The Bad Guys: Reign of Chaos — Characters & Cast

Loyalty first, freedom second. He fights to settle debts owed to the people he considers his own, and the promise of a reduced sentence is a bonus rather than a cause.

Begins as an incarcerated gangster serving 28 years for a crime he took on for a friend, and is pulled back into service as the unit's blunt instrument. Reviewers singled out his tough-guy attitude and comedy scenes as the film's biggest strength — the arc runs from resigned muscle-for-hire to a man taking the mission personally after an ally is killed, culminating in his confrontation with the boss Yoshihara. The ending finds him not released into peace but recruited for the next job.

Closing the case that defines him, and protecting a method the establishment considers indefensible: that the right criminals, correctly aimed, are the best police force available.

The former boss of the unorthodox special unit, rehired to hunt down the escaped crime boss and the other fugitives. He carries the weight of the operation and of his own failing body — sources describe him recovering from cancer and returning to duty — so his arc is one of a man refusing to be retired by either bureaucracy or illness.

Working her own bargain with the unit while refusing to be underestimated by the men on either side of the law.

A new character created for the film rather than carried over from the series. Reviews describe her wrapping the men around her little finger with her sex appeal before proving she can also handle herself in hand-to-hand combat — a progression from decorative asset to a strong supporting force in the team's operations.

Proving himself inside a team of veterans and earning his place — and his sentence reduction — through nerve.

Also a new addition to the ensemble, functioning as the youthful, volatile counterweight to Woong-cheol's mass and Goo-tak's age. His presence refreshes the drama's original line-up and supplies much of the film's speed-based action alongside its heavier brawling.

Keeping his name off the record and his network intact, at any cost in bodies.

The power hidden behind the organization, whose exposure the imprisoned boss was about to provide. He operates through corrupted officials rather than his own hands, ordering the theft of the incriminating diary and the murder of the witness. His arc is one of insulation stripped away layer by layer until the unit reaches his factory basement, where he is beaten and arrested.