At the beginning of the 21st century, a third World War breaks out and devastates the world.
The remaining survivors found Libria, a city where a totalitarian government known as the
Tetragrammaton Council makes all citizens take daily injections of "Prozium II",
which suppresses emotion and encourages obedience. Anything that may stimulate emotions like art and
pets has been banned, and those criminals that do consume those things are called “sense offenders".
If they get caught, they’re put to death because the council claims those who feel are the cause of
all wars. To make sure that everyone follows these laws, the council formed a group of well-trained
warriors known as “clerics”, who fight using the martial art of gun kata. Outside the city,
there is an abandoned area called the Nether where most of the illegal activity happens. Currently,
clerics John and Errol together with their special team are conducting a raid to deal with the latest
group of rebels from a group known as "The Underground". The team discovers that a bunch
of rebels are barricading themselves inside a building, so while they engage in a gunfight
outside, John goes inside first with guns in both his hands. He breaks down the door and just waits
there in the darkness, letting the rebels fire and not getting hurt even once. Once the fire stops,
John uses his gun to shoot all the rebels, using the gun kata technique which uses geometry and
psychology to choose where to strike with hit with precision and allows him to be out of the
line of fire. Once everyone is dead, they search the building for illegal material and when they
break the floorboards, they discover a huge collection of art that includes the Mona Lisa.
After they use a scanner to confirm they’re real, John orders his men to set it all on fire. During
their ride back to headquarters, John notices that Errol took a book and asks him why. Errol
explains that the team tends to leave a thing or two behind so he’ll log this evidence himself to
avoid trouble with the records. Meanwhile in the city, the leader Father appears on screens
everywhere reminding people to take Prozium and that they’ve achieved peace thanks to the system,
which gets him a cheer from the public. Father always appears on the screens, but nobody has
seen him in person in a long while. When John arrives at headquarters, he immediately goes to
see Vice-Counsel Dupont to give his report, which earns him high praise. Dupont wonders how a cleric
has learned so well to sense when someone feels strong emotions, so John explains he’s learned to
think like his enemies. Then Dupont asks him about his family, and John very coldly tells him that
his wife was arrested and incinerated for being a sense offender some years ago. Dupont scolds him
for it, saying a Cleric should be able to tell his own wife is a criminal. Afterward, John looks at
a recording of the car and notices Erroll acting suspiciously. He goes to look at the records and
discovers Errol hasn’t been logging any kind of evidence for weeks, including today’s book.
He decides to return to the Nether to look for him and finds him reading the book inside an abandoned
church. When John confronts him, Errol laments that people have lost everything that makes them
human, and when John points out that there is no war or murder now, Errol admits that he'd gladly
pay the price to make humans feel emotions again. Then Errol tries to reach for his gun, but John
is faster and kills him first. Before leaving he covers Errol’s face with the book. Afterward
John meets Brandt, who will replace Errol as his partner and expresses his hopes to become as good
as John. When John goes home, his son Robbie tells him that he saw a boy crying earlier and wonders
if he should inform the authorities, so John says he should. Although they’re father and son, Robbie
calls John by his name instead of “dad”. Later in the evening, a sleeping John dreams of the day
his wife was arrested. When the officers stormed into his house, John quickly disarmed two of them,
but he stopped fighting as soon as they told him his wife was a sense offender. On her way out,
his wife kissed him and asked him not to forget her while their two kids watched. The next morning
while getting ready, John accidentally drops his vial of Prozium on the floor and it breaks. When
Robbie notices this, he reminds his father to stop by the Equilibrium Center to get a replacement.
However when John arrives at the center, he discovers that it’s temporarily closed because
of terrorist activity and that people must go to the center in another sector to get their supply.
At that moment Brandt comes to pick him up for a mission, so John decides to go with him without
telling him about his lack of today’s Prozium. Then John and Brandt go to see a woman named Mary
and raid her house. John pushes Mary against the mirror, but he freezes when he's reminded of his
wife. Luckily he recovers fast and after Brandt destroys the mirror because of its artistic frame,
the officers demolish a wall to find a room filled with illegal objects. A desperate Mary takes a gun
from an officer and aims it at John, so Brandt tries to shoot her. However John stops him,
saying they can use her to get information about the Underground. Afterward Mary is
taken to headquarters for interrogation. John asks her about the other rebels,
but Mary ignores the questions and instead asks John about his purpose for living. John says his
purpose is to keep their society running well, but Mary points out that it’s circular logic:
his purpose is only living to continue his existence. Before leaving, John watches the
training of the recruits to put his mind at ease. That night, John doesn't his injection and watches
how Errol's body is incinerated, however he wakes up realizing it was a nightmare. Feeling strange,
he runs to the window and peels away the tint on the glass, allowing him to watch the sunrise
for the first time. Such a beautiful sight makes him feel lots of emotions like awe, and when he
realizes this, he rushes to the bathroom to grab the syringe gun. However he can’t bring himself
to get the injection again. Then John leaves for work but before entering headquarters,
he drops a bunch of Prozium vials on the ground to destroy them. He also takes off his glove and
brushes his hand against another person's just to know how it feels. In the office,
he notices all desks are exactly the same and starts rearranging his things. Brandt
sees this and asks him what’s going on, but John tells him that he's just optimizing his space.
