History Film / Peppermint

* BrokenBird: Riley starts out with a reasonably decent life as a bank teller, doting wife and mother. She loses it all when her husband and daughter are murdered, the killers get off scot-free while she gets committed to a mental institution, leading her to [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere bail and go completely off the grid]], train herself, and turn to a life of vigilantism.

* CantGetAwayWithNuthin: The Cartel members who assassinated Riley's family get off scot free since the judge is on the Cartel's payroll. Worse, their lawyer gets her committed due to her anti-psychotic medication prescription. Riley taking down the Cartel and exposing the corruption in the police department, the very things that led her down her present path? Nope, she committed murder, so she must be arrested. [[spoiler:Luckily, she is freed by Beltran at the film's end.]]

* TheDogBitesBack: After the Cartel kills her family, walks off, and has her committed (which she escapes), Riley returns after readying herself to strike back.

* HesBack: Riley returns 5 years following her disappearance after the trial against her family's killers, ready to pay them in kind.

* KickThemWhileTheyAreDown: The lawyer of the murderers not only gets them off the hook, but also convinces the judge to order Riley to confinement in an institution due to her meds.

* MiscarriageOfJustice: In a sense. Riley isn't the accused, but the trial ends in a double whammy decision where in addition to the killers' acquittal, the lawyer convinces the judge to commit her to an institution based on her meds.

* OffTheGrid: Riley goes off the grid for 5 years in the aftermath of the trial that saw her family's killers let off the hook, during which time she undergoes training around the world in order to avenge her fallen family.

* OutlivingOnesOffspring: Her daughter is tragically gunned down along with her husband.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: After being escorted into an ambulance following the trial when she is not only ruled against and the perps are allowed to walk, but she is also committed, she grabs an oxygen tank and knocks out Carmichael, escapes, and goes off the grid completely after robbing the bank where she worked and military grade weapons from a warehouse.

* TimeSkip: 5 years pass between the murders and Riley's assault on those responsible.

* TheCowl: A non-superhero film variant. She's a vigilante who also emerges from the shadows to stop violent thugs in the poor part of town where she lives, in a cowl no less.

* TheDogBitesBack: After killing her family, walking off, and getting her committed (which she escapes), Riley returns after readying herself to strike back.

* BrokenBird: Riley starts out with a reasonably decent life as a bank teller, doting wife and mother. She loses it all when her husband and daughter are murdered, the killers get off scot-free while she gets committed to a mental institution, leading her to [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere bail and go completely off grid]], train herself, and turn to a life of vigilantism.

* CantGetAwayWithNuthin: The Cartel members who assassinated Riley's family get off scot free since the judge is on the Cartel's payroll. Worse, their lawyer gets her committed due to her anti-psychotic medication prescription. Riley taking down the Cartel and exposing the corruption in the police department, the very things that led her down her present path? Nope, she committed murder, so she must be arrested. [[spoiler:Luckily, she is freed by Beltran at film's end.]]

* CreateYourOwnHero: The cartel responsible for murdering her husband and daughter, and the court that got them off the hook, are responsible for turning Riley their own worst nightmare.

* GanglandDriveBy: Riley's family is gunned down by thugs working for Garcia, who ordered the hit targeting her husband to be public as an example of what happens when you try to cross him.

** During Riley's encounter with Diego Garcia, she was thrown off guard [[spoiler:when his daughter made an appearance. This opened a window of opportunity for him to stab Riley several times before she could get away.]]

* SympatheticInspectorAntagonist: Detective Moises Beltran knows that he's chasing a person who's killing criminals exclusively, but still pursues her because she's still breaking the law. [[spoiler:At the end of the film he helps her escape confinement, after telling her that many in the LAPD applaud her actions.]]

* HowWeGotHere: The film begins with Riley confronting and killing a thug, before a flashback five years to the fateful day of the murders, the trial where the judge ruled against her instead of the killers, and her subsequent escape. The first thing we see upon returning to the present from all this? The bodies of all three killers hanging from a ferris wheel, at the very park they murdered her father and daughter.

* SerialKiller: Riley North becomes this five years after the deaths of her husband and daughter. She proceeds to kill all of those that had wronged her and her family.

