In The Purge: Election Year, Joe’s Deli serves as a symbol of The American Dream
for Joe and his community, but some of the images seen around the store have a
greater significance than you might have realized.
Election Year shows us the height of a revolution staged by the lower class against the government.
This is essentially the New Civil Rights Movement of the United States. In the world of The Purge,
the poor are discriminated against. Not only can the wealthy better afford to protect themselves
during The Purge, but if you read into the lore detailed on the New Founders website,
you’ll see they’ve enacted laws like the Contributing
Citizens Provision of 2019 that straight up allows discrimination against the poor.
There are both subtle and not so subtle comparisons to the original
Civil Rights Movement that took place in the United States 86 years prior.
Joe’s Deli is his pride and joy, his little piece of the pie, as he puts it. For him,
the American Dream means owning and operating his own business that serves
the community, but his dream, like the dream of his ancestor, Martin Luther King Jr., is crushed,
when his insurance company intentionally raises his rates 1 day before The Purge.
“They just raised the premium on my Purge coverage. By thousands. The day before the
damn Purge. If I don’t pay it by tomorrow I have no Purge coverage for this store.”
In previous Purge movies, we’ve learned that weapon and home security companies are
the most likely shills for the political party that created The Purge, the NFFA,
and Election Year suggests that insurance companies have joined that category.
But some of the images seen in and around the deli are more than just a generic symbol of
civil rights -- they reference specific historical events that foreshadow what
happens at the end of the movie. There are also more modern references, in fact,
Election Year may have actually predicted some future events, so stick around to the
end of this video to hear about all of it. This video is sponsored by Audible.
I hereby proclaim, that all men shall subscribe to CZsWorld and ring the deathbell for all
notifications! Welcome to Things You Missed. If you’ve been waiting for a video where
Emo Abraham Lincoln, regular Abraham Lincoln and Angry Abraham Lincoln all collide,
this is the episode for you. If you want to hear about the hidden meanings
encoded in the third Purge movie, you are also in the right place.
This would be the last installment directed by series creator James Demonaco,
although he would stay on as screenwriter going forward. If you look at Election Year literally,
it looks like the silliest, most ridiculous entry,
but we can find deeper meaning when looking on a metaphorical level. Let’s get into it.
All around Washington DC, there are NFFA logos and advertisements,
but in low-income areas like the area near the freeway underpass and right around the deli, we
see that the banners have been defaced, a symbol of the tension that exists between the social classes.
The divide between the rich and poor is highlighted by the use
of technology. The movie is set in 2040, so you’d expect some futuristic gadgets,
like Leo’s remote detonating briefcase and GPS tracking bullets, but Joe,
Marcos and Lainey use devices that feel outdated even today. From standard definition monitors,
to broken grandpa clocks to Samsung Galaxy S2’s and even this monstrosity.
As I mentioned, the deli is decorated with photos of the most prominent figures of the
original American Civil Rights Movement, like Malcolm X, who was an advocate of African American
human rights in the 1960s who was criticized for refusing to denounce violence as a form of self-defense.
INTERVIEWER: "So Martin is your friend, yet you would disagree to his approach to what he wants to accomplish?"
X: "Definitely, if his approach would bring about what the black man in America needs,
to completely eliminate the problem that we have, I would say well and good."
The Purge: Election Year has its own Malcolm X -- it’s Dante Bishop, the homeless man
turned revolutionary fighter who planned to assassinate the NFFA’s presidential candidate.
The independent candidate Charlie Roan criticizes him on his methods.
“Mr. Bishop, I’ve heard stories of tactics that you employ on Purge night.
I can’t say that I agree with any of it.”
Bishop changes his ways in the end,
but they do share the same fate of being taken out by extremists.
Another picture seen in the deli is of Harriet Tubman. Harriet was born into slavery in the
1820s, and her most notable accomplishment was operating the Underground Railroad,
a network of secret routes and safehouses designed to
help escort African Americans out of slavery in the south.
