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So, I saw this trailer on youtube, and you know what it reminds me of? The Red Hour from the Star Trek episode "The Return of the Archons".

If you're not familiar with that episode, basically everyone's kept in control by bottling all their emotions and then releasing it all for a limited time. Somehow, this makes the United States a Utopia in the movie.

Other than that, this looks to be a bland horror movie.

Also, feel free to chuck this into Other Sci-fi if it belongs there.

I kind of wonder who would get hit hardest by a night of 'legal crime:' people who are normally routine targets of crime anyway, or people who are normally well protected by law enforcement and would suddenly become vulnerable?

The people in positions of power would hire people to guard them or simply leave the country for a day. I would suspect that it would be much the same as a riot and act in a similar sort of way and that the violence would mainly effect those already most at risk for such things. I could see large scale terror attacks being carried out, but I doubt that would be a normal happening.

Other than that, this looks to be a bland horror movie.

Along with having a really dumb idea for the set up.

Zor

Jub is probably right; hiring people to guard your house for a day on Legal Crime Day is pretty practical given that most people would probably be just as happy to be part of an armed group that could watch each others' backs.

You'd also see impromptu militias, lots of them- fifty people holing up in the same central location, with N people with guns bristling outward. Although some of those 'militias' would turn pretty quickly into 'let's go kill those people over there' gangs.

I wonder how many of these militias would be traps to gather vulnerable people into one place in order to make easy victims of them. Or how few years it takes before someone starts a fire during this night of stupid, a fire that consumes a major city. Or how many corporations decide that this night is the perfect time to remove a competitor and/or the competitors customers.

I have a feeling that the only reason the reported crime rate is so low in that setting is that the cops look the other way most of the year so that organized crime leaves them and their families alone on crime night.

All crime legal? Are they talking just violent crimes, crimes against people and petty crimes against property?

I think bilateralrope is onto something, but totally lowballing it. Why not take advantage of that one night as a corporation to wipe out a chunk of your expenses? Sign a deal with the most hideous, despotic, child slave labour using dictatorship for 20 years to manufacture your product. "Oh yes, it's illegal, but it was signed during the mandated 12 hour Purge."

Dump all your toxic waste. Just keep it stored and don't bother paying for disposal throughout the year, just save it all up and then ditch in on a roadside somewhere.

Fuck, imagine what Goldman Sachs could do with 12 hours and zero laws they had to abide by?

Zor wrote:

Other than that, this looks to be a bland horror movie.

Along with having a really dumb idea for the set up.

Zor

Post of the year.

Anyway it wouldn't be interesting without interesting constraints, because where's the horror unless you can realise your inhuman plan was miscalculated and you'll be vulnerable to prosecution?

weemadando wrote:All crime legal? Are they talking just violent crimes, crimes against people and petty crimes against property?

I think bilateralrope is onto something, but totally lowballing it. Why not take advantage of that one night as a corporation to wipe out a chunk of your expenses? Sign a deal with the most hideous, despotic, child slave labour using dictatorship for 20 years to manufacture your product. "Oh yes, it's illegal, but it was signed during the mandated 12 hour Purge."

I doubt when the contract was signed will matter if the contract contains illegal terms. But they only need to drag out the lawsuit till the next purge, then use the money they saved on the contract to eliminate the prosecutor, so it's still technically legal.

Dump all your toxic waste. Just keep it stored and don't bother paying for disposal throughout the year, just save it all up and then ditch in on a roadside somewhere.

Like the headquarters of any annoying environmental protection group ?

Fuck, imagine what Goldman Sachs could do with 12 hours and zero laws they had to abide by?

Assuming they survived the first purge without putting themselves under the jurisdiction of a country with functioning laws.

Like the headquarters of any annoying environmental protection group ?

That assumes your local annoying environmental protection group hasn't had the same plan and isn't in your offices tearing apart all your records for proof of your various misdeeds or in your CEOs bedroom having a conversation with him and something sharp. It could very well turn into a multi sided war with one annual day to actually fight, and most of the rest trying to make money to fortify yourself for it. Drawing the lines would be almost impossible, would unionists side against corporations with environment groups, or go after both at the same time?

I suppose after a few years of this eye for and eye revenge would have severely depleted will of the population, or better still, left everyone so numbed to it that it hardly matters anymore what is or is not legal the rest of the year. I mean just going off the wiki description - everything is legal up to and including rape and murder. And those are high enough as it is when it's illegal.

The entire concept of America being prosperous and having a thriving economy when absolute chaos and destruction reign once a year makes no goddamn sense whatsoever.

Which could be interesting if they hint in the film that the "utopia" created by the purge isn't that utopian, that the senseless destruction and wanton violence aren't really what's making things better.

Jub wrote:The people in positions of power would hire people to guard them or simply leave the country for a day. I would suspect that it would be much the same as a riot and act in a similar sort of way and that the violence would mainly effect those already most at risk for such things. I could see large scale terror attacks being carried out, but I doubt that would be a normal happening.

The trailer seems to implicitly indicate that kind of thing happening.

Turning your house into a fortress with armored doors and stuff - sounds cheap!

Alkaloid wrote:

Like the headquarters of any annoying environmental protection group ?

That assumes your local annoying environmental protection group hasn't had the same plan and isn't in your offices tearing apart all your records for proof of your various misdeeds

Just make sure everything is legal enough the rest of the year that nobody will dare prosecute. Or make sure anyone breaking in won't survive.

or in your CEOs bedroom having a conversation with him and something sharp.

