Gerard Butler's Most Underrated Thriller Arrived 16 Years Ago Today, And I'm Still Waiting On The Sequel

Law Abiding Citizen is 16 years old, and marked the beginning of Gerard Butler’s reign of mid-budget, R-rated action thrillers. Gerard Butler’s action movie run of recent years has been quietly very impressive. In the last decade, he’s scored hits with the … Has Fallen series, Den of Thieves and Plane.

Butler seems happy to serve his fanbase, but following his breakthrough with 2007’s 300, he was being tipped for major things. Following a run of tepid rom-coms (The Ugly Truth, The Bounty Hunter) and failed blockbusters (Geostorm), Butler found his true niche fronting R-rated actioners and thrillers.

Law Abiding Citizen can be seen as a precursor to this. In this 2009 outing, Butler plays a man named Clyde, whose family is brutally murdered during a home invasion. When the prosecuting attorney Rice (Jamie Foxx) makes a deal with the killer for a reduced sentence, Clyde wages a brutal campaign of revenge against the entire justice system.

Gerard Butler’s Underrated Law Abiding Citizen Arrived On October 16, 2009

Two police officers arrest a shirtless Clyde (Gerard Butler).

Law Abiding Citizen features one of Butler’s most electric performances, as a man so energized by his own hatred he can no longer tell right from wrong. Intriguingly, Butler was originally cast as Rice while Foxx would have played Clyde, but the duo later swapped roles.

Frank Darabont was the original director of Law Abiding Citizen, but later left the production due to creative differences; F. Gary Gray (Straight Outta Compton) took over the film.

Law Abiding Citizen debuted to largely terrible reviews on October 16, 2009, with the film sporting only 26% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, word of mouth and the movie’s intense trailers led to audiences turning out for it, and it grossed over $127.9 million worldwide.

In the 16 years since, the movie’s reputation has only grown. Sure, Law Abiding Citizen’s script is littered with plotholes and inconsistencies (and the violence borders on being a slasher film) but it’s also a lot of fun and is never once boring.

Law Abiding Citizen Is More Thoughtful Than Critics Gave It Credit

Nick talking to Clyde in Law Abiding Citizen.

The film was penned by The Beekeeper’s Kurt Wimmer, a filmmaker who knows how to write a high-quality B-movie (sorry). On the surface, Law Abiding Citizen satisfies all the beats of a classic, Death Wish-style revenge story. It follows an innocent man who suffers an unimaginable tragedy, and takes his pain out on a corrupt system

Audiences watch as Clyde engineers the gruesome deaths of the men who invaded his home, and get a visceral thrill as he ramps up his revenge to almost cartoonish levels. However, it reaches a point where Clyde’s bloodlust extends to innocent people, and viewers begin to turn against him.

Instead, their sympathy shifts to Rice, despite his previous career advancing tactics. Again, it’s not like Law Abiding Citizen is a sophisticated text looking at the complexities of revenge, but it has more on its mind than critics gave it credit. That’s except for the late, great Roger Ebert, who awarded it a well-earned three stars.

This Butler action thriller invites audiences to wallow in Clyde’s moral crusade – until he takes it too far. The second half then makes viewers examine their own feelings about vengeance and how far they would be willing to go if they were in Clyde’s shoes.

I’m Still Waiting For Law Abiding Citizen 2

Nick and Det. Dunnigan looking for something in Law Abiding Citizen.

Given Law Abiding Citizen’s conclusive ending – where Clyde is blown up by his one of his own bombs – a sequel looked unlikely. Regardless, it was announced in 2022 that a follow-up was in development with Wimmer returning as screenwriter. Butler is set to produce the sequel, but there is no word on whether he will return as Clyde.

I really enjoyed Law Abiding Citizen’s blend of trashy B-movie thrills with its audience-needling probe into the nature of justice and revenge. That’s why I was excited about the sequel’s announcement, even though there is a Gerard Butler-shaped hole at the center of the project.

I want Butler back for Law Abiding Citizen 2, but at the same time, Clyde’s survival would make little sense. His death in the original’s finale is pretty irreversible, and it would feel like a cheat if the sequel revealed it was another of his tricks.

Why Law Abiding Citizen 2 Needs A Sequel

Gerard Butler with a bloody face in Law Abiding Citizen.

My reservations about a possible Butler return aside, there are plenty of directions Law Abiding Citizen 2 could take. The most obvious would involve Rice himself becoming a vigilante, where he loses faith in the justice system and becomes like Clyde to seek revenge for some loss.

Bringing back Foxx is such an obvious move, I’d be shocked if the sequel went another route. After all, it would be weird for a follow-up to ignore the original and tell a completely standalone story. Law Abiding Citizen 2 should build off the events of the 2009 film while updating it for a new audience.

The film’s themes have only become more relevant in the 16 years since, and there is always room for a bloody vigilante movie that also has things on its mind. As a baseline, all the Law Abiding Citizen sequel needs to be is fun, and it’s hard to picture them messing up that simple a requirement.

Source: Rotten Tomatoes, Box Office Mojo