Peppermint

**Peppermint** is a 2018 film starring Jennifer Garner, John Ortiz, John Gallagher Jr., Juan Pablo Raba and Tyson Ritter, directed by Pierre Morel, written by Chad St. John and produced by Gary Lucchesi, Eric Reid, Tom Rosenberg and Richard S. Wright.

The film was a financial failure as it generated a loss of $23 million.

## Plot

Riley North is a banker in Los Angeles, struggling financially with her husband Chris, the owner of a failing mechanic shop. They have a ten-year-old daughter, Carly. Chris is offered the chance by one of his friends to take part in a robbery targeting Diego Garcia, head of a powerful drug-trafficking syndicate. Chris turns him down, but Garcia, unaware of this, orders his men to make an example of him. Riley and Chris take Carly to a carnival for her birthday after an influential but snooty suburban mother named Peg sabotages Carly's party. As the family walks to their car, Garcia's triggermen gun them down in a drive-by shooting. Carly and Chris are killed, and Riley is badly wounded.

Despite her injuries, Riley positively identifies the shooters. A senior LAPD detective, Beltran, warns his younger partner Carmichael that cops who interfere in Garcia's business end up dead. Prior to the preliminary hearing, Riley is visited by Henderson, a cartel lawyer. When Riley refuses to take his bribe, he uses her anti-psychotic medication to portray her as unreliable in court. Judge Stevens dismisses the case, and the prosecutor, Goldman, does nothing in response. Outraged, Riley is subdued while attacking her family's killers in court, and is committed to a psychiatric ward. Before her ambulance can leave, she fights her way out and escapes.

Five years later, Beltran and Carmichael arrive at the carnival to find the men who killed Riley's family hanging from a Ferris wheel. The killings attract the attention of FBI Agent Lisa Inman, who informs the detectives that Riley robbed her bank and used the money to travel abroad. Living on a string of false identities, she has been traveling throughout Europe and Asia, studying combat and military tactics. Video footage reveals that she was recently involving in a theft of multiple "military-grade" firearms from a gun shop.

Meanwhile, Riley drowns Goldman in his pool, burns Henderson alive in his house, and kills the now-retired Stevens in an explosion. Inman, Carmichael, and Beltran inform the media about Riley, triggering a debate between those who see her as a vigilante hero or a criminal. Elsewhere, Garcia comes under pressure from his partners, from the cartel, after Riley destroys two of his drug shipments in a week.

Riley guns down a gang laundering money for the cartel and burns their shop down; Garcia vows to kill her. Tracking recent crime patterns, Inman discovers that Riley has been living on Skid Row. She finds Riley's van full of stolen weapons and learns that the people there see Riley as their guardian angel.

Garcia sets a trap for Riley by rigging his warehouse with explosives. She survives, then humiliates him by breaking into his mansion and killing Salazar and Garcia’s bodyguards. Before she can shoot Garcia, his young daughter interrupts them. When Riley hesitates, Garcia wounds her and escapes. Riley shows up to Peg's house and punches her out. After restraining and mocking Peg for her failed marriage, Riley steals her SUV.

Inman asks Carmichael to meet her at Skid Row. She hopes to convince Riley to help them take down Garcia, but Carmichael kills Inman and tips off Garcia that Riley is on her way there.

At Skid Row, Riley confronts and kills Garcia's lieutenant, Cortez, and his gunmen. She uses Inman's phone to contact the media and exposes Carmichael's corruption. When the police arrive, Garcia kills Carmichael, assuming he ratted him out to the police. Garcia flees, but Riley catches him, beats him up, and is about to shoot him. Beltran arrives and asks Riley to stand down and assures her that Garcia will surely rot in prison this time with no hope of bribing himself out. But Riley is unconvinced, remembering how the system failed and turned on her the last time she put faith in it, with no chances of escaping and foolishly underestimating Riley's thirst for revenge. Garcia taunts her that she would spend more time in prison than him when they are arrested. This is a costly error in judgement however, as Riley states neither of them are going to prison before killing him with a head shot. As the police shoot at her, Beltran orders them to cease fire, and Riley once again escapes.

Beltran finds Riley critically wounded at her family's gravestone. He brings her to the hospital despite her desire to die. On the news, the police chief states that Riley North will be made to answer for her crimes. Beltran later visits Riley while she is in police custody at a hospital, telling her that there are many, including the police, who agree with her actions and covertly passes her a key to her handcuffs to enable her escape.