Film / The Forever Purge

"Thank you for your participation."

The Forever Purge is the fifth installment of The Purge Universe, serving as a direct sequel to The Purge: Election Year. Several years after the events of Election Year, Adela (Ana de la Reguera) and Juan (Tenoch Huerta), a young Mexican couple fleeing a drug cartel, migrate to the United States. That same year, as a result of rising tensions over immigration, the New Founding Fathers are voted back into power, and the Purge is reinstated.

Ten months after their migration, Juan is living as a stable boy in the estate of a white Texan family, the Tuckers, consisting of the kindly patriarch, Caleb (Will Patton), his privileged son, Dylan (Josh Lucas), his tomboyish daughter, Harper (Leven Rambin), and Dylan's pregnant wife, Cassie (Cassidy Freeman). Although they all survive the Purge Night, after it ends, it turns out that a significant number of Americans want to continue the Purge, calling this the Forever Purge. Now, Juan and Adela must team up with the Tuckers to fight their way out of America to the Mexican border, struggling through waves of Purgers and terrorists who slowly take over the United States.

The film was originally scheduled for a July 2020 release but delayed due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. It was eventually released in theaters on July 2, 2021.

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The Forever Tropes:

• Action Girl:
  • Adela. It’s revealed later on that she a member of an Amazon Brigade that was trained to fight against the drug cartels.
  • Harper is this as well, being a Farmer's Daughter raised in a Texan ranch who is no stranger to guns.
• Artistic License – Politics: As par for the course for this film series. Is it plausible that in real life a powerful country's government can be overthrown by disorganized rioting in just a few days? Yes. Is it likely? Far from it. For the seemingly less-equipped, disorganized rioters to overthrow the American government, they must first defeat the military and for such a scenario it either requires the military to be severely weakened (civil war or massive all-out war with other foreign countries, etc), or them to side with the rioters. Or that the riot/uprising was actually secretly mass-coordinated by other political parties but out of National Security it would have already been squashed before it can even begin. None of this was suggested in this movie, making it look like that the Ever After Purgers are THAT powerful, although it can possibly be retconned in future movies.
• Audience Surrogate: The guard early in the movie asks Adela where she learned how to use a night-vision assault rifle, since she's clearly familiar with it. Cassie asks her a similar question later, and Adela explains her membership of an Amazon Brigade fighting the cartels.
• Avenging the Villain: After his wife is killed, Elijah stops at nothing to try to kill the protagonists.
• Ax-Crazy: As always, anyone who participates in the Purge, as well as the Purgers themselves post-Purge Night. Elijah and the Ever After Purgers also qualify, with Elijah becoming even more unhinged after his wife is killed.
• Babies Make Everything Better: Cassidy gives birth to her daughter after she has successfully crossed the border, signifying their new life in Mexico.
• Badass Boast: Chiago has one when the Tuckers tell him and his other Native companions that this isn't their fight: "We've been in this fight for 500 years."
• Battle Couple:
  • Adela and Juan.
  • Elijah and Mother Hardin are an evil example, a couple of Ever After Purgers who murder people and battle any opponents until the latter is killed.
• Benevolent Boss: Caleb Tucker treats his stable boys well, giving them money as compensation for the Purge, and unlike his son, has no prejudice against Mexican immigrants like Juan.
• Big Bad: Elijah Hardin, codename Alpha, a prominent member of the Texas Ever After Purgers.
• Big Damn Heroes: Darius saves Adela from a trap after she is caught by the Purgers, and Juan and T.T. also save Dylan and his family.
• Big Good: Chiago, a Native American tribal leader and anti-Purge activist who aids the protagonists in making it across the Mexican border and later in the final battle.
• Bittersweet Ending: Our main characters manage to make it across the Mexican border, killing Elijah and his men in the process. However, America has fallen to the Purgers, and the NFFA has all but collapsed against their own creation. But there are reports of those rising up and fighting back against the Purgers...
• Bloodier and Gorier: Quite possibly the most violent of the Purge films.
• Bomb-Throwing Anarchists: The Ever After Purgers combine this with their desire to kill rich people and various immigrants in order to start a revolution to restore America.
• Boom, Headshot!: How Caleb, Elijah and Mother Hardin are killed. This is also how a news reporter is killed.
• The Cavalry: Juan and T.T. arrive for their shift at the Tucker's ranch just in time to rescue most of them from the other ranchhands that have become Ever After Purgers and seek revenge on the family. They are unable to get a clear shot at them before Mr. Tucker is murdered, however.
• Character Development: Dylan Tucker, who starts out as a privileged racist with a low opinion on Mexican immigrants like his family's stable boy, Juan, insisting that "people should stay with their own". Over the course of the film, he ends up having his worldview of a homogenous society shattered, as he realizes just how far some people like him will go to achieve homogeneity, while having to work together with the same Mexican immigrants he disparaged to seek safety. At the end of the film, he has become Fire-Forged Friends with Juan, thanking him in Spanish (a language that he earlier said he did not want his child to grow up in).
