Film / The Purge

"You don't remember how bad it was, Charlie. The poverty, all the crime. This night saved our country."

"Just remember how much good The Purge does."

— Mary Sandin

The Purge is a 2013 dystopian Slasher Movie directed and written by James DeMonaco and starring Ethan Hawke and Lena Headey. It is the first entry (but second chronologically) and namer of The Purge Universe.

20 Minutes into the Future (2022) the US government has set up a once-a-year event known as "The Purge", in which people are free to commit whatever crimes they want for 12 hours, despite not making economic sense. James Sandin, a well-to-do businessman who sells home security systems for people to protect themselves from the Purge, settles himself, his wife, and his two children on the night of the Fifth Annual Purge, arming the suburban LA house and protecting it from any invaders...

...Until a beaten-up stranger comes running down the street begging for help. After attempting to ignore him, one of the Sandin kids shuts down the security system long enough to let the stranger in. A gang of mask-wearing goons quickly arrives at the house, demanding the Sandins turn the stranger over, or they'll break in and kill everyone, including the stranger.

The Purge has been described as a half social allegory, half home-invasion thriller. It explores the morality of human nature in a world where murder is seemingly condoned by not only the law but the majority of its citizens as well; a disturbing, very dark take on the future. The Purge itself is treated as less of a necessary evil and more of a holiday.

The film was followed by The Purge: Anarchy, which follows a few different groups as they try to survive the night of the Sixth Annual Purge in urban Los Angeles.

For the trope entry, see The Purge.

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Let us trope:

#-D

• Aborted Arc: Zoey's boyfriend pretty much disappears from the plot entirely after he's gunned down trying to kill James. Neither Zoey nor the other family members ever bring it up again. But it's understandable since they all have bigger problems to deal with.
• Actually Pretty Funny: When James explains to the gang leader that his young son was the one who gave the man they were chasing shelter, he's seen chuckling over the story.
• Affably Evil: The gang leader, who is even listed as Polite Leader.
• Age-Gap Romance: Adolescent version with the 18 year-old Henry and the 15-year old Zoey, which James doesn't approve of.
• Alpha Bitch: Zoey appears to be the queen bee of her school who is so pretty and popular that she is dating a college hunk and acts like a haughty mean girl to her family in the beginning of the movie.
• Artistic License – Economics: The Purge is a horrible idea in real life for several reasons (though it should be noted that, in-universe, it is quite firmly established that the government are incredibly corrupt, evil, and lying about its positive consequences, so this is justified):
  • Because of the way the Purge works, the primary targets would primarily be the homeless, poor, and basically everyone working in the service industry. In other words, 80% of all employed and potential employees. This is also reflected in the stated one percent level of unemployment, which signifies a stagnating rather than booming economy. There would still be demand for employees, but very low supply, which drives wages up when businesses compete for employees, and then they are forced to raise prices of whatever they produce to pay these wages. Someone must have realized this (or read this page) when making the second film because the unemployment number is bumped up to five percent. This is why killing poor people, in general, is an economically idiotic idea. It's also why full or near-full employment causes higher wages, as with fewer unemployed people existing workers can demand better pay and benefits without fear of being laid off (this last occurred in the late 2010s in the US).
  • The elderly would be quite vulnerable, which in turn could have negative effects on their incentives to save. Why save your money, when someone could potentially knock you off before you enjoy retirement? On the other hand, the government would save a huge amount on retirement and medical care.
  • A night with no emergency services running would see infrastructure damage of catastrophic proportions. With no firefighters, fires would rage out of control, consuming whole blocks at the very least. Damage to crucial utilities such as water and power would go unrepaired. Just consider the infrastructure damage caused by the chaos following the overthrow of authoritarian regimes in Iraq (e.g. 2003 Baghdad looting) and Libya, for instance.
  • The movie focuses on violent crimes, ignoring all other forms of crime that would also be legal. Money laundering, bribery, insider trading, environmental pollution, and high treason would all be perfectly legal until the dawn!
  • If businesses are free to conduct espionage and even sabotage one night every year, small businesses and new startups would be terrible investments.
• Ax-Crazy: All of the gang, but the women seem especially psychotic, with one of them tickling a pinned-down Mary moments before trying to slice her open with a machete. Even the Sandin's neighbors get in on this, because trying to kill your neighbor simply because their living style clashed with the neighborhood doesn't imply anything resembling a sound mind.
• Bad Boss: The gang leader kills one of his own for being rude, then uses this as an example to James of why it's in his best interest to find the homeless stranger.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: The stranger repays the family's decision to spare him by saving their lives at the end of the film.
• Big Bad: The Polite Leader, leading the gang of Purgers, though Henry and the neighbors are also separate threats.
• Big Brother Is Watching: Given that live Purge feeds are apparently ubiquitous, it would seem there are a truly absurd number of cameras all across the United States. Furthermore, some loudspeakers broadcast the beginning of the Purge, in addition to Emergency Broadcast Services stating radio and television. Despite doing things differently, the New Founding Fathers are an allegory to Big Brother and the Inner Party.
• Big Damn Heroes: James gunning down an intruder before said intruder kills his son, Zoey saving her mother and brother from the gang leader and the homeless man saving the family from their neighbors.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Henry and the neighbors, especially the neighbors, who are completely two-faced.
• Black Dude Dies First: Intended at first, but later subverted when the family decides to fight back against the gang instead of giving them what they want.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: One of the invaders follows Mary around for what has to be a good ten minutes or so, despite having a gun and the element of surprise. He doesn't even bother trying; Mary ends up running into another psycho later.
• Boyfriend-Blocking Dad: James does not approve of Henry's relationship with Zoey due to their age gap, although it seems to only apply to this specific relationship rather than boys in general. Given that Henry tries to murder James during the Purge, he was right.
• Break the Haughty: Subverted. Grace tries this because she hates that the Sandins made so much money from the rest of the neighborhood and wants to get her revenge during the Purge. For her troubles, Mary forces her to sit out the rest of the Purge and smashes her face into the table.
• Camp Unsafe Isn't Safe Anymore: The Sandins think themselves safe when the gang threatens to invade, as they have one of the home security systems James has made a comfortable living selling to others, but James is forced to admit that the system was never designed to ward off such determined invaders and goes on to rattle off a series of vulnerabilities anyone with enough time and patience could exploit. Then the gang just rips the metal plating off using trucks. Several vulnerabilities indeed.
