DEAD MAN DOWN is an action suspense/thriller, with a love story at its center, set in the criminal underworld of New York City. Victor (COLIN FARRELL) is the right-hand man of an underground crime lord, Alphonse (TERRENCE HOWARD), who is faced with someone systematically killing members of his gang and sending him taunting and threatening notes. Darcy (DOMINIC COOPER), Victor's friend, who also works for Alphonse, becomes obsessed with finding out who the killer is in order to curry Alphonse's favor and rise in the organization. In the midst of this, Victor meets Beatrice (NOOMI RAPACE), a mysterious French woman, who lives with her mother, Valentine (ISABELLE HUPPERT), in the high rise apartment building opposite Victor's. And as Victor starts to become attracted to her, he soon finds out that Beatrice is not the woman she seems be, but rather a crime victim seeking retribution for which she needs Victor's help. But she soon finds out that Victor isn't the man he seems to be either, but rather a man seeking revenge for the death of his wife and young daughter several years earlier. And when these two wounded people, each obsessed with retribution get together, their chemistry and intense relationship leads them to execute a violent and cathartic plan for revenge.