Sadie is a woman who works for hire, bringing justice to men, women and children. She struggles with money, asking for whatever the people she helps can give. Sadie is invited to the home of Andrea and Michael Shaund under the pretense of working for medical insurance. Sadie instead beats up Michael and forces him to transfer his money to his wife and leave their home. Sadie tells Andrea to pass on her details to anyone she feels needs them. We see Sadie living very plainly in a motel room. She has a map in her room which she is using to mark off area she has covered for a yet undisclosed reason. The film periodically cuts to Sadie's past in group therapy for survivors of abuse. In group therapy, Sadie shares her "leaving story": her abusive husband wanted her and her young son to move out of their home and live off the grid. When she tried to escape with her son, he chased them both with a knife and killed their son. In a flashback, Sadie returns to her old home, finding some of her son's belongings there. She notices a poster that had been left behind, and decides to take it. She also takes her son's drawing which we see Sadie holding at the beginning of the film. Through these flashbacks we find out her husband went missing after murdering their son, and therefore she cannot receive the payout from his life insurance policy. It is then inferred she is using the map she keeps pinned to her wall to try to locate her missing husband. When she returns to her room one night after a drink, she notices a red spot on the map that was previously not there, and is then ambushed by her husband. Sadie wakes up bound, her husband taunting her and welcoming her back home. After a lengthy struggle and chase, she overpowers and kills her husband, dumping his body on the road for the police to find. The movie closes with her collecting the insurance money, and receiving another phone call of a person needing her help.
The film had its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 10, 2018. Shortly after, Saban Films had acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film. It was released on March 29, 2019.
Reception
A Vigilante received positive reviews from film critics. It holds a 92% approval rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 36 reviews, with a weighted average of 6.9/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Led by Olivia Wilde's fearless performance and elevated by timely themes, A Vigilante is an uncompromising thriller that hits as hard as its protagonist." On Metacritic, the film holds a rating of 69 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
