The Purge

[Bells]

If on one night every year, you could commit any crime without facing consequences, what would you do? In The Purge, a speculative thriller that follows one family over the course of a single night, four people will be tested to see how far they will go to protect themselves when the vicious outside world breaks into their home.

In an America wracked by crime and overcrowded prisons, the government has sanctioned an annual 12-hour period in which any and all criminal activity-including murder-becomes legal. The police can't be called. Hospitals suspend help.

It's one night when the citizenry regulates itself without thought of punishment. On this night plagued by violence and an epidemic of crime, one family wrestles with the decision of who they will become when a stranger comes knocking.

When an intruder breaks into James Sandin's (Ethan Hawke) gated community during the yearly lockdown, he begins a sequence of events that threatens to tear a family apart. Now, it is up to James, his wife, Mary (Lena Headey), and their kids to make it through the night without turning into the monsters from whom they hide.

Directed by James DeMonaco (writer of Assault on Precinct 13 and The Negotiator), The Purge is produced by Jason Blum of Blumhouse (Paranormal Activity, Insidious, Sinister), Platinum Dunes' partners Michael Bay, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form (The Amityville Horror, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), as well as Sébastien Kurt Lemercier (Assault on Precinct 13).(c) Universal

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_purge/


Soooo... i just stumbled onto this nugget by chance, it's an upcoming movie (Jun 7th) and although i don't really expect anything out of this... the premise could even lead to an interesting concept.

I mean, it's like a national holiday for Battle Royale / Hunger Games celebrations for crying out loud... and the director is not really incompetent... i liked The Negotiator and heard good things on Assault on Precinct 13. But i'm pretty sure it will all just be one big excuse for mindless violence and vague commentary on the culture of violence (in no sarcastic tone i would wager...)

Just wanted to share this movie premise cause it kinda grabbed my interest for a second before i started analyzing what is would probably be... maybe i'm wrong though?

[Shyria Dracnoir]

"You be strangers. Come for the festival, are ya" (http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/The_Return_of_the_Archons_%28episode%29)

http://i644.photobucket.com/albums/uu167/wilco920/320x240.jpg

[Magus]

Wouldn't suspending law enforcement nationally for only 12 hours a year save only a few million dollars in exchange for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of needless deaths?

...wow, how in the world haven't the Republicans drafted this bill yet?

[Amake]

That's the most ridiculous premise for any story I've ever heard. You get twelve hours to live out your power fantasies, except the people you want to murder are going to hide in expensive bunkers, so you can actually only get to people who haven't done anything to you, or vandalize some pointless shit. Though you'll probably want to spend your time trying to hide from the more well-armed psychopaths. Actually the vast majority of people will probably regulate itself with every thought of how they may be punished for stepping out the door. So you've got a system where a small but vicious minority gets to lash out at everyone else for 0.137% of the time, and that compensates for the remaining 364 and a half days of the year when people commit rampant crimes for actual reasons and you probably still can't afford to visit the hospital.

[Magus]

That's the most ridiculous premise for any story I've ever heard. You get twelve hours to live out your power fantasies, except the people you want to murder are going to hide in expensive bunkers, so you can actually only get to people who haven't done anything to you, or vandalize some pointless shit. Though you'll probably want to spend your time trying to hide from the more well-armed psychopaths. Actually the vast majority of people will probably regulate itself with every thought of how they may be punished for stepping out the door. So you've got a system where a small but vicious minority gets to lash out at everyone else for 0.137% of the time, and that compensates for the remaining 364 and a half days of the year when people commit rampant crimes for actual reasons and you probably still can't afford to visit the hospital.

Again, this is like, the perfect Republican bill and I have no idea why liberal Hollywood film makers are developing it instead of the House GOP.

[Amake]

"More cartoonishly evil than anything the GOP could think of" should be the movie's tagline.

[Locke cole]

"More cartoonishly evil than anything the GOP could think of"* should be the movie's tagline.

*we hope.

[Bells]

the best part is to think that there is some dude out there who stalks his victim until he final minute of the day and then when he goes for the killing, the twelve hours are up. So... he just walks away with a "D'aaww... well, my fault. Thanks mate, see ya again next year"

[Shyria Dracnoir]

So according to the rumor mill the Purge totally works by letting the upper classes close the circle and hunt the poor/minority/"anyone unlucky enough to not afford a bunker" members of society like the animals the rich have always treated them as (typified by the rules of the Purge having built-in prohibitions against targeting law enforcement and members of the government above a specific rank, and of the victim in the trailer being a homeless veteran being hunted by a gang of preps).

So in other words, probably about par for what the Republicans would like to see in society.

EDIT: Supplementary marketing link for the in-universe "New Founders of America" party that describes more of the societal impact of the Purge. The Portland TriMet is made of people! (http://www.newfoundersamerica.org/purge-hq/)

[PyrosNine]

B-movie.

What we want is a story about a 12 hour freedom to hunt down serial rapists, gang members, drug dealers, and rove about in guerrilla posses after the worst of society (and maybe grab a big screen or two), in other words, we all want to become Batman for 12 hours. That is what we want this movie to be. Also, the idea is I guess that there are more law abiding people than criminals, so the posses of vigilantes would curb the posses of criminals, so we get Gotham City Imposters going on.

Instead, we're probably just going to get class wars and inexplicable universal moral decay because it's not a speculative fiction movie nowadays unless you go out of your way to show that all humans everywhere are bastards.

[Bells]

(and maybe grab a big screen or two), in other words, we all want to become Batman for 12 hours.

Remember that time Batman captured the Joker in the old sawmill and then stole those two 60'' plasmas on top of the batmobile?

Man, Frank Miller writes some mess'd up shit...

[PyrosNine]

Remember that time Batman captured the Joker in the old sawmill and then stole those two 60'' plasmas on top of the batmobile?

Man, Frank Miller writes some mess'd up shit...

Where else did he get Oracle and himself those nifty flatscreens for their computer lairs? If he buys them in bulk, people will get suspicious when the Wayne manor has less TVs than the receipts indicate!

[Magus]

Actually this does remind me of something good, in that if you were into reading the background materials for the universe in the video game Dishonored, there's a five-day period at the end of every year that's considered "outside time" which is celebrated with a bacchanal of revelry and sex, and no crimes committed during it are "remembered". Most people use it for committing heretical, sexual, or minor crimes, but the implication was made that some people use it for thievery, rape, and murder (both the nobility and the commoners).