In a prison in North Korea, CIA agent Evelyn Salt is being hurt to try to make her confess her spy
activity and they won't believe them when she says she's just here for business. Sometime later,
her fellow agent Ted comes to rescue her by accepting to do a prisoner exchange. Salt is
confused by this because the rules say one life isn't worth saving if it will ruin the cover of
hundreds, and Ted agrees it's true, but the CIA was forced into doing this by Salt's friend Mike.
When he found out what happened to her, Mike petitioned the Senate and the State Department,
so the CIA gave in to avoid bad publicity. Two years later, Salt and Mike are married
and living together with a dog and Mike's spiders, since he's an arachnologist. Salt is sticking to
paperwork at the CIA for now, but one afternoon, agent Peabody asks her for help interrogating a
Russian defector that just walked in because she can speak the language. The guy's name's Orlov,
and he immediately notices Salt's wedding ring, commenting a husband must be a distraction for an
agent. He explains he has cancer and that he used to work for the FSB, both things get confirmed on
the system and so he's allowed to share his story. In 1975, a Russian patriot came up with a plan to
destroy America: he started stealing babies and training them from a young age to become the best
spies in the world, drilled with idiosyncrasy and ideology. When they became old enough,
these warriors were sent to the USA as sleeper agents to patiently await the day to attack
from within. That day will come soon: during the funeral of the American vice-president,
agent KA12 is supposed to kill the Russian president. The "KA program" is a Cold War legend,
and the CIA agents think this Orlov is selling smoke, so they cut the interrogation short. When
Salt's about to leave, Orlov says that the name of KA12 is Evelyn Salt. This makes Salt believe she's
being set up and asks Ted permission to call Mike because of Orlov's comment about her wedding ring,
but Mike won't pick up. Peabody still needs to cover all possible options and locks Salt in
an office while he argues over what to do next. Meanwhile a couple of agents try to move Orlov
to a different room by taking the elevator, but Orlov takes them by surprise with a knife hidden
in his shoe and kills them both. Orlov escapes the building and the CIA is so distracted with
starting a tracking plan that it's easy for Salt to leave the office saying she has to
pee. She manages to take the emergency stairs, but the agents finally notice and begin locking
all the doors. Salt grabs a fire extinguisher to blur out all the security cameras, and Ted calls
her directly to her phone to point out this makes her look guilty, but Salt doesn't care:
her priority is finding her husband. She makes it to the closet with the cleaning supplies and mixes
them inside a table leg, thus when the tactical team comes after her, she makes this makeshift
bomb explode on their faces. Then she takes a gun from one of the agents and uses it to smash
a window through which she finally escapes. After running for a couple of blocks, Salt takes a taxi
and tries calling Mike again, but he still doesn't pick up. Then Salt destroys her SIM card in case
she's being tracked and thinks back to when Ted told her years ago to befriend Mike. Since he was
an important scientist with unrestricted access to the borders of North Korea, he could be the
perfect cover to get her inside. When Salt returns to her apartment, Mike is nowhere to be seen,
and there's evidence of him having been kidnapped. Salt immediately packs a bag, including a gun and
a spider, and leaves through the window with her dog at the same time the CIA arrives at her place.
