The Purge (2013)

"Blessed be the New Founding Fathers for letting us Purge and cleanse our souls, Blessed be America, a nation reborn"

 

Finally getting around to watching The Purge!  I have been waiting to see The Purge since late last year, and fell in love with the concept.  If you don't know the concept, here's a quick rundown; every year for 12 hours the government shuts down and lets the citizens run wild, letting them do what ever they want, (like setting fires, murder, thievery, etc.) with no punishment.  All this helps keep violence down the rest of the year, also the movie is set in 2022, only 9 years into the future.  Great concept, right?

 

So the movie starts off with a showing of the 'Purge Feed' which shows bits and pieces of the annual Purge festivities from 2017 to 2021 that take place all over the world.  We see people setting things on fire, shooting people, and dead people laying in the streets.  Now to future time, we see a guy, James, driving around, calling up a few people to check out how things are going for tonight.  We find out that James works for a home security system company, perfect for The Purge, huh?  James arrives at home and we go to title screen, and we get a time stamp:

 

March 21, 2022

5:58pm

62 minutes until the start of The Annual Purge

 

Inside the house we meet James' wife, Mary, who is cooking dinner.  Mary tells him that dinner is almost ready, and they're daughter, Zoey is sulking over this guy, Henry, and he needs to take care of it.  James says he will and heads off to make some phone calls before The Purge starts.  Upstairs we see Zoey, with who I can only assume is Henry making out, who didn't see this coming?  Zoey tells him that she loves him, and he says they should growl instead because 'I love you' is too played out, ugh.  Henry and Zoey walk out onto the balcony, and we see they're neighbor sharpening his machete, Henry leaves.

 

Outside we see Mary putting out blue flowers, which in the beginning every house had.  I'm going to assume that if a house doesn't have blue flowers then they are a target.  Mary runs into her neighbor, Grace, who made her some cookies, and who appears to be the community gossip.  After several insults thrown in the sweetest way, Mary heads back inside.  Back inside, we are being shown around the house on ground level, where we follow Mary into the kitchen.  Turns out it's her son, Charlie's toy (who is named Timmy), which is freaking creepy, just look at it!

 

"Quit playing with Timmy and come help me set the table"

 

Charlie leaves this little hole in the back of his closet, where there are pictures of the Purge, can you say future serial killer?  In the kitchen Mary is preparing dinner, she heads to the fridge, and they set us up for a shock gag, which is one of my favorites, (shock gag is where something opens and when its closed someone is there, commonly used in bathroom mirrors, incase you didn't know) and it's Charlie, scaring her yet again!

 

Later that night everyone is at the table eating, Zoey cops an attitude about being asked how her day went.  Charlie tells us that he learned about the history of the Purge in history class, and then points out that the Purge is about to start.  They all head into a room, where several monitor's are set up showing security feeds of the house, they arm the house and James grabs a gun 'just for precaution'.  Charlie turns the news on and the emergency bulletin comes up saying everything goes, and all government is shut down until 7am.

"Release the beast and Purge"

 

Charlie asks why they don't go out, James says they don't feel the need to.  After that everyone splits up, Zoey to her room, Mary to the indoor gym, James to his office, and Charlie to play with Timmy.  In Zoey's room we see that Henry snuck in, before they armed, he tells her that he didn't come to see her, but to see her father, 10 bucks says James kills him by the end of the movie.  Timmy (aka creepy doll on wheels) goes into the control room, and sees someone running from something on one of the monitors.  Charlie runs to the control room and disarms the house and lets the guy in, who we see is covered in blood.

 

Mary and James go running to the front door to see what happened, Henry appears and pulls a gun on James.  James pulls his own gun and shoots Henry, where's my 10 bucks at?  In all the chaos, the bloody guy has disappeared, and Zoey has fled back to her room with Henry, who is bleeding out.  James grabs Mary and Charlie, and they head to a safe room, James leaves to go find Zoey.  James heads to Zoeys room, and finds Henry dead, and Zoey no where to be seen, however in the background we see bloody guy, but he leaves before James can see him

 

Back in the safe room, Mary hears Zoey calling out and goes to get her, Zoey tells her Henry's dead and that she's sorry, and then she runs off.  During all of that Charlie keeps calling out for Mary to come see something on the monitor.  We see 7 people fully armed with weapons approaching the house.  James returns to the room, as a guy and a girl approach the front door, the guy they let in is they're target and they want him back, or else.  I should also mention they are all wearing masks, eventually the guy, who seems to be the leader takes his off.  We also find out that the blue flowers mean they support the Purge.

