"The Purge: Election Year" will dive into the political conspiracy zone and will pit two influential politicians against each other. Elizabeth Mitchell and Kyle Secor will portray rival presidential candidates whose opposing political views will set the third installment's plot in motion.
Mitchell's character, Sen. Charlene "Charlie" Roan, vows to end the Purge, an annual slaughter event which killed her own family 15 years ago and makes criminal activities - including murder - legal for 12 hours. The event is a cruel means to control the population's poor and disenfranchised sector while the rich remain safe behind their steel walls. Secor's character, on the other hand, pushes to maintain the dystopian society's yearly tradition.
The senator's position on the issue met with severe repercussions when she was targeted on Purge Night. Protecting the politician is her head of security Leo Barnes, Frank Grillo's character from the second film, 2014's "The Purge: Anarchy."
Director James DeMonaco penned the script for the third installment back in 2014, a time when the United States still has no inkling about who will be the presidential frontrunners this election year. That will be the Democratic Party's Hillary Clinton and GOP nominee Donald Trump. DeMonaco said that it's highly likely that viewers will find similarities among the film's characters and Clinton and Trump.
"Maybe, subconsciously, I knew who was in the playing field," the filmmaker said, as quoted by Entertainment Weekly. "Little things drip into you when you're writing or you're on set - you're grabbing from the ether or what's out there in the press. I think there's a lot of representation of everyone who's in the game right now, from Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton to Bernie Sanders to John Kasich. I'd like to the audience to play with it and see who they feel is representative of the actual candidates in the real world, without me saying who's who. I think the audience will have a lot of fun saying, 'Oh, that reminds me of something Donald said!'"
In an interview with EW in February, Grillo described the third film as "very politically charged," adding that his character and Mitchell's will "go on this adventure together" as they attempt to evade her assailants. Grillo also said that his and Mitchell's character will uncover what the Purge truly is, and it's this knowledge that makes the senator a prime target.
Aside from Mitchell and Secor, "The Purge: Election Year" also stars Mykelti Williamson and Edwin Hodge, EW noted. The film bows into theaters on July 1, 2016.
Watch the trailer here.
