The Equalizer 2. (2018)
The Equalizer 2 (sometimes promoted as The Equalizer II or EQ2) is a 2018 American vigilante action film directed by Antoine Fuqua. It is the sequel to the 2014 film The Equalizer, which was based on the TV series of the same name. The film stars Denzel Washington in the lead role, Pedro Pascal, Ashton Sanders, Melissa Leo, Bill Pullman, and Orson Bean in his final film role. It follows retired U.S. Marine and former DIA officer Robert McCall as he sets out on a path of revenge after one of his friends is murdered. The film is the fourth collaboration between Washington and Fuqua, following Training Day (2001), The Equalizer (2014), and The Magnificent Seven (2016). Talks of an Equalizer sequel began seven months prior to the release of the first film.
The project was officially announced in April 2015. Filming began in September 2017, and took place in Boston as well as other areas around Massachusetts. It also marks the first time Washington has starred in a sequel to one of his films.
The Equalizer 2 was released in the United States on July 20, 2018 by Sony Pictures Releasing. It received mixed reviews, with critics praising Washington’s performance and the film’s action sequences, but criticizing the pacing and number of subplots.[4] Nevertheless, the film was a commercial success, grossing $190 million worldwide on a production budget of $62 million.
A sequel, titled The Equalizer 3, is scheduled to be released in September 1, 2023, with Washington to reprise his starring role and Fuqua returning to direct.
Plot.
Former Marine and DIA operative Robert McCall still lives in Boston. He works as a Lyft driver and assists the less fortunate with the help of his close friend and former DIA colleague, Susan Plummer. McCall travels to Istanbul to retrieve the nine-year-old daughter of a bookstore owner, Grace Braelick, who was kidnapped by her abusive Turkish father. He also helps Sam Rubinstein, an elderly Holocaust survivor looking for a painting of his sister who died in the Nazi death camps. McCall returns home to find that his apartment’s courtyard has been vandalized. He accepts an offer from Miles Whittaker, a young resident with an artistic but troubled background, to paint a mural on the walls. Susan and DIA officer Dave York, McCall’s former partner,
are called to investigate the murder-suicide of an agency affiliate and his wife in Brussels. At their hotel, Susan is accosted in her room and killed, presumably during a robbery.
McCall determines that the expertly delivered fatal stab suggested that she was targeted, and that the murder-suicide was staged. McCall informs York of his findings. During one of his Lyft runs, McCall is attacked by an assassin posing as a passenger. McCall kills the man and retrieves his mobile phone. He discovers that York’s number is on the phone’s call list and confronts York at his home. York admits that he became a mercenary after feeling used and discarded by the government and confesses that he killed Susan,
as she would have figured out that he was behind the Brussels killings. McCall leaves the house where the rest of McCall’s former squad and York’s current teammates—Kovac, Ari, and Resnik—are waiting. McCall promises to kill the entire team before departing. Resnik and Ari head to Susan’s house to kill her husband Brian, but McCall helps him escape. York and Kovac break into McCall’s apartment, where Miles is painting the walls. Monitoring the apartment via webcams, McCall directs Miles to a passage concealed behind a bookcase. Miles emerges from hiding, but is captured as he opens the apartment’s front door.
Filming.
Principal photography on the film began in the South End area of Boston, Massachusetts, on September 14, 2017. Filming also took place on Lynn Shore Drive in Lynn, Massachusetts, the Powder Point Bridge in Duxbury, Massachusetts, as well as in Brant Rock, Massachusetts. The final action scene was filmed here. Interior scenes were filmed in a studio in Randolph, Massachusetts. While Sony and other publications reported the film was made on a net production budget of $62 million, Deadline Hollywood stated their sources insisted the cost was “in the high [$70 million]” range after Massachusetts tax credits.