Their next mission is to go after some sense offenders in the Nether. As they raid the place,
the officers get stuck in a vicious gunfight against the rebels. a man tries to attack John,
so Brandt shoots the guy. When John catches the guy, he accidentally stares into his eyes and
sees the life leave the body. Upset by the things he’s noticing now, he immediately drops the body,
only to feel worse when he notices the blood on his hands. While the officers kill all the rebels,
John discovers a secret room filled with illegal things and decides to take a closer look. He finds
a vinyl record of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and plays it while looking at a snow globe, but as
soon as he hears the music, he's so moved that he drops the globe and starts to cry. Afterward,
the team burns down everything and Brandt notices John is keeping a book. Remembering Errol,
John just says he’ll log it himself. Suddenly an officer announces they’ve found some animals,
which turn out to be puppies. None of them understand why someone would keep animals in
the house and even wonder if the rebels ate them. Brandt orders the officers to kill all the dogs
and John tries to object, but he can’t think of a good reason so he has to second the order. As
the team shoots every dog with no mercy, one of the puppies manages to escape and runs to John,
who picks it up and is shocked to have his face licked. An officer tries to take it back
to finish the job but John takes it away, saying it should be tested for diseases. Sometime later,
John has a meeting with Dupont and argues against the murder of rebels, pointing out that they
should be arrested and interrogated instead as the law says. However Dupont informs him that
Father has released a mandate ordering officers to exterminate all rebels on sight. Afterward, John
watches Mary for a while and decides to ask for the box with her belongings. Among other things he
finds a ribbon, and after smelling it, he decides to secretly keep it. In the evening, he goes to
the Nether, unaware that Brandt is following him. Once there, John tries to release the dog,
but since it won’t stop following him, he puts it back in the trunk. John even gives it his jacket
and smiles at the little guy. At that moment, officers arrive at the area and surround him as
they ask for an ID, which John left in his coat. They take the car keys from him and are about to
open the trunk, only for an officer to recognize John and apologize for the trouble. Unfortunately
the puppy uses the moment to yelp, so the officers open the trunk and as soon as they see the animal,
they make John get down on his knees. However John attacks the officers, using their own
weapons to kill them. There are more men waiting in the vehicles so John attacks them as well,
using the same technique to steal their weapons and kill them all in seconds. Then he leaves with
the puppy. The next morning, John decides to hide his vials of Prozium behind the bathroom mirror
before going to work. Today he’ll be training with his sword, and Brandt comes by to join him,
starting a friendly fight. Their skills are almost on the same level, and as they continue
to exchange blows, Brandt keeps on taunting John, saying he knows John can’t stop thinking
about the "mysterious" murders in the Nether. He says he's glad those officers are dead because
now the council will order an an acceleration on the defeat of rebels. The fight ends in a tie,
and then the duo leaves to raid a new sector in the Nether. While the team searches the area and
engages in another gunfight, John comes across a bunch of rebels but tells them to leave. The
rebels fear that John will shoot them in the back, so he has to lead them down a corridor to find a
place to hide. Soon they begin encountering officers, but John fights them all without
hesitation, giving the rebels a chance to escape. After a fierce fight during which he kills all the
officers, John goes looking for the rebels, only to discover they’ve been caught. Brandt says he
knew John would bring the rebels to him, then he asks him to shoot them all, even giving John
his own weapon to do it. John takes it and after some hesitation, he gives the gun back to Brandt,
saying it will be better for him to hold on to his own weapon. Then Brandt orders the officers
to kill all the rebels, so John leaves the room to be able to keep up a cold face. Sometime later,
John visits Dupont to tell him that he's ready to become Father's instrument against the resistance,
so Dupont gives him the mission to destroy the Undeground. Then John goes to the morgue
to apologize to Errol's body for doubting him. He also checks out Errol's belongings and discovers
he had a lot of pictures, the one with the word “freedom” on it gets John's attention. He rushes
to see Mary to ask her about Errol, and when she denies knowing him John reveals the picture, which
shows Mary and Errol had been together. Since Mary still won’t talk, John tells her he killed Errol,
causing Mary to grab a pen and jump on him to stab him. John blocks the attack before pinning
her down and gently touching her face, being affected by her face because he’s reminded of his
wife. After looking more at the picture and the word written on it, John remembers a place called
"Freedom Reading Room" where a teacher reads the manifesto to young men. John visits the place
and kicks all the students out before threatening the teacher until he learns that Errol came often
here to meet with a man named Jurgen. Getting an idea, John breaks down the shelves by throwing the
teacher against them and comes across Jurgen, who says the rebels have been watching John. Afterward
Jurgen takes John to the Underground, where rebels are keeping a secret life filled with
beautiful objects. John is put on a polygraph to make sure he’s feeling emotions, and as soon as
Jurgen mentions Mary, the polygraph machine goes crazy. Jurgen admits he knows John has
