The Equalizer 2 (sometimes promoted as The Equalizer II or EQ2) is a 2018 American action-thriller 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, Pedro Pascal, Ashton Sanders, Melissa Leo, Bill Pullman, and Orson Bean in his final film role. It follows retired United States Marine and ex-DIA agent 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, 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. Nevertheless, the film was a commercial success, grossing $190 million worldwide on a production budget of $62 million.
Plot[]
Former Marine and Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) officer Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) now lives in a diverse apartment complex in Roxbury, 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 a Boston bookstore owner's nine year old daughter, who was kidnapped by her father. He also helps Sam Rubinstein, an elderly Holocaust survivor who is looking for a painting of his sister; the siblings were separated in the Nazi death camps and the painting had been auctioned off. After discovering the apartment's courtyard has been vandalised, McCall accepts an offer from Miles Whittaker, a young resident with an artistic but troubled background, to repaint 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; it is believed that she died during a robbery by two men who got off the elevator on her floor. When he receives the news, McCall begins to investigate both her death and the case she was working on. McCall determines that the suspects' foreknowledge of her floor and the expertly-delivered fatal stab suggest that she was targeted. He also confirms that the incident Susan was looking into was staged to look like a murder-suicide, and that Susan's death is probably connected to it. McCall makes contact with York while he is jogging and informs him of his findings. He had thought McCall was dead for years. Later, McCall rescues Miles, who had been lured away by a local gang. Miles then visits McCall, and McCall agrees to pay Miles to repaint his kitchen if Miles reads Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me.
During one of his Lyft runs, McCall is attacked by an assassin posing as a passenger. McCall kills the man and retrieves a mobile, dumping the car and burning it. He discovers that York's number was on the phone's call list. He confronts York at his home. York admits that he became a mercenary after feeling used and discarded by the government and adds that he himself killed Susan, as she would have figured out that he was behind the Brussels killing. McCall leaves the house where the rest of McCall's former squad—York's current teammates, Kovac, Ari, and Resnik—are waiting. McCall promises to kill the entire team before escaping safely by getting a ride from York's unsuspecting wife and children.
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 via webcams, McCall directs Miles to a passage concealed behind a book case; when York seems to close in on the passage's two-way mirror, McCall phones him to taunt him. Miles emerges from hiding shortly after York and Kovac seem to leave, but is captured as he opens the apartment's front door.
York deduces that McCall has gone to his seaside hometown, which has been evacuated as a hurricane approaches. Kovac, Ari, and Resnik begin searching the town in gale-force winds, while York situates himself on the town's watchtower in a sniper's position. Kovac enters a tackle shop and is killed with a harpoon gun. When Ari heads toward the seaside, he is disturbed by pictures of Susan that he sees along the way; catching him off guard, McCall butchers him with a knife.
McCall then enters his late wife's old bakery to lure in Resnik, who is fatally injured in a flour explosion set off by his own stun grenade. York reveals that he has Miles tied up in the trunk of his car and begins shooting at it to lure McCall out. With the storm growing heavier, York is knocked down by a gust of wind before being confronted by McCall atop the tower. McCall gets the upper hand and kills York in the same manner in which Susan was killed, then tosses him onto the rocks below, where he is washed away by the ocean.
Back in Boston, Susan's information about Sam's painting helps McCall reunite Sam with his long-lost sister. Miles finishes painting his mural on the apartment complex's brick wall, returns to school and focuses on his art. Having moved back into his old house, McCall looks out towards the calm sea.
Cast[]
- Denzel Washington as Robert McCall
- Pedro Pascal as Dave York
- Ashton Sanders as Miles Whittaker
- Orson Bean as Sam Rubinstein
- Bill Pullman as Brian Plummer
- Melissa Leo as Susan Plummer
- Jonathan Scarfe as Resnik
- Sakina Jaffrey as Fatima
- Kazy Tauginas as Ari
- Garrett Golden as Kovac
- Tamara Hickey as Grace Braelick, bookstore owner
- Rhys Cote as Grace's daughter
- Adam Karst as Turkish Father
Production[]
On February 24, 2014, seven months before the release of The Equalizer, it was announced that Sony Pictures and Escape Artists were planning a sequel, with Richard Wenk penning the script again. In early October 2014, Antoine Fuqua stated that there would be a sequel to the film only if audiences and Denzel Washington wanted it. He said it was an interesting character, and that the sequel could have more of an international flavor.
On April 22, 2015, Sony officially announced a sequel, with Washington returning to his role as vigilante Robert McCall. Fuqua's returning was not yet confirmed. In September 2016, producer Todd Black revealed that the script of the film was complete, and that Fuqua would return to direct, with shooting set to begin in September 2017.
On August 21, 2017, Pedro Pascal was cast in an unspecified role. Two days later, Melissa Leo and Bill Pullman were confirmed to reprise their roles from the first film, as Susan and Brian Plummer, and it was reported that the film would be produced by Jason Blumenthal, Black, Washington, Steve Tisch, Mace Neufeld, Alex Siskin and Tony Eldridge. On August 24, 2017, Ashton Sanders joined the film to play a character who comes to consider Washington's McCall a father figure. On March 25, 2018, it was revealed that Sakina Jaffrey had also been added to the cast.
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. 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.
Music[]
Harry Gregson-Williams returned to score this film. The soundtrack was released by Sony Classical.
Release[]
The Equalizer 2 was released on July 20, 2018, by Sony Pictures. Sony had originally scheduled the film for a September 29, 2017, release, and later pushed it back a year to September 14, 2018, then brought it forward to August 3, 2018, before settling on its July 20 date.
Reception[]
Box office[]
The Equalizer 2 grossed $102.1 million in the United States and Canada, and $88.3 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $190.4 million, against a production budget of $62 million.
In the United States and Canada, The Equalizer 2 was released alongside Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again and Unfriended: Dark Web, and was projected to gross $27–32 million from 3,388 theaters in its opening weekend. It made $3.1 million from Thursday night previews, double the $1.45 million earned by the original film in 2014, and $13.5 million on its first day. It went on to debut to $35.8 million, finishing first at the box office. It also bested the opening of the first film ($34.1 million) and was the third-best domestic start for Washington. It fell 61% to $14 million in its second weekend, finishing third behind newcomer Mission: Impossible – Fallout and Mamma Mia!, and in its third weekend the film grossed $8.8 million, dropping to fifth place.
Critical response[]
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 51% based on 199 reviews, and an average rating of 5.6/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "The Equalizer 2 delivers the visceral charge of a standard vigilante thriller, but this reunion of trusted talents ultimately proves a disappointing case study in diminishing returns." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 50 out of 100, based on 43 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by PostTrak gave the film an 86% overall positive score and a 69% "definite recommend", while CinemaScore reported filmgoers gave it an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, up from the first film's "A–".
David Ehrlich of IndieWire gave the film a "C–", saying: "The good news is that fans of Antoine Fuqua's The Equalizer—a bland and pulpy 2014 riff on the '80s TV series of the same name—are in for more of the same. The bad news is the rest of us are too."
