The Purge: Election Year
Tags: comedy, suspenseful, murder, violence, flashback, insanity, brainwashing, revenge, sadist

Plot synopsis:
In 2022, a masked purger taunts a young woman (Christy Coco) and her entire family. He then tells them they are going to play one final Purge game, called "Mommy's Choice." When she refuses, the man moves slowly towards the family as they struggle.
In 2040, two days before the Purge, riots break out all over Washington, D.C., claiming that the totalitarian New Founding Fathers are using the Purge to help their economic agenda. The events make a great effect on the upcoming Presidential election. Charlie Roan (Elizabeth Mitchell), a Senator, is gaining ground over the NFFA's candidate, Minister Edwidge Owens (Kyle Secor). It is revealed that she is the young woman from the beginning, and that she alone was spared by the masked purger. The NFFA, headed by Caleb Warrens (Raymond J. Barry), view Roan as a threat to their rule and plan to use the upcoming Purge to eliminate her from play. Meanwhile, Roan and Owens attend a debate and, while Owens states how America's crime rates are lowering, Roan gets a standing ovation after she declares the Purge only serves to eliminate the poor and benefit the rich and powerful, after which she then breaks security protocol, by stepping into the audience. At a convenience store, owner and proprietor Joe Dixon (Mykelti Williamson), his assistant Marcos (Joseph Julian Soria), and their friend EMT Laney Rucker (Betty Gabriel), watch the coverage on television.
On March 20, the day before the Purge, the NFFA revokes the Purge rule that protects government officials with a 10 ranking, appearing to attempt to regain public favor, but the move is actually a front for an attempt to kill Roan. That same day, Joe and Laney confront a teenage shoplifter named Kimmy (Brittany Mirabile) and her friend (Juani Feliz), who relent because Laney used to be queen badass of the neighborhood. Later, an enraged Joe discovers that his Purge insurance premium has been raised beyond his affordability, prompting him to stake out and guard his store. Roan decides to wait out the Purge from her unsecured home in order to secure the popular vote of the common people. Her head of security, former police sergeant Leo Barnes (Frank Grillo), initially disagrees with the idea, but accepts her reasons. He then revamps security and has Roan's house re-secured with new barricades and surrounded by secret service agents and SWAT snipers standing watch outside, with his partners Chief Couper (Ethan Phillips) and Eric Busmalis (Adam Cantor) as well as three more secret service agents partly supervising the event from indoors. Meanwhile, a group of South African tourists at Dulles Airport are interviewed by a news anchor wherein their response is to join the Purge. News of airports across America flooding with more tourists traveling to the United States to witness or join the Purge make the press dub them as "Murder Tourists."
After Purge Night commences, Joe and Marcos repel an attack by the teenage shoplifters, injuring Kimmy. Laney and her partner Dawn (Liza Colón-Zayas) patrol the city in a heavily modified ambulance, rendering medical care to the wounded. Roan and Barnes are betrayed by Couper and Busmalis, who signal a Neo-Nazi paramilitary force led by Earl Danzinger (Terry Serpico) and secretly let them into the household, having killed all the secret service agents and SWAT snipers. As the troops assassinate the three remaining secret service agents, Barnes manages to get Roan to safety, but is wounded in the process. He detonates a bomb in the house, killing Couper, Busmalis, and a few troops. Navigating through the hostile streets of Washington D.C. to seek safer shelter, Roan and Barnes are ambushed and taken captive by a group of Russian Murder Tourists. While the group taunts them, Marcos spots the commotion, prompting him and Joe to leave the store's roof and rescue the duo. They shoot the group dead, and take Barnes and Roan to Joe's store. Roan converses with the two while Marcos tries to tend to Barnes' wound. As Barnes and Joe get into a light argument, Marcos then witnesses the teenage shoplifters returning in two groups, causing Joe to call Laney and Dawn for backup, who cannot respond immediately as they are treating a teenage boy named Rondo (Jared Kemp). As Barnes, Roan, Joe, and Marcos prepare to defend themselves, Laney and Dawn arrive and run over Kimmy and her friend with their ambulance. Laney then guns down the other shoplifters before finishing off a heavily wounded Kimmy with a point-blank headshot. The group then leave the store for a safer hideout.
