The Polite Leader (portrayed by Rhys Wakefield) is the unnamed main antagonist of the 2013 thriller, The Purge. Not much is known about him, but his polite manner of speaking and his formal attire suggest that he is a man of wealth. He displays many characteristics of an elitist: he is narcissistic, entitled and looks down on those who live in poverty, believing that the poor and homeless are sub-humans whose only purpose is to die for the sake of the Purge, an annual sociological event in the United States where citizens are allowed to commit violent crimes one night a year without legal consequence.
On March 22nd 2022, the Polite Leader leads a group of masked individuals as they participate in the Purge, taking to the streets to hunt down and kill homeless people. They target one such man, Dante Bishop, pursuing him into a wealthy neighbourhood. One house in the area, that of the Sandin family, lowers its security system to allow Dante inside. Seeing their quarry take shelter, the Polite Leader's posse roll up to the Sandin house, inspecting the armoured shutters before knocking on the door. The Leader addresses James Sandin, the man of the house, speaking politely but in no uncertain terms that he expects James to open his front door and throw out the vagrant so that they can kill him. He warns James that he will be receiving reinforcements soon and that if the vagrant isn't surrendered before then, he and his friends will force their way inside and kill everyone in the house.
At first, James wants to find the vagrant hiding in his house and throw him out for the sake of protecting his family, but his wife and children are apalled by the actions he takes, causing him to question his own humanity and doubt the necessity of the Purge. He decides not to give up Dante and is willing to fight to defend his family and home. When the Polite Leader's group receive backup in the form of a truck, they attach chains to the armoured shutters on the door and windows and pull them off, allowing the group to break in.
When James is attacked by one of the Purgers, he manages to kill the invader with his self-defence pistol and then takes his shotgun and axe. He kills another two masked psychopaths in the games room before the Leader enters and shoots him, leaving him to bleed to death on the floor while he looks for the other occupants of the house. Minutes later, the Leader returns to the games room where he sees James' wife Mary and their son Charlie knelt over him. The Leader prepares to shoot them, but is then suddenly gunned down by the Sandins' teenage daughter Zoey.