"Your blue flowers tell me you support the Purge"

 

Leader and girl leave, but they cut the power in the process, lucky they have a backup generator, which should keep the secure.  James say they're going to give them what they want, Mary and James leave the room with guns to find bloody guy.  Charlie stays in the room watching the mask people to creepy things on the monitors, until he spots Timmy, then he sends him out to look.  Timmy finds bloody guy, and Charlie signals the guy to follow Timmy, who leads him to the hole in the closet.

 

"I'm gonna go hide in your secret spot"

 

Mary searches Charlie's room and hears noises, it's here we see that bloody guy has a knife.  Mary leaves, and bloody guy and Charlie breath a sigh of relief.  At the front door Leader wants to talk to James, and they do, through the peep hole in the door, Leader shoots one of his guys in the head, showing that, that was one of his friends and he had no trouble shooting him, which means he will have no trouble killing the family.  Back with Timmy, we see Zoey find him, and she tells Charlie that she is safe, and that she's going to hide in his secret spot, which we all know is where bloody guy is.

 
James wanders into Charlie's room, and we see that bloody guy has taken Zoey hostage with a gun to her head.  Mary sneaks up behind bloody guy (I will now be referring to him as BG), and there is a fight, which results in Zoey getting knocked unconscious and James and BG fighting on the floor, and one of their guns go off.  James grabs a vase and KO's BG, then they duct tape him up, put him in a chair and duct tape him to the chair.  I like that duct tape still can do everything in 2022.

Mary starts to question if what they're doing is right, while that's happening Charlie runs off, Mary takes off after him.  Zoey wakes up and questions what he's doing, and says that nothing will ever be ok again.  BG tells him to wheel him out, but James finally realizes that he can't do it.  Mary, in her search for Charlie, sees a truck pull up and chains being put on the doors and windows.  James tells Mary he agrees with her, and Charlie reappears and is given a gun by James and is told to go to the basement.  Mary and James move to the front door, and talk strategy for when they bust in. 

"Your time is essentially up, and you failed!"

Leader tells them it's time, the front door is pulled off, and Mary leaves while James takes them on.  In the basement, Charlie's dumb ass keeps his flashlight on, and is spotted.  Luckily just as he is about to be shot, James shoots a mask down then takes Charlie back to the control room.

"Save her for me"

There's a nice scene here where James fights and kills 3 masks before turning the corner and being stabbed by Leader.  In the control room Charlie is watching the monitors again, and sees two people, Grace and her husband, come on they're property and take out the masks.  Two masks are about to kill Mary, when Mr. and Mrs. Halverson kill the masks and walk away.  Mary goes after them and finds James bleeding out on the staircase, she calls for Charlie and Zoey, and Charlie comes running.

Leader appears and is about to kill them when Zoey shoots him dead.  All of they're neighbors appear and Mary thanks them for saving they're lives.  In what is now on my top ten favorite plot twists, Grace tells Mary not to thank them yet, because you are ours not theres.  Yes the community has gathered together to kill the family, they tie them all up when suddenly Timmy appears.

"NO MORE KILLING TONIGHT!!"

BG appears behind Grace and starts shooting, Mary and the kids are cut free.  Mary tell BG not to shoot them, and that they would deal with this later.  As the sun is coming up we see it is around 6:56pm, and Mary, BG, The Halverson's and Grace and husband are sitting around a table.   Mary looks over to see her kids crying over James' body, Grace goes to snatch the gun away, but she gets a broken nose for her try.  The emergency alarm sounds and the Purge is over, Mary tells everyone to get out, but keeps BG for minute to say thank you.  Mary and the kids stand in front of the door looking at all the chaos that happened, and we roll to credits. 

"This is the most successful Purge yet"

While credits are rolling, news plays in the background, saying this is the most successful Purge ever, and that there was a vigil in time square thanking everyone who died for they're sacrifice to make the world a better place.

The End.

 

 

This movie wasn't exactly what I thought it was going to be, but I liked it.  Loved the plot twist at the end, that the community was going to kill them after everything they went through.  Plus, I got to give it up for Rhys Wakefield, who played Leader, he did a wonderful job being crazy, but also being nice in a crazed sort of way. 

 

Hope you all have a great night!