Most reboots are obviously a reboot. After all, the whole point of a reboot is usually to take a well-known intellectual property and squeeze some more cash out of it — a tried-and-true formula for Hollywood movies. But occasionally, a more obscure property gets reimagined that most people don’t even know is based on something that existed before, or the reboot is so good that it completely overshadows the original.
Denzel Washington’s action trilogy The Equalizer — which is now available to stream on HBO Max as of July 1 — is one such reboot.
The original CBS series The Equalizer debuted back in September 1985. It starred Edward Woodward as Robert McCall, a former covert-ops spy for the US government who became disillusioned with his work. Now, to make up for past misdeeds, he’s basically a vigilante-for-hire in New York City, helping ordinary people by beating up on rapists, murderers, dirty cops, and the like. He even places an ad for his services in his local newspaper reading: “GOT A PROBLEM? ODDS AGAINST YOU? CALL THE EQUALIZER: 212-555-4200.”
Created by Michael Sloan and Richard Lindheim, the show was a success in its day, but not a huge one. The height of its popularity came during season 2, when it, on average, reached 15 million people a week. The show was canceled after its fourth season because of a contract dispute CBS had with Universal over a different show called Murder, She Wrote. Eventually, The Equalizer did well in reruns and it was even released on DVD.
25 years after the show was canceled, Oscar-winner Denzel Washington took on the role of Robert McCall, who has a similar background as a former spy and assassin. But in the present, he’s just trying to lay low, working at a hardware store and helping out his co-workers with things like losing weight. Unlike the TV show, Robert isn’t a vigilante for hire, but he does occasionally right wrongs as he sees them, like forcing dirty cops into returning the protection money they get from shaking down local businesses.
One day, Robert decides to exact revenge upon the wrong person, opening up a can of worms that requires him to summon back all of his special training.
Robert is a regular at a small diner where he occasionally chats with a teenage girl there who happens to be a prostitute. After she gets beaten up badly by her pimp, Robert tracks him down and ends up killing the pimp and the men who work for him. However, it turns out that the pimp was part of the Russian mafia, and now the whole organization is out to kill Robert.
The movie also has two really solid sequels that are totally on-par with the first movie. 2018’s The Equalizer 2 delves more into Robert’s mysterious past and shows him more actively working as a vigilante-for-hire. And in The Equalizer 3, Robert is on a mission in Italy where he’s retrieving money stolen in a cyber-heist. After he shoots a man with deep mafia ties, he again takes on an entire crime organization.
Like John Wick and Nobody, The Equalizer is another one of those secret-agent-turned-ordinary-guy stories where their past suddenly comes back to haunt them. The biggest difference with The Equalizer is that it’s a reboot of a 1980s TV show, and it features one of the best working actors alive. As Robert McCall, Washington shines as a world-weary ex-killer trying to atone for his past by doing good for those around him. There’s a humanity and likability to him, even if he’s completely secretive about who he used to be. And when Robert suddenly needs to take on the whole mafia of a given country, Washington is completely convincing as a trained killer who can end a life with ease and without much empathy. All three films are also directed by the guy who got Washington his overdue Oscar back in 2001, Antoine Fuqua, who worked with Washington in Training Day.
While the movies are competently written by screenwriter Richard Wenk (The Mechanic, The Expendables 2), the movies might be forgettable in lesser hands than Washington and Fuqua. They’re all fun, popcorn entertainment, filled with exciting action sequences. The third one is a bit less suited for casual viewing because a lot of it is in Italian — maybe a third of the movie — but that’s also the one that was the most well-received by critics. You just have to be prepared to read more subtitles than you’d expect in this kind of action thriller.
All three movies have been financially successful too, so much so that a new TV series of The Equalizer launched in 2021 starring Queen Latifah as Robyn McCall, a female version of the character. The show lasted five seasons before it was canceled, giving it one more season than the original. But it only got 74 episodes versus the original’s 88.
Denzel Washington isn’t done either. He told Empire back in November 2024 that two more sequels are on the way. Since then, there has been no announcement from Sony about the movies — and there’s no guarantee that Fuqua and Wenk are involved either — but we all expect Washington to be as good as his word, just like Robert McCall.
Whether you’re revisiting Robert McCall or discovering him for the first time, it’s hard to beat three lean, satisfying action thrillers led by one of Hollywood’s most charismatic stars. Now that the entire trilogy is on HBO Max, there’s never been a better time to see why The Equalizer quietly became one of the best action franchises of the past decade.