Plot: Living a peaceful and happy life with his supportive wife and their grown-up daughter, Paul Kersey, a successful architect, and once, a conscientious objector, seems to have everything. Then, a brutal home invasion by a sadistic gang of street thugs in his Manhattan apartment robs pacifist Paul of everything he holds dear, leaving him a bitter taste in his mouth when he realises that the efforts of the local police department to find the culprits are fruitless. As a result, as the sense of injustice gives way to an irrepressible desire for retribution, the once-quiet family man summons up the courage to take the law into his own hands, and become an executioner bent on cleaning New York's mean streets with his deadly .32 calibre Colt Police Positive revolver. And, now that Kersey has tasted the forbidden fruit of vigilante justice, no mugger or killer can hide away from him. Will Paul Kersey, the man with the death wish, ever stop his bloody one-man crusade?
Alternative Plot: Once a mild-mannered liberal, New York City architect Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) snaps when intruders break into his home, murdering his wife (Hope Lange) and violently raping his daughter. A business trip to Tucson, Ariz., lands him a gift from a client, a revolver he uses to patrol the streets when he returns home. Frustrated that the police cannot find the intruders, he become a vigilante, gunning down any criminal that crosses his path. The public finds this vigilantism heroic.
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