The Town That Dreaded Sundown Movie

The Town That Dreaded Sundown is an American horror film meta-sequel to the 1976 film of the same name. It was made low-budget to keep the same cinéma vérité as Charles B. Pierce's film. The film is produced by Ryan Murphy of Ryan Murphy Productions (Glee, Nip/Tuck, American Horror Story) and Jason Blum of Blumhouse Productions (Paranormal Activity, Insidious) for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film is directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon in his feature-length directorial debut, and is written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. This is one of the last films of Ed Lauter before his death on October 16, 2013. The film was released on October 16, 2014.

While at the drive-in on Halloween during the annual showing of The Town That Dreaded Sundown, Corey Holland (Spencer Treat Clark) and Jami Lerner (Addison Timlin) are watching the film. Realizing that she is not enjoying it, they decide to leave. While parked in a secluded area, they begin to talk and kiss, but Lerner sees the Phantom in the woods. They decide to leave but the Phantom breaks the window and makes them get out of the car while pointing a gun at them. He makes Holland remove his pants and lie on the ground. He tells Lerner to turn around and to not look back. The Phantom begins to slash Holland to death. Lerner runs off but is caught when she falls. He tells her, "This is for Mary. Make them remember." Lerner walks back to the drive-in and collapses. The next morning, police interview her at the hospital. Later that night, Lerner and her grandmother, Lillian (Veronica Cartwright), watch the news about the attack. Lerner asks her grandmother what she remembers from the original attacks. She researches the crimes. The next day, she visits Holland's funeral.

Two days before Thanksgiving, Kendra Collins/Thompson goes to the airport to meet her boyfriend, Daniel Torrens, returning from the military. They have sex at a motel. He leaves to get snacks from the vending machine. Kendra hears something and looks out the window. The Phantom smashes the window with her boyfriend's severed head. She jumps out of the bathroom window, breaking her leg as she lands. She limps to the car but is killed while trying to start it. Lerner receives a phone call from Holland's phone. The Phantom tells her, "I'm going to do it again and again until you make them remember." She decides to tell her police escort, Deputy Foster (Joshua Leonard), about the incident. The next day, residents secure their houses and go to a town meeting.

Lerner goes to the City Hall archives to continue her research. She is helped by Nick (Travis Tope) and they become friends. At the police station, Texas Ranger Lone Wolf Morales (Anthony Anderson) takes over the investigation. While continuing her research at home, Lerner receives an e-mail from "Texas Phantom". Lerner takes this to the police and reveals her theories but they are disproven. Nick is waiting for Jami when she returns home and he asks her out to the vigil being held for the Phantom victims. While there, the Phantom shows up and is shot down by a marine officer. The news is told to the host of a social event and they celebrate. Afterwards, band members Johnny and Roy leave the dance and is warned by Deputy Tillman (Gary Cole) to go straight home. They decide, instead, to park at a lonely junkyard. While there, they see the Phantom. Johnny runs from the car. Roy drives off but is hit in the head and crashes. Johnny is beaten and Roy gets tied up. The Phantom recreates the trombone weapon from the original film. Johnny is then shot to death before Roy is stabbed to death. The next day, Deputy Foster tells Lerner that the man that was shot down at the vigil was a suicidal teen and that there were two more murders.

Texas Ranger Morales and Chief Deputy Tillman visit Reverend Cartwright (Edward Herrmann) at his church. They discovered that he sent Lerner the e-mail, but they do not believe he is the Phantom. Nick meets up with Lerner and tells her that he found out that Charles B. Pierce's son is still alive and lives in Texarkana. Chief Deputy Tillman goes to a bar on Christmas Eve and meets up with a woman. At home, while she is giving him a blowjob, he is shot through the eye. She runs into a farm field and is killed by the Phantom.

