The Purge: Election Year ends on an ambiguous note, where Roan wins the elections, but political unrest and chaos dawn upon the United States. Serving as the third film in the Purge movie series (based on release date), The Purge: Election Year features a few familiar faces from The Purge: Anarchy, including Frank Grillo and Edwin Hodge. At the same time, it also introduces a new set of characters who find themselves facing the harrowing realities of the unjust Purge system.

As its тιтle suggests, The Purge: Election Year focuses on the battle between two presidential candidates, Roan and Owens. While Roan promises to stop the Purge nights, believing that they harm the poor and benefit the rich, Owens promotes them and hopes to continue their run in the future. Tensions run high as ᴀssᴀssination attempts are planned on both candidates, and many regular citizens find themselves amidst the action.

What Senator Roan’s Landslide Victory Means For The US In The Purge: Election Year’s Ending

She Will End The Purge Nights But The Violence Is Far From Over

Since Senator Charlie Roan was ᴅᴇᴀᴅset on abolishing the Purge nights, her win in The Purge: Election Year‘s ending suggests that the horrifying government-approved ideology will finally end. As long as she remains the leading force behind the fictional United States portrayed in the movie, she will ensure the Purge never happens again. However, as the movie’s closing scene highlights, her journey to end the system that drives the annual Purge is far from over.

Before The Purge: Election Year‘s credits start rolling, a news report reveals that the opposition’s supporters have started a violent uprising against Roan’s supporters after hearing about the election results. Since the Purge night has ended, Roan will be able to take legal action against the protests. However, since many individuals supported the NFFA (New Founding Fathers of America) and wanted Minister Owens to win, Roan will have to stay on her toes throughout her presidency and ensure her safety while implementing strict provisions to prevent further unrest among citizens.

Why Dante Bishop Agrees To Spare Minister Owens

He Realizes Killing Owens Will Change Nothing

After Laney Rucker takes Roan, Leo, Joe, and Marcos to Dante Bishop’s underground shelter, Leo and Roan learn that he is planning to ᴀssᴀssinate Minister Edwidge Owens, Roan’s NFFA compeтιтor in the elections. They fear that if Owens wins the elections, he will continue the Purge nights, which will further harm the marginalized. Therefore, Bishop and his team decide to take fate into their own hands instead of letting the elections decide whether the Purge nights will continue.

Roan tries to convince Bishop and his team to step back from their plan because she wants to have a fair win against Owens. She also realizes that Owens will be treated as a martyr among his followers if he gets ᴀssᴀssinated, which, in the long run, could cause more harm than good. However, Bishop refuses to listen to her and nearly kills Owens when he gets the opportunity. The anti-Purge resistance fighter only changes his mind when Bishop encourages him to kill him.

He backs off from the ᴀssᴀssination when he realizes Owens and the purgers would win if the anti-purgers, too, resorted to violence. Bishop understands that if he kills Owens, he will become a part of the corrupt system he is fighting against. This, in turn, would make him similar to all the other immoral purgers. Since the whole point of Bishop’s battle against the purgers is to break the cycle of violence and corruption, he puts his faith in Roan and hopes she will win the elections.

Why Roan Is Against The Purge Nights

She Lost Loved Ones During The Annual Purge

Like most anti-purgers, Roan refuses to promote the Purge because she lost her loved ones during the annual event when she was much younger. The Purge: Election Year‘s opening scene is set in 2022, in which a young Charlie Roan watches her family get brutally murdered during the Purge night by a mysterious killer. This event deeply scars her and prompts her to dedicate her life to fighting against the Purge system. When she finally gets the opportunity to run for President, she sees it as her chance to bring change and end the Purge for good.

Leo’s Backstory In The Purge Franchise Explained

Leo Has A Long History In The Franchise

The Purge: Election Year is the second Purge movie Frank Grillo’s character, Leo, appears in. In the movie’s opening arc, Leo opens up to Roan about why he is against the Purge and takes up the job of protecting her. He reveals that he lost his son, which almost made him do things during a Purge night that he would have regretted for the rest of his life. Realizing that the Purge brings out the worst in humanity, he decides to dedicate his life to fighting against it.

Leo’s backstory in The Purge: Election Year is a callback to his story from The Purge: Anarchy. In the movie, LAPD Sergeant Leo is portrayed as a grieving father. He sets out to kill Warren Grᴀss on a Purge night because, a day before the previous Purge, Grᴀss had accidentally killed his son during a drunk driving incident. Grᴀss avoided legal consequences because Leo’s son died on the Purge night. With revenge in his mind, Leo takes justice into his own hands.

However, towards the end of The Purge: Anarchy, the Frank Grillo character realizes that more than Warren, it is the system’s fault that his son’s killer was not punished. With this, instead of becoming another cog in the overarching wheel, he dedicates his time to protecting the ones affected by the Purge and becomes Roan’s head of security to ensure that she leads the nation to a peaceful future by ending the Purge.

Where The Purge: Election Year Lies In The Franchise’s Overarching Timeline

The Movie Unfolds In The Year 2040

The first Purge movie, starring Ethan Hawke, unfolds in 2022. Its тιтular event takes place on March 21, 2022. The First Purge, serving as a prequel to the first film, portrays the opening year of the central event. Its Purge unfolds on March 21, 2017. Frank Grillo’s first Purge movie, The Purge: Anarchy, takes place a year after The Purge, with its primary action happening on March 21, 2023.

When it comes to the Purge franchise’s overarching timeline, The Purge: Anarchy is followed by The Purge TV series, which takes place between 2027 and 2031. The Purge: Election Year is set over a decade after the series, with its тιтular event unfolding on March 21, 2040. Finally, the most recent installment of the franchise, The Forever Purge, is set in 2048. The Purge 6 is already in development. According to reports (via The Illuminerdi), the new movie will be set in 2058, ten years after The Forever Purge, and mark Frank Grillo’s return as Leo.