The Purge: Anarchy (2014)

This week we’re surviving The Purge: Anarchy (2014). We trace its leap from home invasion to citywide bloodshed, dissect its class-war commentary, and weigh how its action-thriller pivot reshapes the franchise. This episode contains spoilers, beginning at 36:05.

Mentioned in the Episode

Watch the Movie

The Purge: Anarchy (2014)⁠

Related Episodes

096: The Purge (2013)

086: A Quiet Place (2018)

110: Ready or Not (2019)⁠

343: A Quiet Place: Day One (2024)

438: 31 (2016)

447: Obsession (2025)

Main Episode

The Purge: Anarchy Interview: James DeMonaco⁠

The Punisher (2004)

Escape from New York (1981)

The Hunger Games (2012)

Fear the Walking Dead

American History X (1998)

Transcript

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Show Opener

Binx 0:04

Every time he keeps saying Big Daddy, I think of Flanagans.

Movie Introduction

Kris 0:12

Or has always known how to make us fear the dark. The empty house, the unlit hallway, thing that waits when the lights go out. This week, though, we're kicking off Summer by continuing a franchise that asks what happens when the darkness we face is government sanctioned. Where its 2013 predecessor confined its class war for anxieties to a single fortified house, James DeMonica's follow-up throws open the gates, sending a man taking vengeance and a group of strangers through the streets of downtown Los Angeles on one long, sleepless night. This sequel expands its franchise premise into something bigger, uglier, and even more openly political. A world where the government treats annual violence as social policy. And the gap between the haves and the have dots can be settled with a hunting license.

Greetings & Salutations

Kris 1:02

Greetings and salutations, and welcome to Hacker Slash. If you're joining us again, welcome back. If this is your first time listening, welcome to the party. We are a horror movie review podcast dedicated to telling you whether a movie is a hack.

Sean 1:13

Total joke, a waste of time.

Kris 1:15

Or a slash. Totally killer, pun intended. My name is Chris, I'm your friendly neighborhood slasher enthusiast, and this week I'm joined by the classic horror connoisseur Sean.

Sean 1:24

If you're not purging, we advise you get off the streets as soon as possible.

Kris 1:28

And the paranormal paramour Binks. Get ready to bleed, rich bitches.

Sean 1:32

You're tuning into the Purge Anarchy, but if you support the show, you'll also get to hear our B-side at the end of this episode where we get into some dystopian horror.

Kris 1:49

We're going to be celebrating Summer Ween here at Hackerslash throughout July and August. I'm super fucking stoked for it. And I want you to think of it as a way for us to keep horror alive through the hottest part of the year, but we're also still experimenting and trying new things. We are also preparing for in this in the fall, in September and October in our spooky season, being able to bring you some of the stuff that you've always been asking for. Like video game reviews and even TV show discussions. So we're gonna still have those weekly episodes, but we're gonna use this stretch to make things a little bit more fun, a little bit more flexible, a little bit more interactive. So you're gonna look forward to more horror summer picks, watch parties, community prompts, some starter packs, some uh you know, episodes where we're like, hey, if you want to get into this type of horror, this is it for you. And of course, some bonus content for our patrons. So there's also gonna be more of a chance for you to send in your own takes through fan mail, voicemails, and texts. We have so many different ways you can do that, and we want to hear your voice. So if you've been waiting for a good time to jump into the Discord, post into the subreddit, send us a message, join a watch party, literally anything you want to get closer to this community. It's a great group of people, is your invitation. We're gonna have more details rolling out soon, but for now, welcome to Summer Wien.

Sean 3:05

Good times,

Spoiler-free Discussion

Sean 3:06

good times.

Kris 3:07

Now, as we bask in the glory of summer, I consider the purge, and obviously it feels very Fourth of July, even though it takes place in March. So here we are. We're making it a fucking Fourth of July movie anyway. I don't care if we're wrong. You've both seen this before.

Binx 3:22

Yeah, definitely have. It's been a while though. This is one of those franchises that it I just kind of sometimes forget exists because it's been so long since I've visited it. But I also have to be honest that I haven't watched any film past this. So does it even really count to say? Like, just watch the first two movies. That's not much, isn't there? Like 20 billion of these. Feels that way.

Kris 3:43

No, there's enough to go around.

Sean 3:45

Yeah, I've definitely seen this one before. The purge to your point, I think it's an entertaining franchise. I feel like I watch them and then I also either forget about them or I just don't re-watch them for whatever reason. So kind of revisiting this was interesting to kind of come back to it because some of it started feeling like it was coming back to me, but some of it felt fresh. I never really put this into the Fourth of July mix. I get what you're going for, I get the thought process, but I never like think, wow, it's the 4th of July, I gotta put the purge on, you know.

Kris 4:17

You know what it is? I think it's the movie poster. I think we could have gotten away with it from the first purge movie, sure. But this one and everyone after, especially when you get into the Verge Purge, and then we have Purge Election Year coming up, it gets almost more American the further you go.

Sean 4:34

It definitely gets there for sure. I remember putting this one on, and I was like, man, I haven't watched this one in years and years, but I do remember enjoying the purge. I think a lot of people, from what I remember, that felt like the first purge. I really love the first purge. I'll go out there and say I like the first purge probably more than all the other purges, but a lot of people I remember felt like that movie was a bait and switch promise of a night of carnage that delivered just this home invasion slasher. And so for me, I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum because that's the one that feels the most horror for me. A lot of people went into this one, the Purge Anarchy, that I somehow went into this one thinking it was like the third or fourth one, but it's actually the second one with maybe mixed expectations. I think the bar was both high and low for a lot of viewers. We all know the concept is really good with the purge, but some people just didn't probably necessarily trust Demonico to execute based on not liking the original, which I think is unfair, but I think there's a lot of people that feel that way. So it's interesting.

Kris 5:42

I didn't realize that many people dislike the first movie. The first movie's fucking great. I love the first movie.

Sean 5:47

People out there that just feel like it was kind of not what it was wrapped up to be or aiming to be or saying it was gonna be from trailers. I don't know.

Kris 5:56

Okay, I think we need to dial something in for some clarity here. And Sean, I I want to clarify specifically what you meant. Uh first let me say I I've seen all the purge movies, start of the TV show. Fucking eat this shit up. I eat it for breakfast, I love it, I soak in it, I bask in it. For some reason, even if the movie feels less horror or even slightly worse quality as they go, they also somehow feel fucking great because I feel like the story gets deeper. So anything that we lose from like okay, yeah, we lose the Ethan Hawk effect from the first film. I still feel so deeply invested in the characters and the plot and just the lens that this movie views our country through that I'm like, oh no, I fucking love this shit. However, you said the first purge, and I think you meant the original purge movie, not to be confused with the first purge.

Sean 6:48

You gotta be careful what you say. The first purge is really the last purge. I don't even know. I don't know. There's too much.

Kris 6:54

Final destination five is not the final destination.

Sean 6:58

Final destination, beginning destination. I don't know.

Kris 7:02

The first destination.

Binx 7:03

I'm oh fucking confused. I'm thrown for a motherfucking loop. The listeners are about to get one hell of a perspective from me because the way that I reacted to you, even saying that there was a TV show, the way that you guys have just been rattling off names like this is an Amityville horror franchise, I'm so stunned. But here's what I will say, Sean, you brought up such a good point that kind of circles great to what we're speaking of, which is I have lived X amount of years of my life thinking that this movie was the fourth or fifth movie of however many fucking movies there are, which is a lot, apparently. And then realizing that it was the second one this time around, when I rewatched it, I was like, wow, this is really blowing my mind because it feels like such a big world, but then now I'm hearing the names of these properties and I'm like, it's even bigger than I thought. A TV show? What's next, folks? What's next?