Lerner and Nick visit Charles Pierce Jr. (Denis O'Hare) where they learn about Hank McCreedy, a sixth victim of the original Phantom whose story was forgotten. He gives his opinion that the new Phantom is Hank McCreedy's grandson, because the family is angered that McCreedy's death was not remembered. Lerner is told that Hank McCreedy's wife was named Mary. That night, Lillian finds out that Lerner was accepted to college in California. Lillian decides to move to California so she can go to school. She tells Nick she is leaving in the morning and they have sex. Nick walks home and is attacked by the Phantom. While leaving town, Lerner pulls into a gas station and walks inside. She soon hears gunshots and finds her grandmother dying by the vehicle. The Phantom is seen shooting from a window in a nearby building. Lerner runs down the street and into the old Union train station. The Phantom follows her inside and calls her phone to find her. She runs to the train tracks where she finds Nick's body. She is shot down by arrows while trying to escape. While immobile, she is confronted by two Phantom Killers. One is revealed to be Deputy Foster and the other is Holland, Lerner's "dead" boyfriend who faked his death. Deputy Foster reveals that he is McCreedy's grandson. Holland is shot and killed by Foster. While Foster is attacking Lerner, she grabs his gun and shoots him. Lerner moves on with her life and goes to college.

The Homesman 2014 Film

What more is there for Tommy Lee Jones to do with a Western? We have seen him in a cowboy hat on screen so much it is almost part of his head. To my surprise, Jones has not made a film as a director set in the Old West since the 1995 TV movie The Good Old Boys, which I have not seen. I have seen his last two films, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada and HBO's The Sunset Limited, and I have come to the conclusion Jones is a very underrated director. He knows how to expertly pace a scene to bring about the maximum amount of tension. This is particularly evident in The Sunset Limited, where he and Samuel L. Jackson talk for ninety minutes, and every second of it is riveting. For his latest film, The Homesman, Jones tries to make a traditional, epic Western centered on a strong woman. However, its gender politics become increasingly confused the further along the film goes and really hinder something that could have been great.

Mary Bee Cuddy (Hilary Swank) is thirty-one years old and unmarried, living alone on a farm in Nebraska. She can ride a horse, shoot a gun, cook a pie, plow a field, and just about anything else you can do on a farm. The reason for her being single is she is "too bossy", which we hear from a man she asks to marry. During a church meeting led by the town reverend (John Lithgow), we learn three wives of the locals have gone "a little funny in the head", as President Muffley would say, due to the hostile conditions of the West and a surprising amount of dead babies. Mary volunteers to take these women up to Iowa, so they can be better taken care of, now that their husbands have given up on them. On her way out, she comes across a drifter, wearing only his undergarments, sitting atop a horse with a noose around his neck (Tommy Lee Jones). In exchange for his life (and some money), she employs him to help with her journey.

The film then becomes a whole mish-mash of different genres. It is sometimes a thriller about the dangers of the Old West. It is sometimes a drama about examining Mary's psychology. It is even sometimes a buddy, road trip comedy. Jones clearly wants this film to be a big epic, covering large swaths of material and various tones, but he never can nail down one to grab hold of. Each one is executed fairly well on their own, but they never find a good flow from one to the other. We will occasionally cut to flashbacks of the three women on their roads to madness, and the jarring tonal shift to something horrific always feels off, especially if the previous scene is Jones doing something wacky. And he has his fair share of wacky scenes. I mean, there are two separate scenes where he drunkenly sings and dances like a fool.

What really hurts The Homesman is its supposed feminist angle, and the large departure the film takes away from that. Everything we have been told about Mary allows us to think she will figure out a way to maneuver her way through this long and difficult journey. However, about half-way to two-thirds of the way through the movie, the film is no longer about a strong woman. It is about a woman who redeems a man. A major thing happens at the end of the second act which is totally unbelievable for Mary to do given everything that has proceeded it and completely took me out of the rest of the movie. For an hour and half, we have been told the movie is about this one thing, and in one decision, it becomes all about a man fulfilling his duty. It is a massive issue the film, which had been very solid up until that point, can never fully come back from.

