Is The Purge: Anarchy Scary? The Verdict and the Whole Plot

Everyone has somewhere to be, mostly outside

It is 2023, and the annual Purge is about to start. An anti-Purge resistance group run by Carmelo Johns takes over live broadcasts to denounce the NFFA. In L.A., the waitress Eva Sanchez gets home to her daughter Cali and her sick father, Rico. They begin barricading the apartment, and Rico quietly leaves in a limousine, because he has agreed to be killed by a rich family in return for money for Eva and Cali. Meanwhile, a married couple, Shane and Liz, are in a grocery store, where a gang in masks, riding skateboards and dirt bikes, harasses them, and then their car breaks down because the gang tampered with it. Off-duty sergeant Leo Barnes loads up because he wants to kill Warren Grass, a drunk driver who hit Leo's son the day before last year's Purge and was acquitted, as the son died on Purge night. Leo ignores his ex-wife Janice and drives out.

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Leo becomes a babysitter

When the Purge begins, Eva and Cali see NFFA paramilitary troops gathering outside. The building superintendent, Diego, comes into their apartment and is shot by the troops, who capture the women to hand over to their leader, Big Daddy. Leo happens to pass by, kills the troops, wounds Big Daddy, and saves Eva and Cali. Shane and Liz turn out to be hiding in Leo's car, and the four of them drive off while Big Daddy shoots at them. After the car breaks down, they walk. They find a paramilitary van where soldiers have been shot by resistance fighters, free Shane from a trap and take weapons. In the subway they pass a harmless homeless camp, and then a fire-themed gang of purgers chases them underground and burns the tunnel. Shane is wounded, but he and Liz shoot the gang's vehicle and its propane tank, and everyone gets away.

Rich people bid on the poor

The group goes toward Eva's friend Tanya's apartment building, and on the way Eva accidentally signals a traffic camera, which tells the troops where they are. Tanya's family takes them in, but Tanya's sister Lorraine kills Tanya because Tanya slept with her husband. The group leaves, and the same masked gang from earlier captures them and sells them at an auction in a theater, where wealthy Purgers bid on people to hunt. This is the scene most people dread, and it comes late in the movie: rich strangers buy the group and hunt them. The group is forced into an arena, where Leo overpowers a Purger, takes his weapon and night vision device, and kills several attackers. The head Purger calls in security, who shoot Shane dead. The resistance then attacks the compound and kills the security forces and the Purgers who are left. Liz decides to stay with the resistance, and Leo, Eva and Cali leave.

A revenge plan with a change of heart

Leo steals a car and drives with Eva and Cali toward Warren Grass's house. They beg him to give up the revenge, but he goes in to confront Warren anyway. When Leo comes out, Big Daddy shoots him and reveals that the NFFA secretly sends death squads to raise the body count, because not enough poor people are dying on their own. Big Daddy is about to finish Leo when Warren shoots Big Daddy first. Warren explains that Leo chose to forgive him and let him live. The death squad shows up, and Eva, Cali and Warren prepare to fight. Then the sirens blare to signal that the Purge is over, which makes Big Daddy's death legal and spares Leo. Warren takes Eva, Cali and Leo to the hospital while helicopters fly over the city.