Kris 7:56

Yeah, and what a great jump this movie makes, though. So the first movie to Sean's point, it's home invasion. A lot of people are trapped inside a house, and it still basks in a significant amount of pomp and circumstance and privilege. It really does. And I loved that angle for that movie because yeah, the world is going fucking nuts outside, but yet here in your kingdom, in your castle, you still have a stranger's esque invasion. And uh looking into this one, you shift completely away from that. It is less contained. You have so many different locations, it is less traditionally scary. It for sure, to your point, Sean, leans really hard into like action, thriller, political dystopia. But uh I don't think it makes it less horrifying. It maybe extracts itself and takes a step back from the slasher angle for sure. It just changes where the horror is coming from, especially if you are someone uh who is represented within this movie. If you grew up in an area like this or you have uh lived through these kinds of circumstances in your life, you've lived through the purge, you can relate to this movie.

Sean 9:14

You out there in the streets fucking killing people, let's go. This is you.

Kris 9:18

But if you're working to the bone to make ends meet and you can't afford your father's medication, yeah, you can relate to this shit. If you're trying to toe the line and figure out when you're gonna ask a prom a raise, they're probably one that you've well been well past deserving, so you can actually just earn a living wage. Like there is so much in this movie that's deeply relatable, and it's because the fucking horror is not someone breaking into your house. Although, yes, that is scary as shit. But the horror and that what this movie leans into is realizing the system was designed to leave certain people without protection in the first place. And ah, it fucking like this is where I don't care how less horror this is, this movie has a special place in my heart because it goes that direction.

Binx 10:09

It's interesting, and we'll talk about it later, just because I have some like probing questions that I want to ask you guys since you guys have seen so many more of the films, but it's interesting how the concept of this world kind of looks like um like a picture perfect, we don't have crime, everything's great and dandy because of this one thing that we do. But we finally see the actual reality of how much of a bullshit world is going on, or at least country in this specifically, right? So and there's a lot of parallels to what we currently have going on and like systemically, this like elitist class, this like racist energy that's going about. We relate to that. But one difference for this film that I felt very jar like jarred by, but again, thinking that this was the fourth film, was that it's more action than horror. So I thought we were like, you know, when you have like a big franchise, eventually they're gonna start to change the genre later down the road. When you now realize that this is the second film, I can see what you guys are saying. It is just like one, there's like a big shift, but it's also just feels like a genre shift. I I personally thought this was a little bit more action than the stereotypical terror.

Kris 11:23

Yeah. No, I mean, you're not wrong. There is a lot more action in it. It's it's really one of those where you might be able to sit in this movie and just really soak in how action it is and also how kind of fucking funny it is in a lot of places. You absolutely can. It really is one of those where it's like psychologically and emotionally horrific. If you are someone or you're living in a community that the purge exploits, the horror is not abstract. So opening title card, it's boasting about the success of the purge and how fewer and fewer people live beneath the poverty line. And it's not because everybody's just prospering, it's not because we all got our shit together, it's because they're fucking calling the herd. And you can sense a lot of that in the first purge movie. Well, the original purge, but it really takes a front seat, a driver's seat here, right? It's it is using policy and politics and get out of jail free cards as a way to disguise something way more insidious within the government. Ah I just can't I can't say enough. I can't wait till we get into the spoiler zone because this movie fucking rocks when it comes down to that.

Sean 12:36

There is a lot of underlying messages here. There's a lot to unpack in what this movie is doing, what this movie is saying. If you want like a really just basic, kind of dumbed down, slightly funny way to put what this movie is in a nutshell. It's basically the Purge Meets the Punisher, meets Escape from New York, meets the fucking hunger games. If you put all of those movies together, that's what you get in Purge Anarchy. And it's not like a disc to the movie. It literally has like elements of all of these movies. The tension in this movie is, like you said, Chris, it's not like your standard horror. It's not a slasher horror. It's not, and it's no longer, you know, this house invasion horror, although there is house invasion, right? But it's no longer about that. The tension here is less about jump scares and it's more about the sustained dread, the feeling of being hunted through empty city streets, the ambient paranoia is where like the I don't know, the film just really works well in how it makes you feel. The more you sit in the film and think about like what would you do in this situation if you were just stuck in the middle of a city, put yourself in the middle of like New York or whatever, and just think you have to like survive an entire night with people coming out of the woodwork, you know? Every moment that seems safe leads directly into the next moment of pressure for the characters, and you can't help but really kind of sympathize with people who don't even want to be out there on a purge night participating in the purge. And we'll get into that also, like the the whole participation piece and like what's that all about. It's the film not really relying on the jump scares, but it does a lot that is really effective. The emotional gut punch. If there is one, it's tied to Leo's backstory, this you know, character that the one of the main characters in the film, without getting too much into like the backstory, but like that's there's a lot to it. And I think the characters you kind of it hits with you, it sits with you, you relate to it in a way, or you at least sympathize with it in a way. It's a legitimately haunting setup that I think gives the film more emotional grounding than it probably than you probably would think from a purge movie.

Kris 14:57

I mean, I'm right there with you. I think the people are what really ties this thing together and makes it work. There are actually two characters, mostly one character, that I truly could have just completely extracted from this movie and not been bothered at all. We probably all agree. However, I think about Ava and her family, her daughter, her father, the casting top notch to get through perfect strangers and just like man, what way to assemble a family. But it's it's really the humanity within the purge that really fucking sets it apart. Sure, yeah, we don't have the acting chops of Ethan Hawk in this one, but this again, this movie still fucking rocks. Like these people make you feel things for them.

Sean 15:41

It's solid, the characters are solid, but the other thing that really works in this movie, like listen, I love the original purge. We're gonna can we're gonna continue to remember to say original purge so we don't confuse the audience on the first purge, but I really did it love the home invasion of the original purge. But what makes this film work, and I think because it's a sequel, because like at the end of the day, we don't want to see another purge at another single house where we're just seeing another home invasion. The topic and the concept of the purge was very interesting. We wanted to see what kind of chaos was going on outside, right? When we watched the first purge, and so like the what works is this movie actually goes outside. That's the single biggest improvement in the franchise going from the original to this one. The concept gives it room to breathe. The sequel boasts this stronger, yes, stronger characters, but this narrative that kind of it just like goes broader and bigger and on a larger scale. And I think that is one of the things uh that worked really, really well for this movie.

Binx 16:50

I couldn't agree more, and it reminded me a lot of this idea that we have you know some horror franchises where it's maybe like apocalyptic or just like just just extreme extreme cases within society. One example that uh came to my mind when I was watching this was like a quiet place, because in a way we have a quiet place, we follow this family, sure. And then what did day one do? Day one gave us brand new characters. Sure, day one fine, but I liked that we were seeing a whole new environment, new characters, because it provides this almost unpredictable nature to it as well. Since we don't know these people, we don't know what they're gonna do. If I had to keep watching Ethan Hawk or whatever, like the same kind of family throughout every single purge every year, I'd be like, okay, well, I've already seen this movie 20 times, but I like that it does change it up, which is something that's great and I think keeps it fresh at the very least.

Kris 17:47

I am such a sucker for the Hunger Games, I'm such a sucker for purge movies, and I'm such a sucker for when you take even a zombie property. I think a quiet place day one is a great example of this, but a zombie property in particular, and you take it out of this rural or suburban setting and place it in a dense metropolitan arena, and it is the shift from saying, fuck, okay, I have a big expensive house to mess with. If I can just get past these neighbors, escape off into the woods. I feel like I it took so long for me to get even invested in the walking dead because I just couldn't connect, I couldn't relate. But when we did Fear the Walking Dead in LA, I was like, shit. I love the pivot and scale. All three of these examples, right? The Purge Anarchy, Quiet Place Day One, and Fear the Walking Dead take something absolutely horrific and what a total disaster, and then makes it even worse by putting you around more people. And if there's anything more horrific than that, it is in fact just being around more people.

