Plot
Because of the extremely high rate of kidnappings in Mexico City for ransom money, businessman Samuel Ramos (Marc Anthony) hires former U.S. Marine Force Recon officer and CIA SAD operative John Creasy (Denzel Washington) to guard his nine-year-old daughter "Pita" (Dakota Fanning). At first Creasy distances himself socially from Pita, but the two develop a friendship.
After a piano lesson, Pita is abducted in public and Creasy is shot multiple times. The Ramoses agree to deliver a dead drop ransom of US$10 million per the instructions of "The Voice" (Roberto Sosa), the mastermind of the kidnapping ring. The drop, however, is ambushed by members of a Mexican crime syndicate and the money is stolen, resulting in The Voice notifying the Ramoses that Pita will not be returned.
Upon hearing the news, Creasy leaves the hospital before fully recovering from his wounds and vows to Pita's mother Lisa (Radha Mitchell) that he will kill everyone involved in her abduction. His friend from his former CIA colleague, Paul Rayburn (Christopher Walken), who runs a security firm in Mexico, gives him weapons in his quest for revenge. With the help of Mariana Guerrero (Rachel Ticotin), a journalist, and Miguel Manzano (Giancarlo Giannini) of the AFI, Creasy begins hunting down and killing those involved in Pita's abduction with great success. Each person leads him to the next by providing vital information. He eventually learns that Samuel's attorney, Jordan Kalfus (Mickey Rourke) stole $7.5 million before the ransom money was sent to the drop.
Samuel confesses to Creasy that he agreed to Kalfus' plan for Pita's kidnapping to pay off business debts with his share of the insurance money that was to be exchanged for Pita. He also confesses that when Pita was not returned, he killed Kalfus. Samuel then commits suicide.
After some digging, Mariana writes an article revealing The Voice's identity as Daniel Sánchez. Creasy shows up to Daniel's ex-wife's house and is shot by his brother Aurelio (Gero Camilo), who then tries unsuccessfully to escape. Creasy calls Daniel, who reveals that Pita is still alive and offers to free her if Creasy surrenders himself with Aurelio. Creasy agrees and he and Lisa meet at the exchange site where the kidnappers release Pita as Creasy releases Aurelio. Creasy then surrenders himself and is driven away by the kidnappers and succumbs to his wounds. Daniel Sánchez is killed by Miguel Manzano during a police raid later that same day.
Read more about this topic: Man On Fire (2004 film)
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“The plot! The plot! What kind of plot could a poet possibly provide that is not surpassed by the thinking, feeling reader? Form alone is divine.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)
“James’s great gift, of course, was his ability to tell a plot in shimmering detail with such delicacy of treatment and such fine aloofness—that is, reluctance to engage in any direct grappling with what, in the play or story, had actually “taken place”Mthat his listeners often did not, in the end, know what had, to put it in another way, “gone on.””
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—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)