With all seven safe in the ambulance, the group is ambushed by a helicopter piloted by Danzinger, who ends up killing Rondo. The surviving six then seek refuge underneath a highway overpass wherein Barnes deduces they were found because the bullet in his chest is a tracker. After he extracts the bullet, the group is confronted by members of the Crips, but when Joe gives the gang's trademark whistle call "(revealing that he was once their member)," the Crips calm down. Their leader asks the group to tend to his heavily injured "boy," to which the group agrees. In return for the group's actions, the Crips plant the bullet in another area to trick the paramilitary forces after telling the former to leave. When two of Danzinger's ground team members find the bullet, the Crips emerge from hiding and eliminate them.
Barnes, Roan, Joe, Laney, Dawn, and Marcos are led to a hideout beneath a hospital protected by anti-Purge rebels led by Dwayne Bishop (Edwin Hodge) where volunteer doctors and nurses administer to wounded Purge victims while other professionals supply food, water, and medicines. Joe, Marcos, and Laney decide to go back to the store, but are forced to turn back after spotting several NFFA death squad trucks heading to the hideout, prompting Laney to report to Dawn. Meanwhile, Roan discovers the rebels are planning to assassinate Owens and tries to dissuade them, as she wants to win the election fairly. They are forced to flee as Dawn alerts the entire hideout of death squad forces arriving. Barnes and Roan survive the hostile alleyways, and they meet up again with the ambulance. However, before the group can escape the city, the ambulance is rammed by Danzinger, and Roan is captured.
The senator is delivered alongside a drug addict named Lawrence by Danzinger to an NFFA-captured Catholic cathedral where Owens presides over a midnight Purge mass, while Barnes and the others give chase. The group meets up with Bishop and his team wherein they formulate a plan to rescue Roan by infiltrating the cathedral through a tunnel system. Meanwhile, at the cathedral, Owens has his friend Harmon James (Christopher James Baker), another NFFA loyalist, stab Lawrence as a cleansing ritual for his longtime vice. As he invites the high-ranking members of the NFFA to the altar to sacrifice Roan with Warrens to lead them in the purging, the group and Bishop's team both reach the cathedral wherein Barnes and his team stealthily eliminate the NFFA Secret Service Agents and take position in the choir loft.
As Warrens begins to slit Roan's throat, Marcos assassinates him from the choir loft, instigating a chaos that signals Bishop's team to invade the cathedral. As the entire congregation begins to disperse and flee in panic, the group fires into the fleeing crowd, killing a vast number of them and leaving only a few, including Owens and James, to escape. A second horde of NFFA secret service agents attempts to eliminate the group but are gunned down by Bishop's team. After the rebels untie Roan, the group heads to the cathedral's crypt to find Owens. Bishop captures Owens and contemplates killing him, to the protests of Roan and Barnes, while Owens goads him on to kill him. Bishop refrains, realizing that killing Owens would be taking part in the Purge and would make him no better. As Barnes knocks Owens unconscious with Joe watching, the group also discovers a large number of bound and gagged Purge mass sacrifice victims that Owens had stashed in the crypt.
Bishop and his men decide to secure transport to leave the cathedral while Barnes, Roan, Joe, Laney, and Marcos attempt to untie the captives. However, they are soon ambushed by Danzinger and his mercenaries, leaving the rebel team killed and Bishop wounded. Barnes rushes out to help him, leaving Roan in the care of Laney and company. Bishop manages to dispatch the remaining mercenaries, but is fatally gunned down by Danzinger. Seeing this, Barnes engages Danzinger in a vicious melee combat wherein the former gains the upper hand, killing the latter. As Roan frees some of the last of Owens' imprisoned victims, James emerges from hiding and fires at the group, killing one of the newly freed victims. After incapacitating Laney and wounding Marcos, he targets Roan, but Joe steps in and engages in a furious crossfire with James, finally killing him with a headshot. Before succumbing to his injuries, Joe urges Roan to win the election and tells Marcos and Laney to take care of his store.
On May 26, two months after the Purge, Roan defeats Owens in the presidency by a landslide while Barnes is promoted to head of Secret Service while continuing his service as her chief of security. Marcos and Laney renovate the store and continue to run it in Joe's honor while they watch the news of Roan's victory, and another report indicating that outlawing the Purge has become Roan's top priority. Further reports state that many NFFA supporters have reacted to the election results with violent protests in the streets as Marcos looks at an American flag hanging outside the store.

Review: This doesn't mean that The Purge: Election Year is a very good film, but at least, it offers a more interesting and fluid story, supported by a relevant message...
The ridiculous exaggeration employed by director and screenwriter James DeMonaco in every aspect of the movie barely surpass the reality; 3 years ago, when the original film was released, the Purge looked like a distant fantasy, but we are currently so close to that social collapse that an even more extreme screenplay is needed in order to return to the fiction field.