Director of photography Rodrigo Prieto captures the West and all of its dangers beautifully. When these characters are traversing through the snow, you can feel how cold and desolate the space is. Westerns often just want to go with the majestic shots (and this film certainly has those), but it also has its moments of stark, harsh reality. Also, a shot of a building on fire at night with someone silhouetted in the flame will always be beautiful.

Tommy Lee Jones did not make a bad film here. On a technical level, it is quite impressive. He was just confused about the story he wanted to tell. He tries to cover so many things, and only some reach their full potential. Then, the gender politics of everything is rather troubling, though I do not think Jones did that with bad intentions. I think it was just the way he knew how, and unfortunately, it is pretty troublesome. I had the intention of giving this film a C+ coming out of the theater, but then I remembered James Spader shows up for a scene as a snobby hotel manager with an Irish brogue. A film containing that automatically gets a bump in its grade. You know you all agree with me.

The Prince 2014 Film

It’s often an arrogant and presumptuous critical tic to reflexively refer to turkeys starring major stars as “paycheck projects,” as though venality were the only possible reason a good actor might end up in a bad film. Yet it’s hard to think of a better explanation for the presence of John Cusack and Bruce Willis in Brian A. Miller’s “The Prince.” With the latter turning in one of his least committed onscreen performances, and the former appearing to be suffering from the worst migraine of his life every second he’s on camera, it’s up to star Jason Patric to somehow salvage this basic-cable-quality actioner, yet his options are limited. A brief theatrical run seems a mere formality for the Lionsgate release, with on-demand offering more promising returns.

Set very prominently in New Orleans, though shot in Mobile, Ala., “The Prince” seems to imagine itself a sort of Cajun-seasoned take on “Taken,” tossing in a dash of “Unforgiven” and a soupcon of David Mamet’s “Spartan” for extra flavor. The results, however, are far more “Grand Theft Auto: Ninth Ward,” with rote backstories, videogame-like shootouts and repetitive, uninteresting interrogations hustling the pic through its by-the-numbers paces.

Protagonist Paul (played by a competent if uncharismatic Patric), is a humble, ripped, widowed Mississippi auto mechanic with a shady past in the New Orleans criminal underworld. When his college-age daughter (Gia Mantegna) goes missing, he’s forced to sharpen up his dormant ass-kickery chops and revisit his old stomping grounds, shaking down a series of token hoods and reawakening some sleeping grudges from his bad old days in the Big Easy, most of which revolve around resident crime lord Omar (Willis, all but checking his watch). Violence quickly and inevitably ensues.

Along the way, he’s joined by his daughter’s snotty, coked-up friend Angela (Jessica Lowndes), who provides some moderately valuable intel at the start, and then inexplicably sticks around for the duration of the film to complain, scream and occasionally provide strange doses of sexual tension. Midway through, the pic introduces another ally in Paul’s old running buddy Sam (Cusack), who sighs and grimaces through his scenes as a luxury hotel-bound hustler.

No one seems to want to reinvent the wheel here, and an idle Netflix user could certainly do far worse when browsing for mindless actioners. But the overall air of shrugging obligation from those both in front of and behind the camera proves contagious. Rapper Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson and Jung Ji-hoon (better known as Korean pop superstar Rain) have minor, not entirely comfortable roles which seem to serve no purpose other than to broaden the pic’s potential appeal to younger auds and Asian demos, respectively. The action sequences are competently directed, but exhibit virtually no flair or invention, as Patric simply stands there shooting at waves of anonymous henchmen until they all fall down.

If nothing else, “The Prince” does seem to afford its array of weaponry greater than average care, and unlike most mid-grade shoot-‘em-ups, the film actually shows its central avenger frequently stopping to reload, and even making multiple trips to an ammo shop between gun battles. If only the rest of the film paid as much attention to detail.

