There is a heinous almost surrealistic break in and home invasion where Clyde Sheldon's wife is raped and she  and his child  murdered in front of Clyde ( Gerard Butler ) , he is stabbed and left for dead.  When the perpetrator's are brought to justice some key evidence is disallowed in court and there is some doubt that the prosecutor who has a 96% track record of convictions , can win the case.  So as to not lose he takes a plea bargain and one man pleads guilty to murder in the 3rd degree and will get out of prison in a few years, while the other will get the death penalty. 

Clyde is absolutely dismayed that the district attorney ( Jamie Foxx) will bargain with a murderer. 

Fast forward 10 years and and the movie drama really starts.  It is the execution of the one convicted murderer ( and he was the one that actually did the murders) and all goes terribly wrong, instead of a lethal injection going to sleep and dying, this man suffers what is obvious a horrible mix up and an agonizing death..  When the other man , who is now out of jail is kidnapped, tortured and dismembered by Clyde we know that this is just the beginning of what is going to be a a long string of revenge, vigilante action.  Clyde is especially angry at the judges, politicians, and all people involved that would bargain with and let a murderer go free. 

Although 99.999999% of the population would never take this upon themselves, there is little sympathy for either of the two murderers.  Still Clyde is not satisfied.  People who have had horrible crime perpetrated on them are going to, in many ways, secretly cheer Clyde's move against this murderer.  It was almost like acting out a fantasy.

The Movie explores this rage and what many people feel but at the same time are powerless to change.  Do we bargain with one criminal to get a conviction of another ? In today's society this is common.  Is justice served, some would argue not.  Just like the losing debate on drug dealers.  We lock them up instead of executing them as dealers of death.  There is some insane belief that we are going prevent them plying their trade on the citizenry and reform them.  Instead we just create a power vacuum that some other person wants to fill, when and if they are caught.  With a lenient system, crime pays. 

Clyde also , for this movie, has extraordinary skill sets in murder, engineering, planning, and the wealth to make it happen.  He has planned his actions for 10 years and now the city of Philadelphia feels like they are being held hostage.  After his arrest and incarceration in solitary confinement the revenge goes on unabated.   What is happening ?

Well all of this is almost to crazy to believe for one.  We aren't all that unsympathetic to Clyde either, but the role could have been played by anyone.  Jamie Fox was there for a paycheck, and the whole movie had a made for TV look about it.   

About the only people that will really like it are the law and order crowd that are clamoring for a better justice system. This movie I think had an appeal to me only to the extent that I have some sympathy for Clyde's plight. He is on a destruction path that is not going to yield any real satisfaction, and has crossed a bridge to the unreal.  He was that .0000001% that just flips out.  The more interesting thought is the fact that in today's communication and instant news we hear about that one crime in 350 million every day on the news.  Sensationalized to the point we're seeing every day why many people today live in a state of paranoia.  Afraid to let there kids walk to school, or venture out to play, they are afraid of everyone and everything.  Afraid to venture out to just go see a movie or just have a walk in neighborhood.  They think all America is just out to get them.  When the truth is so much simpler.  The news agency needs to help their sponsors sell something !  To do that they need your eyeballs glued to the screen.  The truth is America is really a lot safer than we think.  Yes there are problems in crime, none that can't be fixed with a better and more Draconian answer to crime. A no nonsense system that metes out justice instead of sending violent criminals to crime school via prison.

  In a free Society, where the laws of evidence prevail, criminals are going to go free on occasion.  However if justice was served and the vile filth that murder, rape, sell drugs or other violent crime were swiftly executed , then people might think twice about the risk and those that would or could be rehabilitated would just pass on the risk.  Yes it might be harder to convict, but there would be forgiveness in their death and there would never be a Clyde Sheldon.