Summary Denzel Washington shines in The Equalizer franchise with both action-packed scenes and powerful dramatic moments.
Washington’s monologue about a troubled Russian orphan is a standout scene, showcasing his incredible performance skills.
McCall’s encounters with the Russian mafia are intense and show McCall’s ability to take down enemies with lethal precision.
Warning: Major spoilers for The Equalizer 3 below!Denzel Washington has had some great movies throughout The Equalizer movie franchise, and here are his best scenes ranked. When it comes to action movie stars, Washington is rarely – if ever – lumped in among that group. Of course, he’s best remembered for his dramatic work, but a quick scan of his CV reveals a lot of action roles, including Virtuosity, Safe House, The Book of Eli and many more. With The Equalizer movies, he finally found a franchise too, as Robert McCall is the only film character he’s ever played more than once.
While the films give Denzel plenty of action scenes and snappy one-liners, they also provide him with some nice dramatic material too. He gets to play alongside actors like Melissa Leo, Chloe Grace Moretz and Pedro Pascal, and just as much time is spent building up McCall as a character as there is on violent setpieces. Now he’s seemingly signed off as McCall following The Equalizer 3, it’s a good time to look back on some of Washington’s best moments from the franchise.
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10 “What Do You See When You Look At Me?” – The Equalizer
The Equalizer’s McCall is nothing if not a patient man, tending to give his enemies a chance to do the right thing before he starts equalizing. One of the best scenes from the series happens in the original and sees McCall head to a restaurant where a Russian mafia enforcer is having a nice dinner. McCall warns the vicious Teddy (Marton Csokas) to stop pursuing him, before launching into a monologue about a story he’d heard about a troubled Russian orphan.
This boy was adopted by a famous scholar, and despite being considered a lost cause, this man did his best to make the boy feel wanted and loved. This man and his wife were later killed under mysterious circumstances, with McCall believing the boy was responsible because he feared being loved. While the subtext of McCall’s story isn’t subtle, Washington does an incredible job with this monologue and underlines that however bad Teddy believes himself to be, McCall is capable of much worse.
9 McCall Nails ‘Em – The Equalizer
The Equalizer opens with a retired McCall working in the fictional hardware store Home Mart, so when he needs a place to ambush Teddy and his goons, that’s the battleground he selects. What follows is a stylish and inventive Home Alone-esque sequence, where McCall takes the henchmen down one by one, before using a nail gun to dispatch Teddy. Washington has little in the way of dialogue during this finale, and he transforms the normally affable McCall into the walking personification of death.
8 “100 Books” – The Equalizer
A subplot from the first film has McCall reading a list of 100 books, which his wife was working through before she died. When he’s unable to sleep he goes to an all-night diner to read, and this is where he befriends Moretz’s Teri/Alina, a teenage prostitute for the Russian mafia.
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This scene sees the two bonding as he explains about his book plan and she talks about wanting to become a singer. It’s a sweet scene and one that explains why McCall was willing to go to war with the mafia when Alina is later beaten up and hospitalized.
7 Time Out – The Equalizer
The first major action sequence of The Equalizer involves McCall approaching the Russian mafia and offering to buy Alina’s freedom, following her beating. Naturally, they insult him and reject the offer, so McCall goes to Plan B. Having mentally mapped out the various improvised weapons he could use (a corkscrew, a glass, etc) he times himself as he casually kills everyone in the room with lethal precision. While it took about 12 seconds longer than he expected, the results speak for themselves.
6 Spilling The Tea – The Equalizer 2
“There are two kinds of pain in the world, the pain that hurts… and the pain that alters.” That’s the message McCall gives to the abusive father of a young girl when he travels to Istanbul to take the child back. The Equalizer 2 opens with this scene, where McCall confronts the man about taking the girl from her mother as a punishment. He then kills the father’s henchmen when they attack, but he still gives the man the chance to live if he does the right thing; in a very sensible move, he gives the child back to her mother.
5 The Hurricane – The Equalizer 2
Arguably the best setpiece of the series takes place during The Equalizer 2’s ending, where McCall leads his traitorous former partner and friend York (Pedro Pascal) to his former hometown to perform some more equalizing. The twist there is that a full-blown hurricane is happening around them, making for a particular dynamic finale where McCall once again makes use of his surroundings.
4 “Why Not You?” – The Equalizer 2
A subplot in the second Equalizer involves McCall befriending a teenager named Miles (Ashton Sanders), who is an aspiring artist. McCall becomes something of a mentor to the boy, so when he realizes a local gang has taken Miles and wants him to commit an initiation killing, he intervenes.
Related: Where To Watch The Equalizer 1 & 2
He storms the apartment building, pulls Miles out at gunpoint and angrily confronts him about wanting to be a killer. McCall also berates Miles for his naivety, yelling he’s too young to know what death even is. Naturally, he wins Miles over, who is nonetheless confused as to why McCall would even go to such lengths for him. “Why not you?” is McCall’s response.
3 “9 Seconds” – The Equalizer 3
The Equalizer 3 opens with the franchise’s trademark of McCall being quietly threatening before timing himself killing everybody. The third film begins with McCall having already committed a massacre offscreen in an Italian mafia stronghold before the boss and his men confront him. Even by the standards of past movies, McCall is particularly brutal here and tortures his target somewhat with non-fatal gunshot wounds before delivering the killing blow. Denzel is at his menacing best in this sequence, which signals that McCall is in a much darker headspace in part three.
2 The Median Nerve – The Equalizer 3
Being quietly threatening in a restaurant is another curious franchise staple, and one the third entry revisits. When mafia thug Marco (Andrea Dodero) is intimidating locals, he looks over to see McCall staring him down. Marco sits at his and starts to threaten him when McCall grabs his hand and presses down on the “median nerve,” which causes Marco intense agony. McCall also claims that if he presses the nerve hard enough Marco could foul himself, and politely asks Marco and his men to move to another town to do their business. They don’t, and bloodshed ensues.
1 “Take Me” – The Equalizer 3
After killing Marco, his considerably more aggressive brother Vincent (Andrea Scarduzio) comes to town and threatens the locals to give up the man responsible. Given little choice, McCall hands himself over, with his only request being that they kill him elsewhere. Vincent won’t even honor that and plans to shoot McCall in front of everyone as a warning against future defiance. McCall manages to get out of this pickle, but it is one of McCall’s most emotional scenes in The Equalizer series, as he bares his soul and is willing to die to save his new friends.