In conclusion, I wasn't left very satisfied by The Purge: Election Year, but it didn't bore me and I found it superior to the previous two films, so I can give it a slight recommendation, mainly to the followers of this saga and public servers searching for spiritual peace because they aren't as evil as the ones portrayed in this movie..
Yeah the promos did feature some very topical satire about a female Senator and a right wing nutjob battaling for the future of America but seemed a little too obvious The bad news is that's exactly how THE PURGE ELECTION YEAR plays out .
Everyone is good or bad with no in-between and no ambiguity involved Being positive about this at least the dichotomy of the characterisation means no one is going to confuse the noble and genuine Senator Charlie Roan with any female politician running for President in 2016 so at least the film can't be accused of being cheerleaders for present American party politics .
The sole returning character from the second movie is Barnes (played by Fred Grillo), who now has become the head of security and trusted right-hand man of Senator Roan (played by Elizabeth Mitchell, still best known for her role in the TV series Lost).
Political considerations aside, the movie does a good job of raising the tensions but for me the movie is also too predictable and frankly a bit too long."The Purge: Election Year" opened wide this weekend (to coincide with July 4, of course).
So I'll start off by saying that I actually liked the original Purge, I know many people were expecting it to be a bit bigger and to expand more on the premise but I still enjoyed it and thought it was a pretty fun Horror/Thriller.
Then the second Purge (which really wasn't a sequel, more of just a separate movie set in the same universe apart from one little tie in) came out and I enjoyed that one as well, however I thought it was a bit more cheesy than the original and it was really more of an Action/Thriller than a horror movie.
I was pretty set with those two, I didn't think there was any need to continue on with the franchise, but we rarely ever get big release horror movies anymore so I decided to just suck it up and give The Purge: Election Year a chance.So the premise was actually pretty interesting, a Senator whose family was slaughtered in front of her on Purge night is running for president in an effort to stop the Purge.
The villains weren't much better, at one point they try to pass off a group of obnoxious teenage girl as villains, the scenes with these girls were drawn out and extremely irritating, these characters belonged in a teen comedy not a R rated "Horror" film.All in all I thought this was a lousy sequel and that the Purge Franchise would have been better after just being two films.
Even though the first two 'The Purge' movies weren't all that great I still had a fun time seeing it and was interested in what this newest installment in the series could bring.The movie starts off with an uninspired news broadcast that sets up the story about a senator running for presidency whose goal is to abolish the annual purge (an event where for one night all crime is legal).
The current government or 'The New Founding Fathers' want nothing of this and would prefer to have this senator out of the way.In the beginning of the movie the director uses some interesting lighting techniques whenever new characters were introduced where the way their faces were lit gave an indication on their moral standpoint is on the purge*.
Often times lines are delivered in an almost laughable manner, although with a script like that you can't really ask much from the actors.Overall the movie was incredibly boring to watch and is a worthy contender for worst movie of the year (although I think Independence Day: Resurgence will claim that 'trophy').
At the same time, the film, like the others in a way succeeds in bringing the audience into an adventure that revolves around the characters / protagonists as they are forced through the horrifying events that follow the entirety of the purge.
The movie is an obvious political message with absolutely unreal characters and situations that would never exist in real life.Innocent minorities that want to help civilians and their blonde female candidate (who is good) VS evil Nazis lead by the REpublican candidate.
Election Year's plot brings us further down the rabbit hole as to the point of the Purge and fills into those pot holes left at the end of the second movie.
the first purge film wasn't bad great idea, but why they feel the need to keep making theses films every year, the story lines get worse and worse , this film has some truly terrible acting in it.
Some good ideas with the ''tourismurder'', actually concludes on a scene that isn't bad, with people who behave more like in the 2nd movie.
It helps that Frank Grillo reprises his role from Anarchy, but it's a different story altogether.A senator is running for president on the idea that she would fight to end the purge and her body guard, Leo Barnes believes in her cause.
It's an exaggerated reflection on society, but still its like looking into a mirror of what people would do if they could get away with it.I felt the movie was pretty even on every side of what the purging does: the poor get eliminated, the rich get richer, and Election Year adds those who are poor who fight back and those who see it as a religious day.
Although Election Year comes dangerously close to repeating or even remaking the first follow-up 2014's The Purge: Anarchy we're once again out on the streets close to the action but this time in Washington DC, (weirdly filmed in Providence, Rhode Island) as opposed to Los Angeles, though at this it could really be 'Anycity, USA' as our heroes try to find safety.