Binx 18:52

Well, especially that the characters and like just the buddies that come from a metropolitan area has a lot of impact to it, too. You know, like people from the city are very different than the people in rural communities. We know this. The just the way that we like hustle and survive and have to just like get by. We know this.

Sean 19:09

But listen, that's also one of the things, like, okay, there's very few things that I think stand out in this movie that I think could have been done a little bit better. And without getting into like super finite details, I would say overall, the action sequences, the action scenes in this movie, I think they're not as good as they could be. I feel like we could have lingered a little bit heavier. And this is just like probably me coming from like, I just want to see more gore, like let me see some more limbs flying and people getting heads chopped off and things like that. But it's the purge. The whole night is about let's kill, kill, kill, murder, murder, murder. I guess it's not though, right? Like part of the purge is like you can do whatever you want, including murder. But I feel like we all know that murder is the big thing. That's what everyone's really out there to do.

Kris 19:56

Okay, less is a moment where I think the diversity in our cast really steps up here because Sean, you got your priorities. I'm just trying to like fucking hack my credit score and like not be in bad debt. You know what I mean? Like, I want my crime to be financial, and you're just like, what?

Sean 20:12

You know, but there's nobody depicted in the purge movies where they're like, all right, well, this guy is actually just gonna sit back there and change their credit score. Everyone's getting ready with weapons and shit like that and going out to the town to go and kill somebody.

Kris 20:26

Which is the point, Sean, because the people who would most benefit from the financial crimes are being inundated and flooded by people who are calling the herd.

Sean 20:37

That also leads me to my point that sometimes in the movie, what I get what they're trying to say is that the movie's attempts at social commentary about US culture is somewhat overshadowed by how it ultimately revels in the very violence it is supposedly critiquing.

Binx 20:53

I want to piggyback off that because I am coming from a place where, again, I haven't seen the rest of this and how this is like really supposed to play out and how the country still functions with this purge for so long. But to me, again, focusing a bit more on that violence piece, I couldn't help but instantly feel that it was a little bizarre. The solution, the quote unquote solution to society's problems, and again, society being the the rich, was this purge. Because eventually at some point, and we do see this, right? We do see this kind of revolution form, but I almost would have thought that maybe this revolution would have happened a little bit sooner than when it occurs in this timeline. What I appreciate is that there are certain circumstances that clearly don't change for society, like the access to health care, et cetera, like we've mentioned it definitely is very clear as day that the minorities are the ones that are being impacted the most by this purge, that are being wiped out, et cetera. But I think there's a lot of curiosity, at least on my part, and maybe it's my ignorance of I don't know economics and whatnot, but really what is the end goal here? Because you need you need that to an extent. You need as far as like disparity goes, from the riches perspective, what's going to eventually happen to them? They have such like happiness and joy from this purge. They're the ones that benefit the most out of it. But at the end of the day, there's eventually going to be no one to purge. So what's going to happen there? I I couldn't help but feel like is that where this franchise is going eventually? Who else is going to be left? People are killing people quite vigorously in one 12 hours or however long it is.

Kris 22:38

I can't wait for you to see what's next. In even just the next film. Oh boy. Okay, well I'm going to save it for when we re review I I think just to have a a fresh take- maybe we'll have to actually do that one in March or whenever the fuck it takes place. Because I mean it's the election year one. So that movie really came out in such a great fucking time. Okay. So needless to say with your take on um the scale of and likelihood of murder or the expansion of where this fucking franchise goes there is a moment or at least really like one big element to consider when you're about to get into this and that is do not go into this expecting that same level of home invasion. I want to watch a horror movie. This is going to be something that you're going to have fun with I think you can tune out on. I think if you have a friend who doesn't like horror movies, this is a great compromise to settle on but it is I think going to be one that asks you to think about a lot of things or at the very least feel a lot of things.

Binx 23:45

Yeah and I think a lot of that has to do with the amount of new characters that we follow albeit whether it be small, you know, screen time or large I think there's a lot of action and movement and like a little bit of an anti-hero-esque main character, you know, like there's a little bit of everybody in terms of personality which makes for a great ensemble. So if you love that kind of stuff, I would say that this is again like happy medium for anyone that's not into horror but maybe likes a little bit more plot instead.

Sean 24:12

Yeah for sure it's fans of I think any fan of survival thriller action hybrids I think this is like I said before it's like if you were into you know it the escape from New York escape from LA movies, you know, this is probably going to be up your alley people who even people that were some re for some reason didn't like the original purge may also like this one better. There's a lot that I think people can get from this one that'll really enjoy it. Anyone who enjoys the socially charged genre films in and as a whole or can really get into that I think this is probably for you but if you want like a traditional horror type movie and that's what you're thinking if you're coming off of the original purge and you think that's going to be another repeat of that then this may be a disappointment for you. I don't know.

Kris 25:03

Well it certainly was not a disappointment for me but we'll go ahead and get our way over to our ratings

The Gore Score

Kris 25:08

before we actually score this film. Sean how would you describe the gore score?

Sean 25:12

I think a movie with a lot of gunfire a lot of brutal attacks from a gore standpoint there's not a ton of it like there is some gore in here but for the amount of kills that we get in this movie it's not a lot of gore it shines through in some moments there's a really there's a couple of really solid shots but overall it's kind of just earning this medium low gore

The Animal Report

Sean 25:34

score.

Kris 25:34

And what about the animal report shockingly no animals harmed during this anarchy oh thank god people have their priority straight let's

Scoring

Kris 25:42

go ahead and get into our rating superge anarchy 2014 was it a hack or a slash all right I'll I'll start us off since I'm the least knowledgeable of this whole world.

Binx 25:53

This movie surprised me on the rewatch and not because it's subtle or as it's been a long while I think it's just that I was really reminded of taking this movie into a bigger moving through the city kind of nightmare was a good move here. Once it gets going, I felt like you were dropped in the middle of a long chaotic night with a ton of people that you don't really quite know but you're curious enough to find out. Maybe not for everybody. Maybe you might regret meeting a couple people but nonetheless there's something to them that leaves you curious and wanting to see what their fate may be. And I appreciate that shift because there's momentum and I want to follow through every single individual whether it's a hate thing or not with an ensemble you kind of need it because you want to kind of follow along you want to feel the the tension you want to feel the emotions along with them. And this movie doesn't let you be comfortable. It's one of those things where the world itself also continues to do a lot of the heavy lifting the whole system of course is ugly by design. It doesn't really pretend to be otherwise I think I certainly have some questions about it, but it's more of a curiosity standpoint, which I think is kind of cool. And even though for me I think it leans more into action than horror, there's still a lot of tension there. It reminds you what this night of the purge is intended for and who it's built to protect. And even though there certainly were some cliche moments and I think we mentioned that right there's a little bit of comedy a little bit of humor there. We can kind of expect that of course it didn't sour the watch for me. So is it flawless? No. But it's a sequel that I think really expands this idea and genuinely watchable. I had a really good time thought it was effective and entertaining so I would certainly recommend it. And so for me it's a slash.