• Character Witness: It's implied that Caleb Tucker's good treatment of him is what convinces Juan to help his family from Kirk and the other Purgers, even though it won't bring him any benefit, especially not since Dylan outright loathes him.
• Chekhov's Gun: Adela is advised by the boy who led the Mexicans migrating to the U.S. to "follow the roses". It's revealed that Mexican immigrants use rose graffiti to guide them to safe zones.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Chiago is only seen being interviewed on television early on, but makes his proper appearance later, helping the group escape to Mexico through his people's reservation.
• Conditioned to Accept Horror: Just like in the last film, a Mexican person (Adela) mentions to someone that there are places in Mexico where every night is like the Purge. She says it in response to someone asking her if the Purge is what she expected, and she responds in a very matter-of-fact voice. And then subverted when Purge Purifiers come by and she's beyond horrified by seeing that.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Unlike the NFFA, who instituted The Purge out of greed and self benefit, the Ever After Purgers genuinely believe that The Purge helps society, and want it to continue indefinitely. Additionally, the Ever After Purgers appear to be working class purgers who hold an Eat the Rich mentality, while the NFFA were/are ultra-rich plutocrats who created The Purge to Kill the Poor.
• Crapsack World: After four movies of mostly being a Crapsaccharine World, this film fully embraces this trope, to the point where the United States collapses and becomes an anarchist state due to the Ever After Purgers overthrowing the NFFA and the Purge continuing beyond the holiday.
• Damsel in Distress: Adela gets kidnapped by Elijah Hardin to lure Juan out. To her credit, she spends the entire time talking back to him (albeit in Spanish, so he doesn't understand).
• Darker and Edgier: The darkest of the Purge movies, as it shows what happens if people kept on purging long after the holiday ends, and culminating in America becoming an anarchist state.
• Deadline News: One of the first signs of Ever After Purger activity is a reporter being shot in the head on live TV.
• Death by Irony: The Ever Afters who go after the main character in the shelf during the final battle: the Purgers, who famously used masks to hide their identity, are killed out by men who use masks to hide themselves.
• Defiant to the End: How Dylan and Harper replied when given a choice (By purgers Elijah and Mother Hardin) to either kill their Mexican friends T.T and Juan, or die together with them. The purgers killed T.T in response and was about to kill the rest of them before the military distracted the purgers, allowing the survivors to escape.
  • They seem to have taken it from Dylan's father, Caleb, whose answer to him and his family being taken captive from the Ever Afters is to point out that they are just bigoted hypocrites, since they captured a well-off family protesting against social inequities, but then support an ideology that actually upholds and promotes that same inequality at the service of the ultra-rich. He gets a bullet to the head because of this.
  • Near the end of the movie, Elihah takes Adela captive and, holding a knife to her throat ordering them to call for helps from the others. What she actually yells in Spanish to kill Elijah.
• The Dragon: Mother Hardin to Elijah. She's taken out very early near the end of the El Paso battle.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: The idea behind the Purge (based on disgustingly bad psychology and sociology theories and backed up by government propaganda) was that one day of complete freedom would act as a "release valve" so that the rest of the year would be safer. A Purge that lasts forever makes absolutely no sense in that context. Of course, it makes far more sense in the context of purging the world of people you don't like, which was the actual purpose... but it still grew out of control.
• Dramatic Ammo Depletion: In the final battle, the heroes run out of bullets, forcing them to use improvised weapons and scavenge guns from fallen enemies.
• Dressing as the Enemy: During a chase across the border, Ever After Purgers on motorcycles attempt to attack the protagonists in their truck, until they put up an Ever After flag to trick those into thinking they're on their side.
• Entitled Bastard: Kirk and his cohorts take the Tucker family hostage and kill Caleb just because they don't think their employer is paying them enough. This is despite the fact that Caleb financially compensated Kirk for the Purge earlier in the movie.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Elijah and Mother Hardin are violent, racist scumbags, but all evidence suggests they genuinely love each other. When the latter dies, the former doesn't take it well.
• Eviler than Thou: The Ever After Purgers to the NFFA, to the point where they completely overrun the United States by the end.
• Evil vs. Evil: The NFFA send the military to contain the Ever After Purgers after it becomes apparent the latter aren't interested in playing by the former's rules. The NFFA fail and are deposed.
