Summary
- The Equalizer 3 takes place in Italy, where Robert McCall gets involved in the lives of the locals and takes down a mafia boss and his organization.
- Lorenzo Vitale plays a crucial role, leading McCall to Italy and becoming the main reason for his pursuit of justice.
- McCall kills many mafia henchmen, with over thirty deaths overall, while also protecting innocent lives and avenging the death of an old man.
Warning! This article contains major spoilers for The Equalizer 3In pursuit of vigilante justice, Robert McCall leaves America to pursue a criminal within Italy, but soon finds himself surrounded by death in The Equalizer 3. Based on the 1980 television show by the same name, the memorable Equalizer films follow the life of Robert McCall (played by Denzel Washington), a former U.S. Marine and DIA officer who often gets involved in the lives of those who end up in some kind of trouble, forcing his hand to step in. In this endeavor, McCall is wounded during his mission and ends up being saved by a local doctor.
While in recovery, he soon finds himself becoming close with the town, to the point that when trouble starts coming their way, he steps in. By switching up the locale to Italy, audiences are introduced to a whole new group of friends and foes. Like the predecessor movies, the new characters introduced were really engaging and made an impact on the story in their own way (especially the villains). Unfortunately, some characters didn’t get to stick around very long as they were either killed in a crossfire, by a villain, or by Robert McCall.
4 Lorenzo Vitale
Despite only having a little amount of screen time, Lorenzo Vitale is seen at the beginning plays an important role by being the main reason McCall comes down to Italy. The mafia boss runs a drug ring in the area, which ends up being a part of a much bigger plan that McCall later takes down. Therefore, when a member of his organization partook in a crime that involved him robbing a retired man, McCall decides to get involved. In an attempt to get his money back, he kills everyone at the Mafia boss’s stronghold and ends the slaughter by using a shotgun to fill the mobster with lead.
3 Marco Quaranta
Brother of Vincent Quaranta, the boss of their organization, Marco helps him in the taking of money from the town for their operations. However, when his brother orders him to amp up the amount of money being taken and to increase pressure on the town folk to sell their homes, his brutal actions against the people grabs McCall’s attention, who, by this point, has become a part of the community.
During one of their attacks, they threaten the police officer and his family causing McCall to act. While he allows them to walk away at first, once they are out of view of the citizens, he tears apart the enforcers and Marco, breaking his arm and then using his own knife against him. McCall leaves Marco to die from his wounds on the streets alone.
2 Vincent Quaranta
The boss of the organization and brother to Marco, Vincent has his sights set on taking over the Italian city, turning it into a resort with casinos. At the same time, Vincent and the mob boss from the beginning have been working together in buying and selling drugs, financing terrorism, and profiting off the sales in order to further Vincent’s goals (something that would ironically come back to bite him). Upon learning of the death of his brother, Vincent confronts the town demanding to know who killed his brother.
Threatening the people, McCall comes out of hiding and admits to doing it, but before Vincent can get revenge, the people stick up for him, scaring off Vincent and his henchmen. McCall, deciding to cut the head off the snake, strikes Vincent while he rests in the comfort of his own home. He goes throughout the villa slaughtering every goon until he makes his way to Vincent. Using his own drugs against him, McCall issues a lethal overdose and gives Vincent minutes to live. McCall then watches the life slowly drain from his eyes until he succumbs to the overdose.
1 How Many People Died Overall
Over the course of The Equalizer 3, many deaths occur. Luckily they mostly consist of Mafia henchmen rather than innocent lives with a few exceptions. More than thirty gangsters are killed by McCall during his time in Italy, each in a gruesome manner. Sadly, one innocent life is taken early on in the film. When extorting the people of the town, to make a point when rejected, one of Vincent’s men take an old man from his wheelchair and throw him from the third story, killing him.
Further into the film, there are two accounts of bombings. One is told to viewers via a news report, but doesn’t clarify how many died in the incident. In another scene, a car bomb is used to kill one of the main characters. While the plan fails to kill her, thanks to a call from McCall, it’s shown in the aftermath that the bomb left many wounded or possibly dead.
Compared to the previous Equalizer movie death counts, The Equalizer 3 holds a higher amount of kills, mostly coming from McCall’s slaughter of the Mafia’s pool of henchman. As for civilians, only one known life is confirmed to have been killed along with the unknown number caused by the two bombings. Overall, McCall found himself in a situation where once again, he was driven to protect the weak while giving in to his primal instincts to deal vengeance. Perhaps, in this finale, Robert McCall has finally found peace and a way to reconcile with his past life while enjoying becoming part of a beautiful community.