The Purge: Election Year is a American Horror-Thriller directed and written by James DeMonaco. The film is a sequel to 2014s The Purge: Anarchy. The movie stars Frank Grillo, Elizabeth Mitchell, Mykelti Williamson, Joseph Julian Soria and Edwin Hodge.
Plot[]
In 2022, a masked purger taunts a young woman (Cristy Coco) and her entire family. He then tells them they are going to play one final Purge game, called "Mommy's Choice." When she refuses, the man moves slowly towards the family as they struggle.
In 2040, two days before the Purge, riots break out all over Washington, D.C., claiming that the NFFA are using the Purge to aid their economic agenda. The events make a great effect on the upcoming election. Charlie Roan is gaining ground over the NFFA's candidate, Minister Edwidge Owens. It is revealed that she is the young woman from the beginning, and that she alone was spared by the masked purger. The NFFA, headed by US president Caleb Warrens, view Roan as a threat to their rule and plan to assassinate her on Purge night. Meanwhile, Roan and Owens attend a debate and, while Owens states how America's crime rates are lowering, Roan gets a standing ovation after she declares the Purge only serves to eliminate the poor and benefit the rich and powerful, after which she then breaks security protocol, by stepping into the audience. Convenience store owner and proprietor Joe Dixon, his assistant Marcos, and their friend Laney Rucker (Betty Gabriel), watch the coverage on television.
On March 20, the NFFA revokes the Purge immunity rule under the pretense of regaining public trust. That same day, Joe and Laney confront a pair of teenage shoplifters, Kimmy (Brittany Mirabile) and her friend (Juani Feliz), who both leave after recognizing Laney as a former purger. Later, an enraged Joe discovers that his Purge insurance premium has been raised beyond his affordability, prompting him to stake out and guard his store. Roan decides to wait out the Purge from her unsecured home in order to secure the popular vote of the common people. Her head of security, former police sergeant Leo Barnes, initially disagrees with the idea, but accepts her reasons. He then revamps security and has Roan's house re-secured with new barricades and surrounded by secret service agents and SWAT snipers standing watch outside, with his partners Chief Couper and Eric Busmalis (Adam Cantor) as well as three more secret service agents partly supervising the event from indoors. Meanwhile, the country's so-called "murder tourism" adds in stabilizing the economy due to airports across America flooding with more tourists traveling to the United States to witness or join the Purge.
After Purge Night commences, all the characters come to life wearing their Purge Election year costumes. Joe and Marcos repel an attack by the teenage shoplifters, injuring Kimmy. Laney and her partner Dawn patrol the city in a heavily modified ambulance, rendering medical care to the wounded. Roan and Barnes are betrayed by Couper and Busmalis, who are revealed to be NFFA operatives after allowing a paramilitary force led by Earl Danzinger to secretly kill the security detail and let them into the household. As the troops assassinate the three remaining secret service agents, Barnes manages to get Roan to safety, but is wounded in the process. He detonates a bomb in the house, killing Couper, Busmalis, and a few troops. Navigating through the hostile streets of Washington D.C. to seek safer shelter, Roan and Barnes are ambushed and taken captive by a group of Murder Tourists. While the group taunts them, Marcos spots the commotion, prompting him and Joe to leave the store's roof and rescue the duo. They shoot the group dead, and take Barnes and Roan to Joe's store. Roan converses with the two while Marcos tries to tend to Barnes' wound. As Barnes and Joe get into a light argument, Marcos then witnesses the teenage shoplifters returning in two groups, causing Joe to call Laney and Dawn for backup, who cannot respond immediately as they are treating a teenage boy named Rondo (Jared Kemp). As Barnes, Roan, Joe, and Marcos prepare to defend themselves, Laney and Dawn arrive and run over Kimmy and her friend with their ambulance. Laney then guns down the other shoplifters before finishing off a heavily wounded Kimmy with a point-blank headshot. The group then leave the store for a safer hideout.
With all seven safe in the ambulance, the group is ambushed by a helicopter piloted by Danzinger, who ends up killing Rondo. The surviving six then seek refuge underneath a highway overpass wherein Barnes deduces they were found because the bullet in his chest is a tracker. After he extracts the bullet, the group is violently confronted by members of the Crips, who relent when Joe gives the gang's trademark whistle call, revealing his former membership. In exchange for tending to the gang leader's heavily injured "boy", the Crips plant the bullet in another area to trick the paramilitary forces. When two of Danzinger's ground team members find the bullet, the Crips emerge from hiding and eliminate them, while Danzinger himself observes from his radio.
Barnes, Roan, Joe, Laney, Dawn, and Marcos are led to a hideout beneath a hospital protected by anti-Purge rebels led by Dwayne Bishop where volunteer doctors and nurses administer to wounded Purge victims while other professionals supply food, water, and medicines. Joe, Marcos, and Laney decide to go back to the store, but are forced to turn back after spotting several NFFA death squad trucks heading to the hideout, prompting Laney to report to Dawn. Meanwhile, Roan discovers the rebels are planning to assassinate Owens and tries to dissuade them, as she wants to win the election fairly. They are forced to flee as Dawn alerts the entire hideout of death squad forces arriving. Barnes and Roan survive the hostile alleyways, and they meet up again with the ambulance. Barnes orders the group to escape the city, but on their way, the ambulance is rammed by Danzinger, and Roan is captured.
The senator is delivered alongside a drug addict named Lawrence by Danzinger to an NFFA-captured cathedral where Owens presides over a midnight Purge mass, while Barnes and the others give chase. The group meets up with Bishop and his team wherein they formulate a plan to rescue Roan by infiltrating the cathedral through a tunnel system. Meanwhile, at the cathedral, Owens has his friend Harmon James (Christopher James Baker), another NFFA loyalist, stab Lawrence as a cleansing ritual for his longtime vice. As he invites the high-ranking members of the NFFA to the altar to sacrifice Roan with Warrens to lead them in the purging, the group and Bishop's team both reach the cathedral wherein Barnes and his team stealthily eliminate the NFFA Secret Service Agents and take position in the choir loft.
As Warrens begins to slit Roan's throat, Marcos assassinates him from the choir loft, instigating a chaos that signals Bishop's team to invade the cathedral. As the entire congregation begins to disperse and flee in panic, the group fires into the fleeing crowd, killing a vast number of them and leaving only a few, including Owens and James, to escape. A second horde of NFFA secret service agents attempts to eliminate the group but are gunned down by Bishop's team. After the rebels untie Roan, the group heads to the cathedral's crypt to find Owens. Bishop captures Owens and contemplates killing him, to the protests of Roan and Barnes, while Owens goads him on to kill him. Bishop refrains, realizing that killing Owens would be taking part in the Purge and would make him no better. As Barnes knocks Owens unconscious with Joe watching, the group also discovers a large number of bound and gagged Purge mass sacrifice victims that Owens had stashed in the crypt.
Bishop and his men decide to secure transport to leave the cathedral while Barnes, Roan, Joe, Laney, and Marcos attempt to untie the captives. However, they are soon ambushed by Danzinger and his mercenaries, leaving the rebel team killed and Bishop wounded. Barnes rushes out to help him, leaving Roan in the care of Laney and company. Bishop manages to dispatch the remaining mercenaries, but is fatally gunned down by Danzinger. Seeing this, Barnes engages Danzinger in a vicious melee combat wherein the former gains the upper hand, killing the latter. As Roan frees some of the last of Owens' imprisoned victims, James emerges from hiding and fires at the group, killing one of the newly freed victims. After incapacitating Laney and wounding Marcos, he targets Roan, but Joe steps in and engages in a furious crossfire with James, finally killing him with a headshot. Before succumbing to his injuries, Joe urges Roan to win the election and tells Marcos and Laney to take care of his store.
On May 26, two months after the Purge, Roan defeats Owens in the presidency by a landslide while Barnes is appointed as the new Director of the Secret Service. Marcos and Laney renovate the store and continue to run it in Joe's honor while they watch the news of Roan's victory, and another report indicating that outlawing the Purge has become Roan's top priority. Further reports state that many NFFA supporters have reacted to the election results with violent protests as Marcos looks at an American flag hanging outside the store.
Cast[]
- Frank Grillo as Leo Barnes
- Elizabeth Mitchell as Charlie Roan
- Christy Coco as Young Charlie Roan
- Mykelti Williamson as Joe Dixon
- Joseph Julian Soria as Marcos Dali
- Betty Gabriel as Laney Rucker
- Terry Serpico as Earl Danzinger
- Edwin Hodge as Dante Bishop
- Kyle Secor as Edwige Owens
- Liza Colón-Zayas as Dawn
- Ethan Philips as Chief Couper
- Adam Cantor as Eric Busmalis
- Christopher James Baker as Harmon James
- Jared Kemp as Rondo
- Brittany Mirabile as Kimmy
- Raymond J. Barry as Caleb Warrens
- Naheem Garcia as Angel Munoz
- David Aaron Baker as Tommy Roseland
- George Lee Miles as Irish Ike Jenkins
- Johnnie Mae as Mrs. Sabian
- Matt Walton as David Scinicariello
- Barry Nolan as Marq Miller
- Naeem Duren as Rev w/ Angel in Command Centre
- Steven Barkhimer as Drab Suited Man 1
- Tom Kemp as Drab Suited Man 2
- Portland Helmich as Moderator
- Roman Blat as Uncle Sam
- Antoine Coetzee as South African Male
- Drew Cooper as Enormous Gang Member
- Tom Paolino as Axe Headed Man
- Emily Petta as Screaming Woman
- Alexander Cook as Masked Man
- Juani Feliz as Schoolgirl 2
- Jamal Peters as Gang Member with Dying Friend
- Thomas Kee as Crazy Man
- Lonnie Farmer as Man with Bull Horn
- Darcie Fisher as Reporter 3
- Alexander Schuler as Demonic Man
- Hank Amos as Mercenary 8
- Lindsey Pires as Dancer 1
- Emily Smith as Dancer 2
Uncredited[]
- Nicholas Rexford as Lawrence
- London Hall as Mrs. Roan
- James Best as Charlie's Brother
- Ilyana Eberhardt as Woman Strapped onto a Car
- Kimberly Howe as Schoolgirl 4
- Kachina Dechert and Becca GT as Lady Liberty
- Kt Baldassaro as Flag Face Murder Tourist
- Unknown as Mr. Roan
- Unknown as Bobby
- Unknown as Abraham Lincoln
- Unknown as Skull Mask Murder Tourist
- Unknown as Male Flag-faced Murder Tourist
- Unknown as Flag Dress Murder Tourist
- Unknown as George Washington
Production[]
You can find the official merchandise of the Masks from the Purge Movies at purgeculture.com
Trivia[]
- Several scenes reference Jim Crow era:
- The paramilitary team wear hate symbols on them:
- Earl Danzinger sports Nazi swastika tattoos as well as neo-Nazi patches
- Some of the mercenaries wear Confederate flags patches on their uniforms while another batch wears "White Power" patches.
- The cathedral congregation are all depicted as white.
- The paramilitary team wear hate symbols on them:
- The gang encountered by the protagonist group is the Crips, one of many notorious African American gangs in the United States
- The cathedral scene in the film was shot at St. Anne's Church Complex in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.
Gallery[]
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