The First Purge

## Movie Guide

**The First Purge**is an American horror film directed by Gerard McMurray. It is the fourth installment in the Purge franchise and serves as a prequel. It stars Y'Lan Noel, Lex Scott Davis, Joivan Wade, Luna Lauren Valdez, and others.

## Plot

In an alternate 2014, the New Founding Fathers of America (NFFA) are now the most powerful party in the United States, including the current President Bracken. In 2017, NFFA chief of staff Arlo Sabian and sociologist Dr. May Updale announce an experiment to take place on Staten Island where for 12 hours, citizens will be allowed to purge and release their inhibitions in any way they choose, including murder. The NFFA offers residents $5,000 to stay during the experiment, with additional compensation if they join the purge and survive. They also outfit the participants with contact lens cameras so that they can monitor all activity and put tracking devices in them so they will know if they try to leave the island.

Low-lying drug kingpin and businessman Dmitri tells his dealers that they will not be leaving the island, as moving his large amounts of money and product will draw too much attention and tells them to stay in a safe house and lay low. Dealer Capital A decides to defy this order and go out and purge, while newbie dealer Isaiah is attacked and injured by Skeletor. Isaiah goes to his sister Nya, an anti-Purge activist and Dimitri's ex-girlfriend, for treatment. As people flee Staten Island, Nya joins her friends Dolores, Luisa, and Selina in a church to wait out the Purge. Dmitri has stayed behind, and Anna and Elsa, two prostitutes, are sent by his dealers to his office to keep him company. Skeletor commits the first Purge murder, and the video recorded by the NFFA goes viral. The NFFA also observe that most of the crimes taking place are minor ones such as misdemeanors (looting, vandalism, street racing), disorderly conduct (public intoxication, sex acts), low-level felonies, and public disturbances (loud parties), as opposed to the expected violent ones like murder.

Isaiah secretly joins the Purge to get his revenge on Skeletor. He eventually confronts him during the Purge but cannot shoot him. Isaiah runs off and into more purgers, before hiding and calling Nya for help. Anna and Elsa are revealed to be Purgers who attempt to kill Dmitri, but Dmitri fights them off and learns that Capital A had sent them in an attempt to take over Dmitri's business. Skeletor captures Nya in the streets and attempts to rape her, but Isaiah wounds him and they escape. Capital A and his crew go to Dmitri's office to thank Anna and Elsa for killing Dmitri, but Dmitri and his gang ambush him and kill them all, except for Anna and Elsa, who are told to never return to Staten Island. Nya and Isaiah return to the church to see blood-soaked white supremacist bikers leaving it. Although Nya's friend, Luisa and her daughter Selina survive, Dolores' fate is unknown. They all return to Nya's apartment, where Dolores eventually manages to make it safely.

Meanwhile, at the NFFA headquarters, Updale becomes suspicious of a sudden increase in murder, along with the presence of masked participants. As she reviews the video footage of the Purge and notices vans full of masked killers arriving, she realizes to her horror that the masked participants are trained mercenary groups killing multiple civilians. Sabian explains that he sent the mercenaries to make the experiment look successful, and eventually to help balance the wealth disequilibrium amongst the rich and the poor. Updale protests this tampering, realizing that the NFFA only wants to eradicate the poor to save the expense of social programs. Knowing that his corruption has been exposed, Sabian has Updale taken away to Staten Island and murdered, before erasing all footage of the event.

Dmitri and his gang escape through the streets, until unknown assailants attack them. Dmitri disposes of them all and discovers they are mercenaries. Realizing they were sent by the NFFA, who had also dumped weapons into the neighborhood to provoke participation, Dmitri and his crew decide to take a stand against them and protect the neighborhood. After saving local shop owner and friend Freddy and his associates, they go to Nya's apartment building to try and save her and her friends, but NFFA drones shoot and kill most of Dmitri's gang. Dmitri calls Nya and warns her of the mercenaries' invasion, but he is coming to help her. Dmitri successfully kills a number of mercenaries and helps Nya's group to hide in a safe space. A second group of mercenaries are about to shoot a rocket-propelled grenade into the apartments when Skeletor arrives and eliminates some mercenaries before he himself is killed. Dmitri grabs a piece of plastic explosive, throws it and shoots it repeatedly until it explodes, killing the remaining mercenaries. As sirens sound the end of the Purge, a wounded Dmitri is hailed as a hero, and he states that the survivors must somehow fight back.