Mary’s ribbon and tells him his feelings will only be satisfied if he allows himself to fall for her,
but John points out that Mary will be incinerated the next day. Then John wonders what he can do
for the resistance, so Jurgen asks him to kill Father. As soon as John leaves the Underground,
he's surrounded by guards and taken to Dupont, who says he heard rumors of a cleric who stopped
taking Prozium. Then he asks John what he’s been doing lately, to which John answers he’s been
attempting to contact the rebels and promises to double his efforts. Later when he gets home,
John leaves another vial inside the mirror and watches his children sleep. Curious, he grabs
his son’s syringe box, only for Robbie to wake up and ask him what he’s doing. John explains that
he's only making sure that Robbie has been taking his daily dose. Then Robbie goes back to sleep,
but he shocks John by calling him “dad”. The next day, John goes to see Mary and she finally
realizes he hasn’t been taking his injections. She can tell that John is feeling lost and confused,
so she touches his hand to offer some comfort. Afterward John meets with Jurgen to explain that
killing Father is impossible because nobody has been allowed to see him in years. However Jurgen
says that John is trained for this and promises that if John gets Father, the rebels will be ready
to destroy all the Prozium labs around the city. Once everyone is feeling again, then human nature
will win their fight. John agrees to try and before he leaves, Jurgen warns him not to watch
Mary’s execution because it’ll only make it harder for John. When John returns to the office, he ends
up seeing the preparation for the execution on the screens, and this inspires him to look for the
footage of his own wife's death. John feels awful when he sees himself on the video, not having a
single reaction over the fact his wife was being burned alive. Wanting to make up for his mistake,
John runs to the incineration room to save Mary. Unfortunately by the time he gets there,
Mary is already inside the chamber and the machine turbines have already been started. They can’t be
opened now because if they are, the turbines will cause an explosion on the streets. John tries his
best to hold back his tears as Mary dies, but eventually he can’t take it anymore and runs
outside to have a breakdown. At that moment Brandt arrests him and after beating him up in front of
everyone, he takes him to Dupont. Brandt says that John has been involved with Mary and that he was
the one who killed the officers in the Nether, however John reminds Dupont about his mission
to expose the traitor among the clerics and claims that Brandt is the man they’re looking for. Dupont
proceeds to check the gun that killed the officers and it appears to be Brandt's weapon. Confused,
Brandt looks at the gun he’s carrying and discovers it’s John’s because he switched
them the other night. To cover this up, John tells Dupont that Brandt took his firearm when
he arrested him. Dupont orders the men to take Brandt away for judgment, but he also informs John
that the law still requires for a team to search his house. John pretends to be fine with this and
comments that he's disappointed that he hasn't still met Father despite being an instrument for
the destruction of the Underground. Afterward John runs back home to take the hidden vials, but when
he moves the mirror he finds the space empty. At that moment Robbie reveals he took the vials
before the officers could find them to protect his dad, and confesses he and his sister have stopped
taking their injections since their mother’s death. John gives them his blessing before
leaving. Moments later, John meets up with the rebels to start a plan: he calls the Council and
informs them he’s located the Underground. Soon the officers come to arrest all the rebels, and
John is considered a hero worthy of meeting with Father. On the day of the meeting, the council
makes John go through a test first. They make him hand in his weapons and connect him to a polygraph
before asking him for the easiest way to take away a weapon from a cleric. Suddenly Brandt shows up
and whispers "you ask him for it". Then Father appears on a screen, explaining that Brandt's
arrest was part of an old plan: for years, Father has been trying to infiltrate the Underground,
but he realized that he needed a man who would think and feel like the rebels. Father says
John was the only man who could do that before revealing his real face: it turns out he’s Dupont,
who has been using recordings to hide the fact the real Father died many years ago. The council
elected him to replace Father and continue his traditions. Furious over being tricked like this,
John pulls out the guns he hid in his sleeves and starts shooting at everyone, using his great
skill to kill them all in seconds. Then John tells Dupont that he's coming for him and after
shooting the screen, he leaves the room to go on a killing spree, shooting every single guard that
dares to get in his way and leaving a massacre on his path. When he finally reaches Dupont,
Brandt is there as the bodyguard. John proceeds to kill some more guards before going after Brandt,
who grabs a sword so they can fight properly. Unlike their training, this time John fights
seriously and with just a few quick strikes, he kills Brandt by cutting off his face. Then
Dupont grabs a gun and attacks John, who takes a gun from a dead guard and immediately defends
himself. Dupont is a great fighter and at first can keep up with John, but soon John overpowers
him and defeats him as he takes his gun. Desperate to survive, Dupont begs for mercy and confesses
that he also feels emotions, however John still shoots him in the head without remorse. Before
leaving the building, John destroys the machines broadcasting Father's messages. This is seen as
a sign by the rebels, who immediately start bombing the Prozium factories all
over the city. Now the locals can understand that it’s time to fight against the system.