Peppermint(2018)

Plot Summary

• An unidentified woman is engaged in a brutal fight with a man in a car. She gets the upper hand, holds him at gunpoint and asks, "Do you remember me?". She finally dispatches him with a shot to the head. The woman returns to her van in Skid Row and administers first aid to herself as she was slashed with a knife in the thigh.Five years earlier, the same woman, Riley North (Jennifer Garner), is working as a banker in Los Angeles struggling to make ends meet. Her husband Chris (Jeff Hephner) owns a failing mechanic shop. They have a ten-year-old daughter, Carly (Cailey Fleming). Chris's friend tries to talk him into robbing Diego Garcia (Juan Pablo Raba), a powerful drug lord. Chris turns him down, but not before Garcia has already discovered his involvement and ordered his men to make an example of him.Peg (Pell James), an obnoxious rich woman with a bratty daughter Penelope who looks down on Riley, schedules a party on Carly's birthday to ruin her day. Peg was livid at Riley and Carly taking her spot at the supermarket parking lot sale area as both Carly and Penelope were in competition regarding who could sell the most cookies for Girl Scouts.Riley and Chris take Carly out for pizza and to a carnival for her birthday since no one showed up to her party. At the carnival, Carly orders peppermint ice cream. As the family walks to the car, Diego's men gun down her husband and daughter in a drive-by shooting. She is wounded but survives.Despite her injuries, Riley is able to positively identify the shooters. The detectives handling the case are hesitant to pursue charges against the three, as they are members of Garcia's drug cartel, who wields considerable influence. The detectives are also aware that Garcia has an unidentified informant inside the Department.Detective Beltran (John Ortiz) explains to his partner Carmichael (John Gallagher Jr.) that the last detective who tried to bring Garcia to justice was found murdered and his badge placed inside his own police station locker.Prior to the preliminary hearing, Riley is visited by the perpetrators' lawyer, who tries to bribe her. She refuses the bribe, but the lawyer notices she has anti-psychotic medication at home and uses this information to paint her as an unreliable witness. Judge Stevens (Jeff Harlan), who is secretly on the cartel's payroll, declares there is insufficient evidence to allow the perpetrators to stand trial and dismisses the case, while the prosecuting lawyers do nothing. Outraged, Riley tries to attack her family's killers but is tasered and placed on a psychiatric hold in a mental institution. En route, she escapes and vanishes.Five years later, Detectives Beltran and Carmichael arrive at the site of the carnival and find the three shooters hanging from a Ferris wheel, having been executed by Riley. The executions attract the attention of FBI agent Lisa Inman (Annie Ilonzeh), who meets with Beltran and Carmichael. Inman explains that before vanishing, Riley robbed the bank she used to work at, and that she has now returned, having robbed a gun store of various assault rifles and ammunition.Riley kills Judge Stevens by remote control-detonating a bomb that blows him to smithereens, having already killed the defense and prosecution lawyers involved. These are deaths which Inman, Carmichael and Beltran learn of after the explosion. They decide to tell the media about Riley, which causes a debate on social media between those who see her as a hero and those who see her as a criminal.Riley heads to a business that is a front for Diego's money laundering, where she kills most of his men, save for one she interrogates. Diego realizes Riley is responsible for his recent shipments going missing and resolves to kill her. Meanwhile, Inman discovers Riley has been living on Skid Row, owing to recent changes to crime patterns in the area. She finds Riley's van, which is filled with the stolen weapons, and learns that the people there see Riley as their guardian angel for keeping them safe.Riley survives a trap set by Diego, follows his henchmen to Diego's home, and kills many of his men. When Diego's young daughter-who evokes her own murdered child-interrupts her as she confronts Diego, she hesitates and Diego wounds her and escapes. Inman calls Carmichael to Skid Row to wait for Riley, but Carmichael, secretly on Diego's payroll, shoots Inman dead and notifies Diego of Riley's likely destination. Riley goes to Peg's house, punches her in the face hard enough to break her nose, and leaving her tied up, drives away in Peg's SUV.Riley returns to Skid Row, which is swarming with Diego's men. She manages to kill several of them before finding Inman's body. Using Inman's phone, Riley contacts the media to reveal her location, alerting both the media and the police to the scene, and confronts Diego, stalling him long enough for the police to arrive. Believing Carmichael betrayed him, Diego shoots him to death and flees, only to be beaten down by Riley. Beltran and the LAPD surround Riley and Diego; Beltran assures Riley that Diego will be brought to justice this time, but Riley remains unconvinced, as the justice system failed her previously. With no chance to escape and underestimating Riley's resolve, Diego mocks Riley, confident that she can't kill him now and that she will spend more time in prison than him. However, Riley states that they will not be going to prison and fires the gun, blowing Diego's head apart; the police fire at Riley, but she manages to escape.Beltran finds a wounded Riley at her family's gravestone. Despite Riley's expressed desire to die, Beltran has her taken to a hospital. Beltran later visits Riley, telling her that there are people who agree with what she did. He also agrees with what she did by helping him expose dirty cops in his department and slips her the key to her handcuffs, allowing Riley to escape again and go where she is needed.

Storyline

• An unidentified woman is engaged in a brutal fight with a man in a car and finally dispatches him with a shot to the head. Five years earlier, the same woman, Riley North, is working as a bank teller in Los Angeles struggling to make ends meet. Her husband Chris owns a failing mechanic shop. They have a ten-year-old daughter, Carly. Chris' friend tries to talk him into robbing Diego Garcia, a powerful drug lord. Chris turns him down, but not before Garcia has already discovered his involvement and ordered his men to make an example of him. Riley and Chris take Carly out for pizza and to a carnival for her birthday since no one showed up to her party. At the carnival, Carly orders peppermint ice cream. As the family walks to the car, Diego's men gun down her husband and daughter in a drive-by shooting. She is wounded, but survives. Five long years earlier, the former Los Angeles bank teller, Riley North, was a doting mother of one, living a hand-to-mouth existence with her husband, Chris, and their ten-year-old daughter, Carly. Then, Chris, after toying with the dangerous idea of upgrading their lives, caught the eye of the pitiless local drug lord, Diego Garcia, and his murderous henchmen, who decided to make an example of him. Half a decade later, with her family decimated and the remorseless perpetrators allowed to get off scot-free, a now-off-the-grid Riley has re-emerged as a perfectly honed one-woman killing machine, bent on revenge and murder. Now, they all have to pay, and as the dauntless female avenging angel spills the blood of the wicked, no one is safe; not even the corrupt puppets of the ineffective justice system. However, can violence ever be justified? — Nick Riganas Riley North awakens from a coma after surviving a brutal attack that killed her husband and daughter. When the system shields the murderers from justice, Riley sets out to transform herself from citizen to urban guerrilla. Channeling frustration into motivation, the young widow spends years in hiding - honing her mind, body and spirit to become an unstoppable force. Eluding the underworld, the police and the FBI, Riley embarks on a deadly quest to deliver her own personal brand of punishment. — FilmsNow