DeathWish II
The movie opens with Paul's girlfriend Geri, a radio reporter telling us
on the radio how ridiculous crime has gotten in L.A. The mayor called it
a war, and said positive policing is the answer. A Dr. Clark was heard
to believe that counseling was the answer. Geri comes to Bronson's house
and they go to visit his daughter Carol who became disturbed in DeathWish
I from Jeff Goldblum's actions and has been in the mental hospital for
two years since. Afterward Geri will visit a senator to get his opinion
on the topic of her research into crime prevention. They visit a fair and
when Bronson goes to buy ice cream for the women, 5 creaps steal his wallet.
They run away and Bronson shuffles off after one of them, and finally catches
him in an alley. He doesn't have the wallet, so Bronson ruffs him up overcoming
the fact the assailant had a knife and Bronson was unarmed. He gets back
and says very humorously, "Guess what, when I got up to the front of the
line I discovered I forgot my wallet." Geri doubts this as he never forgets
anything and he says he'll tell her about it later. Bronson and the girl
get aboard a ship, while the thugs who stole his wallet rape his housekeeper
and wait to beat up Bronson when he comes home. They do so when he comes
back and then kidnap his daughter. The girl is of course completely nieve
and when they take her back to their hideout (very similar to that at the
beginning of Batman I) she's still smiling from ear to ear. After they
all rape her, she seems a little less pleased and contemplates running
from them. This and the previous rape scene originally earned the film
an "X" rating, but were toned down significantly. Of course they're much
faster and will certainly catch her, but in her infinite wisdom (she's
got Bronson's genes) she runs and leaps head first out a window and is
impailed on an iron fence. Meanwhile at Bronson's house, he wakes up when
Geri rings the doorbell. She enters and sees Bronson beat up and then freaks
when she sees the dead naked maid, Rosaria. While the police are investigating,
Bronson asks if anything has come up about his daughter. They assure him
they'll tell him when something does, but the policeman asks for a more
detailed description than he gave earlier. Bronson is obviously holding
back information, but truly didn't get a good look, so he tells him that.
The policeman wants justice for him as he now knows about the New York
incident that haunts him. Bronson insists, he gave a very detailed description
to the NYPD,and nothing happened. Just then, word comes over that his daughter's
dead. Bronson identifies the body, and is clearly distraught. He has some
insomnia thinking about what's happened. Then he attends the funeral and
pays little attention just like in 10 to Midnight.
His boss from the architecture firm tells him the building he's working
on for the radio station at which Geri works can wait, but Bronson insists
he'll be back soon. The boss lets him use his isolated cabin to unwind.
Bronson is then seen taking his anger out by chopping wood. He seems obsessed.
The coworkers then show him what's gotten done while he was gone. He shows
the design to the big man at the radio station and explains the prices
to him. Geri sees him while he's there and wants to do something that night.
He doesn't feel fit to get back to socializing yet and denies her. The
policeman comes to the radio station and asks him to go to the station
and look at some mug shots, but Bronson's gotten more bitter and absolutely
refuses because of what happened in New York. It starts to become clear
that he's up to something now, and when that night he checks out bad neighborhoods,
it's certain. He sees thugs stealing a car stereo, and looks on in disgust.
Then he buys some cheap clothes as seen on the movie cover and rents a
cheap apartment. He goes by the name Kimble to get the apartment, and keeps
his guns and clothes there. He returns home and the next morning when Geri
comes into his bedroom before work, he is startled when she wakes him,
indicating that he's losing his old personality and starting to regress
back to his thug-killing days. After startling, he says, "Oh it's you!"
as though surprised that it's not a thug. He closes the bathroom door and
pretends to take a shower so she'll leave. He gets his locks changed once
she leaves and that night he goes to his vigilante apartment to get in
killing attire. Geri calls and gets no answer cause he's out killing. He
spots one of the five who stole from him and follows he and his buddies
to an abandoned hotel. As Bronson sneaks around to see what they're doing,
he steps on a soda can which causes gunfire and Bronson kills one of the
four. He dismisses the other two, but approaches the one he knows. He sees
a cross on his chain and asks, "Do you believe in Jesus?" "Yes I do" he
responds. "Well your going to meet him" Bronson says before shooting him.