* TragicHero: Riley North. First, she loses her husband. Then the law wouldn't do anything about the crooks. This leads her into turning into a vigilante.

* SerialKiller: Riley North becomes this five years after the deaths of her husband and daughter. She proceeds to kill all of those that had wronged her.

* VengefulWidow: This movie in a nutshell.

* SerialKiller: Riley becomes this five years after her family died, killing all of those that have wronged her.

* AssholeVictim: Pretty much every victim that Riley kills, but particularly the three people that killed her husband and daughter. [[spoiler:Diego Garcia also ends up as this at the end.]]

The 2018 film ''Peppermint'' , directed by Peter Morel (who also directed the first ''Film/{{Taken}}'' movie) is the story of a woman named Riley North seeking revenge five years after the brutal murder of her family, starring Creator/JenniferGarner as the widowed revenge-seeker.

* HesBack: Riley returns 5 years following her disappearance after the trial against her family's killers.
* HowWeGotHere: The film begins with Riley confronting and killing a thug, before a flashback five years to the fateful day of the murders, the trial where the judge ruled against her instead of the killers, and her subsequent escape. The first thing we see upon returning to the present from all this? The bodies of all three killers hanging from a ferris wheel.

* AnAsskickingChristmas: It's set a few days before Christmas.

* DirtyCop: Several times there are warnings by characters of cops in the LA Police Department who are on the take of [[BigBad Diego Garcia]], but one isn't actually seen until towards the end of the film, [[spoiler:when the audience finds out that Detective Stan Carmichael is working for Garcia.]]
* DisproportionateRetribution: What kicks off the plot. Riley’s husband was just ''asked'' to participate in a planned robbery of García (and had just left a message turning down the job). So García ordered his death and that of his family for merely ''considering'' robbing García.

* MamaBear:
** Her daughter's death in the attack drives her to seek revenge, having visions of her little girl at various points. Riley's protective streak is used against her towards the end of the film to lure her out of hiding, [[spoiler:when Garcia threatens to kill a homeless girl if Riley doesn't come forward.]]

* OffWithHisHead: Just before the attack on North's family, Garcia is shown taking a kukri to lop off the head of a would-be thief. The actual decapitation isn't depicted, just a big splash of blood on a nearby statue after showing the start of Garcia's swing.

* SequelHook: [[spoiler: Beltran helps Riley escape from the hospital.]]

* WoundedGazelleGambit: [[spoiler: Riley's final showdown with Garcia consists of this. Upon confronting Garcia, she goads him into fighting her, despite being seriously wounded to retaliate, and suffers a brief but brutal NoHoldsBarredBeatdown from him, but manages to stall him long enough [[BigDamnHeroes for the police to arrive]]. She then chases down Garcia and manages to shoot him in the head in front of the police before escaping.]]

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* MamaBear: Her daughter's death in the attack drives her to seek revenge, having visions of her little girl at various points. Riley's protective streak is used against her towards the end of the film to lure her out of hiding, [[spoiler:when Garcia threatens to kill a homeless girl if Riley doesn't come forward.]]

* AssholeVictim: Pretty much every victim that Riley kills, but particularly the three people that killed her husband and daughter. [[spoiler:and Diego Garcia also ends up as this at the end.]]

* AssholeVictim: Pretty much every victim that Riley kills, but particularly the three people that killed her husband and daughter [[spoiler:and Diego Garcia]].

* AmoralAttorney: The attourney defending the gunmen that killed her family has no qualms working with drug dealers, to the point of using Cartel money to try to buy North's silence before the gunmen go to trial.

The 2018 film ''Peppermint'' , directed by Peter Morel (who also directed the first ''Film/{{Taken}}'' movie) is the story of a woman named Riley North seeking revenge five years after the brutal murder of her family, starring Creator/JenniferGarner as the widowed revenge-seeker. Her quest for vengeance pits her against not only a branch of TheCartel but a system that denied her justice and is seeking to capture her.

* MamaBear: Her daughter's death in the attack drives her to seek revenge, having visions of her little girl at various points. Riley's protective streak is used against her towards the end of the film to lure her out of hiding, [[spoiler:Garcia threatening to kill a homeless girl if Riley doesn't come forward.]]