The Equalizer is a 2014 American vigilante action-thriller film directed by Antoine Fuqua and written by Richard Wenk. It is based on the 1980s TV series of the same title and the first of three films starring Denzel Washington. The cast includes Marton Csokas, Chloë Grace Moretz, David Harbour, Bill Pullman and Melissa Leo. Washington plays Robert McCall, a retired Marine and former DIA officer, who reluctantly returns to action to protect a teenage trafficking victim from members of the Russian mafia.