Death Wish: Encyclopedia II - Death Wish - Sequels

Death Wish - Sequels

The popularity of Death Wish spawned a number of sequels.

Death Wish - Death Wish II

The second movie Death Wish II (1982) is considered the weakest of the series by many as it disregards all the societal commentary and thematic elements the first movie featured in favour of exploitive and graphic violence, which garnered it an X-rating. Ironically, it had the highest box office draw of the five; accumulating $15 million, despite the fact critics panned it. Its plot is built around the reversion of Paul Kersey in Los Angeles (again played by Charles Bronson) to vigilantism as a response to the rape and murder of his maid and his daughter. Jill Ireland plays Kersey's fiancée, who leaves him when she discovers what he has done.

Laurence Fishburne also makes a notable appearance as one of the muggers, who is later shot in the head by Bronson's character.

Death Wish - Death Wish 3

Death Wish III (1985) is held by many to be the best entry of the series. In it, Paul Kersey (again played by Bronson) returns to New York City, where he finds a friend from the Korean War he was supposed to visit brutally murdered. Soon afterwards, the police coerce him into attacking a criminal riot in a dangerous neighborhood as a way of exploiting his freedom from legal restraints. In the end of the film, Kersey mows down much of the criminals with a Browning machine gun, then obliterates the oppressive criminal leader with a mail-ordered rocket launcher. Death Wish 3 has the largest body-count of all the Death Wish films. Because of its over-the-top action, quotable dialogue and complete embrace of the absurd, Death Wish 3 has developed a cult following. Amongst the many bad-guys is a young Alex Winter.

Death Wish - Death Wish 4: The Crackdown

Death Wish IV: The Crackdown (1987) is set in Los Angeles and follows the activities of Paul Kersey (again played by actor Charles Bronson, who was 66 years old at the time the movie was made) are financed by a wealthy individual bent upon avenging a drug-related death. In a single week, Kersey succeeds in destroying the entire drug trade of the city.

Death Wish - Death Wish V: The Face of Death

Charles Bronson vowed that Death Wish 4 would be the final film in this series, but he went on to make Death Wish V: The Face of Death (1994), in which Paul Kersey's new wife is killed. In response, he retaliates against the "fashion mafia," which also has a grip on his dead wife's daughter. Death Wish V also was Bronson's last theatrically released film.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Sequels", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki