The Purge: Anarchy

The Purge: Anarchy
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	James DeMonaco
Written by	James DeMonaco
Produced by	Jason Blum Michael Bay Andrew Form Brad Fuller Sebastien Lemercier
Starring	Frank Grillo Carmen Ejogo Zach Gilford Kiele Sanchez Michael K. Williams
Cinematography	Jacques Jouffret
Edited by	Todd E. Miller Vince Filippone
Music by	Nathan Whitehead
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	July 18, 2014 (2014-07-18)
Running time	103 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$9-11 million
Box office	$111.9 million

The Purge: Anarchy is a 2014 American social science fiction action horror film written and directed by James DeMonaco. The sequel to the 2013 film The Purge, it stars Frank Grillo, Carmen Ejogo, Zach Gilford, Kiele Sanchez, Zoë Soul and Michael K. Williams, with Edwin Hodge as the only actor to reprise his role from the first film. It was released worldwide on July 18, 2014. It is the second installment in DeMonaco's Purge film series.

The film was met with mixed reviews, with most critics agreeing the film was an improvement over the original, and grossed over $111 million. The movie is notable for its dramatic change over the original: while the first film was set entirely in one house, this film is set in the Los Angeles area to give the notion of what usually happens during the Purge. A third film in the series, The Purge: Election Year, is set to be released on July 1, 2016.

About The Purge event

In 2022, "The New Founding Fathers of America" have established a new totalitarian government and a police state, following economic collapse. Using the 28th amendment of the U.S Constitution, the government has established one night a year – called "The Purge", which occurs on March 21 to 22, in which all crime is legal and all police, fire, and medical emergency services remain unavailable for 12 hours from 7 p.m. until 7 a.m. the next day. The only rules are that no government officials with authorization levels of 10 and higher are to be disturbed and all weapons above Class 4 (explosive devices such as grenades, rocket launchers, bazookas, etc.) are forbidden. Anyone who violates the rules of the Purge would be publicly executed by hanging. The purge has resulted in crime and unemployment rates plummeting to 1% and a strong economy. Although it is thought to be used as an act of catharsis for the U.S. populace, in reality, it is used as a method of artificial population control as the unemployed poor in slum neighborhoods are usually the main targets.

Plot

On March 21, 2023, the media credits the Purge for low unemployment and poverty levels across the country. Hours before the annual Purge begins, people either prepare to commit violence or barricade themselves indoors. Meanwhile, an anti-Purge resistance group intermittently hacks into TV programs to broadcast messages challenging the system, stating that the Purge does not cleanse aggression, but rather eliminates the poor.

In Los Angeles, a waitress named Eva Sanchez (Carmen Ejogo) rushes home to her daughter Cali (Zoë Soul) and her terminally ill father. As they prepare to lock down for the evening, Eva's father slips out and into a waiting limo. A note left behind explains that he has sold himself as a Purge offering for $100,000 to be paid to Eva following the Purge.

Married couple Shane (Zach Gilford) and Liz (Kiele Sanchez) are driving to Shane's sister to wait out the Purge. Their car dies just as the Purge commences. A gang that cut their fuel line when they stopped at a market appears, forcing Shane and Liz to flee on foot. Elsewhere, an unnamed off-duty police Sergeant (Frank Grillo) tells his ex-wife that he must Purge to avenge the death of his son, and goes out into the streets heavily armed.

Moments after the Purge commences, a truck pulls up at the apartment house and disgorges heavily armed paramilitary men into the neighborhood. The apartment building's superintendent, who felt rejected by Eva in the past, bursts in with a shotgun intending to rape and kill them both. The paramilitary fighters enter the house, kill him with multiple gunshots, and drag Eva and Cali out into the street to be taken to their leader, Big Daddy (Jack Conley) for his own personal purge. As Big Daddy prepares his minigun to murder Eva and Cali, the Sergeant exits his car, murders all the surrounding paramilitary men and shoots Big Daddy in his cheek, incapacitating him. He rescues Eva and Cali, offering them protection. Returning to his car, the Sergeant finds Shane and Liz hiding in the back. The Sergeant is forced to take them when Big Daddy begins firing the minigun at the Sergeant's car. When the heavily damaged car breaks down a few blocks later, Eva promises him the car of her co-worker Tanya (Justina Machado) if the Sergeant takes them to her apartment.

The group descends into the city's underground subway system where the homeless are hiding to avoid the Purgers on higher ground. They think they are safe, but a Purge pyrotechnics gang wielding flamethrowers and a minigun arrive in the tunnel and begin to set the homeless people on fire, while also starting to advance on the Sergeant and the others. The gang attempts to murder the group, but Shane and Liz use the Sergeant's machine guns and open fire on their assailants, creating a massive explosion which kills the murderers, and the five leave the tunnel to reach higher ground.

As the five survive intense street fighting, they notice a man in a suit tied to a wall outside with a knife in his stomach, implying that many wealthy Purgers and paramilitary men are being murdered by Anti-Purge resistance fighters. After reaching Tanya's apartment, Eva admits that there is no car. Tanya's sister Lorraine (Roberta Valderrama) suddenly shoots Tanya for sleeping with Lorraine's husband. As the group flees, Big Daddy, who has tracked them through traffic cameras, arrives with more armed guards. The groups evades Big Daddy only to be captured by the gang that was pursuing Liz and Shane.

Liz asks the gang why they are doing this, and one of the masked members responds that they will not kill them, but that they will die that night. The gang leaves the five at a building where they are delivered to a theater, and discover that The Purgers bid on the five, and they are forced into the Purging chamber. However, the Sergeant creates a violent revolt, brutally beating and killing many of the wealthy Purgers and leaving Shane, Liz, Eva and Cali to kill the rest. The observers of the event alert the theater's elite security forces of the activity after the Sergeant fires at them, and they swarm the chamber and kill Shane. Just before the security can kill the four, Anti-Purge insurgency forces storm the chamber and begin to murder the security guards, killing a large number of them. Liz chooses to join the fighters to avenge Shane's death. The Sergeant hijacks a wealthy Purger's Cadillac with Eva and Cali, and threatens her before they drive away.

The Sergeant drives to a suburban neighborhood. He explains that a year earlier, Warren Grass (Brandon Keener), killed the Sergeant's son while drunk driving, getting off with light charges due to a technicality. Sergeant attacks Grass and his wife in their bedroom, threatening Grass with a knife before the camera cuts away. Leaving the house, the Sergeant is shot and wounded by Big Daddy, who says the New Founding Fathers believe the Purge eliminates too few of lower class and they have secretly dispatched death squads to increase the body count. He states the unwritten rule: do not save people. But before he kills Sergeant, Grass appears and shoots Big Daddy, killing him, revealing that Sergeant chose to forgive and spare him. Eva, Cali, and Grass have a standoff with Big Daddy's death squad when the siren blares, ending the 12-hour Purge and forcing the death squad to leave the scene. Grass, Eva, and Cali rush the Sergeant to the hospital as emergency services begin cleaning up after the Annual Purge.

Cast

• Frank Grillo as Sergeant
• Carmen Ejogo as Eva Sanchez
• Zach Gilford as Shane
• Kiele Sanchez as Liz
• Zoë Soul as Cali Sanchez
• Justina Machado as Tanya
• John Beasley as Papa Rico Sanchez
• Jack Conley as Big Daddy
• Noel G. as Diego
• Castulo Guerra as Barney
• Michael K. Williams as Carmelo Johns
• Edwin Hodge as The Stranger
• Keith Stanfield as Young Ghoul Face
• Roberta Valderrama as Lorraine
• Brandon Keener as Warren Grass

Production

On June 10, 2013 Universal Pictures and Jason Blum announced the development of the sequel, after the success of The Purge. Initially a release date was set for June 20, 2014 although this was later pushed back to July 18

Principal photography was underway in Los Angeles when Blumhouse Productions released their countdown promo art on January 1, 2014. Filming wrapped on February 10, 2014.

Marketing

The first trailer was released on February 12, 2014. On March 27, another full-length trailer was released by Universal. Another new trailer was released on June 23.

Home media

The Purge: Anarchy was released on Blu-ray, DVD, Digital on October 21, 2014.

Reception

Box office

The Purge: Anarchy grossed $72 million in America and $38.6 million in other countries for a total gross of $110.6 million, against a budget of $9 million.

The film was released in North America in 3,303 theaters, and earned $2.6 million in its first night. In its opening weekend, the film grossed $29.8 million, finishing in second place. This was about $4 million less than the opening of the original film ($34 million).

Critical reception

The Purge: Anarchy received mixed reviews from both critics and audiences, but found praise for Grillo's performance, with many noting that it was an improvement over the first film. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 56%, based on 119 reviews, with the consensus reading: "Gritty, grisly, and uncommonly ambitious, The Purge: Anarchy represents a slight improvement over its predecessor, but it's still never as smart or resonant as it tries to be". On Metacritic, the film has a score 50 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a B grade on a scale of A to F.

Sequel

A third film in the series titled The Purge: Election Year is scheduled to be released on July 1, 2016.

Other media

The film was the theme for a scare zone in the 2014 edition of Halloween Horror Nights at two of the Universal Parks & Resorts. It was also a house at Halloween Horror Nights the following year in Orlando while Hollywood received a scare zone and being the main theme of Terror Tram.

External links

• Official website
• The Purge: Anarchy at IMDb
• The Purge: Anarchy at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Purge: Anarchy at the Internet Movie Firearms Database