The added wrinkle here is that the rule protecting governmental people has been relaxed, and the New Founding Fathers have not only paid off a chunk of her security detail, they've also sent a mercenary to take her out, because they enforce a new rule that will now make government officials of ranking ten vulnerable for the night, so now the New Founding Fathers will kill everybody who is involved.Set two years after the merciless killings in The Purge: Anarchy (2014) Leo Barnes (Grillo) who is now head of security for Senator Charlie, he and his employer has to survive as they put it "one last purge." This film takes you right into the action something that the first one failed to do now The Purge: Anarchy was actually better than the first although this despite all its craziness and its terrible scripting it is a very entertaining end to the trilogy, although not what you might have thought it was because writer/director James DeMonaco keeps the same style as he did in the previous it unfortunately fails to deliver one thing and that is an actual story, it just continues as a psycho killer film and all though it has pretty good action and good acting from Frank Grillo and Mitchell and fortunately down have to go down the romance route – no time for love when you're on the run from a skull-emblazoned drone., it fails to deliver in everything else.
Weirdly enough in the first two government officials ranking above ten weren't affected during the Purge night, but now in this one everyone is affected but that's basically nobody wants Charlie Roan as the President so the killers try to make a killing to get rid of her, but don't quite succeed.Amongst the anguish and pain it decides to take a religious turn but instead of praying it makes it turn out that the people who don't kill are sinners as the film puts it, and although that idea is original it really wasn't needed in a film that was already cold hearted but this adds even more cold heartedness.
2016 marks the second time the GOP is lead by a candidate mainly known for his accomplishments as a businessman, the third time with a candidate named Clinton heading the Democratic ticket – and the third time for a story about an annual 12-hour period at the beginning of spring during which all crime is legal – even murder.As many questions as have been raised by the first two iterations in "The Purge" film franchise, writer-director James DeMonaco (accomplishing the rare feat of creating three movies in a single horror series) manages to find even more questions to ask in "The Purge: Election Year" (R, 1:45).
Some of the characters are over-acted, parts of the script are unnecessarily crude and there's a distracting amount of blood and gore, but "The Purge: Election Day" gives Movie Fans plenty of engaging action and biting social commentary.
I liked the way they portrayed the purgers in this movie, because they had the most personality out of all the previous movies, and they demonstrated how evil people really enjoy their work (of purging, especially).But it also shows how a cast of people from so different backgrounds could work together for a common good, and how our differences mean so little when we stand together for something good and right and just..
As an avid lover of both the first and the second instalment of The Purge movies, I read the reviews before watching The Purge: Election Year thinking it was going to be less of a horror film and more of a politically driven plot.
Once again (like the previous two movies) the film has been (mostly) well received by critics and viewers alike; I really enjoyed it as well.Grillo reprises his role as Leo Barnes; a former police sergeant, that almost murdered the man who accidentally killed his son (on a previous 'Purge' night).
Barnes and Roan end up on the streets, banding with other survivors, in order to try to make it through the night (alive).The movie has a lot of the same creepy (and highly disturbing) thrills, and high-energy action scenes, as the previous two films.
This makes for an action-packed ride with a lot of fun splatter horror, but not as much substance as the concept leaves room for.My main problem with the film would be the way it tries very hard to make the purge seem like a plausible occurrence for America while simultaneously showing some very implausible scenarios.
This third film in the franchise paints a much larger picture, depicting the power struggle between the New Founding Fathers, instigators of The Purge, and those who want the yearly night of violence abolished, believing (quite rightly) that the event was created by the rich and powerful as a means of culling the poor.Elizabeth Mitchell plays Senator Charlie Roan, leader of the political opposition to the Founding New Fathers, who finds herself running for her life after the current administration decide to use The Purge for a spot of 'spring cleaning', targeting their rivals.
I do, however, feel that, like the protagonists of Election Year, it is finally time to call it a day on The Purge: I'd rather leave matters as they are than see the series go rapidly downhill as the makers begin to scrape the barrel for ideas..
The Only Thing that could be more Compelling to Motivate Americans to Vote other than this Third Installment of "The Purge" Series is perhaps someone like a "Donald Trump" as the Republican Nominee for President...Wait...So if Trump is Elected on November 8th, and You didn't want that, and You didn't Vote, there is No Blame to be Blamed on this Movie, because although many have Proclaimed the Premise of this Franchise to be a Belief that Cannot be Suspended...Ha!
