The American justice system gets a massive overhaul in the first trailer for The Purge, written and directed by James DeMonaco (Assault on Precinct 13 and The Negotiator). The story is set in a futuristic America where the government sanctions an annual 12-hour period where nothing is illegal, not even murder. Ethan Hawke and Lena Headey star as a married couple trying to protect their kids when their gated community is raided during this period. Check out the first footage, along with the poster and eight new photos, before this hits theaters May 31.
If on one night every year, you could commit any crime without facing consequences, what would you do? In The Purge, a speculative thriller that follows one family over the course of a single night, four people will be tested to see how far they will go to protect themselves when the vicious outside world breaks into their home.
In an America wracked by crime and overcrowded prisons, the government has sanctioned an annual 12-hour period in which any and all criminal activity-including murder-becomes legal. The police can't be called. Hospitals suspend help. It's one night when the citizenry regulates itself without thought of punishment. On this night plagued by violence and an epidemic of crime, one family wrestles with the decision of who they will become when a stranger comes knocking.
When an intruder breaks into James Sandin's (Ethan Hawke) gated community during the yearly lockdown, he begins a sequence of events that threatens to tear a family apart. Now, it is up to James, his wife, Mary (Lena Headey), and their kids to make it through the night without turning into the monsters from whom they hide.