Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) has finally found peace in southern Italy, living quietly after dismantling the Camorra. But his quiet life shatters when his former protégé, Alina (Dakota Fanning), now a rising CIA analyst, seeks him out. She’s uncovered whispers of a shadow organization called The Consortium—a clandestine network that manipulates governments, arms cartels, and even law enforcement.
Reluctant at first, McCall is drawn back into action when the Consortium targets Alina for assassination. Protecting her means exposing himself, and soon the hunter becomes the hunted. Enter Elias Cross (Keanu Reeves), a legendary assassin employed by the Consortium, renowned for his surgical precision and unshakable code. Unlike McCall’s sense of justice, Cross operates with cold efficiency—two sides of the same coin.
As McCall and Alina uncover the Consortium’s plan to destabilize Europe through orchestrated terror attacks, Cross is dispatched to eliminate them. What begins as a deadly game of cat-and-mouse escalates into a war of ideals: McCall’s belief in justice for the powerless against Cross’s loyalty to order through control.
The film’s set pieces span Rome’s cobblestone alleys, Venetian canals, and an abandoned fortress in the Alps. Brutal encounters unfold—McCall dismantling a kill squad with household tools, Cross executing precision ambushes in crowded streets, and Alina racing to decrypt files that could expose the Consortium.
The climax comes in the fortress, where McCall and Cross face off in a relentless, close-quarters duel. Both men push each other to the edge, but McCall spares Cross after realizing he too is a prisoner of the Consortium. Together, they turn on their masters, dismantling the network at its core.
In the end, McCall fades into obscurity once more, leaving Alina and Cross to carry on his legacy of equalizing the scales.