That assumes the CEO is unprotected while still being in the country.

It could very well turn into a multi sided war with one annual day to actually fight, and most of the rest trying to make money to fortify yourself for it. Drawing the lines would be almost impossible, would unionists side against corporations with environment groups, or go after both at the same time?

Who has more money to pay and equip hired guns ?
How many of the hired guns won't care who they kill, but will care about who provides them the better gear ?

Maybe hire a few people from the local military base to steal military equipment for the night then return it in the morning.

Junghalli wrote:

Jub wrote:The people in positions of power would hire people to guard them or simply leave the country for a day. I would suspect that it would be much the same as a riot and act in a similar sort of way and that the violence would mainly effect those already most at risk for such things. I could see large scale terror attacks being carried out, but I doubt that would be a normal happening.

The trailer seems to implicitly indicate that kind of thing happening.

Turning your house into a fortress with armored doors and stuff - sounds cheap!

Depends. Do you want the armored doors that will actually stop attackers ?
Or do you just want security theater so random attackers will hit someone else ?

The family in the movie seem to have gone with the cheaper option b.

Darksider wrote:The entire concept of America being prosperous and having a thriving economy when absolute chaos and destruction reign once a year makes no goddamn sense whatsoever.

Which could be interesting if they hint in the film that the "utopia" created by the purge isn't that utopian, that the senseless destruction and wanton violence aren't really what's making things better.

Wait, wait, wait. Are you telling me that an action movie is focused on the crime done on the personal, man-to-man level and not the sheer fucking society-rending chaos any amoral organization can wreak with a few hours?

Yeah, they probably don't give a shit about the wider societal implications. It doesn't make much sense given that you can't seperate the indulgences someone at a bank would take vs someone on the corner with a tire iron but I think that's what their going for anyway. Evil inside the human spirit and all. I guess you could claim that this is limited to the lower classes and violence? That seems to be the message,intentionally or no.

Assuming they survived the first purge without putting themselves under the jurisdiction of a country with functioning laws.

Why would they leave? They have twelve hours to be as unscrupulous as they want. Insider trading, bribery, the like. By the end of the day they might be ruling the country. I don't think that anyone can afford better guards.

Unless they're being fucked by the other corporations they would stay to make a buck.

This has to be the dumbest fucking concept ever.

One thing (besides all the other things, obviously) confuses me. The mob at the door calls the black guy their prey, and seem rather singleminded in pursuing him. If this is just go murder and steal whatever you want, shouldn't they move on once a target becomes hard to reach?

Ahriman238 wrote:One thing (besides all the other things, obviously) confuses me. The mob at the door calls the black guy their prey, and seem rather singleminded in pursuing him. If this is just go murder and steal whatever you want, shouldn't they move on once a target becomes hard to reach?

They probably want him for something specific. For me personally, there is someone I have had the misfortune of knowing in my neighborhood who I would single out and hunt down, rather than going after a random stranger. So I'd actually spend more effort going after that individual than someone who just happened to cross my path.

Also, how does this make all other crime disappear? Makes no sense.

Inane, pointless drivel.

However, now that we know that the entire premise is totally nonsensical bullshit, I have to wonder what was the point in making the movie. Aside from trying to rake in money with an "edgy" horror film.

I'm personally thinking this is going to be some ham-fisted "man's inhumanity against man" sort of theme, with none of the nuance of Lord of the Flies, but with all of the gore and brutality. Just going by the trailer, I don't see much redemption in humanity, unlike in LotF, where Ralph and Piggy show that humans aren't, in fact, total shit, and have qualities that, though we are flawed, do make us into something more than mere brutes, despite the presence of the Beast inside of us all. Sure, the child lets the man into the house to be defended, but he was also asking his parents why they weren't engaging in murder for fun every year. I mean, yeah, you can argue that in LotF that Ralph bullied Piggy to be popular, but Ralph never reveled in the excesses of the group on the island, whereas it seems the child in The Purge seems to accept the purge itself without much question and even advocates on behalf of the terrible excesses it offers. Contra, while Ralph did bully Piggy some, he never donned the warpaint and hunted the pigs on the island. Ralph never participated in the murders of Simon and Piggy.

Now, I imagine that the film will try to show some moment of Redemption once the sun rises again on a new day and there will be all sorts of symbolism, but the purge will come again like clockwork and mankind itself will always fall into the tired cycle of violence, but without the sort of hope represented by the conch shell and Piggy, even though the boys had all lost their innocence to the terrible Beast.

If they wanted to do this concept why not set it in a single city where this is allowed? Then you could have the utopia thing just be bullshit spewed by the city council when it reality the city is some sort of closely monitored dumping ground for undesirables and the purge a way to keep the population down so more people can be sent in.

Ahriman238 wrote:One thing (besides all the other things, obviously) confuses me. The mob at the door calls the black guy their prey, and seem rather singleminded in pursuing him. If this is just go murder and steal whatever you want, shouldn't they move on once a target becomes hard to reach?

The black guy could be a witness they don't want testifying.

They said he was their "target" for the Purge. To me that indicates that they had some reason for going after him specifically, like a personal vendetta.

Ahriman238 wrote:One thing (besides all the other things, obviously) confuses me. The mob at the door calls the black guy their prey, and seem rather singleminded in pursuing him. If this is just go murder and steal whatever you want, shouldn't they move on once a target becomes hard to reach?

Here's another idea, why did they think a trailer showing a bunch of masked white people hunting a black guy for sport would not get them in trouble?

Why would it get them in trouble?