Sean 27:43

Yeah I think when the original purge came out and I said this before there were people I remember talking to if you even go and look at reviews and stuff now after it's settled for ever many years there's a lot of people that wrote it off as kind of this wasted premise, this a massive concept suffocated inside a single house. But honestly that claustrophobia is exactly what made it work for me as a horror film the dread of something monstrous happening just outside your door the walls are closing in that's the horror but coming into anarchy I had to actually make peace with the fact that Demonica was trading this kind of house situation for this open broader scale war zone, right? And I think for the most part the trade-off works really well. Taking the purge into the streets of Los Angeles was definitely the right call. The scale breathes life into a concept that was always I feel too big for one family's living room. Like if you really think about the concept of the purge you definitely I loved everything it did in the original one but I also there was something that was like what are we what's going on out there? This is just one story. What's really happening with all of what's like the purge what's happening in the world and I think the city at night abandoned lawless is genuinely unsettling in a way that feels almost post-apocalyptic and I think anchoring it all to Frank Grillo's uh character a man with a mission that keeps getting derailed by his own conscious gives the film a lot of emotional depth a lot of heart the story is super effective because overall it's not really convoluted it's fairly simple the goal is to survive the night get home don't become a monster doing so but you struggle around that journey right you definitely struggle on that journey it does stumble in some details somewhat I don't think that it's a perfect movie. There are some logic gaps I feel like if you're paying attention I think some of the supporting characters are okay not the best but when it works it works the class warfare angle rich people hunting the poor for sport is the franchise I think this is the franchise at its most viscerally effective the score in the movie is pretty solid and the city itself becomes almost a character. So the purge anarchy isn't maybe the horror film its predecessor was but it's bigger and it's bolder and it's more ambitious because of all of that. And whether or not you enjoyed the original purge if you like the concept you will probably really dig this one and on a night where all crime is legal the only criminal act would be skipping this one. So it's a slash in my book.

Kris 30:35

When we consider what this movie is it has the task of following up what I've always considered to be a rock solid first film that is deeply intimate in a world that feels much bigger outside of it. And I love that this movie takes the premise out of a protected home and into the communities that the purge is actually built to exploit. Consider who Ethan Haw's character was he was a man who profited from the purge he provided security and protection and this movie shifts the focus where it belongs I love that because it makes the movie feel way less contained like you're in a cage but it does make it feel like you're more in a psychological cage in an oppressive cage and it's sure less classically scary but it makes this movie feel so much more honest. And that's where it starts to really win me over because this is not about people just choosing violence. Sure some people do 100% if you give somebody an inch they're gonna take 20 miles on you. But it is about a government creating the conditions for violence then pretending that the results prove that the system works and it's just such a skewed and warped way to spin a story and to spin details. The movie's blunt it's not exactly light handed in the way that it approaches things some of the characters one fucking character in particular is really fucking thin. The strong part of this movie isn't any of that it's the core group in our real main characters and then the story that they're carrying. I love that this movie expands the world of the purge it sharpens the themes of the purge and it shows us that it's not about lawlessness it's about the law and how completely fucked that can be if you recognize yourself in the communities that the purge exploits then you recognize how much fear is really like visceral and real in a movie that can be viewed as just an exaggeration and you recognize a lack of protection you lack you you recognize the propaganda and you recognize the way that people who are vulnerable are so often made disposable and expendable and then are blamed for their own disposability. That's why this movie works for me. It's a fucking bummer of a time absolutely but it does make you even more invested in the franchise and where it goes so I don't give a shit how much less traditional horror this movie is. It is still completely a slash for me.

Sean 33:33

And with that the purge anarchy in 2014 has earned a universal slash and you can't find this movie streaming online so go check it out and then when we get back from our break in just a bit we're gonna dig into that Slay by Slay together

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Sean 33:54

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Welcome to the Spoiler Zone

Sean 36:05

back folks from here on out the sirens are sounding the spoilers are fully

The Slay by Slay

Sean 36:09

legal let's get into that sleigh by sleigh oh man this is a citywide war zone so background kills stack up fast even when they're not the focus the kills in this film they're not about creativity in the slasher sense they're about choreography and stakes and I think most are firearms based which is I you know thematically appropriate but limits the variety that we get and look we have 63 total kills in this movie that could be a good thing because I don't know breaking down all 63 deaths would be wild because uh if we really sit then go through all 63 I don't know but let's really just talk about you know the progression of the kills some of the ones that really stood out early on with a bar is set with this unknown you know person that or these people that get shot down by Big Daddy with the machine gun in the truck. So you're just like whoa we're gonna start off this night with some wild shit so like you're wondering where this is coming from what is this all about this dude looks like he's selling grills at like a Home Depot or something I'm not really sure.

Kris 37:21

No dude I I look at him and I think of one thing and that is I sell propane and propane existors.

Sean 37:28

It's Hank Hill folks it's Hank Hill.

Kris 37:31

But also his friend who wears the hat and the glasses yeah Dale or whatever yeah for sure oh my god listen open up the back of a truck with a fucking gun of that caliber you're in for a ride that is exactly the kind of Midwest shit that can stay in the Midwest.

Sean 37:48

There's a lot there I mean you're getting you know random people getting beat to death in the background you're getting people dropped off buildings there's you know just people just getting killed right and so the the kill count really stacks up for sure. I mean Big Daddy killed a lot of people we have Diego got shot to death by Big Daddy. We had a bunch of people shot to death by the people that came out of Big Daddy's truck you know like there was a whole thing going on here. It was pretty wild.

Binx 38:16

Every time you keep saying Big Daddy I think of flanagans.

Kris 38:20

Oh beings let's go to flanagans soon because I really want mozzarella sticks. Super down the rib roll's crazy but I can't help it no really could you I mean he would Big Daddy like with a name like that you know he's out here easy killer easy just saying okay but the death that we get actually there's no death I celebrated more in this movie than that motherfucker in her building who was harassing her and licking her oh my gosh exactly exactly the brand of human who I'm not sad about expiring on the purge needed to be ran over and then reversed and then ran over again. I want to be clear he's not the one person that I was talking about in the whole spoiler free section because I'm talking about someone who was like just a blank slate of a fucking character who I didn't give a shit about.

Binx 39:13

But this fucking guy no I was so satisfied when he went that's like that kill alone could unite a nation I think that's that was a very satisfying one very at the beginning a throwaway definitely but a good one.

Sean 39:26

We knew like we knew that the whole like confrontation earlier on we knew that was going to come back around that somehow this was going to be a thing for sure.

Binx 39:37

But you know what this reminds me of not to this guy specifically because fuck that guy but there's this comedic bit is it Dane Cook I can't even remember who says it at this point. It's all a blur but this idea of like you just need to be always careful of who you're talking to because one day they're gonna lose their shit. Like this is what this kind of reminds me of even with the purge. Like you have to constantly I don't like and it's a little fucked up because you always have to be on your P's and Q's with everyone because come March whatever the hell day they might come to get you or maybe not even you could have been nice the whole time and they still are going to go get you who knows what an exact framing of what women live with every single day when people ask about hey the man of the bear in the woods okay sure sure sure sure sure but in addition to that why people are so hesitant and fearful or constantly vigilant about who's around them.

Kris 40:32

Think about the constant pressure that Ava has to live through every day how many times she gets catcalled it's also a city it's so normalized it happens all the time but this really does become Chekhov's cat call that shit comes right back around to be relevant.

Sean 40:48

Always for sure yeah there's um you know we keep going down the path right we have a lot of uh other people getting killed then we have like the whole like tunnel chase scene where we have some people getting shot up and then some of these other purgers get blown up when Liz and Shane like shoot the flamethrower gas tank. So that was kind of fun you know so there's some action you know that's some action sequences going on but I think another significant death that we were all just like what the fuck just happened was when Tanya got shot by Lorraine.

Kris 41:22

I am so attached to the actress who plays Tanya there's something about her smile and her warmth and like her sense of humor and across everything that I see her in ah it it kills me when this happens in the movie.

