| Director | Nicolas Winding Refn |
|---|---|
| Budget | $6.6 million |
Harry Caine, a mall cop, obsessively investigates the murder of his pregnant wife, Claire, who was killed alongside a DEA agent at his place of work. Although Caine's co-workers sympathize with him, they express concern when he becomes aggressive with customers. Caine is tormented by inexplicable visions of his wife approaching a seemingly abandoned house in his neighborhood, which causes insomnia. The police question Caine before showing him a blurry photo of the man they claim is his wife's killer.
While combing through security footage given to him by a co-worker, Caine watches his wife's murder, and becomes convinced that the empty house contains answers. He breaks in and finds only a strip of film negatives on the bedroom floor. Upon developing the photos, he discovers that they were taken in Morristown, a small town in Montana that he visited with Claire years ago. He immediately drives there and checks into the hotel that he stayed at with Claire. He continues to have visions, this time of the elevator in his hotel. While in town, he seeks out every location shown in the photos. This leads him to a diner, where he asks a waitress about one of the women in the pictures, claiming that they have a mutual friend. He is confronted by a police officer, who intimidates him and asks why he is looking for the woman.
The cop notifies a fellow officer, Peter, of Caine's presence. Peter rushes home to check on the safety of his child. Concerned by his behavior, Peter's wife the woman from the photo asks what is happening. He tells her that Caine is someone who was involved in an old case and asks her to leave town with their child. He then calls his superiors and tells them that Caine is in town.
It is revealed that Peter is part of a secret organization within the police that assassinates corrupt officers across the United States. While on a mission to kill a corrupt DEA agent, Peter accidentally shot Claire, and has been haunted ever since. Peter is told that he needs to eliminate Caine. His bosses offer to kill Caine for him, but he insists on doing it himself. Caine receives a call from Peter, who claims to be able to help him find the woman in the picture. They agree to meet at the hotel. Peter arrives and lures Caine to another room and questions him. Both men are on edge. They leave the room just as Caine pieces together that Peter is his wife's killer.
Peter shoots and wounds Caine. Wracked with guilt, he hesitates before firing again, which allows Caine to run to the elevator, mirroring a vision he had earlier that day. Caine takes the elevator down and has the opportunity to get off on a lower floor, but upon seeing his own blood, flies into a rage and returns to Peter's floor, stumbling out of the elevator into complete darkness.
Caine wakes up on a hospital bed in the police station, and confesses to Peter's murder. One of the officers taking his statement is called out of the room by the cop from the diner, who tells him something that visibly frightens him. He returns to the room and informs Caine that the police found no body or evidence of any kind, then cryptically tells him that he cannot change what has already happened and must focus on the future. Caine is released, and the cop from the diner drives him to a crossroads in the middle of nowhere, providing him with a new car and all of his luggage. Caine dumps all of the photos and clues about his wife's murder on the side of the road and drives away.
During the end credits, a grid of six security camera feeds from the mall on the day of Claire's death are shown. They continually switch places. At the very end of the credits, we see a different version of the ostensibly objective security camera feed, where Peter, upon realizing that Claire has seen him murder the DEA agent, seems to kill her intentionally.