Hercules 2014 Film

This article is about the 2014 film starring Dwayne Johnson. For the 2014 film starring Kellan Lutz, see The Legend of Hercules. Hercules is an American adventure film directed by Brett Ratner and starring Dwayne Johnson, Ian McShane, Reece Ritchie, Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Joseph Fiennes, and John Hurt. It is based on the graphic novel Hercules: The Thracian Wars. Distributed jointly by Paramount Pictures and MGM, it was released on July 25, 2014.
It is one of two Hollywood-studio Hercules films released in 2014, the other being Summit Entertainment's The Legend of Hercules.

Hercules (Dwayne Johnson) is the leader of a band of mercenaries comprising the spear-wielding prophet Amphiaraus (Ian McShane), the knife-throwing thief Autolycus (Rufus Sewell), the feral warrior Tydeus (Aksel Hennie), the Amazon archer Atalanta (Ingrid Bolsø Berdal) and his nephew storyteller Iolaus (Reece Ritchie). Hercules is said to be the demigod son of Zeus, who completed the legendary Twelve Labors, only to be betrayed by Hera, who drove him insane and caused him to murder his wife Megara (Irina Shayk) and their children during a visit to King Eurystheus (Joseph Fiennes). Hercules has since rejected Zeus and chosen to live as mortal, and is tormented by visions of Cerberus.

One day, Hercules and his men are approached by Ergenia (Rebecca Ferguson), on behalf of her father, Lord Cotys (John Hurt), who wants Hercules to train the armies of Thrace to defend the kingdom from bloodthirsty warlord Rheseus (Tobias Santelmann). Hercules accepts after he and his men are offered his weight in gold, and the band is welcomed to Thrace by King Cotys and General Sitacles (Peter Mullan), leader of the Thracian army. After training the army, Hercules and his men lead them into battle against local barbarians as a test of their strength. After the barbarians are defeated, Hercules and Sitacles confront Rheseus and his soldiers, believed to be Centaurs, but soon proven to be men on horseback. Rheseus is defeated and taken back to Thrace as a prisoner, where he is tortured and humiliated. Noticing that Ergenia has taken pity to him, Hercules confronts her and finds out Rheseus was merely retaliating against Lord Cotys' aggressive attempts to expand his kingdom, and, although Ergenia doesn't agree with his methods, she abides to them for the sake of her son, Arius, Lord Cotys' successor to the throne.

After receiving their reward, the mercenaries are ready to leave, but Hercules decides to stay behind to stop Cotys, and all but Autolycus choose to follow him. However, they are overpowered and captured by Sitacles and his men. While chained, Hercules is confronted by King Eurystheus, who is in league with Lord Cotys, and reveals that he drugged Hercules the night his family died, viewing him as a threat to his power. Hercules' family was in fact killed by three vicious wolves sent by Eurystheus, resulting in Hercules' constant hallucinations of Cerberus. When Lord Cotys orders Ergenia to be executed for her betrayal, Hercules is encouraged by Amphiaraus to embrace his destiny and breaks free of his chains, saving Ergenia and slaying the wolves with his bare hands. Hercules releases the prisoners, including Rheseus, and then confronts King Eurystheus, impaling him with his own dagger. He is attacked by Sitacles, who is then stabbed by Iolaus.

Outside, Hercules and his forces battle Lord Cotys and his army. Arius is taken hostage, but then rescued by Autolycus, who has decided to return to help his friends. In the ensuing battle, Tydeus is mortally wounded while protecting Arius, but fights on slaughtering numerous Thracian soldiers. Hercules then pushes a statue of Hera from its foundations and uses it to crush Lord Cotys and many of his soldiers. The surviving soldiers bow to Hercules, and Arius takes the throne, with Ergenia at his side, while Hercules and his men depart in search of other adventures.

