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Musings about The Purge, mostly
May. 18th, 2025 02:25 am Work has been kind of wild tonight. I'm working the AVSEC desk and I've had weird breaches and a case of arson and one airport employee meeting a Tindr date next to one of the departure gates. I'd blame the full moon, except that that was several days ago (and that was also a bit of a wild weekend!). I guess someone just spiked the water with something tonight.
I decided to take a relaxing break from watching Law & Order: SVU by watching The Purge movies. I am partway through the second one. I watched them once before, many years ago (the most recent one is from 2016), and I'd forgotten how much the premise makes so very little sense. I think it's because whoever conceptualized and wrote it didn't really think it all the way through. I have been trying to figure out how it could work, and honestly it just doesn't. The writer put a lot of emphasis on the fact that every crime is allowed during this 12-hour period, including murder, as if murder and violence is what most people aspire to. The Purge announcement over TV/radio/etc. also makes a big deal out of how murder is allowed, and therein lies the central weakness of the narrative.
The idea, of course, is that the poor and marginalized, the "undesirables" will either kill each other off, or be killed off by wealthier people with better access to weapons and hired mercenaries or whatever. And yeah, sure, there might be some of that in reality, but I don't think it holds true of most marginalized people. If anything, they are the ones most likely to engage in mutual aid and take part in a more unofficial economy. Also, while I'm sure there are wealthy people who'd take advantage of things, I rather think they'd be too concerned about preserving their property to really get into that much trouble themselves.
Also, straight-up murder is just so unimaginative, and humanity can get super creative with their crimes. Why go outside and run the risk of physical injury when you can hack into a bank, or government systems? You could transfer a bunch of money into your accounts, or cancel your student loans (or everyone's student loans!) Why wouldn't every organized crime group arrange to move vast amounts of drugs during that night with no repercussions?
What would stop the powerful people at the helm of institutions from committing collapse-inducing crimes? A bank CEO just cleaning out his entire bank, or a government official selling every single national security secret available to foreign powers. It's not treason during Purge Night! If even a few dozen people committed large-scale crimes, it could absolutely collapse the nation in short order.
And then there's the issue of the emergency services. According to the premise, they are unavailable during the twelve hours of Purge Night, which makes a certain amount of sense: people would target any first responders getting in the way of their crimes. If you're murdering someone, you want them dead. That all holds up until you get to the fire department. The movies don't (to my knowledge, I could be misremembering) show any kind of arson, and you cannot convince me that there wouldn't be pyromaniacs and overexcited teenagers setting fire to shit all over the place. You know what fire does? It spreads. So why aren't entire neighbourhoods wiped out by fire on Purge Night, since there are no firefighters to keep the blazes under control?
Another thing that bugs me about the movies is that they focus exclusively on urban settings. It definitely works better for the plot, but a lot of the USA is either rural or at least from small towns. Does the Purge even happen there? Would people attack farms? You could set fire to all of the USA's food supply and, again, cause some pretty significant societal damage.
In short, the writer did not think this through, and just created a hyper-violent but ultimately unimaginative premise that doesn't really prompt the audience to think about the broader societal issues underpinning the story. It just boils down to "murder and violence bad," as if we didn't know that already.
Okay, thank you for bearing with my rambling thoughts about The Purge franchise. ;) Catch you on the flip side, friends!
I decided to take a relaxing break from watching Law & Order: SVU by watching The Purge movies. I am partway through the second one. I watched them once before, many years ago (the most recent one is from 2016), and I'd forgotten how much the premise makes so very little sense. I think it's because whoever conceptualized and wrote it didn't really think it all the way through. I have been trying to figure out how it could work, and honestly it just doesn't. The writer put a lot of emphasis on the fact that every crime is allowed during this 12-hour period, including murder, as if murder and violence is what most people aspire to. The Purge announcement over TV/radio/etc. also makes a big deal out of how murder is allowed, and therein lies the central weakness of the narrative.
The idea, of course, is that the poor and marginalized, the "undesirables" will either kill each other off, or be killed off by wealthier people with better access to weapons and hired mercenaries or whatever. And yeah, sure, there might be some of that in reality, but I don't think it holds true of most marginalized people. If anything, they are the ones most likely to engage in mutual aid and take part in a more unofficial economy. Also, while I'm sure there are wealthy people who'd take advantage of things, I rather think they'd be too concerned about preserving their property to really get into that much trouble themselves.
Also, straight-up murder is just so unimaginative, and humanity can get super creative with their crimes. Why go outside and run the risk of physical injury when you can hack into a bank, or government systems? You could transfer a bunch of money into your accounts, or cancel your student loans (or everyone's student loans!) Why wouldn't every organized crime group arrange to move vast amounts of drugs during that night with no repercussions?
What would stop the powerful people at the helm of institutions from committing collapse-inducing crimes? A bank CEO just cleaning out his entire bank, or a government official selling every single national security secret available to foreign powers. It's not treason during Purge Night! If even a few dozen people committed large-scale crimes, it could absolutely collapse the nation in short order.
And then there's the issue of the emergency services. According to the premise, they are unavailable during the twelve hours of Purge Night, which makes a certain amount of sense: people would target any first responders getting in the way of their crimes. If you're murdering someone, you want them dead. That all holds up until you get to the fire department. The movies don't (to my knowledge, I could be misremembering) show any kind of arson, and you cannot convince me that there wouldn't be pyromaniacs and overexcited teenagers setting fire to shit all over the place. You know what fire does? It spreads. So why aren't entire neighbourhoods wiped out by fire on Purge Night, since there are no firefighters to keep the blazes under control?
Another thing that bugs me about the movies is that they focus exclusively on urban settings. It definitely works better for the plot, but a lot of the USA is either rural or at least from small towns. Does the Purge even happen there? Would people attack farms? You could set fire to all of the USA's food supply and, again, cause some pretty significant societal damage.
In short, the writer did not think this through, and just created a hyper-violent but ultimately unimaginative premise that doesn't really prompt the audience to think about the broader societal issues underpinning the story. It just boils down to "murder and violence bad," as if we didn't know that already.
Okay, thank you for bearing with my rambling thoughts about The Purge franchise. ;) Catch you on the flip side, friends!