DeMonaco evolves its subversive franchise satisfactorily, the third installment of "The Purge" is concentrated in please the bloody craving of the public and the delight critical about socio-economic problems of movie critics, as well, it takes advantage of the political event shakes to the country, currently, and makes use of the popular July 4th for its pre-release.Despite carry one theme in common, James DeMonaco has emphasized to give own personality to every film and apparently, "Election Year" goes beyond in a nuanced plot and an absorbent atmosphere; It integrates new ideas such as criminal tourism, lack of legal protection to governmental personalities and, of course, the emphasis on the political and human atmosphere.Frank Grillo resumes his character from "Anarchy", the former sergeant, Leo Barnes, who leads the Special Security Group of the controversial presidential candidate, Charlie Roan (Elizabeth Mitchell), who proclaims and longs for the permanent suspension of the annual purge.
As horror movie is predictable and regularly is transform in a Eli Roth's gore, nevertheless, it works pretty well like a sociopolitical thriller film, corresponding with these dates perfectly (election period, Hollywood has it all carefully timed).
I only watched The Purge: Election Year because I kinda liked the other two, well at least I thought if I remember good.
the first movie played off like a traditional home invasion film, the 2nd explored outside of the realm of the purge, and Purge Election Year examined the politics behind the film.This film is very similar to Purge Anarchy, however there are only 2 main story lines that intersect.
This is all similar to Anarchy but they explore the concepts more.The film also plays out like a horror movie at some points with a Spring Breakers style montage with girls with chainsaws and some unnecessary kill montages, though the film might be the least gory of the series.The final sequence was a little anti-climatic, but leading up to the point was pretty fun and there were some good sequences that weren't formulaic enough that I enjoyed the ride..
Even though some say these movies are silly, the two characters bring a serious tone.What I personally didn't enjoy all that much was how it toned itself down from the last purge film.
Hoping this is the last chapter of Purge i loved Purge Anarchy so much i Found It So Worth Watching Frank Grillo That What Really Interest Me to movie it was like Puinsher Mixed with Judgement night it had a lot of action to it.
some of action scenes were worth watching Frank Grillo Character Leo still kicking a lot of ass in movie killing Purges (Edwin Hodge) Dwayne AKA Stranger from first 2 Purge Movies he is not in it as much still stopping Purge the villain i liked (Terry Serpico)Earl Danzinger White supremacy group that wants to take out Sentor villain kinda reminds me of villain in Puinsher Comic Book villain.
there was some stupid bits in movie a lot silly moments like candy bar girls, people coming from another country's are there to Purge come on don't they have better things to do ?
The only dull thing i found watching this flick was how small security forces of USA leaders in that world are - literally.Overall, if you didn't liked previous movies (especially second part) before, you can skip "Election Year", as basically it is as the second part with a bit more gunfights.
Overall, The Purge: Election Year is more of the same as its predecessor, crazy people doing crazy things, view that as bad or good is entirely up to you.
having enjoyed the two predecessors, i was looking forward to it in the hope it would rekindle the series however there was still a very linear plot and little character development.To be fair, if you take it for what it is, the purge election year is entertaining with some twists and suspense but i cant help feel a lost opportunity to do something original.
I have watched all the 3 films, they have great stories but I couldn't grasp the emotions and idea that people are allowed to kill for 1 night a year, it was very unreal!
Senator is considered a high target due to the fact that she wants to eliminate the Purge, something that every other Presidential candidate uses in order to be elected.Since I had already watched the two previous movies I was expecting something more from it.
Some other interpretations that have to be mentioned were Elizabeth Mitchell's who played as Senator Charlie Roan, Betty Gabriel's who played as Laney Rucker and Mykelti Williamson's who played as Joe Dixon.To sum up, I have to say that "The Purge: Election Year" is a nice movie to watch, it has a good plot, decent direction, and some interesting interpretations.
A-Z Horror Movie of the Day..."The Purge: Election Year" (R - 2016 - US)Genre: Slasher/Crime
Overall, I was never bored by "The Purge: Election Year" and was in fact quite entertained, but I still feel like the film should have been scarier, with more horror elements, and although it did delve more into the subtext of the series original premiss, it felt like it was playing things too safe.
Disappointed & way too political nothing like the first two purge movies..
The purge was a pretty unrealistic movie that I didn't like that much,Anarchy though was a very very well made creepy film that should've stood out on its own.