FAQ

Having moved to Los Angeles from Chicago, architect Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) is forced back into the role of vigilante when his housekeeper Rosaria (Silvana Gallardo) is raped and murdered and his daughter Carol (Robin Sherwood) is kidnapped and raped, causing her to commit suicide. Kersey goes after the five thugs and, one by one, begins killing them. When the LAPD suspects that they have a vigilante on their hands, they contact NYPD detective Frank Ochoa (Vincent Gardenia) to see how they handled their vigilante several years ago. Knowing that Kersey is now living in L.A. and fearing that, if he is caught, he will reveal to the LAPD that NY let him go instead of prosecuting him, Ochoa comes to L.A., looking to see whether Kersey is up to his old tricks.

Death Wish 2 uses the characters created by Brian Garfield in his 1972 novel Death Wish and introduced in the first movie, Ein Mann sieht rot (1974) (1974), but the screenplay for Death Wish 2 was written by American screenwriter David Engelbach. It was followed by Death Wish 3 - Die Rächer von New York (1985) (1985), Death Wish 4 - Das Weiße im Auge (1987) (1987), and Death Wish V: Antlitz des Todes (1994) (1994).

Four years, evidenced when Ochoa tells KABC news reporter Geri Nichols (Jill Ireland) that Paul killed nine people four years ago in New York. He also explains to LAPD that, after leaving NY, Paul moved to Chicago (seen at the end of Death Wish) for a couple of years before moving his business to L.A.

Carol's husband Jack Toby (Steven Keats) is not mentioned in Death Wish 2. It's almost as if he never existed. Viewers mostly conclude that Jack probably divorced Carol when it appeared she would never come out of her catatonic state.

Basically there are three main versions of this movie. First of all there's the well-known R-rated version that was released in the States by MGM. Here several scenes had to be cut in order to obtain the Rating. This R-rated version was later released on DVD by MGM in several countries, including the States and Germany. But there's also an unrated version distributed by Columbia/Sony in several other parts of the world like Australia or France, that features a much more gruesome cut of the movie, with several prolonged rape scenes. In addition there's also an extended TV-version. This version contains some new scenes that are not included in any other version. These scenes were added in order to have more time for commercial breaks. In contrast to that, the more violent and sexual scenes were trimmed or replaced with tamer footage.

In Greece, a hybrid version was released on VHS that is based on the unrated version and features scenes of the TV version, as well. In the UK, the second part of the Deathwish pentalogy was released in three different versions. The UK theatrical version was based on the unrated version, but was cut by three minutes during the rape scene with the house keeper and Kersey's daughter. The MGM DVD of 2006 is based on the R-rated version and was additionally cut by 30 seconds. The longest available version in UK was released by Media Sales on DVD and is an exact copy of the R-rated.

The Dutch DVD by DFW is based on the unrated version, however, a little over two minutes had to be cut out during the rapes of Kersey's housekeeper and his daughter.