The new Civil Rights Movement isn’t about slavery and race though,
it’s about money and homelessness, so the new Harriet Tubman is Laney Rucker,
who spends her Purge night working in a triage van to help Purge victims get to underground
safehouses throughout the city where they can hide out and get medical attention.
Tubman also worked as nurse during the American Civil War and notably led a military operation
known as the Raid on Combahee Ferry where 750 people were rescued from slavery on Union ships.
At one point, Laney’s character is implied to also have some kind of notable military background,
but it’s never explained or expanded upon and isn’t relevant to the story in any way.
“That’s Laney Rucker, Kimmy.”
“Laney Rucker? They called you Pequeña Muerte. Little Death. You’re my motherf***ing hero.”
This detail seems to only exist to explain how she knows how to use a gun,
or as an added parallel to Harriet Tubman. Then there’s Frederick Douglass. Like the others,
he was an important figure in slavery abolition and Civil Rights. He went on to hold several
political offices and at one point he was nominated to become Vice President of the
United States. If he does have a counterpart in the movie, I’m guessing it’s Senator Roan,
but there may also be another historical figure who serves as a stronger reflection of Roan.
The most recognizable person pictured here, the true Patriot of his time, was Tom Brady; this was
before he became a Buccaneer, but other than that, there’s Martin Luther King Jr., who of course is
the most prolific Civil Rights speaker of all time, with his famous I Have a Dream Speech.
There are a couple of pictures of him in the deli, but I want to look at this
one in particular, which was taken at a press conference on November 5th, 1964,
just after Lyndon B Johnson was elected as President. Johnson was known for his
domestic policies known as the “Great Society” program and the “War on Poverty” program,
which assisted millions of families out of poverty during his administration. Senator Roan’s platform
is all about helping out low-income people, primarily by promising to end The Purge.
The day this photo was taken, Johnson spoke with King Jr. to thank him for
his support and ask him to get behind the poverty initiative.
“We’re gonna spend a lot of time with Schrieber on our poverty thing, I wish you’d give a little
thought to it, because that offers a lot of opportunity for our young people.”
“Well, good, good, and again, let me congratulate you.”
So as you can see there are a lot of similarities between Senator Roan and Lyndon B Johnson,
but there may be one more parallel in looking at the circumstances of when they took office.
Johnson was elected shortly after becoming President due to the assassination of John
F Kennedy, while Roan was elected shortly after the assassination of Caleb Warrens,
the NFFA leader that gets sniped down at the end of the movie.
The main characters would not be the only ones who represent a person or group
of historical significance, and there are many other secrets waiting to be uncovered.
Here at the NFFA, we take Presidents’ Day very seriously,
to honor our great Founding Fathers like President Bracken and President Warrens.
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The previous film, The Purge: Anarchy,
started to explore how the NFFA was creating a religious aspect to the Purge as part of
their wider effort to manipulate people into participating. Here, it’s front and center,
as the new NFFA Presidential candidate is a minister who holds a midnight ceremony
on Purge night where less fortunate people and political enemies are to be sacrificed.
There are many moments that build up to the finale at the cathedral, from the first shot of the
evening showing the sun setting behind a building that looks like a church to a church being the
only location labeled on the GPS system that the NFFA’s mercenaries use to track the Senator.
The United States has something called an Establishment Clause, the separation of church
and state, but we see that all of the New Founding Fathers are the religious leaders, serving
as ministers and priests. This isn’t a separate religion that they happen to be a part of, this is
clearly an NFFA event, Minister Owens even admits that Midnight Purge Mass belongs to his party.
His first name is Edwidge, a french name meaning “war”. He is a minister of war,
and as Senator Roan suggests in a debate, murder is his new religion.
He’s joined at the altar by Harmon James. Harmon is also a French name
meaning soldier, and he’s the one seen carrying out the ceremonious purging.