Binx 41:37

Absolutely shocking and terrible star who put our hats down for our queen she's funny. I really liked her I thought she was hilarious. I also thought you gotta be so bold to not say some other words to be out here and get into an affair with your sister's husband who looks like a rat.

Sean 42:00

This is some Jerry Springer shit right here.

Binx 42:02

So out of his league but like there is a purge going on mama what are you even talking about right now there is a purge that happens every March and you're you're towing a very fine line for a man that probably couldn't even give you I don't even know what he could offer you probably nothing. We're I want to take us all the way back to the beginning where she was like I would love to walk that dog for a much finer man.

SPEAKER_01 42:24

Yeah.

Binx 42:24

But you're hooking up with that that's too close to home. You should have known that you were going to get God eventually poor choices.

Kris 42:33

Poor choices yeah it's bad it's bad her her death absolutely wrecked me can I tell you what death didn't wreck me at all and I didn't give a shit about it all Shane.

Sean 42:43

That's the one that was actually my drum roll but I was like damn we're gonna jump and dive before the end they try I mean they tried right like they tried to make you feel because there was this we're like literally this brief moment right before he dies where they're kind of like oh like they're kind of like making up maybe they're gonna like get out of this and not ruin their or end their relationship or whatever the fuck happened between them because we didn't dive super far into their relationship but then he just like immediately just gets mowed down by bullets.

Kris 43:13

It was sudden and I'm not mad at the scene but I just don't give a fuck about him. And honestly no miss me with all this shit of the reconciliation because there was a reason they were breaking up and he was still holding on to it they had both agreed and then she made some valid fucking points when they're in that car. I don't mind them as characters in the movie I think they serve as a great point of reference of the extremes of the purge experience and what being in different demographics different uh socioeconomics uh groups and and thinking about just even the experiences of like where they live where they have access to all being normalized within one group I like there Resence. I don't give a fuck about him. I barely give a fuck about her.

Sean 44:05

They were the supporting characters that I felt were like they were a big part of the movie, but also the weakest characters. I don't know. It was interesting. I thought I would feel for them more, but I just, I don't know. Something didn't click for both of them, really.

Binx 44:19

There's some interesting things with the two of them because the actors are actually married. Well, they were married in real life as of last year.

SPEAKER_01 44:26

They just got divorced.

Binx 44:28

Yeah. So they've been married since that movie and until now, basically. So what I find interesting with that knowledge and context is I didn't quite feel that much chemistry with them, which is ironic, I guess, especially now that they actually are divorced.

Kris 44:43

I do wonder though, what year do they start dating and what year did they get married?

Binx 44:48

I believe it's the the year that this came out.

Kris 44:50

I mean, to be clear, Freddie Prinz Jr. and Sarah Michelle Geller had way more chemistry and their characters weren't even dating. We stand where they fucking are right now.

Binx 45:00

But yeah, these two uh I could be wrong, but I do believe that uh there was some quick turnaround time of being with other partners after their divorce. So that tells you everything there. There's some kind of weird cyclical parallel to their characters here. They couldn't wait. They just couldn't wait. But either way, I I feel like that being said, when he did die, it was almost a little random. Like it's not that I cared at all because I didn't, but more like it was random and was a weird way to just maybe represent this like purge cyclical revenge type thing. Because we already see that with our main character, right? But now we're seeing it from a female's like a like a marital perspective, I guess, but it's happening moments before the ending. So I'm also like, okay, girl, I guess go purge on, I suppose, but was it really that deep?

Kris 45:50

Purge on, Garth. Purge on. I actually really like the timing of his death, and I like the very sudden manner in which it happens. And again, I I know I go back, I said I didn't give a fuck about it. Structurally, I like it. I just am not invested in him, so I don't mourn his loss. However, I appreciate it because he's been a part of the group dynamic from the beginning of the movie, and so you would expect more buildup to when one of them gets picked off. But the movie very suddenly cuts that off and redefines your expectation. Can I also just take a moment to talk about how fucking devastated I am about it was father?

Sean 46:33

Oh yeah.

Kris 46:34

Oh my god. We need to pay even more respect to this man because holy shit, to live a life so long and to know that he he knows a life before the purge. All these five people know a life before the purge, of course. But he is at a point where he could manage his health can be managed and treated with medication. And he is not at the point where he's completely gone. But he doesn't want to be a burden. He doesn't want his daughter or his granddaughter to suffer.

Sean 47:07

And he found a weird money source.

Kris 47:10

He did. And he decided, I will go out with I mean, I don't know how much dignity you can really say you have here, right? But he's ending his life before his health gets worse, and he's making sure that his family profits are which I still wouldn't trust. I would not trust the logistics of that because his note said that they were gonna get them the money wired into the accounts after. There's no way you can

Spoiler Zone

Kris 47:34

convince me.

Sean 47:34

It's tough. But it opens up the door to explore these things that are part of this purge universe of like you've got the different classes, and obviously the rich folk are um are just buying their purge fund, they're just easily just bringing people into their homes and having a field day of just killing whoever they want in the comfort of their homes. You know what I mean? Like it's a very safe purge experience for them. So that's the difference between going out there and getting your hands dirty and just buying someone, which is crazy.

Binx 48:08

It's giving a weird ready or not, it's giving actual history. Yikes-ish, you know. Um, it's giving also it's really disturbing too, because visually I had like cringe when I was seeing these white people surrounding this, like, you know, older black gentleman just sitting there just with a camera staring at him as they're just like happy and giddy. It's it's also that element, too. There's a lot of like nuance to this. If for something that is like a horror, you know, action, blah, blah, blah. The commentary can sometimes get really intense if you allowed yourself to actually go there and visualize in what we were talking about earlier, like the commentary of real life and and whatnot. Whether it lands that always, you know, debatable, of course. But that was a scene in particular right from the very beginning, too, that I was like, oh, that's right. This is what this movie's about. Jesus. But that's just the world of the purge that I also haven't revisited in a long time, too. So I recognize that that's probably already been established, of course, even within the first movie, to an extent. I I don't know. I was just very taken aback by it.

Sean 49:20

It's a lot. There's a lot of different themes and things that this movie plays on and really brings to life. In between all of this stuff, right? As we're getting towards the end, we have like Leo's rampage that he goes and kills a bunch of people, and then we have um, and then we have uh Carmelo Johns and his group killing a bunch of people towards the end. But really, the biggest, I feel like the biggest impact is when we get to the end, which I'm sure we'll talk about, and if we break down, it's gotta be somebody's favorite scene. But when we get to the whole exchange between Big Daddy and Leo and Warren Glass and the ultimate death of Big Daddy, finally at the end, you know.

Kris 50:02

Good fucking riddance.

Sean 50:04

Big Daddy, Big Papa, whatever the fuck we're calling this guy. Um, he definitely, like, ah, you I guess for some reason when we got through the movie, I wasn't even thinking that this guy was gonna come back around at all. I knew he didn't die because he only got clipped in the ear or whatever, or in the side of the face. I saw that. Obviously, we know that it was a significant scene, but when we got to the end of the movie, I did not expect to see him come back, but I guess I should have because obviously we knew they were giving us the clues this guy was tracking whoever they wanted throughout the whole movie through surveillance cameras, street cameras, all that stuff.

Kris 50:42

Can I call a little bit of bullshit on something?

Sean 50:45

What's that?

Kris 50:46

Big Daddy is part of Big Daddy America, the new founding fathers of America. We know that they were discreetly sending armed operatives into this apartment building to kill people on purge night.

Sean 51:05

Yeah, there wasn't enough purging happening.