Peabody becomes frustrated when they find the apartment empty, and Ted points out that maybe
Salt is telling the truth and she's being set up. Meanwhile Salt is climbing around the building and
visits her young neighbor to ask her to take care of her dog while she's gone. Salt takes the chance
to change into new clothes too and begins thinking of Mike again. In the old days, Salt would show up
at the museum a lot just to befriend him for the mission, but she became legitimately interested
in him. Afterward, Salt leaves the building with a hat on her head, but Ted recognizes her anyway
and they begin to chase her through the city. Eventually they manage to surround her on the
highway, and Salt tries to explain she's innocent - someone is setting her up to distract the CIA
from the real person that will be killing the Russian president. Nobody believes her,
so Salt decides to jump off the highway, landing on a truck that helps her get away. The CIA and
the police immediately begin chasing her in their cars, prompting Salt to begin jumping from truck
to truck. When they get close enough, Peabody tries to shoot her and ends up wounding Salt
on her hip, causing her to fall and continue on foot. At that moment, a biker appears on the road,
and Salt gets the chance to push him away and steal his bike. This allows her to drive among the
cars, leaving the CIA behind because they don't have room to follow. As Salt gets away, Peabody
gets a message from his research team explaining that Salt lost her parents as a kid and was sent
to Russia, which matches Orlov's story. Moments later, Salt goes to a biker bar to cover her wound
with a pad and change into new clothes as she keeps thinking about Mike and the happiness they
had together. Next she takes a bus to New York, and she remembers the day she was freed from the
Korean prison. She confessed to Mike that she was actually CIA and their thing couldn't be, but Mike
didn't care and asked her to be his anyway. When Salt arrives in New York, she stays at a luxury
hotel under a fake name and steals a coat from a hanger. In her room, she takes off her contacts
and her fake teeth, revealing the truth: she is indeed a Russian sleeper agent, and Orlov showing
up had been part of the plan to let her know her next objective. Salt has brought a huge amount
of weapons with her, and she takes the venom from the spider to poison her bullets. She also uses a
computer to download the maps of the subway system tunnels to start planning the assassination of the
Russian president. While she dyes her hair black, she remembers the day she was accepted into the
CIA and how easily she convinced everyone that she wanted to protect the USA. The next day,
the streets are crowded with all the people that came to say goodbye to the vice-president, and
the CIA is there on the lookout for Salt so she takes the subway. The station that should stop at
the church is closed because of the funeral, but Salt's prepared: she releases a smoke bomb in the
wagon and while everyone is distracted, she jumps out of the subway, using the map she downloaded
to find her way through the tunnels. This allows her to enter the church undetected, and she begins
fighting every guard she comes across to make her way to the room that is exactly under the church
podium, where the Russian president is currently giving a speech. Ted and Peabody receive a message
that they're losing guards and go to investigate, but Salt is many steps ahead of them already:
she puts a bomb on the roof of the room, and when it explodes, the floor crumbles under
the Russian president, making him fall into the room underneath. Salt wastes no time and shoots
him with the poisoned bullet, the noise she makes allows Peabody to find her. To Peabody's surprise,
Salt actually drops her gun and lets the cops arrest her. As she's taken out of the building,
Ted yells at her, hurt by her betrayal. The Russian president is declared dead on his way
to the hospital, and while Salt is taken away in the police car, she remembers her childhood in the
training facility. When she was still a kid, she was given full plastic surgery to change her face
plus the new name Evelyn Salt with an American backstory. The kid in the bed next to her wondered
if Salt would ever miss them, but Salt didn't reply. When the police car reaches the bridge,
Salt begins beating up the officers and causes the vehicle to crash against other cops. After hitting
as many police cars as possible, Salt guides her car off the bridge and manages to land safely
thanks to the airbags. A curious crowd begins forming around the crash and Salt uses the chance
to escape without being noticed, stealing a hat from a shop nearby on her way out. Sometime later,
Salt takes a boat and can't help thinking about the day she was brought back to America
to be taken by a new family with whom she would patiently until she got new orders. When Salt
makes it to the harbor, she sees on tv that there are anti-American protests across Russia because
of what they see as an act of terrorism against their president. In a bar nearby,
Salt reunites with Orlov, who calls her his "perfect creation" because he's always been the
guy behind the KA project and the one who trained her. He also scolds her again for getting married,
but Salt explains it was part of looking normal. To make sure Salt is still loyal to the Russian
cause, Orlov takes her to his hideout and reveals Mika is being held hostage in the water. Instead
of shooting him, which would be easy to endure, they begin to slowly drown him to see if Salt will
react. Salt keeps a poker face, but it's clear in her eyes how much it hurts her to be unable
to do anything. Now they know they can trust Salt, everyone welcomes her warmly, and Salt recognizes
these men as other kids that were trained with her. Afterward Orlov takes to her in private,
explaining the next step is to seize control of this country's atomic weapons. Salt will
meet an agent in NATO uniform at a plane here, and he'll give her the final instructions. This
means Salt has all the information she needed and in a sudden turn of events,
she grabs a bottle and uses it to quickly kill Orlov for ruining her life. Then she grabs a bunch
of grenades and guns in order to kill everyone in the base without hesitation. Unfortunately
her revenge doesn't taste sweet because when she checks on Mike he's obviously dead. Salt grieves
as she remembers how happy she had been on the day of her wedding. Moments later, Salt goes to
take the assigned plane and is delighted to see Shnaider, the boy that said he would miss her.