As the credits roll, an animated retelling of the Twelve Labors shows how Hercules accomplished these feats with the help of his companions.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a 2014 American science fiction action comedy film based on the franchise of the same name. A reboot of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film series, the film is directed by Jonathan Liebesman, and stars Megan Fox, Johnny Knoxville, Pete Ploszek, Noel Fisher, Jeremy Howard, Alan Ritchson, Danny Woodburn, Tony Shalhoub, William Fichtner, and Will Arnett.

The film was announced shortly before Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Peter Laird sold the rights to the franchise to Nickelodeon in 2009. It was produced by Nickelodeon Movies and Michael Bay's production company Platinum Dunes, and distributed by Paramount Pictures.

The film was released on August 8, 2014 and received generally negative reviews, with critics commenting the unoriginal plot and characters, acting performances and pacing; but was a box office success, grossing over $392 million worldwide, and becoming Nickelodeon Movies' highest grossing film. A sequel is scheduled to be released on June 3, 2016.

April O'Neil is a reporter for Channel 6 news in New York who has been researching a gang called the Foot Clan which has been terrorizing the city. She questions a dock worker about shipments of chemicals that may be linked to the Foot Clan. Later that night, she returns and witnesses the Foot Clan unloading cargo. April tries to record footage using her phone, but a shadowy figure arrives and takes out the Foot Soldiers one by one. She tells her coworkers and her boss Bernadette Thompson, but no one believes her story.

The Foot Clan next attacks a subway station and hold hostages in order to lure the vigilante out. April rushes to the scene, hoping to encounter the vigilante or find evidence confirming his existence, but ends up getting held hostage by The Foot Clan. She sees four figures this time, who disappear after defeating the Foot Clan. She follows them to a rooftop and photographs them. The Turtles Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael notice her and delete the camera's images, warning her not to divulge their existence. April catches some of their names and finds them familiar.

April runs home and opens a box filled with documents, pictures, and July 1999 videos on "Project Renaissance", which involved her now-deceased father. She notices that the turtles she cared for from her father's laboratory fifteen years earlier seem similar to the Ninja Turtles. She recalls that her father was developing some type of mutagen. She continues researching and eventually realizes that the Ninja Turtles are the turtles from the laboratory.

Once again, she tries to convince Bernadette Thompson that the Turtles are real. Bernadette becomes so infuriated that she fires April. April tries telling her cameraman Vern Fenwick about them, but he does not believe her either. He does agree to take her to the old laboratory, though. There she finds her father's lab partner Eric Sacks; a famous scientist and a successful business man.

April tells him about the Ninja Turtles, showing him the photos. Sacks explains Project Renaissance: he and her father were cultivating the mutagen for its healing properties. Sacks theorizes that, when the laboratory was destroyed, the mutagen must have somehow caused the turtles to mutate into humanoids.

Meanwhile in the sewers, the Turtles tell their master, Splinter, that April has spotted them. Splinter orders them to find April and bring her to their lair, as she is now in great danger from the Foot Clan since she made contact with the Turtles.

The Turtles find April and blindfold her so she won't know their lair's location. They take her to Splinter, who explains how she saved their lives years before when she rescued them from the fire and released them into the sewers. As the turtles and Splinter grew more intelligent from the mutagen over the past 15 years, he started to teach the turtles how to defend themselves in the art of ninjitsu from a martial arts book he found in the sewer. April admits that she has told her father's associate about them, unaware that Sacks is actually the adoptive son of the Foot Clan's leader The Shredder.

Meanwhile, Sacks relays the information to Shredder. Shredder and Sacks plan to spread a deadly virus throughout New York, causing a quarantine, in order to seize control by offering the mutagen as a cure. Shredder needs the Turtles to extract the mutagen from their blood. After the virus is spread all over New York, Sacks plans to sell the mutagen cure for a massive profit and making him even more richer.

He and his gang find Splinter and the Turtles in the sewers, and a battle ensues. They are overwhelmed and Shredder captures Leo, Donnie and Mikey and leaves Splinter severely injured. Thought dead, Raphael survived the wreckage of the lair. Splinter instructs Raphael and April to save the other three Turtles. April calls Vern to give them a ride to the laboratory where the other three Turtles are being held.

