In a near-future America ruled by the New Founding Fathers, every crime, including murder, is legal for twelve hours once a year, a "Purge" sold as a way to cut crime but really used to kill off the poor. The films follow ordinary people trying to survive the night, from its first experiment on Staten Island to a senator's campaign that ends it. The Forever Purge shows extremists refusing to stop, and the country collapsing as Americans flee across the border into Mexico.
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No. 01 · 2013 · Film
The Purge recap
In 2022, James Sandin has grown rich selling home security systems for the annual Purge, when all crime is legal for twelve hours. He locks down his house with his wife Mary and children Zoey and Charlie. Zoey's older boyfriend Henry, whom James disapproves of, sneaks in and tries to kill James, and is shot dead. Charlie sees a wounded stranger begging for help in the street and opens the house to him. A gang of masked, wealthy young people arrives, led by a polite young man, and demands the family hand the stranger over or they will break in. James and Mary capture the stranger and prepare to surrender him, then change their minds.
How The Purge ends
The gang breaks in, and James kills several of them before he is stabbed by their leader. The Sandins' neighbours, jealous of their wealth, kill the gang, then turn on Mary and the children. The stranger saves them and holds the neighbours at gunpoint, and Mary refuses to let anyone else die. The siren sounds, the Purge ends, and Mary sends the neighbours away. James dies.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 02 · 2014 · Film
The Purge: Anarchy recap
On Purge Night in 2023 in Los Angeles, a police sergeant, Leo Barnes, heads out armed to kill the drunk driver who killed his son. Waitress Eva Sanchez and her daughter Cali are dragged from their apartment by an armed squad, and Shane and Liz, a couple on the edge of breaking up, are stranded when their car breaks down. Leo saves Eva and Cali, and the couple joins them, and he reluctantly agrees to protect them until dawn. They are hunted across the city by masked gangs and by paramilitary death squads, and learn the government is sending its own forces to kill poor people. They are captured and sold to wealthy people who hunt them for sport in a mansion. A resistance group led by Carmelo Johns fights back.
How The Purge: Anarchy ends
Carmelo's fighters save the group, though Shane is killed. Leo reaches the man who killed his son and spares him. The leader of the death squad shoots Leo, and the man Leo spared kills him in return. As the Purge ends, the survivors take the wounded Leo to hospital.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 03 · 2016 · Film
The Purge: Election Year recap
In 2040, Senator Charlie Roan, who survived the Purge as a teenager when her family was killed, is running for president on a promise to end it. The New Founding Fathers decide to kill her during the Purge, lifting the protection that has always covered government officials. Her head of security, Leo Barnes, protects her when her own guards betray her. They escape into Washington, D.C., where they are helped by Joe Dixon, a deli owner protecting his shop, his employee Marcos, and Laney Rucker, a former gang member who runs a triage van. They link up with anti-Purge rebels led by Dante Bishop, who plans to assassinate the NFFA candidate.
How The Purge: Election Year ends
The NFFA captures Roan and takes her to a church to be sacrificed. Leo and the rebels save her, and Dante captures the NFFA candidate Edwidge Owens, though Roan persuades him not to kill him. Joe is killed. Roan wins the election and ends the Purge, and riots break out among the NFFA's supporters.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 04 · 2018 · Film
The First Purge recap
The New Founding Fathers, newly in power, run an experiment on Staten Island: residents are paid to stay home for a night of legal crime, and more if they take part. The test is designed by psychologist Dr. May Updale. Nya, an activist, opposes it, while her younger brother Isaiah wants revenge on a man who cut him. Her ex-boyfriend Dmitri, a drug kingpin, plans to stay out of it. At first, most residents throw parties instead of killing, so the NFFA sends in mercenaries disguised as gangs and the Ku Klux Klan to drive up the violence.
How The First Purge ends
Updale learns of the mercenaries and is killed for objecting. Dmitri fights his way through a tower block to save Nya, Isaiah and the residents trapped inside, killing the mercenaries. The survivors walk out at dawn, but the experiment is declared a success and the Purge goes national.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 05 · 2021 · Film
The Forever Purge recap
After the Purge is reinstated, Adela and Juan, a married couple who crossed from Mexico, live in Texas, where Juan works on a ranch owned by the Tucker family. Dylan Tucker, the son, resents Juan. They survive Purge Night, but the morning after, masked gangs keep killing, calling it the "Forever Purge", a movement to wipe out immigrants and nonwhite Americans. Order collapses across the country. Adela, Juan and the Tuckers, including Dylan's pregnant wife Cassie, flee together toward the Mexican border, which Mexico has opened for six hours to American refugees, with help from a Native American group guiding people south.
How The Forever Purge ends
The group fights through El Paso and reaches Mexico, and Dylan and Juan come to respect each other. As they cross, news reports show the United States falling apart, with Canada and Mexico taking in Americans fleeing the violence.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
Common questions
What is the Purge story so far?
In a near-future America ruled by the New Founding Fathers, every crime, including murder, is legal for twelve hours once a year, a "Purge" sold as a way to cut crime but really used to kill off the poor. The films follow ordinary people trying to survive the night, from its first experiment on Staten Island to a senator's campaign that ends it. The Forever Purge shows extremists refusing to stop, and the country collapsing as Americans flee across the border into Mexico.
Where did Purge leave off?
The Forever Purge (2021) is the latest. The group fights through El Paso and reaches Mexico, and Dylan and Juan come to respect each other. As they cross, news reports show the United States falling apart, with Canada and Mexico taking in Americans fleeing the violence.
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