Kris 51:07

They clearly have an agenda to add more chaos to the mix. And they don't necessarily want to be seen or known for doing it. However, I find it really fucking hard to believe that when confronted with one white guy in his house and two women and one guy who's already shot bleeding out on the floor, that they will just agree to not fucking shoot and escalate any further. You're leaving loose ends.

Sean 51:35

Yeah, it's like you're playing two by the rules at this point, you know? It's a little bit weird. It's a little bit strange.

Binx 51:42

And you just reminded me of another question about this whole damn world. You're gonna sit here and tell me that really everyone does restrain themselves from March to March. Like they really suddenly we know restraint from March to March. I don't know. If I was feeling crazy, I would be like, well, fuck it all. I don't really care. I mean, that's kind of how we things is going on right now. So I don't know. And no double tap, no one believes in at that point now. I don't know. There's lots of I'll let it go. I'll let it go. Can I also just actually no, I'm not gonna let it go because I I just remembered someone in particular who should have died.

Sean 52:18

Are we not gonna talk about the old lady giving like the host of the I know they I can't believe she got off. No one killed you.

Binx 52:26

Again, restraint now? We've got restraint, even on the night where it's allowed, we've got restraint now.

Sean 52:32

It would have been great if when like Leo went up there and like shot at the at the crowd that's watching, even though it was like bulletproof glass, I guess. It was kind of like that like nod to gladiator, you know, and he's just like oh yes, that's a good one.

Binx 52:51

Yes, that's also catnus in Hunger Games when she goes for the Yeah, yeah.

Sean 52:55

100%, 100%. But it would have been cool if she died then somehow.

Kris 53:00

She reminded me of the weird fucking people with Malcolm McDowell in 31.

Sean 53:04

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh-huh.

Kris 53:06

I almost had the aristocrats.

Sean 53:08

Aristocats, yeah, for sure. Yeah, 100%. Yeah, she should have died. There's a couple people in this movie that should have died, probably. But uh outside of all of those deaths, and there's a lot of them, I think I don't know if it was the cinematography or the set design or the shooting locations or all three of those things together, but the nighttime LA streets look genuinely grimy. It feels alive. DeMonico, I think, uh, had to meticulously map out shooting locations because they couldn't afford obviously like major company moves in this movie, but they'd shoot one alley and then immediately use the adjacent one to represent a completely different part of the city. And so very clever work in how that they really filmed this movie. But the look of everything and how they shot this movie in the city, I think, made this movie feel a certain way. You know, it's there's it doesn't matter when you're in these alleyways and working your way through the city. There's so many different places for people to be coming out of. You just never know when you turn a corner who's gonna be there, what kind of like psycho person is gonna be waiting for you. It just feels like Gotham on any given night. You know what I mean? That's what it feels like.

Kris 54:20

Gotham is such a great comparison because man, does any city feel more unsafe than Gotham?

unknown 54:28

Right?

Kris 54:28

Public safes aren't public spaces aren't safe, vehicles aren't safe, other people aren't safe, institutions aren't safe, the Batman's not even there to protect you. My goodness, uh, it really is again that that sense of scale, the shift from such an intimate setting to a a vast expanse of uh concrete jungle adjacentness. It's just ah man I absolutely love uh the location of this movie, and I think it's it's part of what makes it work best.

Binx 55:03

For me, not Gothamesk, but actually now that I think about it, it would have been kind of cool in a way, or maybe I can envision it is like the costume design. I don't know if it, I mean, I could think of it as like this whole like dark grit, but some aspects definitely were. I think that weirdly, in some ways, the wealthy didn't feel as wealthy and the masks didn't feel as scary, but there were then some that did. Like it was 50-50 for me on the costume design. But one in particular that I thought was kind of brilliant, like symbol, like symbolically, was Tanya. She was in this like bright red, you know, like she's feisty, unpredictable. We have like everyone in like muted tones at times. It almost made it seem like we want to highlight the people that you aren't too sure of. I mean, even Tanya was a red herring in a quick moment. You really didn't know what she was gonna do, why she was in the bathroom, was she gonna suddenly like snap? But the actual perpetrator was worn in just like regular like clothing, you know, like no one stands out too much. And then of the group at the beginning, when they're wearing all these masks, some of them didn't feel that intimidating, but the makeup that they wore was like I'm thinking vividly right now, one of the men that was standing by the truck at the beginning has this like open mouth painted all over his neck. I thought that was kind of cool. Like again, some pieces were really creative and memorable, but then others were just like passing by, and maybe that's intentional, right? Like even it's intentional to be flat because it's very mundane, it's very normal. But the wealthy didn't feel like as uh prissy as I expected them to be. But maybe that's just me.

Kris 56:44

You know, I I can see what you're saying about the wealthy not seeming as prissy, but what I found to be interesting, it's not maybe necessarily a wealthy thing, but it is the other side of everyone that you see. So, for example, let's take Carlos at the beginning of the movie. The man that Tanya wants to walk like a dog, he's supposed to be this uh almost charming, heartthrob-like character. And what does he do? He jokes about kidnapping her. Now, fuck that. That's exactly now I'm not gonna make the obsession reference again, but that's exactly how you get that fucking situation. You have people who instead of just shooting their shot and like making it fucking happen, you're gonna joke about that because all it takes is one night for you to not need someone's consent for you to do whatever the fuck you want.

Binx 57:32

Terrifying. And with such ease, too. And then also how we just kind of like write it off and like hee hee ha ha about it because that's what we're like conditioned to think as normal in terms of a response. But but again to the costume design, look at him. Uh he also doesn't, you know, we're not seeing glaring like jewelry or like, you know, smooth poppy clothing either. We're not, I mean, they're at work, sure, but he looks like a normal guy. Uh it's it's extremely like disarming because you think, okay, normal guy looks pretty cute, like you're saying, and then the next thing you know, he shoots out one of those lines and you're like, Oh, that's right, we're watching the perch.

Kris 58:10

Right. But normal guy in the terms that he's not like obscenely wealthy, but also look at the manner in which he is dressed in comparison to everyone else in the diner and the neighborhood that the diner's in.

Sean 58:21

Yeah, it's it's wild. There's a lot of key moments in this film. There's the opening countdown where everything is just getting ready, and everyone, different parts of the city are getting ready and prepped for the purge, and there's this whole play on, you know, like when when Shane um gets like checked by the crew outside of the grocery store, like the first kind of like jump scary thing that you know happens in the movie, and you start like this pursuit where you think that this is like the the gang that's gonna be out there just mass murdering people when they actually they have a different agenda that they're just bringing people to get money and things like that. Like there's I don't know, it's an interesting concept, but it was that opening scene leading to that moment. I thought was kind of fun to watch the whole setup of we get into the night.

Kris 59:12

It is murder with more steps, quite frankly.

Sean 59:15

Well, for sure, for sure, yeah. They're not actually out there killing people, but obviously they are bringing people to the slaughterhouse, as it were, which is just as bad, but not what I thought they were doing.

Binx 59:28

Just trying to cash a check.

Sean 59:29

But their whole getup was just a little bit too much for what they were really doing. Because if you're really just rounding people up, just you know, dress up like some cowboys and round people up and bring them over there. But you got you know, God painted on your forehead. Like, what kind of god are you, my friend? You're not actually doing any of the heavy lifting here.

Binx 59:47

Yeah, you're not actually in control of that kind of fate. It was a very long setup of, again, another red herring type deal where like why would these people randomly decide to hunt down these two and like really commit for the longest motherfucking time? And then it just turns out that they're just, you know, leading them to the wealthy in the same way that for me, like I mentioned, Papa is just like volunteering to be that again, that martyr, right? You either have the people guiding them to the wealthy or people feeling like that's their only resort to be able to then provide for their families. Yeah. It's either way, the wealthy are just sitting pretty. But again, eventually they're gonna get each other, are they not? Like someone's gonna end up being lower class eventually, whether they like it or not.

