The Purge: Anarchy | |
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Directed by | James DeMonaco |
Written by | James DeMonaco |
Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | Jacques Jouffret |
Edited by |
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Music by | Nathan Whitehead |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 104 minutes[1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $9–11 million[2][3] |
Box office | $111.9 million[4] |
The Purge: Anarchy is a 2014 American dystopian action horror film written and directed by James DeMonaco. A sequel to 2013's The Purge and the second installment in the Purge franchise, the film stars Frank Grillo, Carmen Ejogo, Zach Gilford, Kiele Sanchez, and Michael K. Williams. Edwin Hodge reprised his role from the first film. It was released worldwide on July 18, 2014.
The film grossed over $111 million and received mixed reviews from critics, who praised it as an improvement over its predecessor, but criticized its clichéd formula and screenplay. While the first film was set largely in one house, Anarchy takes place around the Greater Los Angeles area and shows more of what happens to the surroundings during the event. A third film in the series, The Purge: Election Year, was released on July 1, 2016.
A dystopian United States, ruled by a totalitarian government known as the New Founding Fathers of America (NFFA), is preparing for the annual Purge, a 12-hour event that legalizes all crimes without authorities. However, before the 2023 Purge, an anti-Purge resistance group led by partners Carmelo Johns and Dante Bishop hijack government feeds to denounce the New Founding Fathers and their actions.
In Los Angeles, working-class waitress Eva Sanchez returns home to her daughter Cali and terminally ill father Rico. As Eva and Cali prepare to barricade themselves into their apartment, Rico retires to his room to be alone as the Purge starts. Just as the Purge starts, Rico slips out to a waiting limousine; it was revealed he has offered himself to be killed by a rich family in exchange for money paid to Eva and Cali.
Estranged married couple Shane and Liz visit a grocery store, only to be harassed by a masked gang of skateboarders and dirt bikers. As they drive away, their car breaks down, having been tampered with by the biker gang.
Off-duty LAPD sergeant Leo Barnes plots to kill Warren Grass. The day before the previous year's Purge[a], Grass struck Leo's son Nicholas while driving drunk, but was acquitted due to Nicholas dying on Purge night. Ignoring his ex-wife Janice's pleas, Leo loads up his armored car with several weapons and drives out into the streets.
As Shane and Liz try to find a safe hiding place, the Purge commences. Eva and Cali notice NFFA paramilitary amassing in the street below, and the superintendent, Diego, enters her apartment. Diego is gunned down by a paramilitary platoon, which captures the women to offer them to their leader, Big Daddy, for his own personal purge. Leo passes by and rescues Eva and Cali after killing the troops and wounding Big Daddy. They find Shane and Liz hiding in Leo's car. The group flees just as Big Daddy fires at them, damaging the vehicle. After Leo's car breaks down, the group flees on foot.
As the group navigates the hostile streets, they find a paramilitary van surrounded by soldiers who were shot to death by the resistance fighters. After freeing Shane from a trap and taking guns from the abandoned truck, they head to the subways. Pyrotechnic Purging gang invades the subways and sets the tunnel ablaze. Shane is wounded, but the group manages to escape after he and Liz destroy the gang's all-terrain vehicle and its propane tank with the salvaged guns.
The group returns to the streets, but as they near Tanya's apartment building, Eva unknowingly signals a traffic camera to identify them to the paramilitary troops who pick up the apartment's location. They reach Tanya's house, and Tanya's family takes them in, offering dinner and medicine. However, Tanya's sister Lorraine murders her sister for sleeping with her husband. The group leaves the family, only to be captured by the masked gang who ambushed Shane and Liz earlier. The gang sells them off to an auction, taking them to a theater where upper-class Purgers bid on them for human hunting.
After the group is forced into the arena, Leo subdues and kills a Purger, taking his weapon and night vision device, overpowering and killing several other attackers, and providing their arms to Shane and the others before the head Purger calls in security. Shane is shot and killed by security forces. The anti-Purge group attacks the compound, killing the security forces and remaining Purgers; Liz chooses to stay with the resistance fighters, while Leo, Eva, and Cali leave. Leo steals a car and drives off with Eva and Cali
Leo, Eva, and Cali drive up to a suburban neighborhood and stop at the home of Warren Grass. Leo ventures into the house despite Eva and Cali's pleas to abandon his revenge, threatening Warren and his wife. As Leo exits the house, he is shot by Big Daddy. He reveals that the New Founding Fathers have secretly dispatched death squads to increase the body count because the purge has been eliminating too few people of the lower class. Just as Big Daddy is about to kill Leo, Warren appears and kills Big Daddy, revealing that Leo chose to forgive and spare him. As Big Daddy's death squad appears while Eva, Cali, and Warren prepare to defend themselves, sirens blare to signal the end of the purge (making Big Daddy's death legal and sparing Leo). Warren drives Eva, Cali, and Leo to the hospital as news and police helicopters fly over the city.
Tyler Osterkamp and Nathan Clarkson reprise their roles as Freak Purgers from The Purge in an uncredited capacity, while archive footage of Ethan Hawke, Rhys Wakefield, and Alicia Vela-Bailey as James Sandin, Polite Leader and the Blonde Female Freak Purger from The Purge is also shown over the end credits.
On June 10, 2013, Universal Pictures and Jason Blum announced the development of the sequel, after the success of The Purge.[8] Initially a release date was set for June 20, 2014,[9] although this was later pushed back to July 18.[10] Principal photography was underway in Los Angeles when Blumhouse Productions released their countdown promo art on January 1, 2014.[11] Filming wrapped on February 10, 2014.[12]
The Purge: Anarchy was released on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital on October 21, 2014.[13] The film was released on 4K UHD Blu-Ray on June 12, 2018.[14] It grossed $12 million in home video sales.[15]
The Purge: Anarchy grossed $72 million in America and $40 million in other countries for a total gross of $111.9 million, against a budget of $9 million.[3]
The film was released in North America in 3,303 theaters,[16] and earned $2.6 million in its first night.[17] In its opening weekend, the film grossed $29.8 million, finishing in second place behind the continued run of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. This was about $4 million less than the opening of the original film ($34 million).[18]
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 58% based on 144 reviews, with an average rating of 5.40/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "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."[19] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score 50 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[20] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.[21]
A third film in the series titled The Purge: Election Year was released on July 1, 2016.
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.[citation needed]