When they arrive, April frees the Turtles, who join Raphael in fighting Shredder, but Shredder escapes. April, the Turtles, and Vern escape down a snowy mountain with The Foot and Karai in pursuit, and manage to get away.

The Turtles plan to attack Shredder on the rooftop of Sacks' building before he is able to release the toxin, while April and Vern search for the mutagen and battle Sacks inside the building. He reveals to April that he killed her father for burning down the lab. As he closes in on April, Sacks is knocked out by Vern. April finds the mutagen and heads onto the rooftop to give it to the Turtles. With April's help, the Turtles finally defeat Shredder who falls off the roof where he is immediately surrounded by the police. He is last seen touching the spilled mutagen.

That night, Vern attempts to impress April with a Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor, but unfortunately fails when the Turtles come in with a vehicle of their own and accidentally blow it up with an RPG. The turtles then offer April a ride home but she kindly turns down the offer. The film ends with Mikey serenading April with "Happy Together" (a love song performed by 60's rock band The Turtles).

Before I Go to Sleep Film

Before I Go to Sleep is a 2014 British-American mystery thriller film written and directed by Rowan Joffé. A film adaptation of S. J. Watson's 2011 novel of the same name, the film stars Nicole Kidman, Mark Strong, Colin Firth, and Anne-Marie Duff.

Forty-year-old Christine Lucas wakes up in bed with a man she does not know, in an unfamiliar house. The man explains that he is her husband, Ben, and that she suffered brain damage from a car accident ten years earlier. Christine wakes up every morning with no memory of her life from her early twenties onwards.

Christine receives treatment from Dr. Nasch, a neurologist at a local hospital who gives her a camera to record her thoughts and progress each day, and calls her every morning to remind her to watch the video in the the camera. Dr. Nasch instructs Christine to keep the camera hidden from Ben and reveals that her memory loss occurred after she was attacked and left for dead near an airport hotel. They surmise that Ben tells Christine it was a car accident to avoid upsetting her.

Over the course of treatment, Christine faintly remembers a red-haired woman named Claire. Ben tells her that Claire was a friend who couldn't handle Christine's condition and ended contact with her. Later, Christine recalls that she had a son. She angrily confronts Ben over hiding their child, but he says their son died of meningitis when he was eight. Christine remembers the name Mike and believes it may be the name of her attacker.

Christine learns that, several years after her attack, Ben had placed her in an assisted care facility and divorced her, then had a change of heart and brought her home to live with him. Christine learns that Claire had been trying to contact her at the care facility, unaware that Ben took her away. Christine obtains Claire's phone number and meets her. Claire reveals that Christine had embarked on an affair prior to her attack, while Ben and Claire had a one-time sexual encounter, due to their shared grief at Christine's memory loss. Feeling obliged to keep Ben and Christine's marriage intact, Claire ended contact.

Out of gratitude for his love and care, Christine decides to let Ben see the videos she has made on the digital camera. However, Ben angrily accuses Christine of having an affair with Dr. Nasch, strikes her, and storms out. On the telephone, Claire tells Christine that Ben claims to not have seen Christine for several years. Claire asks Christine to describe the "Ben" she is living with, and they realize he is not Ben. Christine attempts to escape the house, but "Ben" renders her unconscious.

The next morning, Christine again awakens with no memories. That night, "Ben" takes her to a hotel close to where she had been found. He reveals that he is Mike, the man she had an affair with. Mike had wanted Christine to reveal their affair to Ben, but Christine refused, and their argument culminated in Mike attacking Christine, resulting in her amnesia. He also inadvertently reveals that Christine's son Adam is still alive. Declaring his love for Christine, Mike deletes the videos on her camera and states that he is no longer interested in playing the part of Ben. He demands that Christine leave with him. Another struggle ensues, but this time Christine knocks Mike out and gets away.