He runs out to his apartment and changes, then goes back home. When Geri
calls, he answers as though annoyed. He says he hasn't been answering the
phone because of the newspaper bugging him. She wants to cook him dinner
the following night, but he responds that Friday would be better, so she
obliges. The following night he returns to his apartment and gets suited
up and looks around for more of the thugs. In his pursuit, he hears screams
coming from a parking garage in an alley and heroically saves the two people
from four thugs. Two go in the van with the women, so Bronson shoots the
other two holding the man. One from inside gets away and then the other
uses the woman as a cover when he tries to escape. When the thug drops
her, Bronson takes a long shot and hits him. The injured thug stumbles
across the street into a warehouse where Bronson shoots
him after almost being hit by a forklift. When investigating the parking
garage crime, the police are particularly pushy in demanding a description
on Bronson. The man is mad at the police wanting to find Bronson because,
"That
guy saved our lives dammit." Finally the man and woman give ridiculous
descriptions including that he
was a large black man with a red beard. The police are now realizing
that they've got a vigilante on their hands and the Leiutentant suggests
they consult New York about how they handled their vigilante two years
ago. When the big men in the New York Police Department hear about this,
they realize they've got a problem on their hands when one of the District
Attorney says he's kept up with Bronson's activities and he now lives in
LA. "You
suggesting that Kersey's out there killing again?" asks the police
commissioner. He realizes that the department knew Kersey was the vigilante
but let him go. If he gets caught in LA he'll tell the papers everything
and all of them will be fired for not bringing him to justice. The particularly
older Frank Ochoa who tracked Kersey closely in the New York vigilante
days contemplates life after his immediate retirement without his pension.
He agrees to go and kill Bronson so word of this won't get out. When Ochoa
gets to LA he finds out Kersey's situation. He becomes concerned that it
is definetely Kersey doing this. He is no help to the local police. When
they ask about the specifics of New York's problem, Ochoa is not cooperative.
When asked if he's lying to the LA cops, he says, that from one cop to
another, he wouldn't do that. Later he gets Bronson's address and breaks
into his house. When Geri comes home, Ochoa tells her mostly the truth
about what Bronson is doing. He doesn't tell of the coverup which has been
initiated to save their hides. Geri finds this hard to believe, but she's
not close-minded to the idea as Bronson has been acting strangely and Ochoa
is convincing. When Bronson sees Geri again, she confronts him about it.
Bronson uses his patented smooth talk to smooth things over. He tells her
that he's never done such a thing, but since he was victimized by murder
in New York, he was automatically suspected of possibly being the vigilante
killer. When he explains that Ochoa is a little crazy, Geri agrees, and
Bronson points out that the when he was in charge of the vigilante killings,
he was under heavy pressure to find a killer. Now he's in LA and there's
more reason to suspect he might be prone to vigilantism than most people.
Bronson explains that Ochoa was such a menace that it caused him to leave
New York, but
he'll be damned if he leaves Los Angeles. She spends the night and
everything seems better between them. When he offers to do something together
the next night, she has plans. He knows he's got one more night to kill,
and he'll take advantage of it. Ochoa starts monitoring Bronson's house,
but Bronson's too smart for that. When Ochoa gets an LA cop to park Ochoa's
car outside, Bronson's house, Bronson merely turns all the lights on and
then goes out the back door-escaping quietly to make it look like he's
inside the whole time. Bronson walks to his killing apartment, but Ochoa
planned it this way so he could follow Kersey unknowing of the surveilance.
