Death Wish II


Death Wish II is a 1982 American vigilante action-thriller film directed and co-edited by Michael Winner. It is the sequel to the 1974 film Death Wish. It is the second installment in the Death Wish film series. In the story, architect Paul Kersey moves to Los Angeles with his daughter Carol Kersey Toby. After Carol is murdered at the hands of several gang members, Kersey once again chooses to become a vigilante. Unlike the original, in which he hunts down every criminal he encounters, Kersey only pursues his family's attackers. The sequel makes a complete breakaway from the Brian Garfield novels Death Wish and Death Sentence, redefining the Paul Kersey character. It was succeeded by Death Wish 3.
The sequel was produced by Cannon Films, which had purchased the rights to the Death Wish concept from Dino De Laurentiis. Cannon executive Menahem Golan planned to direct the film, but Winner returned on Bronson's insistence. The soundtrack was composed by guitarist Jimmy Page. Death Wish II was released in the United States in February 1982 by Filmways Pictures. Like the original, Columbia Pictures handled the international release. Paramount Pictures, via Trifecta Entertainment & Media, handles the television rights. It earned $29 million during its domestic theatrical run.

Plot

Roughly eight years since the events of the first film, Paul Kersey has managed to recover from his shattered life and moved on and is now living in Los Angeles and working as a freelance architect. One of his clients is close friend Elliot Cass who owns a radio station for whom he is designing a new building and he is dating one of its reporters, Geri Nichols. They go to pick up Paul's daughter, Carol Kersey Toby, from the mental hospital. They spend the afternoon at a fairground, where Paul's wallet is stolen by a gang, consisting of Charlie "Nirvana" Wilson, Punkcut, Stomper, Cutter, and Jiver.
The gang splits up when Paul chases them. He pursues Jiver, whom he corners in an alley. When Jiver says that he does not have the wallet, Paul lets him go. The gang find Paul's home address in his wallet and break into his house. They restrain Rosario, Paul's housekeeper, and begin taking turns assaulting her. When Paul arrives home with Carol, he is beaten unconscious. Rosario tries to call the police, but Nirvana kills her with his crowbar. They kidnap Carol and take her to their hideout, where Punkcut rapes her. Carol attempts to escape by running through a plate-glass window, falls onto an iron fence, and dies. Paul later refuses to help the police identify the muggers.
After Carol's funeral, Paul takes his handgun to a low-rent inner-city hotel as a base of operations. The next evening, he sees Stomper and follows him into an abandoned building as a drug deal is about to be made. Paul fatally shoots one dealer and orders the others out before killing Stomper. The following night, he hears screams from a couple being assaulted in a parking garage by four muggers, which includes Jiver. Paul kills two rapists and wounds Jiver. Paul then follows Jiver's blood trail into an abandoned warehouse and kills him.
After the victims of the parking garage assault refuse to identify Paul, the LAPD suspect that the murders are the work of a vigilante and ask the NYPD for guidance. NYPD Detective Frank Ochoa suspects it may be Paul again, and is sent to assist with the case. Ochoa understands that Paul, when caught, will reveal that he was released without being charged for killing the ten muggers in New York City. Ochoa enters Geri's apartment and tells her about Paul's previous vigilante killing spree in New York. After Paul returns to his house, Geri confronts him, but he denies everything.
Ochoa follows Paul, who is tailing the three remaining gang members. He follows them to an abandoned park, where an arms and drug deal is underway. A sniper scouts Paul and attempts to kill him. Ochoa warns Paul and fatally shoots the sniper. Ochoa is mortally wounded by Nirvana, and Paul wounds Punkcut and kills Cutter and another dealer. The arms dealer tries to get away, but Paul shoots and causes his car to drive off a cliff and explode. Nirvana escapes. Ochoa tells Paul to avenge him and dies. Paul escapes, and Punkcut dies from his injuries after giving information about Nirvana to the police.
Paul learns from one of Geri's colleagues Fred McKenzie that the police are preparing a tactical unit to capture Nirvana. He obtains a police scanner and, by monitoring police radio traffic, finds out when and where the arrest is going to take place. He drives to the location to kill Nirvana, who, under the influence of PCP, slashes his arm and stabs officers while trying to escape. Tried and found criminally insane, he is sent to a mental institution.
Geri is writing a story about the case and capital punishment and takes Paul to the hospital to meet Dr. Clark, who is treating Nirvana. While there, Paul steals another doctor's identification card and uses it to forge a fake ID to enter the asylum and confront Nirvana. After repeatedly stabbing Paul with a shiv, Nirvana ends up plunging his arm into a high-voltage panel. Paul turns it on, fatally electrocuting him.
Donald Kay, an orderly, recognizes Paul from the newspaper coverage of Carol's murder, and gives him three minutes to escape before he rings the alarm. Geri goes to Paul's house and finds out that he made a fake doctor's ID. Upon hearing a news report of Nirvana's death on the radio, she realizes that Paul really is the vigilante that Ochoa claimed him to be. She takes off her engagement ring and leaves Paul, who arrives home moments later.
Months later, Paul attends a presentation of his building design for the radio station. Cass invites him to a launch party, but questions why Paul always seems to be unavailable in the evenings and never takes any phone calls. When Paul accepts the invitation he answers, "What else would I be doing?" Paul returns to the streets at night and continues his killing spree.

Cast

Development

, author of the original Death Wish novel, was so unhappy with the film version that he wrote his own sequel, Death Sentence. "They'd made a hero out of him", said Garfield. "I thought I'd shown that he'd become a very sick man." The idea to produce a sequel to Death Wish originated with producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, owners of Cannon Films. They reportedly announced their plans to do so prior to actually securing the rights to the franchise. Dino De Laurentiis, co-producer of the original film, threatened them with a lawsuit unless they properly purchased the rights. He negotiated payments for himself, co-producers Hal Landers and Bobby Roberts, and original author Brian Garfield. The agreement included future payments for each prospective sequel.
In 1980, Cannon briefly hired Garfield to write an adaptation of his sequel to Death Wish, Death Sentence, in 1980. However, Golam and Globus did not want to use Garfield's book, preferring an original story by David Engelbach, Golan, and Hal Landers. After they purchased the rights to the first film from De Laurentiis, they purchased the rights to the characters of the novels from Garfield, meaning they could make a sequel without adapting the original novels. "We think our story is a better film story", said Golan. "You cannot call a film exploitative just because it touches on disturbing issues", said Globus. "Both Death Wish films are a valid comment on American society... the theme of street violence getting out of control is sadly more of a fact of life than it was seven years ago." Garfield later approved a separate adaptation without the character of Paul Kersey directed by James Wan in 2007.
David Engelbach was then asked to write the screenplay. After he saw the final product, he was "somewhat appalled" how the film differed from his original script. His script didn't include any rape scenes, but those were included by Michael Winner to "get his rocks off". Engelbach argued that "serious issues - namely, the deteriorating state of our criminal justice system. The actions of the Bronson character are dictated by the inability of the police to prevent crime, the preoccupation of the courts with technical rather than real justice, and the cancerous climate of fear in which we find ourselves today. Paul Kersey is no hero. In his pursuit of vengeance he loses the only emotional relationship of his life and by story's end has become as much a victim of crime as the thugs he leaves dead in his wake".