KrashingWaves

The First Purge (2018)

Who doesn’t love a good prequel. Gotta know how it all started, right?

From what we know of the first Purge movie, it takes place 10 years after the movie was released in theaters (approx. 2023) and the holiday was already embedded in the NFFA’s United States. Between 2013 and 2023, the first ever Purge had to have happened for it to become a national holiday. But we don’t know when for sure.

Just like how any “dystopian” film would begin, first come the stats. Population is out of control. Unemployment is at an all-time high. People living below the poverty line is unsustainable. To tackle these issues, a new political party, the New Founding Fathers of America, suggest an experiment to make the country great again.

The everyday people of America are angry and want a better way of living. And with that anger comes motivation and incentive. The NFFA politicians decide to implement an experiment, commit any crime for 12 hours and face no consequences (with the contingency of having a tracker implanted in your skin and contacts that record your live-sight). And get a monetary compensation for participating.

Ground zero: Staten Island. A good reflection of the greater American population, rich, poor, white, Black, Brown, etc. Once the experiment starts, the borders are closed and no one can get in or get off the island.

The movie focuses mostly on the experiment HQ with the scientist hired by the NFFA collecting live data throughout the night and a group of brown people from the hood trying to survive the night. The scientist’s hypothesis for the experiment was that people would Purge more as the night went on and then slow down as the 12 hours came up. Based on the preliminary data collected by interviewing participants, she thought more assault, battery, and murder would drive people’s purging catharsis.

Nope. Top crimes of the evening are petty arson and looting. Not what the NFFA wanted to see. So what did they do? Add a catalyst.

As the data started to spike with more murder being committed, the numbers were proving that a holiday like this is necessary for the American people. But it wasn’t the average American committing these crimes. It was groups of hired mercenaries from around the world.

Groups of trained/skilled white men dressed in Klan hoods, Nazi uniforms, and redneck regalia going around the island slaughtering people left and right. One scene that sticks out is a group of Klan members shooting up a church full of people not participating in the evening’s activities. Sounds a bit familiar.

These mass murders aren’t making sense to the scientist. Where did these groups come from? What happened that made people go from one to 60 in no time? As she conducts her own internal audit of the experiment under the NFFA’s nose, she finds that the majority of the groups showed up in the poorest parts of the island and dispersing from there. By finding out about their interference, the scientist wants to end the experiment. But the NFFA got what they wanted.

Data to back up the need for a murderous holiday. With the goal of targeting the poor Black and brown communities.

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The Forever Purge (2021)

I know you can guess where this story is going.

The last addition to the Purge franchise starts with a couple from Mexico making their way to the United States. They settle in a small town in Texas, the husband working for a rich rancher taking care of and taming the horses on a wealthy family’s ranch. Months pass and it’s the eve of their first Purge and take cover in a bunker with security, which they paid for, to pass the night. Come morning, they remain safe from harm. Or so they thought.

It seems as though certain Americans, under the new reign of the New Founding Fathers after the Senator from The Purge: Anarchy was no longer president, tool it upon themselves to declare the Purge would never end and their right as Americans to murder is always applicable. The Forever Purge is a form of cleansing the country of those who aren’t “truly” American. How they make that classification should be obvious by now since most white Americans are grade A haters.

Anyone Black, brown, people perceived as immigrants, multilingual speakers, and anyone who threatens the Aryan ideology passed down by fascists and Nazis throughout history.

As the protagonists try to escape the country and flee to the Mexican border for refuge (ain’t that some shit!), they encounter several roadblocks on their way that were mostly Neo-Nazi white supremacists hellbent on killing them.

What’s the opposite of a white savior? Like, the white people are now dependent on the brown people they never thought they’d be grouped with during an apocalypse? A brown savior? IDK. All I’m saying is the tables were certainly turned since the white family would’ve been dead if not for the Mexican man who worked for them and his heavily skilled wife.

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When I watched the first Purge movie almost 10 years ago, I was fascinated at the thought of being able to commit crime for 12 hours with absolutely no consequence. Target, here I come! I remember thinking the idea of the movie was genius but wasn’t fleshed out well enough for a true dystopian take on the evil of men. And then they made sequels!

What I love most about these movies is its obvious social commentary on the state of this country and where it could easily go in the not-so-distant future. Politicians backed by the NRA is just step one of how a political party like the NFFA can get and remain in power while gun control is nonexistent. And to make murder LEGAL!?!? A redneck’s field day and said politicians’ payday with the benefit of a flourishing economy.

To have a successful economy (something that’s completely made up and not real), low poverty, and an almost nonexistent unemployment rate, people should be allowed to commit murder and other heinous crimes for 12 hours once a year. And how exactly is the poverty level so low, you may ask? Guess who the American people are purging first.

The helpless. The poor. The homeless. The sick. And then anybody else that people hold grudges against. Like your neighbor who doesn’t like you and has absolutely HAD IT with you and your dog shitting on their lawn. Expect a “friendly” visit from them with a machete or AK-47.

I think the story’s backbone lies in the American lack of empathy and community that would make a holiday like the Purge successful. And by successful I mean increasing the wealth of the wealthy, keeping the conservative regime in power, and maintaining the population.

Population control itself is a Western ideology that’s been around since the early 20th century where the government would take control of the “issue” of population growth in regards to new births. But this time? Instead of worrying about additions, the government encourages murdering people as a means of purging with the intention of removing people without getting their hands dirty.

For me, given that I have the means and resources, I’d hack Federal Student Aid and wipe out everyone’s student debt. Get that right out of the way. And then somehow find a way to get my mortgage “taken care of”, if you know what I mean. And, of course, end the night with a little trip to Target. What NEVER crossed my mind was murder. I can hold a grudge but it is never that deep.

You’d think that a country built on the backs of Black slaves, stolen land from the indigenous, and railroad tracks laid by Chinese immigrants would be more … united, to say the least. Boatloads of people made their way over to the US in hopes of a new life, a better life, than what they had at home. And now, (very few) generations later, hate is more powerful than it’s been in a long time.

Holding so much hate in your hear to the point where the only way to get rid of it is to kill another human being is purely psychopathic behavior. I mean, have we not had enough mass school shootings and church bombings in our very short history? And here I thought second graders being gunned down in their own classrooms was means enough to ban heavy artillery from EVERYONE. But no.

I think the worst part is … I can absolutely see something like this happening in my lifetime. I’ve been around for less than 30 years and so much shit has happened in this country that I am no longer surprised. Planes crashing into buildings? Meaningless war? Middle school children slaughtered while police took no action to protect them? A GLOBAL PANDEMIC?!?!?!? Why not add a Purge holiday to the list.

No but seriously please don’t let that happen I am so tired and don’t think I could handle being here that much longer.

I can appreciate how the Purge franchise gives space to see what could happen. They’ve been holding a mirror to the American public in the hopes that we’ll get it. But a lot of us just see it as a horror film franchise. Getting the Purge to be a real holiday is just as likely as a redheaded baby doll coming alive and stabbing people. I mean, come on. Seriously?