Director Antoine Fuqua and Denzel Washington jumped on this year’s summer movie train and rode out on top of the Labor Day weekend with what might be his final “Equalizer” movie. Washington is no stranger to action movies, with leading roles in films such as “Mighty Quinn” and “2 Guns,” but his successful “Equalizer” film franchise is what many can’t stop talking about.
He plays Robert McCall in the trilogy movie franchise, a vigilante with a hidden past who does everything he can to protect the innocent, by any means necessary.
The first movie follows McCall’s introduction into the vigilante life when he attempts to save an exploited teen girl from the Russian mob. By the second, he was moonlighting as a hero for hire, where he had to save someone close to him while also fighting someone with whom he has a history.
For the third “Equalizer” film, Fuqua moves McCall out of his element and places him in Southern Italy. After he realizes that the friends he made in his new home are being harassed by the mafia, McCall goes on one last ride for justice.
Fuqua told People magazine that the third movie is meant to end the trilogy. “I’m going to miss Robert McCall. I think it was a great character, my hero, but it feels like it’s the last one,” Fuqua said about the final installment.
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This will be the fifth movie Fuqua and Washington have worked on together, with the others being “Training Day,” “The Magnificent 7,” and the “Equalizer” sequels. The film also reunites Washington with his costar in the 2004 action movie “Man on Fire,” Dakota Fanning.
Even the girl 68-year-old agreed that this was most likely the end of his tenure as McCall. In a separate interview with “Entertainment Tonight” earlier this year, Washington said, “This is the end for me. It may not be the end, they may do another one, but it’s the end for me.”
The “Equalizer” films have been moderate box-office hits, with the first movie making $192 million for a film that had a $55 million budget, and the second making $190 million from a budget of anywhere between $62 to $70 million.
The third movie has a chance to blow the others out of the water, with it already having $68 million out of the gate. This is the largest opening weekend of any “Equalizer” movie and the second largest Labor Day weekend ever.
Even though both Washington and Fuqua said adamantly in separate interviews that they were done, they left some hope for “Equalizer” fans. Both have said to, “Never say never.” Fuqua has even talked about how fun it would be for Washington to team up with Keanu Reeves from “John Wick.”
