After a home invasion leaves his wife and daughter dead, engineer Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) is told that one of the criminals responsible will not be convicted, as much of the evidence against that criminal was compromised by a bungled forensic investigation. Shelton pleads for the prosecutor, Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx), to take the case to court. However, Rice is mostly interested in maintaining his 96% conviction rate, and tells Shelton that it does not matter what is right, but what can be proven in court, stating that it's how the justice system works. Rice then makes a deal with Clarence Darby (Christian Stolte), the actual criminal who murdered Shelton's wife and daughter, for third-degree murder; his accomplice, Rupert Ames (Josh Stewart), is sent to death row on what is essentially a theft charge. Shelton later sees Rice shaking hands with Darby as if they had just finished a deal, feeling betrayed.
Ten years later, Ames is executed by lethal injection; due to a chemical alteration, he dies an agonizing death. Initial evidence leads to Darby, who is alerted to the presence of police by a stranger who calls Darby's phone, helping him escape. The stranger orders Darby to throw away his gun and get in a cop car. He says that he will find a cop in the car sleeping. The caller tells Darby to make the cop drive to an abandoned warehouse. Once at the warehouse, Darby forces the cop out of the car and, with the cop's gun, gets ready to execute him. However, the cop is revealed to be Shelton in disguise, who reveals that he's also the stranger who called Darby in; when Darby attempts to shoot him, the gun handle injects him with tetrodotoxin, paralyzing him. Shelton proceeds to lead Darby into the warehouse, where he straps him to an operating table, confessing that he had caused the chemical alteration that killed Ames. At that point, Shelton systematically dismembers Darby alive in revenge of his family's demise. The police come upon Darby's remains, and they quickly arrest Shelton, who allows them to do so.
Rice arrives to interrogate Shelton and congratulate him on removing Darby from society. While he's doing so, Shelton initially appears to confess to the crime, and Rice begins to depart, but Shelton points out that his carefully worded statement was not technically a confession. During this time, Rice's family, whom Rice cannot spend enough time with due to the nature of his work (for example, he is unable to attend his daughter's cello recitals), receives a DVD of Shelton torturing Darby to his death. Shelton agrees to make a real confession in exchange for an expensive mattress in his prison cell. Rice agrees after his superior orders him to, as there is virtually no real evidence connecting Shelton to the murder. At his hearing, Shelton opposes Rice's motion to deny him bail, citing obscure legal precedents. After Judge Laura Burch (Annie Corley), who also presided at Darby's trial, agrees, Shelton begins a tirade, railing against the judge's myopia for the law versus justice, and is removed for contempt of court.
Rice delivers Shelton's mattress and receives his confession of the murders of Darby and Ames. However, Shelton bargains to make another confession for the life of Bill Reynolds (Richard Portnow), Darby's attorney. Shelton claims that Reynolds is alive, and will give his location in exchange for an expensive steak dinner delivered at precisely 1 p.m., along with music from his iPod. Despite repeating that the time must be exact, Warden Inger (Gregory Itzin) forces multiple searches, resulting in Shelton receiving his lunch eight minutes late. After finally getting Reynolds' location, Rice and Detective Dunnigan (Colm Meaney) take a helicopter to it, only to find Reynolds buried alive and only minutes dead, with Inger's delay causing him to suffocate. Shelton, after finishing lunch and sharing with his cell mate, brutally murders him using the bone from the steak. Shelton is then put into a solitary confinement cell underground. After Rice's assistant, Sarah Lowell (Leslie Bibb), finds evidence of contract payments to Shelton from the Department of Defense, district attorney Jonas Cantrell (Bruce McGill) takes Rice to meet a CIA operative (Michael Kelly) who worked with Shelton. The operative tells them that Shelton was a "brain" for the CIA, working in a black ops think tank, that he was the best in the field until he retired, and that if Shelton wants them dead, he'll succeed in it unless they kill him first. The following day, Rice and Cantrell convince Judge Burch to sign an order restricting Shelton's privileges, despite the fact that this might violate his civil rights. Moments later, the judge answers her cell phone and the phone explodes and kills the judge.
Rice confronts Shelton, who says the killings are not about revenge, but about the failure of the justice system, and Rice's personal failure to keep his word to place the criminals convicted in the first place. He then claims that, unless he is released with all charges dropped by 6 A.M., he will kill everyone in the DA's office. The office workers congregate at the prison, they once again do not listen to Shelton and 6 A.M. passes by. Rice sends them all home to rest. As they enter their cars, bombs go off from underneath each vehicle, killing six, including Rice's protege Sarah. Realizing that Shelton is keeping good to his word, Rice becomes puzzled over Shelton's spree of murders on the outside while he's behind bars, leaving him to speculate that Shelton has an accomplice.
At Sarah's funeral, a remote drone slaughters several attendees, including Cantrell. Rice is appointed acting DA by the mayor (Viola Davis), and a massive meeting is called to determine a way to remove Shelton. Rice, via Sarah's computer, receives some information that points to Shelton owning a garage right next to the prison. He and Dunnigan examine the garage, finding a tunnel system leading to every solitary cell underground, including Shelton's, which can explain how Shelton solely does his dirty work to commit the murders. Upon entering Shelton's cell, Rice finds it empty.
Shelton, dressed as a custodian, plants a napalm bomb in City Hall, planning to kill the mayor and most of the senior staff of the Philadelphia emergency services as the final cog of his master plan; however, Rice finds it just in time. Upon his return to his cell, Shelton is confronted by Rice. Shelton offers one final deal which Rice refuses, stating that he no longer makes deals with murderers (the origin of Shelton's anger). Rice calmly tells Shelton that if he attempts to detonate the bomb, he'll have to live with the consequences of that action for the rest of his life. Shelton, after considering for a long moment, does so anyway, and Rice locks shut Shelton's cell, while Dunnigan locks his escape route. Shelton quickly realizes the bomb was placed under his cot, but nevertheless, doesn't care about that anymore, as he calmly looks at a bracelet made by his daughter just before the home invasion. At that time, the bomb goes off, killing Shelton and blowing part of the prison off.
The film ends with Rice finally joining his wife for his daughter's recital.
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