Is The Purge: Election Year Scary? The Verdict and the Whole Plot
Somewhat, 4 out of 10. It's a long night of strangers with guns, with a few loud jumps along the way.
🐱THE SCARE SIGNAL
SCARE SCORE
4 /10
🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱
DREAD LEVEL
Low
It fades soon after the credits.
DOG
Dog: fine
No dog dies in this one.
Ruling: Fine for adults who can handle gunfire, ideally with the lights on and the door locked.
The Purge: Election Year runs one hour and forty-nine minutes. Senator Charlie Roan is running for president on a promise to end Purge nights, and the people who like Purge nights have noticed.
The premise, briefly
Senator Charlie Roan is running for president on a promise to end the Purge, so the group opposing her revokes immunity for officials, and security chief Leo Barnes has to get her through the city.
How much do you want to know?
🐱
The verdict above is spoiler-free. Everything below, including the ending, stays hidden until you pick a depth.
🐱CUT TO THE CHASE
How it ends
Roan survives the night and wins the election in a landslide two months later. Joe dies of his injuries and Dante is killed by paramilitary forces. Marcos and Laney survive, and the NFFA's supporters respond with violent uprisings.
The scene you're dreading
The cathedral, near the end: the NFFA plans to sacrifice Roan there, but Leo's group arrives first. A huge shootout kills the whole congregation except Owens and Harmon James, who both escape.
The dog
No dog dies in The Purge: Election Year.
It is a loud action movie with jump scares and a lot of shooting, and it stops being tense once you know Roan wins.
THE SHORT VERSION IS HIDDEN
How it ends, the scene you're dreading, what happens to the dog, and the bottom line. About twenty seconds to read.
What actually happens
Joe's insurance company has noticed the Purge
Eighteen years after watching her family die on Purge night, Charlie Roan is a senator running for president on a promise to end the Purge. Leo Barnes, who now opposes the Purge, runs her Secret Service security. Her opponent is the New Founding Fathers of America (NFFA), whose candidate, Minister Edwidge Owens, sees her as a threat. The NFFA revokes immunity for government officials so that someone can kill Roan legally, and she refuses to leave the city. Meanwhile, deli owner Joe Dixon, his assistant Marcos Dali, and EMT Laney Rucker watch the debate. Two teenage girls try to steal from the store, and Joe discovers his insurance premiums for Purge coverage have gone up beyond what he can pay.
On Purge night, Joe guards his store with Marcos and they fend off the teenage girls, while Laney travels the city treating the injured. Roan chooses to spend the Purge at home with Leo, Couper, Eric and other security. Couper and Eric betray them and let a paramilitary force led by Earl Danzinger kill the security detail. Leo gets Roan out of the house, though he is wounded, and he sets off a bomb in the house that kills Eric and Couper.
A rooftop with excellent timing
Leo and Roan look for shelter and are ambushed by Russian tourists who have come to join the Purge. They are taken captive. Just before the tourists can execute them, Joe and Marcos see what is happening from the rooftop and shoot the whole gang. The four take shelter in Joe's store, where the teenage girls return with reinforcements until Laney arrives and kills them. Danzinger attacks the group from a helicopter. They run to an overpass, where Leo works out that a bullet inside him is how they are being tracked and cuts it out. A gang there agrees to plant the bullet somewhere else in exchange for medical help for a member's son.
Cathedral of questionable intentions
The group finds an underground hideout run by Dante Bishop, and Leo learns that Dante's team plans to assassinate Owens. A large paramilitary force arrives looking for Dante, so Leo and Roan go back to the streets and find Joe, Marcos and Laney. The paramilitary team hits their ambulance and drags Roan out before Leo can reach her. Leo guides the group and Dante's team to a cathedral the NFFA has turned into a stronghold, where the NFFA intends to sacrifice Roan. This is the scene people dread most, and it comes near the end. The group arrives before the NFFA can go through with it, and a huge shootout kills the whole congregation except Owens and Harmon James, who escape. Dante's group catches Owens and wants to kill him, but Roan persuades them not to. Paramilitary forces arrive and kill Dante and his men, Leo gets the better of Danzinger, and Harmon James shoots a victim before Joe shoots him.
The ending, explained
Roan persuades Dante's group to spare Owens, because she wants to beat him in the election. Paramilitary forces then arrive and kill Dante and his men, and Leo fights Earl Danzinger and gets the upper hand. Harmon James comes out of hiding and kills one of the victims they have just freed, and Joe shoots him in the crossfire. Joe is wounded, and he dies of it later. Two months later, Marcos and Laney are fixing up Joe's store and see on TV that Roan won by a landslide. A second report says NFFA supporters are rioting around the country after the result.
The post-credits ruling
Nobody has confirmed whether The Purge: Election Year has a scene after the credits, so staying is your call.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: No dog dies in this one.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is The Purge: Election Year scary?
Somewhat, The Purge: Election Year is a 4 out of 10 and the dread fades soon after the credits. It is mostly a loud action movie with shootouts and some jump scares.
How does The Purge: Election Year end?
Roan survives the night and wins the election by a landslide two months later. Joe dies of his injuries, Dante is killed, and the NFFA's supporters respond with violent uprisings.
Does the dog die in The Purge: Election Year?
No dog dies in The Purge: Election Year.
Is there a post-credits scene in The Purge: Election Year?
Nobody has confirmed whether The Purge: Election Year has a scene after the credits, so staying is your call.
Who are the NFFA in The Purge: Election Year?
The NFFA is the New Founding Fathers of America, whose candidate is Minister Edwidge Owens. It sees Roan as a threat and revokes immunity for government officials so she can be killed legally.
BLURRED FOR YOUR PROTECTION
The whole plot of The Purge: Election Year is hidden, ending included. It stays that way until you ask.
You can skip a full night of The Purge: Election Year and still know who makes it out. Install Scaredy Cat and it will blur horror before you see it.