• Car Fu: The truck used to invade the Sandins' domicile.
• Catharsis Factor: In-universe, the government instituted the event named the Purge for this reason.
• Catholic Schoolgirls Rule: Apparently the only reason Zoey wears her uniform the whole time, with lingering shots of her legs and chest.
• Cavalry Betrayal: The Sandins are rescued by their neighbors. Problem is, they only did it because they want to kill the Sandins personally.
• Children Are Innocent: The Sandin parents have a lot to be worried about because they're trying to set a good example for their kids by doing nothing bad during the Purge (while simultaneously reassuring them that the Purge is a good thing and that they could participate if they wished to). That doesn't even touch on the fact that one of their kids lets in a stranger because he looked like he needed help or that a psychopathic gang is quite willing to launch a home invasion and kill everyone in it...
• Cloudcuckoolander: Charlie tinkers with unusual gadgets, spends his time in crawl spaces, and checks his vitals at the dinner table. These behaviors are never explained.
• Crapsaccharine World: The USA in this film is portrayed as this because everything is all well and good... except for the 12 hours of the Purge.
  • One of the most disturbing aspects of the movie is how casually the Purge, a government-sanctioned mass murder, is treated by the people. Early on in the movie, Grace gossips with Mary about the neighbors and gives her a batch of cookies she baked as the neighbors come up and ask Mary how she's spending her Purge night. At the same time, James casually discusses how effective the security system he sold another neighbor will be at keeping out murderers while said neighbor is walking his dog. This is even pushed at the end when the news radio is heard saying in a fascinated tone not only is it the "most successful purge yet", but there are news reports that there are "bodies everywhere" in downtown LA.
• Combat Pragmatist: At one point, James smashes a billiard ball into the head of one of the attackers because it's the only weapon within reach. A couple of minutes later, he grabs an ax from another attacker and turns it against him.
• Creepy Child: Charlie comes over like this, especially when asking why his parents don't go out and kill people. It certainly isn't helped by his closet space full of crazy which features several drawings of people dying and PURGE written in blood-red letters. Then there's "Timmy", a cyborg doll baby attached to a tank base and fitted with a camera. Charlie didn't make much effort to fix the damage he caused filling it with that stuff.
  • Ends up being subverted when he turns out to be the only family member willing to let a stranger in. He also seems morally disgusted with the idea of the Purge.
• Creepy Doll: Timmy.
• Cruel Mercy: Realizing there has been enough killing and to make sure the Sandins' latest assailants live with their guilt, Mary delivers this trope to her two-faced neighbors.
• Dating What Daddy Hates: Hard to blame him though since the boy in question is 18 and his daughter still legally a minor.
• Deal with the Devil: This trope applies to the entire Society.
• Decoy Protagonist: James, who is killed by the Polite Leader just before the film ends.
• Didn't Think This Through: Henry's attempt at using the Purge to "remove" his lover's disapproving father from the equation. If he's successful, does he really think his girlfriend will forgive such a thing? Or that her mother will allow him to walk away unharmed after killing her husband? Did he intend on killing her too if she interfered? Or that her brother would just stand there and allow his parent/s to be killed? Would he have killed her brother too? There's basically no way he remains her boyfriend if he goes through with this. Henry also fails to consider her father would be armed and worse still, willingly forgoes the element of surprise. His spectacular failure ends with him killed by his intended target. Bizarrely, when things do go south, Zoey seems more concerned with his welfare than that of her father.
  • It's possible that Zoey saw Henry miss her father and knew Dad wasn't hurt. Alternatively, Henry was right next to her when he got shot and her father was not, so she just reacted to the closest event.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Finally killing the Polite Leader was a relief, but the Sandins just couldn't rest easy because the neighbors reveal their true intentions.
• Disproportionate Retribution: The neighbors want to kill the Sandins because they remodeled their house ostentatiously using the money James earned from selling them his security system. And just in case you thought they might be pissed by its failure, later on, it's made clear they resent them for it even before the Purge starts.
• Dissonant Serenity: The announcement made by the government to the people about the Purge makes it sound like it's just a minor, adjust-your-clock event. This contrasts starkly with the home invasion that occurs later on.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The movie turns certain elements of libertarian/modern conservative ideology up to eleven (particularly the 'every man for himself' aspects) and see what the consequences would be if they were actually applied. The fact that the main bad guys are a gang of preppy Young Republican types and their victim is a homeless black war veteran can't be an accident. Also the neighbors want to kill the Sandins for being richer than them. Word of God says it is intentional.
• Double Tap: James smashes one gang member's head into a pinball machine, and drives an ax into the back of another. He then shoots each of them with a shotgun, just in case. He also checks on the girl he shot earlier, but she's already dead.
• Downer Ending: Most of the family lives, but they're traumatized from what happened and probably won't be the same again, plus they have nobody to trust in their neighborhood after their neighbors tried to kill them. Also, James is dead and the ending rubs it in deeper by having news reports declaring it to be the most "successful" Purge yet, and that it will continue again next year.