During the end credits, Sabian reads a statement calling this experimental Purge a success, and that a nationwide Purge may begin as soon as the following year, which leads into the events of the other films and directly ties into *The Purge* television series.

## Cast

### Starring

* Y'lan Noel as Dmitri Cimber
* Lex Scott Davis as Nya Charms
* Joivan Wade as Isaiah Charms
* Steve Harris as Freddy

### Co-Starring

* Mugga as Dolores
* Patch Darragh as Arlo Sabian
* Marisa Tomei as May Updale
* Luna Lauren Vélez as Luisa
* Kristen Solis as Selina
* Rotimi Paul as Skeletor
* Mo McRae as 7 & 7
* Jermel Howard as Lorenzo
* Siya as Blaise
* Christian Robinson as Capital A
* Derek Basco as Taz
* D.K. Bowser as Sharpie
* Maria Rivera as Anna
* Chyna Layne as Elsa
* Mitchell Edwards as Kels
* Naszir Nance as Terence
* Kevin Carrigan as General Smiley
* Susanna Guzman as Sister 1
* Olivia Frances Williams as Sister 2
* Peter Johnson as Carl Almory
* Melonie Diaz as Juani
* Ian Blackman as President Bracken
* Levy Tran as Roenick
* Katina Forte as Susan
* Aaron Moss as James
* Van Jones as Van Jones
* Jane Fergus as Anne
* Alan Pietruszewski as Reporter 5
* Logan Crawford as Reporter 7
* Matthew Mesler as Psychologist 1
* Geoff Schuppert as Psychologist 2
* Deidre Goodwin as Psychologist 3
* Nancy Lemenager as Psychologist 4
* Neal Gupta as Tech 1
* Ricky Needham as Tech 2
* Anthony Lee Medina as Tech 3
* Mike Cabellon as Tech 4
* Nathyia Jackson as Church Guard
* Paul Iatomasi as Security Guard
* Rolando Martín Gómez as Man with Gun
* Gabriel Lopez as Tall Man
* Boris Khaykin as Crackhead
* Moisés Acevedo as Crazy-eyed Man
* Patrick Byas as Bloody Victim
* Shonica Gooden as Female Resident
* Shawn Woodland as Male Resident
* Desiigner as Kels' Crew/Purge Partygoer
* Cloé Xhauflaire as News Reporter 1
* John P. McGinty as News Reporter 2
* Qurrat Ann Kadwani as News Reporter 3
* Claudine Ewing as News Reporter 6

### Uncredited

* Cindy Robinson as Megan Lewis (Voice)
* Grant Koo as Kissing Man
* Boomer Mays as Rex
* A.J. Verel as Officer Ramirez
* Sean Gislingham as William Rickett
* Jalil Jay Lynch as Shotgun Daddy
* Roselyn Kasmire as Mrs. Bracken
* Yvette Lashawn Williams as Purge Bride
* Jessie Bell as Officer Wilson
* Unknown as Officer Sachs

## Trivia

* The first film in the series not to be directed by James DeMonaco, who instead serves as executive producer.
* In this film, the NFFA dispatched death squads to ensure there are more deaths to make the event successful. The second Purge film, Anarchy, has a character named Big Daddy reveal of the same reason for the death squads.
* Several scenes reference real-life historical events:
	+ An African American man lies injured in a baseball field struggling to survive while being surrounded by mercenaries dressed as police officers alludes to real-life police brutality incidents, most notably the Rodney King beating in 1991, which led to the 1992 LA riots a year later.
	+ Mercenaries are dressed in Ku Klux Klan regalia, a nod to Jim Crow-era United States. The same element also reference the present-day incarnation of the Klan, which consists of several unconnected chapters that use the KKK name and opposes the civil rights movement and desegregation, while retaining its old values and hate elements,
	+ The church massacre scene alludes to the 2015 Charleston Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church massacre. Both scenarios were perpetrated by white supremacists: the film shows the culprit(s) as a biker gang whereas the real-life church shooting was a lone party named Dylann Storm Roof.
	+ The mercenary whom Dmitri strangles is depicted wearing a mask modeled on the blackface minstrels, a form of offensive entertainment in which white people wear black makeups to look like African Americans.
		- The same element may also reference yellowface, a form of theatrical makeup used by European-American performers to represent an East Asian person.
		- Upon unmasking, the mercenary is depicted to posses Aryan characteristics, such as blonde hair and blue eyes, both elements of the master race espoused by Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.