So he sees him leave his house and is following. Bronson changes and gets
armed then wanders around till he sees the remaining three thugs dancing
strangely in a rather public place. He realizes he'll have to follow them
to get even. With Ochoa following Bronson in a cab and Bronson waiting
to kill the thugs, the thugs board a bus, so Bronson gets on too. When
the three thugs get off the bus, Bronson watches where they go then makes
the bus stop shortly after so he can follow them. Bronson follows the three
into the woods, and Ochoa makes the cab wait for him there. He demands,
"If you hear gunfire don't worry, it's just target practice." Bronson and
Ochoa witness a drugs for arms deal that goes on in the closed public park.
Bronson waits until he's got a good shot to start firing on the thugs.
Bronson is hidden in the dark, but has no physical defense whereas the
thugs have the arms dealer's Cadillac to hide behind. Somehow, Bronson
avoid being shot by both Ochoa, who sees where he is and the thugs who
have unlimited automatic weapons. After the two friends get shot, the dealer
drives off. Bronson shoots him through the window in the head causing the
car to go out of control over a ledge and explode. The remaining thug,
Charles Wilson, decides to run. Bronson shoots and misses, but doesn't
chase him. Ochoa was shot in the gunfight, and dies as the police show
up.
Bronson gets a scanner the next day when he's at the radio station and
learns from tipped off station personel that Wilson is being surrounded
later that day in his apartment. He gets ready listening to the scanner,
and decides to beat the police to their man. He enters through the back
of the adjacent building and jumps from the top to the building holding
Wilson. After missing a shot at him, Wilson flees the building and puts
some great football moves on three officers, flipping them all. Bronson
was wounded slightly in the affair but hides it from Geri. The sentence
for Wilson is psychiatric treatment at the Mclaren hospital where he'll
be rehabilitated. Bronson meets Doctor Clark when he goes with Geri to
her interview of him. Bronson has a plan though. He gets off by himself
and steals a security pass. Later he makes a template out of it and begins
trying to forge his own from it. Bronson is then at lunch with Geri when
she notices Don Perignon champagne served to them. He asks her to marry
him. He wanted to leave Wednesday and get married in Mexico. Once he makes
his pass, the plan is certain. He gets his things from his apartment and
carries a white lab coat with him into the hospital. He gets dressed up
inside and finds out where Wilson is housed. He gets past the security
and meets Wilson face to face in a rehabilitation room. Wilson having NFL
moves flips a table at Bronson before his gun can be put to use. After
a strugle with Wilson in which Bronson gets stabbed quite severely and
looses substantial amounts of blood, Bronson uses the seldom-used electro-shock
equipment in the back of the room to kill him. When Wilson pushes Bronson
into the equipment then punches past him through the equipment, Bronson
flips the electricity and fryes him. He goes back to the apartment and
cleans himself up. Geri goes to Bronson's place and turns on the radio.
As a music program ends and the news begins they lead off with a story
about the murder of Charles Wilson in McLaren hospital. This immediately
gets her attention, and as she notices crumpled up piece of paper on the
floor. She seems to not want to look but does and finds a practice forgery
of Bronson's. When the radio says, "It's not certain, but it seems Wilson
was seen by a man posing as a doctor." She can't take it and places her
ring on the paper, then leaves. Bronson is held up by traffic coming home
and is anxious to get there. Geri leaves seconds before Bronson arrives.
He's mad that she's gone, but returns fully to architectural work. A coworker
asks if he's alright having all this trauma at once, and never answering
the phone. Bronson assures him confidently that he's alright. Bronson's
invited to a building party and he accepts. When the co-worker asks leadingly,
"are you sure you won't be busy?" Bronson replies, "what else would I be
doing?" Bronson is then shown walking calmly down a street by himself at
night. Three gunshots are heard as he prepares to move to New York for
DeathWish III.
DeathWish I
DeathWish II
DeathWish
III
DeathWishIV
DeathWish
V
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