E-K

• Early-Installment Weirdness: This is the only installment to focus on the upper-class people, and features a cast made up almost entirely of white actors. The later films and the series largely focus on lower to middle-class individuals with greater diversity in the cast. Part of this can be attributed to the Slasher Movie style of this film, whereas the later films lean more heavily on the social commentary aspect that serves as a backdrop to this one.
• Emergency Broadcast: An absolutely haunting one that provides the quote at the top of the page, indicating that law and order have been suspended for the evening and you are on your own until morning. When you hear that klaxon go off, you'd better be inside and behind some sturdy doors.
• Epic Fail: Henry is quickly killed by his intended target in front of his girlfriend (who happens to be his girlfriend's father). After going out of his way to warn him, no less.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The reason the gang is so hellbent on killing the Stranger, despite the multitude of other targets available, is that he killed one of their friends in self-defense.
  • Subverted in that the leader casually kills another one of his friends for being impolite.
• Everything Trying to Kill You: Pretty much everyone goes crazy on Purge night. Even the neighbors.
• Evil Is Hammy: The leader of the gang, described as "a cartoon fascist with all the nuance of an Adam West-era Batman villain."
• Expy: The "Polite Leader" is one of Alexander DeLarge; an impish, almost adorable little boy with exasperatingly good manners and eloquent vocabulary that would make Shakespeare proud, and a penchant for murder, vandalism, and rape while wearing a mask and an angelic smile.
• False Friend: The neighbors to the Sandin's horror.
• False Reassurance: Henry's declaration of love to Zoey was on the level. How he intended to "handle" her father's disapproval was not.
• False Utopia: The movie is set around the US that is well-recovered from recession... but centered around the question "What if the US government created a once-a-year 12-hour event called The Purge, which allows people to do whatever they want?"
• Fictional Political Party: The annual "Purge Night" holiday was established after the rise of a political party calling itself "The New Founding Fathers of America", or NFFA for short.
• Foreshadowing:
  • When James is looking at the cameras, he sees the Ferrins having a party that they weren't invited to and says "Just thank God we weren't invited". Guess what the neighbors try to do to them later on?
  • When the invaders come to the house, The Polite Leader mentions how the neighbors pointed them in the direction of the Sandins house, where the homeless man went, showing how the neighbors were okay with the Sandins potentially dying from the start.
• Free-Range Children: The kids are allowed to roam free through the house even though the purge is on, instead of spending the evening in a family game night, say playing Monopoly. This doesn't turn out well. Even after it is discovered that someone made it inside the house after lockdown, they are still free to wander.
• From Bad to Worse: Everything started normally for the Sandins. Then a stranger on the run ends up in their home. Finally, the psychopathic gang chasing after the stranger decides to invade their home. Then, after surviving that ordeal, they find out their neighbors have banded together to try and kill them.
• Giggling Villain: One of the female intruders is almost always giggling.
• Greater-Scope Villain: The New Founding Fathers. They're the ones ultimately responsible for the Purge and all the carnage that ensues, but are a distant presence in the film itself.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: Giving a child the access code to open up the house, and then leaving the console unattended on purge night.
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Inverted. The male gang members wield guns while the females use machetes and axes.
• Harmful to Minors: Having kids exposed to something like the Purge is a bad idea. The Sandin parents try to protect their kids from this, but they fail miserably, because Zoey ends up killing the gang leader to save her family.
• Hero of Another Story: If the flashback timeline presented in the third movie is accurate, then at the same time that this movie is taking place, Charlie Roan's family is also being killed by Purgers, putting her on the path to eventually abolishing the Purge.
• He Who Fights Monsters: The Sandins change their minds and decide to fight the gang when they're in the middle of torturing the homeless man when he won't give himself up.
• Hell Is That Noise: While the Emergency Broadcast announcing the Purge's commencement is cited as an In-Universe Hell Is That Noise, what really makes it home is the ungodly siren at the end announcing the suspension of law and order for the night. Have a listen, why don't ya, and good luck getting to sleep tonight.
• Hijacked by Ganon: The climax looks like it's between the Sandins and the Polite Leader. However, the neighbors rescue them only for it to be revealed that they want the Sandins dead, setting up the real climax.
• Holiday Pardon: Deconstructed. For twelve consecutive hours every year, all crimes are made legal to de-stress people by getting all of their violence and anger out in a night of catharsis.
• Hollywood Psych: The point of the Purge is to let people get all of their violence and anger out in a night of catharsis, thereby reducing crime. However, studies have shown that violent catharsis increases aggression, rather than reducing it; if anything, the Purge would increase violent crime rates (and incidence of PTSD). One of the few intentional examples since there are some implications that the Purge is ultimately having the opposite effect than the intended one throughout the film. Although there's lots of evidence that the Purge is having exactly the effect it was intended to have all along.
  • The Purge also ignores the fact that most violent crimes are either crimes of passion or crimes of desperation, two things that cannot wait until an official time to commit violence.
• Honor Before Reason: One of the Sandin kids lets a stranger into their house because he really looks like he is in trouble. As a result of doing the morally right thing, horror ensues.
• Humans Are Bastards: A strong theme here. The people of the United States seem to have no problem with a 12-hour period every year where they can commit any crime they want without repercussions. That nice couple who lived next door might come over and murder you because of some tiny social slight earlier in the year. The writers seem to believe that legal consequences are the only thing stopping humanity from tearing itself limb from limb. The sequels avert this.
• I Want Them Alive!: The gang leader demands that the homeless man be released alive so that his gang can personally kill him. Later, when they are invading the house, he tells one of his gang members to save Zoe for him.
• Idiot Ball: The Sandins leave the stranger tied up rather than passing him a weapon so he can help. Clearly, it's in the man's best interest to help, and he does anyway upon freeing himself.
• Improbable Infant Survival: The kids are put in danger, but are not physically hurt in the end.
• Karma Houdini:
  • State-enforced with the Purge, during which almost all crime is sanctioned and emergency services are suspended. Nothing is stopping the Purge from working against the potential Houdinis.
  • The neighbors get off scot-free (save for one killed by the stranger) for trying to kill the Sandins, despite it being against the neighbors' will. The leader, Grace, gets some form of karma when she makes one last grab for the shotgun and gets a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown courtesy of Mary.
  • The New Founding Fathers who started the Purge never paid for the chaos this created and to ensure they get away with it, one of the few rules reads "Government officials of ranking 10 or higher must remain unharmed for the duration of the Purge" meaning that they can't even be Hoist by Their Own Petard.
• Kill the Poor: This is heavily implied to be the true purpose of the Purge, as is speculated in a news report and put forth by the gang that hunts "homeless swine". Confirmed in the sequel.

