History Film / TheFirstPurge

''The First Purge ''is a 2018 American social science fiction action horror film directed by Gerald [=McMurray=] and written by James [=DeMonaco=]. It is a {{prequel}} to ''Film/ThePurge1'', and the fourth entry in ''[[Film/ThePurge Purge]]'' franchise. It has an entirely different cast from the previous three films, which include Y'Lan Noel, Lex Scott Davis, Joivan Wade, Luna Lauren Valez and Creator/MarisaTomei. It was released on July 4, 2018.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** The writers must have heard feedback about how absurd the franchise's premise was that most people would descend into mindless violence once there's no laws in effect. As shown in this film, the researchers and NFFA politicians were surprised that instead of the expected mass bloodshed, most people were engaging in petty/harmless crimes and hedonistic acts instead. Violent crimes did happen, but its not widespread and many of them are motivated by greed/vengeance (e.g.: armed robberies/holding grudges) rather than the alleged "Purge" mentality (e.g.: Skeletor embracing mindless violence). The NFFA had to deploy mercenaries to increase the level of violence.
** And oh yes, besides the obvious dangers, anyone scuttering in a place where all sense of decency are thrown out of the window can encounter bizarre events such as for example people having sex on the street, or mean-spirited pranksters who would go as far as pretending to be murderers.

''The First Purge ''is a 2018 American social science fiction action horror film directed by Gerald [=McMurray=] and written by James [=DeMonaco=]. It is a {{prequel}} to ''Film/ThePurge'', and the fourth entry in ''Film/ThePurge'' franchise. It has an entirely different cast from the previous three films, which include Y'Lan Noel, Lex Scott Davis, Joivan Wade, Luna Lauren Valez and Creator/MarisaTomei. It was released on July 4, 2018.

* AnachronismStew: The majority of the film is set in 2016, a year before the first annual purge, yet a one-sheet of ''Film/Halloween2018'' is displayed in Isaiah's room.

* AxCrazy: Skeletor is absolutely nuts, and would probably have killed someone even without The Purge, assuming he hasn't done so already.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Nya and Isaiah return to the church where the other pacifist Experiment participants are hiding in...[[spoiler:except that everyone in there has perished at the hands of the mercenaries the NFFA deployed, something that bears very stark similarities to the Charleston church shooting in 2015...]]

** Skeletor would have probably attracted a lot of bad attention well before the purge night. Many neighborhood folks who are armed and familiar with him would probably shoot him on sight, especially if they saw he was armed.

** The writers must have heard feedback about how absurd the franchise's premise was that most people would descend into mindless violence once there's no laws in effect. As shown in this film, the researchers and NFFA politicians were surprised that instead of the expected mass bloodshed, most people were engaging in petty/harmless crimes and hedonistic acts instead. Violent crimes did happen, but its not widespread and many of them are motivated by greed/vengeance (e.g.: armed robberies/holding grudges) rather than the alleged "purge" mentality (e.g.: Skeletor embracing mindless violence). The NFFA had to deploy mercenaries to increase the level of violence.

* TitleDrop: A man stated the first murder of the purge: "We believe this is ''The First Purge'' of the evening."

** The smarter gangs would either evacuate or lockdown their neighborhoods, with plans to overtake the remaining rival gang members ''after'' the purge.

** Society as a whole. Showing someone killed with a knife on tv is not a way to inspire widespread acceptance of the idea of The Purge.

* TheCameo: Journalist and political commentator Van Jones plays himself interviewing Sabian and Dr. Updale.

* WhatHaveIDone: Said verbatim by Dr. Updale when she realizes the experiment was not only a generally terrible idea, but also learning of the NFFA's government-issued massacre of innocents to make the Purge look like a success.

** The white supremists would probably attempt to go door-to-door in the neighborhoods, and get wiped out as soon as residents start sniping at them.

** The smarter gangs would either evacuate or lockdown their neighborhoods, with plans to overtake the remaining rival gang members AFTER the purge.

* AdultFear:
** Sending your younger brother away from a killing zone, only to find out that he never took that bus and very much still roams said zone.
** Taking your young daughter to a church as a refuge, then witnessing first hand the church becoming subject to a bloodbath. Followed by ''coating'' her with someone else's blood, to avoid being targeted.

* AntiHero: Dimitri. He is a gang leader and drug lord, after all.

%%* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything

* HeelFaceDoorSlam: [[spoiler: Updale rejects the NFFA's involvement in the Purge. She gets executed before she can do anything to stop it.]]

''The First Purge ''is a 2018 American social science fiction action horror film directed by Gerald [=McMurray=] and written by James [=DeMonaco=]. It is a {{prequel}} to ''Film/ThePurge'', and the fourth entry in ''[[Film/ThePurge The Purge (Franchise)]]''. It has an entirely different cast from the previous three films, which include Y'Lan Noel, Lex Scott Davis, Joivan Wade, Luna Lauren Valez and Creator/MarisaTomei. It was released on July 4, 2018.

** And oh yes, besides the obvious dangers, anyone scuttering in a place where all sense of decency are thrown out of the window can encounter bizarre events such as for example people having sex on the street, or a mean-spirited prankster who threatens you with a realistic looking gun that sprays water.

* ArtisticLicenseStatistics: The experiment setup is rather flawed from the beginning, in the sense on how its participants are gathered. A couple of issues (considering the context of the topic at hand) is that 1) The rules of the experiment are announced to everyone beforehand, and 2) Its voluntary participation with a relatively significant sum of money paid per participant. By doing it this way, participants would consist of a disproportionately high percentage of people who are financially desperate, lower social class, or simply unmotivated otherwise: "Say what? I get paid more than a month's wage for just 12 hours of staying in a place with no laws in effect? Why not?" A sociological/psychological experiment for an entire country's population CANNOT resort to this kind of poor sampling.

** And oh yes, besides the obvious dangers, anyone scuttering in a place where all sense of decency are thrown out of the window can encounter bizarre events such as for example people having sex on the street, or a [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment mean-spirited prankster who threatens you with a gun just for the purpose of revealing that the gun merely sprays water]].

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: The writers must have heard feedback about how absurd the franchise's premise was that most people would descend into mindless violence once there's no laws in effect. As shown in this film, the researchers and NFFA politicians were surprised that instead of the expected mass bloodshed, most people were engaging in petty crimes, mean-spirited pranks, and hedonistic acts instead. Violent crimes did happen, but its not widespread and many of these violent crimes are motivated by greed/vengeance (e.g.: armed robberies/holding grudges) instead of having that alleged "purge" mentality, i.e.: mindless violence. The NFFA had to deploy mercenaries to increase the level of violence.