Genre: Action/Superhero
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Writer: D.R. Cobb
Based on DC Comics characters
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Christina Hendricks, Kyle Chandler, Mads Mikkelsen, Hong Chau, Kevin Gage, Anthony Lapaglia, Tinsley Price, Shad Gaspard
Plot: Lady Shiva (Lucy Liu), attracted by the turmoil of Hub City, comes looking for an opportunity to practice her trade. She gives a local gang leader, Loosh O'Fry (Shad Gaspard), a chance to hire her. He responds by sending four of his men to kill her.
Vic Sage (Ryan Gosling) stops by the hospital to visit Mayor Myra Connelly-Fermin (Christina Hendricks). Feeling better, she decides to check herself out of the hospital. Sage gives her a ride as he apprises her of the state of the city. Hub City is in shambles, many areas remain unrepaired from the tornado, crime is through the roof, drugs and homelessness are on the rise, two gangs have taken over much of the city, the Grinning Ghosts and the Savage Huns, and the police are seemingly powerless to do anything about it. Sage's car is stopped by angry citizens looking for food. Myra talks them into calming down. She asks Sage to bring her the leaders of Hub City’s two most powerful gangs for a meeting.
Sage starts with Loosh, leader of the Savage Huns. A combination of bluffing and fighting gets him access to Loosh, who he then knocks out. He then sneaks the unconscious thug out. Along the way, Loosh wakes up. As they make their way to Myra, they encounter Lady Shiva. Loosh hires her on the spot to kill Sage. Meanwhile, Benjy Floper (Kevin Gage), leader of the rival Grinning Ghosts, commandeers the KBEL station and announces that his gang will offer the city protection for a very high price.
Lady Shiva welcomes the chance to match skills with the Question, but she is disappointed. She tells him that he has forgotten all that Richard Dragon taught him. Their fight gets delayed when Loosh's gang catches up with them. Shiva and the Question fight side by side against the gang.
Sage delays the culmination of his fight with Shiva to keep his promise to Myra. Shiva tags along as Sage delivers Loosh to Myra and heads out to get Benjy Floper. Meeting in the back room of Harry's Pizza while Harry (Anthony LaPaglia) keeps order, Myra offers to deputize the rival gangs, and she and Sage leave the leaders alone to discuss their options.
When they return, however, they find that Floper has fled and Loosh has been stabbed in the chest. As they rush him to the hospital they are surrounded by his gang. Vic, Myra and Harry take to the sewers when the gang discovers that their leader has been stabbed in the chest. They convince the gang that if they help there is a chance he might survive. Harry blames it on Benjy Floper. The gang takes Myra hostage at the hospital. Loosh dies on the way, but Sage and Harry keep the fact a secret from the gang. The gang demands that Sage bring them Floper within three hours or they will kill the Mayor.
The Question asks Lady Shiva for help. She decides to lend a hand. Sage finds himself caught in a dilemma: He doesn't believe that Floper killed Loosh. If he turns Floper over, he will be responsible for murder. If he doesn't, Myra will be killed.
Myra tricks her captures into inhaling ether, and escapes the hospital. While they are knocked out, she has the body of Loosh buried as a John Doe. Sage takes Harry to the grave to confront him with his murder, having deduced that it was Harry who killed Loosh in revenge for raping his sister. Sage then knocks him out, ties him to a tree, and calls the new police chief Izzy O’Toole (Kyle Chandler) from a payphone telling him that a murderer is tied up in the cemetery.
Myra makes a decision to demolish Hell's Acres, a housing project that she feels epitomizes all that is wrong with Hub City. Sage, on the other hand, still has memories of Hell's Acres as the place where he spent his childhood. A handful of drug dealers take exception to their home and place of business being destroyed, so they kidnap the mayor and shoot her full of drugs. They hold her hostage in the condemned building, but their plan backfires when their ransom note messenger is killed by the National Guard that Myra recently called in to help in the city.
Izzy O'Toole calls Sage asking him if he's seen the mayor. Sage goes into the condemned building looking for her and runs into her captures. He loses consciousness in the struggle with them before they tell him where they are keeping Myra. He comes to just minutes before the building is scheduled to blow. Sage finds Myra and carries her out through a tunnel mere moments before the building blows up. Myra and Sage make love by the river as Lady Shiva watches from a distance.
A week later, tormented by nightmares, Myra calls Sage. He's not home and she assumes he's out with another woman. In the meantime, the Question rams his car into a pole while trying to avoid a homeless person who ran out into the street. As he lays unconscious, a group of degenerates strip his body and kick him furiously, and leave him to die. When he comes to, he staggers through the streets naked.
Myra makes a late night appointment with a psychiatrist she met at a party. But the psychiatrist is not interested in healing her mind. He tries to get her stoned and take advantage of her, but she smashes a lamp over his head. She then returns home to find Richard Dragon (Mads Mikkelsen) waiting for her. He has recently flown into Hub City, and is looking for his former pupil, Vic Sage. He tells her that he wants to help Sage past a crossroads in his life.
While Myra and Richard Dragon search for Sage, Izzy O'Toole pursues an armed robber who fits the Question's description. He catches up to the perp and shoots the masked killer in the chest and takes a bullet in the arm himself. Izzy pursues the wounded man until the perp drops. O'Toole loses faith in being an honest cop when he believes that the vigilante has crossed the line. He is even more disappointed when he unmasks the dead killer and recognizes him as a repeat offender.
Meanwhile, Sage stumbles to the church where he was abandoned as a child. He passes out and has a dream where his faceless mother tells him to leave Hub City, that it rests on poisoned ground, and is beyond saving.
Myra and Richard find Sage's wrecked car and blood on the seat. They follow Richard's instincts to the church where they find their naked and battered friend. Sage tells Myra that his mother told them to leave Hub City. Myra helps the wounded Sage out of the church only to find street thugs are in the process of dismantling Myra's car. When Sage makes a motion to stop them he passes out again. Richard surprises Myra when he gets out of his wheel chair to put Sage in.
They meet O'Toole and the dead false Question. O'Toole explains what happened, and Richard cryptically tells O’Toole that he doesn’t believe the man he killed is the real Question. Richard and Myra begin to head toward Sage’s apartment, pushing the unconscious Sage along in the wheelchair. Along the way, they encounter a man with a baby begging for money. When they point out that the infant is dead the man callously discards it in the street, much to the shock of Myra.
That night at Sage's apartment, Myra joins the resting Sage in bed. Believing him to be asleep, she finally tells him that she loves him. The next day, Sage convinces Myra to leave Hub City. She arranges for a helicopter to pick up her, her daughter Jackie (Tinsey Price), Sage, and Richard.
When Myra goes by the special school where Jackie is enrolled, the nun asks her to take the other children with her because the school is out of money. Myra regretfully refuses.
At the helicopter landing site, they are all surprised when Lady Shiva throws the pilot out. It seems the pilot had decided to renege on his agreement to pick up his passengers until Shiva painfully reminded him of his promise. At the last moment, Myra changes her mind about leaving. She remembers the plaintive looks on the faces of the other children at the school and the dead baby. She remembers that she took a vow to serve the city. Sage is now left with a decision to make. He can leave Hub City, or he can stay and be near the woman he loves. Myra and Jackie watch as the helicopter takes off. Myra goes back to City Hall, where she finds the Question waiting for her. He then pulls off his featureless mask and reveals himself as Sage. He tells her that there are still people in Hub City worth saving. She says that she secretly always wished it was him, and they embrace.
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