• Eye Scream: Adela is almost subjected to this by Purgers after being caught in a trap. Darius ends up doing this to one of her captors instead.
• Fallen States of America: News reports indicate that the U.S. government was overthrown by the Ever After Purgers. However, these same reports indicate that many are banding together to fight back against them, suggesting a possible re-establishment at some point in the future.
• The Farmer and the Viper: Caleb Tucker gives Kirk money as compensation for the Purge. Kirk uses the money to buy guns, then leads a group of Purgers to capture the Tuckers, culminating with him shooting Caleb in the head.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Dylan and Juan, who start out disliking each other, eventually become this during their struggle to seek safety during the Forever Purge.
• Gone Horribly Right: The Purge, while stated in public to be a way to relieve stress, was a sinister plan to get rid of the poor that the government viewed as a drain on resources and to keep the elites in control. This ends up creating more psychos who simply enjoy killing for pleasure and results in thousands of lives senselessly murdered. In the end, the government gets overthrown.
• Gun Nut: The neo-Nazi in the police wagon is so enthusiastic about guns that he can identify what weapons the Purgers are using simply by hearing the sounds they make when they're fired.
• Happy Ending Override: In The Purge: Election Year, Roan won the election and her first step was to abolish the Purge. In this movie, however, not only was the Purge ill-adviseably reinstated by a new NFFA nearly a decade after her term ended, but now there are extremists continuing the Purge long after the holiday is over against the new government's wishes. The end reveals that the American government was ultimately overthrown by the Ever After Purgers.
• Hidden Depths: In-Universe. The leader of the mercs protecting the compound Adela, Juan, and T.T. are hiding in is shocked that Adela knows how to use a high-powered rifle and outright asks her where she learned how to use it.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • Darius kills an Ever After Purger with the booby trap he was planning to kill Adela with.
  • The NFFA end up being killed by the monster they created, so to speak, as the Ever After Purgers topple their regime.
  • Elijah taking Adela captive to hold her hostage ends up with them alerting others of her situation and his position, allowing Juan and Dylan to sneak on Elijah and take him out.
• Hope Spot: The proper Purge, as sanctioned by the NFFA, ends not even a third into the film, with none of the main characters being impacted. The Tuckers reopen their ranch, Juan and T.T. head back to the Tucker ranch, and Adela goes back to work. Then the TV shows a reporter being killed by a Purger yelling "fake news!", Adela notices that few people arrive back at work, and Dylan glimpses someone sneaking into the horse stable, who ends up taking his family hostage. The Ever After Purge has begun.
• Jump Scare: Several of these happen in the movie.
• Laser-Guided Karma: After years of industrializing murder to Kill the Poor and maintain their grip on power, the New Founding Fathers of America is forcefully disbanded as people blame them for the Purge getting out of control.
• Last Stand: The group does this when they are cornered by Elijah and his men, leading to one final battle.
• Leave Him to Me!: Elijah says this about Juan in the final battle, in revenge for killing his wife.
  Elijah: Hunt 'em down and kill 'em all. Save that Mexican son of a bitch for me.
• Maternity Crisis: Downplayed. Cassie starts going into labor while she is crossing over the border, but her group are not attacked by the Purgers, and she gives birth to her baby in safety.
• Men of Sherwood: The soldiers/mercenaries protecting refugees around El Paso and the Native Americans from Chijaro's tribe who fight the Forever After Purgers near the border are largely made up of minor or unnamed characters, but are fairly competent and don't take too many fatalities.
• Moral Myopia: Elijah is furious at Juan for killing his wife. Said wife had been trying to kill Juan for being Mexican, and he was simply acting in self-defense.
• Neck Snap: Darius kills the Neo-Nazi like this.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Kirk stands out among the Ever After Purgers for being the only one we see who doesn't exclusively target minorities, instead putting more effort into capturing the Tuckers with the justification that he is righting America's course by killing the rich who refuse to pay their poorer employees more. Despite his agenda being less politically-incorrect on paper, he ultimately is just as despicable as the people he rolls with, especially since Caleb had been nothing but a Benevolent Boss to him, even financially compensating him for the Purge...which Kirk blew on arming his own militia of Purgers.
• Not What It Looks Like: Adela and Darius kill a couple of Ever After Purgers in self-defense. Unfortunately, a passing cop assumes it was cold-blooded murder and arrests them, despite the fact the purgers are in bloody costume with matching themed murder equipment.
• The Oner: The battle in El Paso is mostly done in one take.
• Police Are Useless: Two cops arrest Adela and Darius for thinking they murdered two Ever After Purgers when it was clearly in self-defence, said purgers wearing themed bloody outfits with matching equipment. To compound on this, they insist on ploughing on to the station despite clearly witnessing the chaos going on with dozens of actual cases occuring. Also applies to the military, who put up a decent fight but are ultimately routed, and the government who are overthrown by both Purgers and Anti-Purgers.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: While Dylan doesn't believe that any race is inherently superior to any other, he still thinks that segregation between Americans and Mexicans is the only thing that will work as their cultures are too different. His experiences in the movie change his beliefs.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: The Ever After Purgers (at least most of the ones seen onscreen) are xenophobic extremists who want to "make America American again" by slaughtering all immigrants.
• Pretty Little Headshots: Subverted. Caleb Tucker gets shot in the head with a revolver. The entry wound is small and leaves his face intact, but the exit wound blew out the back of his head pretty nastily.
• "Ray of Hope" Ending: The United States collapses, being taken over by the Ever After Purgers, but news footage indicates that some people are banding together to fight them back.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Caleb Tucker delivers a powerful one to the farmhands who have taken his family hostage. It doesn't save him.
  You're talking about life in America, the way the rich get rich off the backs of the poor, the way it's been ever since we robbed this land from the Native Americans. But you got no right to complain about the very system you're supporting by picking up that gun and sanctioning the goddamn Purge... which is all about money. You know who created the Purge, don't ya? A bunch of fat, rich businessmen in Washington, D.C. So what would that make you, Kirk? What would it make you? Huh? That would make you their lackey and a goddamn Hypocrite. They expect you to go out there and do their violence, so they can play more golf. They've never even been in a fistfight. So… from my family to you, go fuck yourself.
• Red Herring: During Purge Night, a lot of Dylan Tucker's behavior seems off, especially with how distant he seems from everyone. It's enough that his pregnant wife even notices it. It seems to be trying to hint that he's about to do something horrible during the night, but he doesn't and is one of the protagonists of the film, and his behavior is justified by the stress of the night itself.
• Right-Wing Militia Fanatic: The Ever After Purgers, who are part of the surge in white supremacy and nativism that have come as the Purge returned.
• Run for the Border: Mexico and Canada's, once the Forever Purge kicks into gear.
• Sacrificial Lamb: Caleb's death is this, as it establishes very early on just exactly what the Ever After Purgers are going to accomplish.
• Sacrificial Lion: T.T.'s death is this, since it happens later in the film, and establishes that not even the main characters are safe.
• Sadistic Choice: Adela has one on Purge Night. A militia truck drives by and there are several victims that she can see suffering inside. She gets a chance to shoot one, but one of the mercs warns her not to because she'd put the people inside, including her own, in jeopardy. She's not happy about it, but chooses not to fire.
• Sequel Non-Entity: Roan and Barnes don't return in this movie. It can be assumed that Roan had completed her terms, as the NFFA has regained control of the U.S. government and reinstated the Purge.
• Series Fauxnale: This film was initially stated to be the final chapter of the Purge series, but a sixth film was later announced to be in development.
• Ship Tease: Harper and T.T. have a couple of moments implying that they are attracted to each other. When T.T. is killed, Harper is clearly devastated, and has to be physically pulled away from his body.
• Stereotype Flip: In the second half of the film, Americans seeking safety from the Ever After Purgers end up migrating to Mexico (and Canada, though that event is not shown).
• Stock Scream: One of the Ever After Purgers lets out a Wilhelm Scream during the final battle after he is shot with an arrow.
• Title Drop: After Adela is caught in a trap, a Purger tells her that “This is the Forever Purge. It’s never stopping.”
• Trailers Always Spoil: The trailer spoils the climactic moment where Juan executes Elijah.
• Trick Arrow: The Native Americans attack the Ever After Purgers with dynamite arrows.
• Uncertain Doom: It is unclear what happens to the Leavy family (friends and possible fellow ranchers of the Tuckers) after Kirk the stableman boasts that people like him are going after every ranching family in the valley.
• Villainous Breakdown: Elijah completely loses it when Juan kills his wife.
• Villainous Rescue: The El Paso sequence features a rare moment where the heroes are relieved to see masked, heavily-armed men proclaiming allegiance to the NFFA show up, given the divide between the NFFA and the Forever After Purgers.
• Western Terrorists: The Ever After Purgers are a white supremacist group that intends to Purge anyone that doesn't fit their definition of "American". Their organization is such that the NFFA is quickly overwhelmed.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: After helping the group, Darius heads off on his own to find his family rather than join the group, disappearing for the rest of the movie.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: At the end of the El Paso act, the group fails to make it to the border in time due to the situation growing beyond the military’s control.

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