Daredevil is a 2003 American superhero film written and directed by Mark Steven Johnson, based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name created by Stan Lee and Bill Everett. The film stars Ben Affleck as Matt Murdock, a blind lawyer who fights for justice in the courtroom and on the streets of New York as the masked vigilante Daredevil. Jennifer Garner, Michael Clarke Duncan, Colin Farrell, Joe Pantoliano, Jon Favreau, and David Keith also star in supporting roles.
Plot[]
As a child, young Matt Murdock is accidentally blinded by radioactive waste shortly after witnessing his father, washed-up boxer Jack "The Devil" Murdock, extorting money for local mob boss Eddie Fallon. Despite this, Matt's remaining senses are dramatically enhanced, giving him superhuman agility and sonar-like hearing. Feeling responsible for his son's accident, Jack is inspired to abandon his life of crime and recommit to his boxing career, leading to a dramatic comeback. Later, after Fallon reveals that he enabled Jack's comeback by bribing his previous opponents to let him win, he attempts to bribe Jack to throw his next match and has him murdered once he refuses.
Years later, an adult Matt works as an attorney in Hell's Kitchen with his friend Franklin "Foggy" Nelson, providing legal representation pro bono to clients whom he believes are actually innocent. By night, he fights crime as the costumed vigilante "Daredevil". Ben Urich, a New York Post reporter who chronicles Daredevil's exploits, attracts attention for a series of articles on "The Kingpin", a shadowy underworld figure who allegedly controls all of the city’s organized crime. Unbeknownst to Urich, the Kingpin is actually Wilson Fisk, a brutal mobster who poses as a legitimate businessman.
Matt falls in love with Elektra Natchios, a Greek-American woman skilled in martial arts, unaware that she is the daughter of Fisk's lieutenant Nikolas Natchios. Later, when Natchios attempts to end his relationship with Fisk, Fisk hires Bullseye, a hitman with preternatural aim, to kill him. Bullseye steals Daredevil’s weaponized baton and impales Natchios with it, killing him and framing Daredevil. Afterward, Urich deduces that Matt is Daredevil after realizing that he disguises his baton as a white cane.
Believing Daredevil to be responsible for her father's murder, Elektra attempts to take revenge by killing him. Meanwhile, Bullseye is assigned by Fisk to kill Elektra, who tracks Daredevil down and challenges him to a fight before incapacitating him by stabbing him through the shoulder. Daredevil protests that he did not kill her father, but Elektra doesn’t listen until she forcibly unmasks him and realizes that he is Matt. Moments later, when Bullseye tracks Elektra down, Matt is forced to watch helplessly as Bullseye kills her.
Wounded, Matt takes refuge in a church, but Bullseye ambushes him by exploiting his weakness to loud sound. When the police swarm the church, Bullseye reveals that Kingpin killed Matt's father, leaving behind a rose on his body as a calling card. Soon, Matt gains the upper hand and throws Bullseye from the bell tower after an NYPD ESU sniper shoots him through both hands, depriving him of his powerful aim.
Determined to avenge Elektra and his father, Matt ambushes Fisk in his office. In the ensuing fight, he ultimately triumphs against Fisk's brute strength by using his sonar hearing to see Fisk after he is drenched in rain from a broken window. During their confrontation, Fisk admits that he killed Jack on Fallon's orders and that Elektra's death was nothing but a casualty. As the police arrive to arrest Fisk, he threatens to reveal Daredevil's identity to the world, but Matt points out that no one will ever believe that Daredevil is a blind man.
Some time after Elektra's death, Matt visits the roof of his apartment, where the two of them first kissed, and unexpectedly finds Elektra's necklace with her name engraved upon it in braille, hinting that she might still be alive. Urich prepares to publish an article revealing Daredevil's identity, but decides against it at the last minute, finally accepting that Daredevil's efforts have improved the city. He exits the New York Post office into the night outside and sees Matt atop a roof, saying "Go get 'em, Matt", to which Daredevil nods his head and takes off, leaping off the building to pursue his nightly crimefighting routine. Elsewhere, a heavily-bandaged Bullseye awakens in a heavily-guarded hospital room and kills a fly with a syringe needle.
Chapters[]
- Main Titles
- Fallen Devil
- Jack's Son
- The Accident
- To Be Fearless
- Death of a Fighter
- A Promise Kept
- Blind Justice
- Urich's Daredevil
- A Man Alone
- Vengeance is a Sin
- Nelson & Murdock
- The Scent of a Woman
- Pas de Duel
- The Kingpin of Crime
- Bullseye
- I'm Not the Bad Guy
- Up on the Roof
- The Black & White Ball
- Bullseye's Target
- Stay With Me
- Something Really Cool
- The Devil is Mine
- Elektra the Avenger
- Alone Against Bullseye
- To the Death
- Bring on the Noise
- The Devil's Mercy
- Justice is Served
- Faith is All You Need
- The Guardian Devil
- End Titles
The 2003 film Daredevil made its UK terrestrial television debut on ITV1 on Wednesday 27th June 2007.