The Equalizer
5 Movies Like John Wick
John Wick is a movie about a guy who goes on a killing spree because some jerk murdered his puppy. The Equalizer is a movie about a guy who goes on a killing spree because a pimp roughed up a teenage prostitute. Point is, don’t be a douche, and you might survive.
To extrapolate, The Equalizer tells the story of one man’s struggle against the injustices he sees in daily life. Denzel Washington stars as Robert McCall, a retired CIA black ops agent trying to eke out a modest existence working at a hardware store, who can’t sit idly by and allow the bullies of the world to go unchecked. It’s overtly violent, a tad bit silly, and uneven in parts, but it resonates in us for the same reason John Wick does: we all would love to be able to take a swipe back at those who would oppose us, but we just don’t have the means to do so.
Robert McCall is us. But better us. Tougher us. Meaner us. He’s simply a nice guy with strong moral values, who can do mean things in defense of those values. Don’t read too much between the lines here, as you’ll walk away underwhelmed by the lack of substance. Just turn it on and let the shenanigans ensue.