L-Z

• Large Ham: The polite gang leader, played by Rhys Wakefield, has to be seen to be believed.
• Let's Split Up, Gang!: The parents split up to find their kids, not even shouting instructions to them.
• Lockdown: Ethan Hawke's character works for a company that sells advanced security systems that will essentially put homes on lockdown during the 12 hours of the crime. However, it becomes apparent through the course of the film that while the system is strong enough to cause opportunistic criminals to seek easier prey, it won't stop a determined group from breaking in.
• Malevolent Masked Men: AND women, who are ironically the most brutal and sadistic of the gang. The gang wears the masks for the psychological effect and to disguise themselves just in case anyone who survives them tries to take revenge on them during the next Purge.
• Market-Based Title: The film came out under the title "American Nightmare" in France; while in French the word "purge" usually has the same meaning as in English, it is also a familiar word for a painfully bad film (or show, or game). The title change hardly helped, and if anything rather made the joke even more obvious among French critics.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: In a scenario where every crime is temporarily made legal, almost every character outside of the main family immediately jumps to the conclusion that every social issue they have is best solved by killing the other person.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Letting a man on the run take refuge in your house is a good deed, no question. Sadly this results in the family losing the father.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown:
  • A scene early on in the film demonstrates a gang doing this to a person in a city. The gang that terrorizes the Sandins intends on doing this to them.
  • Also what Mary does to Grace at the end when Grace tries a last-ditch attempt to kill the Sandins.
• Non-Action Guy: Mary. Lena Headey, known for playing very badass Mama Bears, plays the Non-Action type for the better part of the movie, until the ending after James had been killed.
• No Name Given: We find out neither the name of the stranger the Sandins saved nor the names of any of the masked gang.
• No OSHA Compliance: The family isn't a business, but it's rather obvious this family has rehearsed absolutely zero emergency plans in case the house is compromised on purge night.
• Nothing Is Scarier: Until it happens.
• Obviously Evil: When a gang comes to your door wearing creepy masks, wielding weapons, and makes it clear that they want to kill one guy and they'll kill anybody who gets in the way, you get this trope.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You:
  • The Polite Leader insists the homeless man be returned alive so they can kill him.
  • The neighbors' real incentive for rescuing the Sandins.
• "Open!" Says Me: The gang breaches the house by using trucks to pry the plating off then breaching the windows and doors with gunfire.
• Papa Wolf: James, who singlehandedly kills four of the invading gang using a shotgun and an ax.
• Passive Aggressive Combat: The neighbors' introduction.
• Police Are Useless: Justified Trope. One of the rules behind the Purge is that the police cannot respond to any calls for 12 hours. As a result, if you get into trouble, you're on your own.
• Power of Trust: Implied at the end since the Sandins now know their neighbors want to kill them due to their wealth.
• Precision F-Strike: Masterfully delivered by Ms. Sandin, played by the always excellent Lena Headey toward the end of the movie when the neighbors ask them to get it over with. "We are gonna play the rest of this night out in motherfucking peace. Does anyone have a problem with that?"
• Properly Paranoid: James chastises his son for letting a stranger, in need of help, inside their house since he suspects someone is after him. He's right.
• Protect This House: Even with all the security improvements, the Sandin house is still invaded by masked strangers.
• Public Domain Soundtrack: The opening credits are set to "Clair de Lune".
• The Purge: The trope name and the film's title are the same. The 12-hour event is called The Purge, and the intent behind it is to apparently get rid of the undesirable parts of society.
