Netflix has added Antoine Fuqua’s 2014 action thriller The Equalizer, starring Denzel Washington as a quiet Boston hardware store employee who returns to his past life of violence to protect someone in need. The film, based on the 1980s television series of the same name, is now available for streaming.
The action genre has long thrived on stories about ordinary people who become a nightmare for anyone foolish enough to cross them — from Liam Neeson’s revenge-fueled character in Pierre Morel’s Taken, to Keanu Reeves’ iconic hitman in the John Wick franchise, and Bob Odenkirk’s reluctant killer in Nobody. But few have captured the “dad-action” formula quite like Denzel Washington.
Washington previously earned acclaim as a tired ex-soldier pushed to his limits in Tony Scott’s 2004 film Man on Fire, and later found similar satisfaction as Robert McCall in The Equalizer. While that earlier role carried more of Scott’s signature flair, Washington’s kills in The Equalizer feel even more visceral at times.
Directed by Antoine Fuqua, who previously teamed up with Washington for Training Day, the film takes inspiration from the 1980s television series of the same name. Unlike the show’s private detective — who used his particular set of skills to help people who have nowhere else to turn — Washington steps into the role of Robert McCall, a quiet Boston hardware store employee who spends his nights reading books at a local diner.
When a teenage diner regular, played by Chloë Grace Moretz, runs into serious trouble with the Russian mob, McCall is forced to fold back into the person he long abandoned to protect her.
A significant portion of The Equalizer‘s appeal comes from watching Washington sit perfectly still while everyone around him has no idea they’re about to have the worst night of their lives. McCall is quiet, polite, and almost boring on the surface — right up until someone slights one of his acquaintances or pushes him too far.
Washington plays that reversal with an incredible combination of warmth, restraint, and menace, making even the most ridiculous action-movie violence feel completely convincing. When McCall finally decides to return to his old life, The Equalizer becomes exactly the sort of excessive action movie you hoped it would be.
McCall isn’t simply a guy who’s good at shooting people; he’s methodical, calculating every option while memorizing his surroundings and turning whatever happens to be nearby into a deadly weapon. Fuqua takes its time establishing just how capable McCall is while also highlighting how ruthless his opponents are until finally letting him loose — letting just enough of the runtime fly by before the bodies start falling, making those kills all the more satisfying.
The centerpiece arrives in the film’s final act, when McCall finds himself fighting a group of armed men inside the very hardware store he longed to make his forever home. Turning ordinary hardware tools — from a power drill to a nail gun — into a deadly arsenal with brutal ease, McCall delivers the exact brand of action-movie absurdity the genre excels at.
Even the film’s quietest scenes can feel heart-pounding, such as the now-infamous dinner table confrontation. After dispatching one of the mobster’s men off-screen in a nearby bathroom, McCall calmly sits down at the dinner table like he belongs there — but not before dropping a pair of blood-stained sunglasses in front of the Russian enforcer sitting across from him.
Mid-meal, picking at a plate of fish, Teddy (played by Marton Csokas) doesn’t flinch, appearing more intrigued than frightened by his newfound dinner guest. McCall remains almost unnervingly relaxed, delivering a methodical promise to dismantle Teddy’s entire operation “brick by brick, dollar by dollar, body by body.” Coupled with that unwavering gaze, it becomes an intimidating moment.
While the sequels aren’t currently available on Netflix, both The Equalizer 2 and The Equalizer 3 serve as heart-pounding follow-ups well worth tracking down elsewhere. Fuqua returned to direct the entire trilogy, keeping the tension tight and the action relentlessly satisfying as Robert McCall’s vigilante crusade expanded from a rideshare driver in Boston to the Southern Italian coast.
The Equalizer works so well because it was never trying to reinvent the action thriller. It took a very old formula and gave it one of the most charismatic movie stars alive — letting Washington be quietly intimidating, unexpectedly funny, brutally efficient, and just sentimental enough to make McCall feel like a person rather than an invincible killing machine.
The film is violent, occasionally absurd, and very much a product of its era. But for those looking for pure, unadulterated vigilante catharsis this weekend — especially if bringing dad along for the ride — it’s hard to ask for a better streaming pick.
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John Wick
Nobody
Training Day
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