad: The Enemy Within picks up some time after the first film with Rio de Janerio still being one of the most dangerous places on Earth. Captain Nascimento (Wagner Moura) is still the head of BOPE (Special Police Operations Battalion) and after a mission to a prison to subdue a riot goes horribly wrong, thanks to a human rights leader named Frago (Irandhir Santos) blowing the situation out of proportion, both Nascimento and Captain Matias (André Ramiro) lose their jobs. Nascimento is eventually hailed as a hero for killing a crime lord and is given a promotion to work as the Sub-Secretary of Intelligence. In this position, he is able to crush the drug cartels but in doing so he opens up a channel, or new system, for corrupt cops and politicians to take control of the slums themselves, making money off of everything and creating an even more hostile environment for honest people to live. Eventually, Nascimento becomes aware of the troubling situation and now must find a way to take out enemies that are within his new circle without getting his family and himself killed in the process.
This sequel was an excellent piece of cinema and one that I would highly recommend to people who enjoyed the first film or just love crime dramas. Jose Padilha has set this film up so that you don’t necessarily have to see the first film to enjoy the second one. There are two slight connections to the previous one and it is through Captain Matias’ presence in this feature and the fact that once again, Nascimento is battling a “resilient system.” It’s such a brilliant move because it becomes almost impossible to alienate any audience member who hasn’t seen the first allowing it to maximize the film’s box office returns.
The one complaint that some people might have is that the first leg of the film is really slow even with the prison riot scene. And while that may be true I believe it is necessarily because the movie builds up an entirely new story and one that’s more politically charged rather than action based, which means that the dialogue is going to be much heavier 
than in the first. Actually, by the end of the movie it feels like you’re watching a political thriller similar to The Manchurian Candidate. It’s that third act where the genre transformation begins to take place due to the all terrible things that keep happening to Nascimento. It’s in that final half hour when the former Captain resorts to his former badass self and creates some of the most intense and exciting parts of the entire film. When he gets mad, that’s when the shit really hits the fan. You can’t help but cheer him on, no matter what he decides to do.
What’s great about Elite Squad 2 is that it ends in such a way that leaves it open for a potential third and final film and, if that film is good, it could make the Elite Squad trilogy one of the best trilogies made in the past 20 years.
Overall, Elite Squad: The Enemy Within accomplishes what very few sequels manage to do, maintaining the same quality of the original and possibly even surpassing it. Jose Padilha did an excellent job directing the film and was able to draw out some outstanding performances from Moura, Santos and Ramiro. Together they created an intense and exciting film that will get your heart pounding and have you craving for more.
Rating: An intense and provocative crime drama that’s just as good as the first, if not better. (8/10)
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