On the topic of nomenclature, there are a couple of notable names on the other side as well.
As I mentioned in his Horror History episode, Dante Bishop is given a name for the first time
in this movie, previously only being referred to as a stranger. Dante refers to Dante’s Inferno,
a famous 14th century poem about the journey through hell, while his surname Bishop would refer
to the clergy member in the Christian church. So his name comes off as an oxymoron. Perhaps
he’s split somewhere between heaven and hell. He has good intentions and wants to help people,
but uses violent tactics to make his points. At the end he has to choose between sin and virtue.
Also of note, he has a right hand man whose name is Angel. Earlier on the streets,
a crazy purger on chants about the gates of hell.
“That’s right! The gates of hell will open and invite me in!”
The movie seems to be showing us the contrast between traditional
religious beliefs where behaviour would dictate going to heaven or hell and the
NFFA’s new distorted religious system where sin is glorified.
One name that we’ve seen come up in every Purge movie is Sabian. Arlo Sabian was the
NFFA Chief of Staff in The First Purge, Mr. Sabian was a neighbor in the Purge
and diner patron in The Purge: Anarchy and now Mrs. Sabian is a customer at Joe’s Deli.
“Mrs. Sabian, I wish I knew.”
The name Sabian is a staple in every movie made by director James Demonaco,
as is Staten Island -- you can spot some channel 11 Purge coverage of
Staten Island on the TV in the back of the Senator’s living room.
And speaking of stuff that appears in other Purge movies, were we not supposed to notice when the
sirens sound, they just ripped an unused shot from The Purge: Anarchy? This is clearly LA. My only
guess is maybe they were trying to encompass how far the Purge series has come with this sequence,
which starts in the Senator’s home, (the first movie takes place all inside one
home) then showing Los Angeles (where the second movie takes place) then showing Washington DC,
which is the capital, it’s representative of the entire country.
There’s also a connection to the original film in that the flashback
of Roan’s family being purged takes place on the same night as that movie.
Before the NFFA hired mercenaries invade her home, there are a few significant
items I noticed upstairs, like these two crane ornaments. In Japanese culture,
cranes are said to represent good fortune and longevity, two traits that seem appropriate
for Barnes and Roan who survive until the next morning against all odds.
There’s also a turtle on the Senator’s mantle,
a Chinese symbol for longevity. This is seen just before Leo bursts into the
room and has her put on a bulletproof vest, her metaphorical turtle shell, if you will.
Leo and Roan escape just before the bad guys break into the room,
and their leader unmasks himself, revealing his affiliation with many of the most evil
groups throughout history. We’ve gotta slow it down to understand all of them.
The more well known ones are the Nazi symbol, the party responsible for the Holocaust,
the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremecist group, and the confederate flag of
the breakaway state that fought for slavery in the American Civil War.
He also has a tattoo that says 88, which is supposedly a numerical code. H is the 8th letter
of the alphabet, so this translates to HH which stands for Heil Hitler. Another tattoo says AB,
an acronym for Aryan Brotherhood, a neo-Nazi prison gang and organized crime syndicate.
My Google Search history feels very dirty after looking this stuff up and that’s coming from me.
My favorite search result though, was when I looked up what a spider web
tattoo on one’s head signifies, and found the answer: a serious
lapse in judgement. Upon looking further I found out it meant they were in prison.
The assault rifle on his temple signifies that he’s a gun carrier,
and the words Free in America are written across his face. Which isn’t a bad message by itself,
but it takes a darker meaning in the world of The Purge.
On the back of his head he has the American Eagle. I’m guessing it’s not because he’s a
fan of the clothing brand… or the roller coaster, although he does seem to like
Spiderwebs. There’s also an American flag, almost as if the US has become the newest
evil group in this universe. We see that the country definitely attracts negative
attention when a story on the news tells about the latest travel trend called murder tourism.
“We’re here to experience the purge. To
k*ll. Release all the anger and h*te. Be like Americans.”
