Equalizer (film)

Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) is a retired black ops operative who quietly lives in Boston, Massachusetts, works at a Home Mart hardware store, where he befriends many of his co-workers, and helps a security guard trainee named Ralphie pass his qualification exam. McCall promised his recently deceased wife that he would leave his old life behind. Unable to sleep, McCall spends some late nights reading in a 24/7 diner, where he befriends Alina (Chloë Grace Moretz), a teenaged prostitute for the Russian Mafia, who is regaled by Robert with his philosophical interpretations of the books he reads. One night she is hospitalized when brutally beaten by her pimp, Slavi. McCall enters a restaurant owned by the Russian mob and offers to buy Alina's freedom from Slavi for $9,800, but Slavi refuses, dismissing McCall as old and impotent. Failing in this approach, McCall kills Slavic and four of his men with skillful close combat efficiency.

Russian Mafia boss Vladimir Pushing sends his enforcer Teddy Rensen to Boston to find and eliminate the culprit. Meanwhile, Ralph withdraws his application for being a security guard at Home Mart to help out his mother at his family restaurant, which was set on fire by corrupt policemen as an act of extortion. McCall confronts the corrupt policemen and beats them. He forces them to pay back all the money they have extorted, threatening to publicize their crimes with video that he shot of them accepting protection money from Ralph's mother. Ralphie returns to Home Mart, and passes his test, becoming a security guard at the store.

Teddy determines McCall is the culprit, surprised by the skill sets McCall possesses. McCall repeatedly outsmarts his pursuers and completes more acts of vigilantism. McCall visits old friends; married and retired CIA operatives Susan and Brian Plummer in Virginia, who help him acquire intelligence on Pushkin's activities. It is revealed that Teddy's real name is Nicolai Itchenko, that he is a ex-Spetsnaz and ran a wing of the secret police. Brian reveals to Robert that he had a nice funeral and they are relieved, though not surprised, he survived. After McCall leaves, Susan remarks to Brian that McCall was not actually looking for help, but was asking for permission.

McCall captures Frank Masters a corrupt policeman on Pushkin's payroll, by trapping him in his car and flooding the vehicle with tailpipe exhaust to force him to cooperate. Frank relents and helps McCall destroy one of Pushkin's local money laundering operations. McCall confronts Nicolai at dinner, pledging to bring Pushkin's empire down. When McCall destroys a container ship Pushkin used to smuggle goods, Pushkin orders Nicolai to kill McCall, saying that until he does, he may not return home to Moscow.

Nicolai and his men go to the Home Mart and take Ralphie and several other of McCall's coworkers hostage, threatening to kill them if McCall does not surrender. McCall enters the store and disables most of the lighting, and tells Raphie to get the hostages to safety. McCall then kills Nicolai's henchmen one by one. After a struggle between McCall and one of Nicolai's men, Ralphie comes back to pull the injured McCall out of the store, but is shot in the leg himself. McCall tells Ralphie to turn on the electricity at the breaker box in exactly 40 seconds, giving him his digital watch for precision. McCall sets up small containers of propane and oxygen in a microwave oven. The electricity turns it on, causing an explosion that kills the last of Teddy's men. McCall then kills Teddy with a nail gun.

McCall then travels to Moscow, confronts Pushkin while he is in the shower and sets a trap which electrocutes him. McCall returns to Boston, where he reunites with Alina, who has recovered from her wounds, has gotten a legitimate job and has taken up reading. She thanks him for giving her a second chance. McCall is inspired to continue using his skills to help people in need and posts an online advertisement, identifying himself as "The Equalizer". He soon receives another plea and agrees to answer it.