Peppermint Dvd

Peppermint is a 2018 vigilante action thriller film directed by Pierre Morel and starring Jennifer Garner. Also featuring John Ortiz, John Gallagher Jr., Juan Pablo Raba, and Tyson Ritter, the plot follows a mother who sets out for revenge against the cartel that killed her husband and daughter. The film was released in the United States on September 7, 2018. It grossed over $53 million worldwide and received generally negative reviews from critics, although Garner’s performance was praised.

Plot

Riley North is a wife and mother working as a banker 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 Garcia has already discovered his involvement and orders his men to make an example of him. Riley and Chris take Carly out to a carnival for her birthday, since no one showed up to her party due to the intervention of a stuck-up suburban mom named Peg. As the family walks to the car, Diego’s men gun down Riley’s husband and daughter in a drive-by shooting. She is badly wounded but survives.

Despite her injuries, Riley is able to positively identify the shooters. A senior Detective named Beltran warns his younger partner Carmichael about a previous detective who was murdered after trying to make a case against Diego, and warns him to “let what’s going to happen happen.” Prior to the preliminary hearing, Riley is visited by the perpetrators’ lawyer. The lawyer unsuccessfully tries to bribe her with money, but uses her anti-psychotic medication to paint her as an unreliable witness. Judge Stevens, 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 subdued and ordered to be held at a psychiatric ward. En route, she escapes and vanishes.

Five years later, Beltran and Carmichael arrive at the carnival and find the three shooters hanging from a Ferris wheel, having been killed by Riley (in the opening scene, Riley repeatedly stabbed one of the shooters in a car before shooting him in the head). The killings attract the attention of FBI agent Lisa Inman. Inman explains to Beltran and Carmichael that before vanishing 5 years earlier, Riley robbed the bank where she used to work. She has recently returned, and robbed a gun store to obtain various assault rifles and ammunition. Riley subdues the now-retired Judge Stevens by tying him up, nailing his hands to a table, and wrapping him in explosive cord before obliterating him with a remote-control bomb, having already killed the defense and prosecution lawyers involved. Inman, Carmichael, and Beltran decide to tell the media about Riley, causing 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, killing most of his men. Diego realizes that Riley is responsible for his recent shipments going missing, and resolves to kill her. Inman discovers that 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 more of his men. When Diego’s young daughter interrupts her as she confronts Diego, Riley hesitates, which allows Diego to wound her and escape. Inman calls Carmichael to Skid Row to wait for Riley. Carmichael, secretly on Diego’s payroll, kills Inman and notifies Diego of Riley’s likely destination. Riley shows up to Peg’s house, punches her old non-friend unconscious, has a nasty conversation and leaves Peg tied up while she steals Peg’s SUV and drives away.

Riley returns to Skid Row, which is swarming with Diego’s men. She manages to kill several of them, and also finds Inman’s body. Using Inman’s phone, she contacts the media and reveals her location, inviting both the media and the LAPD. She confronts Diego, stalling him long enough for the police to arrive. Diego, thinking Carmichael betrayed him, shoots and kills him and runs, only to be beaten down by Riley. Beltran comes and asks Riley to stand down and assure her that Diego will surely be arrested and rot in prison with no hope of bribing his way out but Riley doesn’t trust him. Surrounded by police with no hope of escape and underestimating Riley’s resolve to end his life, Diego laughs maniacally at her, telling her that she will spend more time in prison than him, only for Riley to reply that he is “not going to prison” and shoot Diego, splattering most of his head on the wall behind him. She is shot by the police, but Beltran orders them to cease fire, and Riley once again manages to escape.

Beltran finds Riley critically wounded at her family’s gravestone. He brings her to the hospital, despite Riley’s expressed desire to die at the family grave-site. Beltran later visits her while she’s in police custody at a hospital, telling her that there are many who agree with what she did, and slips her the key to her handcuffs, allowing Riley to escape again.

Cast

Jennifer Garner as Riley North
John Ortiz as Detective Moises Beltran
John Gallagher Jr. as Detective Stan Carmichael
Juan Pablo Raba as Diego Garcia
Annie Ilonzeh as FBI Agent Lisa Inman
Jeff Hephner as Chris North
Pell James as Peg
Cliff “Method Man” Smith as Narcotics Detective Barker
Cailey Fleming as Carly North
Tyson Ritter as Homeless Sam
Richard Cabral as Salazar
Johnny Ortiz as Torres
Eddie Shin as FBI Agent Li
John Boyd as Marvin
Michael Mosley as Henderson
Ian Casselberry as Cortez
Kyla-Drew Simmons as Maria
Samantha Edelstein as Ice Cream Vendor
YaYa Gosselin as Ana (Garcia’s Daughter)
Emma Thoraval as Homeless Girl
Hunter Wright as Homeless Kid