Kris 1:00:37

Which actually brings me to one of my favorite moments, and that's when Papa and Kali are talking about Carmelo Johns, and it is her sharing a that obviously that she's been listening in, and he hits you with such a great line that also shows okay. I have multiple thoughts on this, but let me just reference the quote. Talk is cheap. He may be right, but he won't do anything about it. Thankfully, he ends up being wrong. So we know that Carmelo Johns is doing something about it and taking a stand and fighting back. Yeah, but it does show so quickly how disenfranchised and disillusioned people can become. You listen to each other and you want to be inspired and you want to have hope and you want to look for change and try to enact change, but also Papa has been around for a long time. Papa has seen a lot of shit. And so as he is navigating this new purse world, and honestly, the last moments of his life, he's confronted with this with his granddaughter, and she is just buying it hook, line, and sinker. And I'm sure he's also considering how many politicians have I heard this shit from before.

Sean 1:01:51

The more I think about it, the more I really like the I mean, there's a lot in the movie that I really like, but key moments really, like the setup of the movie I really enjoyed, and the very end of the movie I also really enjoyed. I think that you know, you get you know, you get Leo's character full on, and like he comes full circle and he gets to the end of the movie, it's like crazy. It's like the morning is coming, there's minutes or something like that to spare, but he's still on this mission of you know trying to you know avenge his son's death, which is probably one of the more heartbreaking parts of the movie, and what really buys you into the character and the story and the the quest, if you will, that this dude is on. But it's it's interesting that he comes full circle and he gets all the way there, and you know, there's this moment of violence, but then you know he doesn't actually do anything, and then he ends up getting attacked and shot, but doesn't necessarily die, which I guess is a good thing that we know of. I guess I guess we don't really know if he lives or dies, right? Like we don't know 100%.

Kris 1:02:57

You know, he's he gets driven to the hospital, but he's on his own feet, and of course you find out what happens next next films.

Sean 1:03:04

I think it's just really interesting. There's another movie that did this on a much different tone, a movie less about, well, I guess it's politics, but less about the politics social class and more about just racism. And so when you look at like American History X and you think of like that whole journey of like this kid growing up in his brother's shadow who went to jail for you know murdering somebody and he's super racist, and then he because his little brother becomes racist, and he does this thing and he has this altercation with this kid at school, and then his brother gets out of jail and has this epiphany and he doesn't want to be racist anymore, and he tries to save his family, but it's too late, and his little brother ends up dying like that. It's I don't know, it's similar, but not that it's like same, same but different, but it hits the same way almost. Like you go on this journey and you get to the resolution where you want to do something nice, but it's almost too late, kind of thing. I don't know. It hit, it hit for me.

Kris 1:03:57

Okay, he he takes no joy in this, but is having it all as good as getting it all. His entire gauntlet is to go through that night and to force himself to do something that is not actually truly in his nature to do. As he moves through the streets, you see that this is uh purely professional training, so he has done this, but with the softness he has for his son and with the love that he had for his son, you can tell especially as he engages other people and like these strangers and and brings them along with him, uh much to his reluctance, he is not the kind of person who would in any other circumstance do something like this. And so I appreciate that he is on a full crash course, like he is set to collide and reckon with this action that is gonna be so unlike him that his ex-wife has begged him not to do, and then in the end, he lets his character win and realize that it's not gonna bring him back, and sometimes just terrible fucking things happen. Now, listen, this all this guy also a complete set of a bitch. Why the fuck are you drinking and driving? You literally killed a child. Absolutely unacceptable.

Sean 1:05:12

I guess, yeah, that's true.

Kris 1:05:14

But focusing on Leo as a character, I get it and I appreciate it for him. Can I ask a question though?

Sean 1:05:20

Sure.

Kris 1:05:21

This is less of a fact-checking question and more of a Leo is talking about the timeline and very upset because this guy killed his son and now it's Purge Knight. And his ex-wife has begged him not to do it. She comes there and he even says, like, go back with your your new husband. Feels like a really tight timeline for them to have been together, his son dies, the guy gets off, and then now suddenly he's here about to fucking kill him a year later. And I'm sure that there's more at play with A, who knows, maybe they weren't actually together at the time. That his son died. Maybe they're just co-parenting. Maybe it's not actually a year since the kid died, and maybe it's a year since the trial. But it's just, it's it's a lot. I feel like they could have given some more time and space for that.

Sean 1:06:13

From what I gather, we're trying to spend time giving some kind of development for each character. So I kind of see like you don't want to you don't want the characters to just be sacrificial lambs. Well, not that Leo died, but I think you want to give backstory to all these different characters, but you can't spend too much time doing so. And so maybe it suffers from that standpoint because you don't dive too far into it.

Kris 1:06:35

Actually, no, we're gonna I just pull up my own notes again to fact check this on myself because I have let distance cloud my mind with reasoning. As it turns out, it was just the fucking year before. Yeah. And the day before he strikes Nicholas, kills Nicholas, but Nicholas technically dies on purge night. What the fuck? But did his wife were they actually just not together at that time? It just, I mean, I feel like we could have given again more time.

Sean 1:07:04

Well, I mean, the technicality, you know, he died on purge night. It's it's legal.

Binx 1:07:10

The technicality is there, which sucks most certainly. But also, if the wife was cheating as well, I'm gonna lose my mind. There is a lot of infidelity in a place where murder is legal, and people apparently have the world of patience. So they spend a whole year plotting how they're gonna get back at you for cheating. So you keep having fun that whole year, but they're gonna come back and get you. I just I don't I don't understand. I don't understand the survival tactics on that one.

Kris 1:07:40

I also want to point out that regardless of whether of when Nicholas died, the crime that put him there occurred before the purge. The crime like the murder? So Warren hit Nicholas before the purge. Oh Nicholas didn't die until the purge. Warren was acquitted because Nicholas revelation.

Sean 1:08:07

Oh, I see. That's kind of stupid though. That's a loop because the crime, because the crime happened.

Binx 1:08:13

Wait a minute. Exactly. But either way, he should have been. Did he not get some kind of penalty for hitting somebody? So all of a sudden it's also allowed to hit anybody by with a car at any point in time during the year?

Kris 1:08:23

Yeah, as long as that person doesn't fucking die. Like, yeah, it's crazy.

Sean 1:08:26

As long as they don't die until the purge night, you know.

Kris 1:08:29

Okay, so so I actually had to just pick up the wiki here because again, diving deep back in this, and we need to really unpack this about Leo. I'm gonna just read the first paragraph. Twelve months before the events of Anarchy, Warren Grass, while drunk driving over three times the legal limit, kills Nicholas, the son of Leo Barnes, a Los Angeles police department sergeant. Grass was charged with driving under the influence, but is acquitted against Grass's own wishes by the legal technicality of Nicholas being hit by the car the day before the annual purge and dying of his injuries during the purge. An enraged and bereaved Barnes seeks to avenge his son's death and comes up with a plan to do it on the next annual purge. His obsession of avenging Nicholas would consume him costing his marriage to his former wife Janice. She would divorce Leo and remarry into a different family. It's within twelve months she somehow has the fastest divorce known to fucking man, and then also has time to find a man and get married into someone else's. What the fuck?

Sean 1:09:48

There's some plot holes.

Binx 1:09:50

That's a reach, y'all.

Sean 1:09:51

That's a reach. There's a lot that's happening for sure.

Binx 1:09:54

Two two felonies right there, or whatever the misdemeanors, whatever they're called. I don't know legal terms at that point, but like drunk driving and hitting a person when crime is not allowed unless it's purge night.

Kris 1:10:08

Okay. I just want to I'm skipping down a couple paragraphs. Leo Barnes, who is only identified as the sergeant throughout the film, is off duty on that day and arms up before the commencement. His ex-wife Janice, I'm really coming for Janice, tries to convince him that purging will not bring their son back. She urges him not to go through with his plans, but Leo goes against her device. Leo coldly instructs her to go back to her new husband and new family. This would imply that Janice had more children. It's gotta be stepkids, right? It's gotta be stepkids. Because there's no way that within this fucking span, you lost your son, got let your husband like go off the deep end, then you decide to divorce him, then you meet a guy, then you get married, then you have a kid. No, it's not happening within 12 months unless you already found your guy, and unless you were already pregnant.

Sean 1:11:01

Yeah, there's some shady shit going on here for sure. Or it just wasn't it wasn't thought out very well. It's one of the two. It's one of the two. I don't know. What I think one character that was for me underused but super compelling was Carmelo. I think that was a character, you know, you wanted to see more of, but didn't get much of until the very end, and then even then you didn't get enough of. So I think uh, you know, Michael K. Williams as Carmelo, super strong, uh, compelling in every scene that he's in, but I wanted a little bit more of that one.

Binx 1:11:36

That whole faction, because like we get bits and pieces of it, but then they come in and I'm like, okay, like let's fucking go. The the revolution is here, but also the revolution to it takes some time to build. I get it, I get it. You gotta buy in and whatnot and build, but I'm like, damn, like let's fucking go, and then the movie's over.

Kris 1:11:55

So hey, let's remember we talked about Hunger Games. Every revolution begins with a spark. You're right. You're right, you're right. Sometimes that spark is Carmelo John.

Binx 1:12:07

We love it, we love it.

Kris 1:12:08

Yeah, I think actually, if I were to even consider, especially as I'm doing the math now, the some of the best parts of this movie are its characters. But also, simultaneously, now the worst parts of this movie are also his characters, because what the fuck went up with Shane? Now I'm realizing that Janice is a massive plot hole of a character, and also the criminal underutilization of Carmelo Johns. He was great and woven in throughout the film, which I appreciate. And I do like the uh like the the manner with which he's in the film towards the end. I don't want to spoil anything for the other movies. I'm just saying I'm left wanting more.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:52

Yeah.

Binx 1:12:53

I don't know. I mean, well, I guess thank you for not spoiling the other movies, because for me, I'm here standing like it's not the worst part because I don't think there really is, you know, to an extent. My curiosity and my my um, I guess uh suspicion is that this franchise doesn't really lean too much in what would probably happen in real life eventually. Because to me, it's like we've introduced the revolution at the second film, and you're telling me that there's several more in a whole ass TV show. Granted, I've discerned that already one of them is the first one. So we're going, we're do we've got a prequel in there. And maybe some of these are simultaneous, which would be great because great. So at that point, I can then assume that this would eventually crumble down, I would hope. But I I guess I'm just coming from a place of like, I understand that it did take a while, like Hunger Games, right, to eventually, you know, like disarm a whole system. Uh when I think of maybe also like the handmaid's tale, right? Takes a fucking while for that to also crumble. But I just feel like with something that is inherently violent in nature at the beginning, where you are encouraging these lower class citizens to have weapons to then kill each other eventually, as Carmelo is kind of stating, I just would have thought that they would try to get more financial gain. And even if it wasn't to buy into what he's saying, it's more a matter of like, why are we going out to these rich ass homes and killing all these rich ass people? I understand they also are equipped with some crazy ass artillery, but is it, is it, uh are we at the point already where the lower class are let are lower in numbers than the witch, than the rich already? Like, wouldn't this have happened like maybe two year two, year three of the purge, not year nine or something like that? I don't know. Maybe I'm not being realistic about it. Maybe I'm looking at the math all wrong. I've never been good at math, but I'm just I'm just feeling like I don't know, what it it it seems like it would be so much more chaotic very early on at the start of this whole thing, not later in the franchise, I guess.

Kris 1:15:12

Well, you know what, Binks? I'm so glad that you have the opportunity ahead to watch the first purge. Oh god, okay. Oh boy. And again, the purge uh well, not the purge anarchy, purge election year. Oh, okay, okay. Damn. Am I gonna hold out? We should have really fucked up this watch order and just watched it in chronological order of the story and not release order.

Sean 1:15:38

Yeah, probably it would be could be beneficial for sure. I don't know.

Kris 1:15:43

You know what? Here's what I'm gonna say. I don't know exactly when on 4th of July weekend, or if it's just gonna be on 4th of July itself. I think I'm working that day. But I promised to you for Independence Day this year, as much as you want to call it that. I'm gonna host a watch party in our Discord server for the Purge franchise. We'll just go back to back to back to back to back on my closest day off to Independence Day.

Sean 1:16:09

A back to back a marathon. Yeah, you might as well. I think the whole I mean, conceptually, the purge is is like the the just the concept and the idea is the best part of the movie and the franchise. I think what also is the bet is a really cool thing is that the entire purge concept was inspired by Demonica's wife, because after a road wait or road rage incident, she said, I wish we could all have one free one a year, referring to murder. And I guess he said that is the origin story, which is you know kind of funny, kind of disturbing, but you we've all kind of been there, you know what I mean? We've all been there. Some road rage, somebody does something stupid, you're like, I wish I could just like rocket launch that car right out of here.

Kris 1:16:59

You know, when I was in the Navy, there was a popular question that would get asked amongst ourselves as shipmates, and in your department, you call your department your shop. So what shop are you in? If you could slap one motherfucker in your shop with no consequence, who would it be? That's a fun game we would play. People aren't any fucking specific.

Sean 1:17:20

Oh my gosh. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'll have a whole list of people that I would love to slap, so Yep.

Kris 1:17:27

I can't wait. We'll unpack that later off the mic. But I do think it does speak to how deeply, deeply rewatchable this is this is. And in fact, I actually watched the Purge Anarchy, then immediately rolled right into the Purge Election Year just the other day. And here I am gearing up again just to fucking jump right back into it. So it's gonna be great.

Sean 1:17:51

Yeah, for sure. I mean, it just definitely makes you want to watch a franchise kind of watch. And I think to your point, doing it in chronological order could be the play.

Binx 1:18:03

Well, at this point, I mean, I think that I'm fine with watching, or rather holding off on re-watching Purge Anarchy, only because you mentioned something very early on, Sean, where it's like so you watch just a moment of this, you remember everything else. Like it is a very memorable movie for some reason. Like I then realize, like, wow, I really have watched this movie a few times, randomly, random places for some reason. But I've seen it and I remember all the other details. So I don't think I need to revisit this one anytime soon, but I haven't watched the OG purge in an even longer fucking time. So that one I would want to re-see, re-watch, and then of course, finally embark on this franchise adventure.

Kris 1:18:46

Well, I can't wait to see how you continue to enjoy this franchise banks. Hopefully you'll join us in the watch party when we do the marathon binge. But for now, there you have it, folks. The Purge Anarchy in 2014 has earned a universal

Toodles

Kris 1:19:01

flash. We certainly had a robust discussion here, but the conversation doesn't end here by any means.

Sean 1:19:06

That's right. Uh, if you want to take part in some hacker slash purging, you know, you can join us and talk about, you know, would you participate in a purge? What would you do on a purge night? You can let us know in our subreddit, hacker slash pod. You can also go further than this episode. You can support the show. Visit patreon.com slash hacker slash. This is where you can enjoy all kinds of bonus content, early access, extended episodes, movie nominations, and live shows.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:37

We'll see you next time, folks. And remember, we are outraged and we're fighting back.

Sean 1:19:42

Tonight we take lives.