This week we're back with friend and Evil Genuis Paul Payne to talk about America's Most prolific serial killer: Paul Kersey.

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Death Wish 4: The Crackdown is a 1987 American vigilante action-thriller film, and the fourth installment in the Death Wish film series. The film was directed by J. Lee Thompson, and features Charles Bronson, who reprises his leading role as Paul Kersey. In the film, Kersey is once again forced to become a vigilante after his girlfriend's daughter dies of a drug overdose. He is recruited by a tabloid owner, Nathan White (John P. Ryan), to take down various crime figures of the Los Angeles drug trade.

Michael Winner, who directed the first three films in the series, was replaced by J. Lee Thompson. Death Wish 4: The Crackdown had a substantially lower budget and a more limited release than its predecessors. It was released in North America on November 6, 1987. The Bollywood film Mohra is an unofficial remake of the film. The film marks the seventh collaboration between Bronson and director J. Lee Thompson, following 1976's St. Ives, 1977's The White Buffalo, 1980's Caboblanco, 1983's 10 to Midnight, 1984's The Evil That Men Do, and 1986's Murphy's Law.

Plot

Roughly one year after the events of the previous film, Paul Kersey is back in Los Angeles and is living a quiet life as an architect at his own firm, haunted by nightmares of his past as a vigilante. Erica, the teenage daughter of Karen Sheldon, Paul's current girlfriend, goes with her boyfriend, Randy, to an arcade to meet up with a man named JoJo Ross. JoJo offers her crack cocaine, and Erica dies from an overdose.

Having seen Erica smoke a joint with Randy while in his car the previous night, Paul suspects Randy was involved with Erica's death, so he follows him to the arcade. Randy confronts JoJo, only to be killed by him before Paul shoots and kills JoJo. At home, Paul receives a package indicating the sender knows he's "the vigilante," and a phone call threatening to go to the police if Paul won't meet.

Paul is taken to the mansion of the secretive tabloid publisher Nathan White. White says that his daughter became addicted to drugs and eventually died of an overdose, so he wants to hire Paul to wipe out the drug trade in Los Angeles. There are two major gangs competing for the local drug supply: one led by Ed Zacharias, the other by brothers Jack and Tony Romero. Kersey accepts and White supplies him with weapons and information. Meanwhile, LA detectives Sid Reiner and Phil Nozaki investigate the arcade deaths.

Paul infiltrates Zacharias's manor as a party bartender. After bugging a phone, he witnesses Zacharias murder a colleague before being discovered by him. He orders Paul to help carry out the dead body while motioning to one of his henchmen to kill Paul when they're done, but Paul kills the henchman and escapes. Paul proceeds to kill three of Ed Zacharias's enforcers, Art Sanella, Danny Moreno and Jack Stein, at a restaurant with a bomb in a wine bottle; drug dealer Max Green at the backend of a video shop; and Romeros' top hitman Frank Bauggs at a high-rise condominium.

A few days later, White instructs Paul to go to San Pedro, where a local fisherman wharf acts as a front for Zacharias's drug operations. Breaking in, Paul kills the criminals and blows up the drug processing room with a time bomb. Nozaki reveals himself to be a corrupt cop working for Zacharias, and demands that Paul tell him who he works for, but Paul kills him. He lures Zacharias and the Romero brothers into a trap, leading to a shootout in which both cartels are completely destroyed and Zacharias is personally killed by Paul.

White congratulates him, but then sets him up with a car bomb, which Paul narrowly escapes. Enraged, Paul returns to the White Manor only to find a stranger who claims to be the real Nathan White. The impersonator who hired Paul was actually a third drug lord who used him to dispose of the rival cartels. Paul is approached by two cops, who arrest him, but he recognizes them as fakes, causes their car to flip over, and flees.

To get rid of Paul, the Nathan White impersonator kidnaps and uses Karen as bait. Reiner waits inside Paul's apartment to kill him out of vengeance for Nozaki's alleged murder, but Paul knocks him out. He arms himself with a rifle fitted with a grenade launcher and goes to the meeting place designated by the drug lord, the parking lot of White's commercial building. After killing many of his men, Paul follows White into a roller rink and kills the rest of his gang, before confronting him and Karen on the roof. Karen breaks free and attempts to escape, but White kills her, with Paul firing his last grenade at him in return. Reiner arrives and orders him to surrender, but Paul simply walks away, proclaiming: "Do whatever you have to". Reiner decides to let him go.

Cast

Charles Bronson as Paul Kersey / Mr. Vigilante

Kay Lenz as Karen Sheldon

John P. Ryan as Ferrari / Fake Nathan White

Perry Lopez as Ed Zacharias

Mike Moroff as Jack Romero

Dan Ferro as Tony Romero

George Dickerson as Detective Sid Reiner

Soon-Tek Oh as Detective Phil Nozaki

Gerald Castillo as Lieutenant Higuera

Dana Barron as Erica Sheldon

Jesse Dabson as Randy Viscovich

Danny Trejo as Art Sanella

Daniel Sabia as Al Arroyo

Michael Russo as Danny Moreno

James Purcell as Vincent Montono

Peter Sherayko as Nick Franco

David Fonteno as Frank Bauggs

Tom Everett as Max Green

Hector Mercado as Joe "Jo-Jo" Ross

Tim Russ as Jesse

Mark Pellegrino as Punk

Mitch Pileggi as Cannery Lab Foreman

Irwin Keyes as Joey, Bauggs' Chauffeur

Richard Aherne as Nathan White