Christine wakes up in a hospital bed and is visited by Dr. Nasch. He assures her the man responsible for her condition has been arrested. Christine is then visited by the real Ben, as well as their son Adam, now a teenager.

The Equalizer 2014 Film

The Equalizer is a 2014 American action thriller film directed by Antoine Fuqua and written by Richard Wenk, based on the television series of the same name. It stars Denzel Washington, Chloë Grace Moretz, Marton Csokas, David Harbour, Bill Pullman and Melissa Leo.

Principal photography began in June 2013 on location and took place in different cities of Massachusetts. This was the first film to have Village Roadshow Pictures co-finance the deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment since Saving Silverman in 2001. The film was premiered at 2014 Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2014, and released worldwide on September 26.

Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) is a retired black ops government operative who lives in Boston, Massachusetts and works at a Home Mart hardware store, where he befriends many of his co-workers and also tries to help a security guard trainee named Ralphie pass his qualification exam. McCall has promised his recently deceased wife that he'd leave his old life behind, but is compelled to act after his teenage friend Teri (Chloë Grace Moretz) whose real name is Alina, was seen being mistreated by her pimp. Alina's life was destroyed at the age of five or six when she was a victim of sex trafficking by the Russian Mafia and then became their sex slave and forced into prostitution.

Robert vows to save her after she is hospitalized after being brutally beaten by her pimp, Slavi (David Meunier). McCall enters a restaurant owned by the Russian mob and tries to convince Slavi to release Alina by paying him $9800, but Slavi refuses. McCall pretends to walk away, but turns back and takes out Slavi and his men with their own weapons, removing the footage from all the security cameras.

In retaliation, Vladimir Pushkin (Vladimir Kulich) sends his enforcer Teddy (Marton Csokas) 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 forces them to pay back all the money they have gotten through extortion. Ralph passes his test and becomes a security guard at Home Mart.

Teddy determines McCall is the culprit; surprised by his skills, Teddy tries to capture him to use those skills instead of killing him. McCall, however, outsmarts his pursuers and escapes, while completing more acts of vigilantism. McCall visits fellow retired operatives Susan Plummer (Melissa Leo) and Brian Plummer (Bill Pullman) in Virginia, who help him acquire intelligence on Pushkin's activities. It is revealed that Teddy is ex-Spetnaz, and that his real name is Nikolai. After McCall leaves, Susan remarks to Brian that McCall was not actually looking for help, but was actually asking for permission.

McCall then captures Frank Masters (David Harbour), a corrupt Boston policeman who has been aiding Teddy, by trapping him in his car and threatening to flood the vehicle with carbon monoxide. Frank relents and helps McCall destroy one of Pushkin's money laundering operations in Boston. Later, McCall confronts Teddy at dinner; McCall pledges to bring Pushkin's empire down, and soon destroys a container ship used by Pushkin to smuggle goods. Unsatisfied with Teddy's lack of progress and his increasing monetary losses, Pushkin warns Teddy he can either kill McCall or not come home to Moscow.

In retaliation, Teddy and his men attack Home Mart and take Ralph and the workers of Home Mart hostage, threatening to kill them if he does not surrender. McCall enters the store and disables most of the lighting, tells Ralph to get the hostages to safety, and then kills Teddy's henchmen one by one. After a struggle between McCall and one of Teddy's men, Ralph comes back to help McCall, but is shot in the leg. McCall tells Ralph to turn on the electricity after an exact time of 40 seconds. McCall sets up a number of chemicals in a microwave; the electricity turns it on, causing an explosion that kills the last of Teddy's men. McCall finally kills Teddy with a nail gun.

McCall then travels to Moscow and kills Pushkin's guards, and sets up an electrical trap to kill Pushkin himself. McCall returns to Boston, where he reunites with Alina, who has recovered from her wounds and 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 ad, identifying himself as "The Equalizer". He soon receives another plea for help and agrees to answer it.