He's become a powerful colonel and he'll be taking Salt as his attaché to the White House, where
they have to kill the American president. Shnaider also points out there must be other sleeper agents
inside already. A few hours later, they arrive in Washington and Salt puts on a man custom to match
the fake ID that Shnaider got him. They go through White House security with no issues, and they
notice the CIA is attending the meeting with the president as well. As part of the plan, Shnaider
suddenly begins pretending he's going crazy and pushes Salt away before shooting at everyone in
his path. The guards take the president away right before Shnaider activates an explosive, and Ted
tells his coworkers he thinks Salt may be around. Salt is using the distraction created by Shnaider
to steal a card key and get rid of her costume. She sees the agents taking the president to a
bunker by using the elevator, so after they're gone, she knocks out the guard to then force open
the doors and climb down the elevator shaft. The president and the agents make it to the bunker,
thus Salt rushes to sneak inside the corridor right before the doors close, knocking out any
guard she finds in the way. While Salt destroys the panel that controls the doors and the cameras,
the team informs the president that intel has confirmed Russia is getting its missiles ready.
The president asks to start looking at their nuclear options while some agents go out to
check what happened to the doors, but Salt easily beats them up. The president gets in contact
with some army leaders to get the authorization code for their nuclear weapons. The White House
security team discovers Salt is approaching them and Ted asks for a weapon, but the guard refuses
because of protocol related to the president's presence. Ted suddenly shows his true colors and
takes the weapons from the guard by force to then kill everyone in the room. Ted reveals he's also
a Russian sleeper agent and asks the president to collaborate, when the president refuses, Ted kills
him too. When Salt finally makes it inside, she finds the final door locked and must talk to Ted
through the intercoms. Ted explains he never told her the truth because making friends is dangerous,
and she didn't recognize him because he was in a class ahead of hers. A new security team is
already outside trying to bring down the door while Salt pays attention to what Ted is doing,
learning that he'll launch nuclear missiles into the Middle East to incite those countries to
attack the USA. Salt tells Ted she wants to help him and be with him, but when Ted is about to open
the door, he sees something shocking on the news: the Russian president is just fine and his death
had been attributed to temporary paralysis, which had been Salt's plan with the spider poison all
along. Ted realizes Salt stopped being loyal to Russia when she fell in love with Mike and to get
her back, he starts explaining he was the one that had to convince Orlov to use Salt as the
agent for the assassination. Orlov hadn't wanted to at first because he knew she wouldn't come out
of it alive and he was fond of her. Ted is also the one that asked Orlov to take Mike hostage,
hearing this makes Salt so furious that she starts shooting at the glass to get him, but the window's
bulletproof. While Ted uses the president's hand to authorize the missiles, Salt changes tactics
and shoots at the wall to reveal the system that keeps the locks up. By destroying it she finally
gains access to the office and begins fighting Ted hand-to-hand. At first Ted seems to easily
overpower her, but soon Salt manages to push him away and rushes to the desk to stop the launch.
At that moment, the security team makes its way inside and knocks Salt to the floor with a shot,
which she survives because she's wearing a vest. Salt gets arrested, but since the security cameras
were off, Ted is still seen as CIA and innocent. Peabody arrives to inspect the scene and hears
about what happened with Orlov and his gang, which makes him confused about Salt's intentions. As the
guards begin escorting Salt out, she notices Ted taking a pair of scissors from the doctor
tending his wounds, so she doesn't hesitate to act first. The chains of her handcuffs are
thrown against Ted's neck and Salt jumps over the railing, quickly killing him. Moments later, Salt
is put in a helicopter with Peabody, who demands some answers. Salt tells him about Ted, and when
Peabody doesn't believe her, she points out she could've killed him and the president back in the
church but she didn't. She knows there are more sleeper agents and she swears she wants to kill
them all for revenge. Seeing her determination and getting a message that confirms Salt killed Orlov,
Peabody realizes she's the only defense they have against moles, but nobody will believe her story.
They'll have to do this the illegal way, so Peabody releases her handcuffs when nobody is
watching, and when the helicopter flies above the river, Salt jumps out as Peabody pretends
she took him by surprise. Peabody also asks the helicopter to look around, but Salt is already
swimming out of the river and running through the forest. Sometime later, the media reports
that the new president of the USA has traveled to Russia for a peacekeeping visit. During the speech
he gave there, he announced all sleeper agents including Salt are dead. It is also revealed he
was orphaned as a kid during an accident here in Russia, implying he's a sleeper agent as well.