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: To some extent. Part of the Purge conditions restricts weapons above Class 4 and makes government officials rated 10 or higher exempt. The former is probably to avoid too much collateral damage, and the latter, depending on what qualifies one for that rating, may simply be to ensure that there's a functioning government when things cool down. Though the fact they would be otherwise prime targets is a complete coincidence.
• Sex Signals Death: Henry is implied to have had sex with Zoey at the start of the Purge. After this, he wants to meet her father to discuss the relationship. It turns out that he actually wanted to kill his girlfriend's father. And it epically backfires so hard on Henry at the cost of his life.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Implied; the stranger wears both camo gear and a pair of dog tags.
• Slasher Movie: Having masked psychopaths who break into somebody's home just to kill someone would make this film count as this trope.
• Slasher Smile: The gang leader has a bright and chipper smile the whole time he describes killing the Sandin family.
• Soundtrack Dissonance:
  • Used during the opening credits, where patriotic music is played to surveillance footage of past Purges.
  • In the trailer, with a cappella version of "America The Beautiful" playing over clips of the Sandins getting the crap beaten out of them.
• Stepford Smiler: The Polite Leader, the leader of the Purgers and Grace, the apparent leader of the murderous neighbors.
• Tall Poppy Syndrome: Part of why the neighbors are willing to murder the Sandins.
• Teens Are Monsters:
  • The gang who comes after the Sandins are in their teens to early twenties, with the leader clearly wearing some kind of prep school uniform.
  • Also applies to Henry, who tries to murder James.
• Teeth Flying: Mary bashes an evil neighbor in the face for attempting to participate in the Purge minutes before it ends, causing one or more of her teeth to fall out of her mouth.
• Thriller: The film has the desperate Sandins fighting against a powerful gang who outmatches them by a large margin.
• Too Dumb to Live: Henry is shot in self-defense by James, after warning his intended victim. Trying to kill him in the first place was pretty idiotic. How did he think Zoey was going to react?
• To the Pain: "Alright, well, I guess I'll stab her first, and after that, we'll take turns."
• Trailers Always Spoil: The trailer gives away the majority of the third act.
• Tyrannical Homeowners' Association: After a whole film in which the Sandin family home is besieged by a bunch of teenage Purgers, the climax of the film revolves around the Sandins’ neighbors, who are upset at the modifications the Sandins made to their house (expanding and reinforcing it) because it clashes with the looks of the neighborhood and believe it's the Sandins flaunting their wealth, arriving to kill the Purgers and try to kill the Sandins themselves. The twist is Foreshadowed by one of the neighbors (the leader of the mob) talking to Mrs. Sandin about the aforementioned clash of the home styles and that the HOA may have an issue with it.
• Ungrateful Bastard: The neighbors could qualify too. They detest the Sandins because they feel like the Sandins are flaunting their wealth by adding an addition to their house. Never mind the fact that the large majority of said wealth was the result of the neighbors buying high-tech security systems from Jack Sandin, which are essentially the only thing keeping their families from being brutally murdered.
• Villainous Rescue: The neighbors save the family from the intruders because they want to kill them themselves.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • James Sandin doesn't hesitate to yell at his kid for letting a stranger into their house, because they don't even know who's after him. It turns out that he has a point when the psychopathic gang turns up on their doorstep...
  • James himself is called out on the penetrable security system that he sells.
  • And again when he is about to give the homeless guy up to the gang to save his family, even getting his wife to torture him into submission. After Zoe does it too, he listens and lets him go.
• What You Are in the Dark: Applicable to almost everyone, but Zoey's boyfriend and the Sandin's neighbors are standouts.
• Would Hit a Girl: Both the heroes and villains, though justified for the heroes as the women are trying to kill them.
• Would Hurt a Child: The gang never get a chance to. The neighbors come closer.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: Even after the gang is defeated, the Sandins still have to contend with their Evil All Along neighbors.

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