I think this is kind of a commentary on how other countries see America today,
where the rate of mass shootings is much higher than any other developed country.
Of course, I’m American, so I can only assume how other countries see us.
There are also several examples of medieval weapons like a guillotine,
a pendulum and a mace being used to purge,
which I see as a symbol for the primitive nature of weapon regulations in the US.
The murder tourists play an interesting role later in the story, as Barnes is trying to escort
Senator Roan to safety and they’re stalked by a drone, which we later find out to be a Russain
drone. In other words, this American politician is being followed around by Russian spies.
The Purge: Election Year was released in 2016, which was an election year in real life for the
United States. It is said that Russia tried to influence the results of that election by
creating bots on social media websites to spread propaganda. The drone is literally a Russian bot,
and when Leo shoots it down, the explosion lights up a mural that says Keep Washington Beautiful.
If it’s intentional, it’s an interesting metaphor.
I’ll just let you decide how intentional it really is though. The movie came out in July,
but the election didn’t begin until the end of the year. It’s hard to say when the Russain
initiative would have begun, seeing as how I’m not a member of the CIA or FBI. However,
paranoia of Russian plants has been a concept in American culture that goes back for decades.
That being said, the next scene does seem to predict a Russian collusion,
where bot accounts on social media pretending to be American citizens would spread information
that might influence the election. In The Purge, we have these Russian
tourists masquerading around in Washington DC in the costumes of typical American icons,
and they almost quite literally influence the election by purging one of the candidates.
So we’ve discussed how many characters and groups have historical or societal significance in this
story. What about Kimmy and her Purge gang? We first meet her trying to steal candy from Joe’s
Deli, then even when confronted about it, she’s resistant to give it up. Kimmy represents greed.
She comes back during The Purge with the intention of stealing back the candy bar.
“I want my candy bar. And I’m gonna take it.”
When she returns, we see that she’s already got it all: nice cars decorated with
bright lights, bejeweled guns made of solid gold and flashy costumes because…
“THE PURGE IS HALLOWEEN FOR ADULTS!”
No, Halloween as an adult is Halloween for adults. I appreciate the positive energy though dude.
Kimmy and her gang are basically the typical American millennial archetype. Of course,
this movie is set in 2040, so they aren’t actual millennials;
this is just another social commentary on our own time period. She isn’t willing to
buy the candy bar because she just feels she has the right to take it.
[clip]
Her greed isn’t limited to material things either, she’s also a massive attention freak.
Notice how their crew isn’t dressed for stealth combat like most purgers. They deck their cars
out with lights and blast loud music, they wear skimpy outfits and wear mascots costumes and anime masks.
For them, Purge is all about being the center of attention,
taking whatever they want and taking out anyone who tries to stop them. Her crew is
so self absorbed that they don’t even hear Laney’s van driving up to take them out.
This is actually one of many just… kind of dumb moments in this movie.
Like when Leo and the Senator encounter the swinging pendulum,
and they try to time it when there’s clearly just plenty of room for them to crawl underneath.
I feel like I’m willing to forgive some of the ridiculousness though,
because this entry does have probably my favorite line in the franchise:
“We are going to use this year’s Purge to do some Spring Cleaning gentlemen…”
The next Purge installment would be the poorly titled prequel, The First Purge,
which I’ve already covered here on Things You Missed when it came out in 2018, but
it really doesn’t hold up. Like I need to redo the video and make it good this time. I would always
try to do these episodes when the movie was in theaters to capitalize on the hype, but now that
movies aren’t in theaters, I realize I can make a much better episode if I take my time with it.
So join me in the next Things You Missed as we revisit The First Purge. Remember to subscribe
to CZsWorld for new horrors every week, RING the deathbell and select ALL notifications,
and I will see you in the next one. Assuming we both survive. If you don’t want to get purged,
stay home, wear a mask if you go out for essentials. You know the drill.