The First Purge (2018)

In 2014, rising unemployment, rising inflation, and a housing crisis led to the New Founding Fathers of America (NFFA) becoming the most powerful political party in the United States, with NFFA candidate Bracken being elected president in 2016. Later that year, NFFA chief of staff Arlo Sabian and sociologist Dr. May Updale announce an experiment to take place on Staten Island: for 12 hours, citizens will be allowed to release their inhibitions in any way they choose, including murder. Meanwhile, crazed drug addict Skeletor talks about his desires to "purge" and unleash his hatred of others with an NFFA employee. The NFFA offers residents $5,000 to stay on Staten Island during the experiment, with additional compensation if they join the Purge and survive. They also outfit the participants with contact lens cameras to monitor all activity and put tracking devices in them to know if they try to leave the island.

Low-lying gang boss and businessman Dmitri Cimber tells his associates that they will not be leaving the island, as moving his money and product will draw too much attention, and tells them to stay in a safe house and lay low. Drug dealer Capital A disobeys and joins the Purge, while a rookie named Isaiah is attacked and injured by Skeletor. Isaiah goes to his sister Nya, an anti-Purge activist and Dmitri's ex-girlfriend, for treatment. As people flee Staten Island, Nya joins her friends Dolores, Luisa, and Selina in a church to wait out the Purge. Dmitri has stayed behind; Anna and Elsa, two prostitutes, are sent by his dealers to his office to keep him company. Skeletor commits the first Purge murder, and the video recorded by the NFFA goes viral. The NFFA observes that all crimes taking place are minor, unlike the expected violent ones like murder.

Isaiah secretly joins the Purge to get his revenge on Skeletor. When Skeletor disrupts a party taking place and Isaiah is unable to muster the courage to kill him, he runs off into more Purgers before hiding and calling Nya for help. Anna and Elsa, who are actually Purgers, attempt to kill Dmitri, who fights them off and learns that Capital A sent them so he could take over Dmitri's business. Skeletor captures Nya in the streets, but Isaiah stabs him, and they escape. Capital A and his crew go to Dmitri's office to meet with Anna and Elsa. However, Dmitri and his gang ambush him and kill them all, except for Anna and Elsa, whom they tell to leave. Nya and Isaiah return to the church to see blood-soaked white supremacist bikers leaving while Nya's friend, Luisa, and her daughter, Selina, survive. They all return to Nya's apartment, where Dolores makes it safely.

At the NFFA headquarters, Updale becomes suspicious of an increase in murder and masked participants' presence. Reviewing the video footage of the Purge, she notices vans full of masked killers arriving and realizes that they are mercenary groups killing civilians. Sabian sent the mercenaries to make the experiment look successful and eventually to help balance the wealth disequilibrium between the rich and the poor. Updale protests this tampering, realizing that the NFFA only wants to eradicate the poor to save the expense of social programs. With his corruption exposed, Sabian has Updale taken to Staten Island where she is executed, and then orders to have all footage of this erased.

Dmitri and his gang escape through the streets until unknown assailants attack them. The gang disposes of them all and discovers they are mercenaries. Realizing they were sent by the NFFA, who had also planted weapons in the area to provoke participation, Dmitri and his crew decide to take a stand against them and protect the neighborhood. After saving local shop owner Freddy and his associates, they go to Nya's apartment building to try and save her and her friends, but NFFA drones shoot and kill most of Dmitri's gang. Dmitri calls Nya and warns her of the mercenaries' invasion. Dmitri later kills several mercenaries and helps Nya's group to hide in a safe space. More mercenaries are about to shoot a rocket-propelled grenade into the apartments when a deranged Skeletor arrives and eliminates some mercenaries before being killed. Dmitri grabs a piece of plastic explosive and gives it to Nya to throw it while he shoots it until it explodes, killing the remaining mercenaries. As sirens sound at the end of the Purge, a wounded Dmitri is hailed as a hero and states that the survivors must fight back.

Sabian later calls this experimental Purge a success and announces that a nationwide Purge may begin as soon as the following year.