DaredevilSave

We open with Matt Murdock (Ben Affleck) on Wall Street rooftops as Daredevil, lying broken from a fight with opponents. The opening broken-down-superhero framing is director-Mark-Steven Johnson's deliberately-noir-Daredevil tonal choice. Through flashback, we see Matt as a teenage-boy in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan — a working-class-Irish-American neighborhood where his father Jack 'Battlin' Jack' Murdock (David Keith) was a boxer-with-a-side-criminal-career. Canonical-young Matt is struck by toxic-chemical-waste that has spilled from a passing-truck.

The chemical-blinding leaves Matt without vision but enhances his remaining-senses to superhuman levels. His hearing becomes precise enough to detect heartbeats from rooftops away; his touch-sense can detect temperature-variations of half-a-degree. His father supports his recovery — his father is the only family-member who remains in Matt's life after his mother's earlier-death. Canonical-Matt's father is killed by mob-employer for refusing to throw a fight.

Matt becomes Daredevil — a vigilante in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, operating outside the law to protect residents from organized-crime. He works by-day as a defense-attorney with his best-friend Foggy Nelson (Jon Favreau) — Nelson and Murdock are a small-firm with a passion for pro-bono-criminal-defense. The day-and-night-double-identity is the foundational Daredevil character-structure.

Matt meets Elektra Natchios (Jennifer Garner) — a young-Greek-American-woman who has been training in martial-arts since childhood. They meet at a Manhattan-coffee-shop. The romantic-courtship is elegant-but-physical: their first-extended-conversation is fighting-each-other in Central-Park playground equipment. The choreography is distinctive — both characters are canonically-skilled at combat, and their romantic-attraction is expressed through physical-violence.

Elektra's father (Greek-American-businessman Nikolas Natchios, played-by-Erick-Avari) is murdered by Bullseye (Colin Farrell) — a Irish-assassin with perfect-aim who works for Kingpin (Michael Clarke Duncan). Canonical-Kingpin runs Manhattan's organized-crime-empire from a skyscraper-penthouse office. Kingpin had been ordered to eliminate-Natchios who had been trying to extract-himself from Kingpin's broader money-laundering operations.

Elektra, in vengeance for her father's death, begins tracking-Bullseye. She fights Bullseye in a brutal rooftop sequence on a Manhattan warehouse-district rooftop. Bullseye is depicted as superhuman in his aim — he can throw any object with perfect-trajectory. He defeats Elektra by using Daredevil's-own-billy-club (which Daredevil had loaned to Elektra) to impale her through the chest. Elektra dies in the rooftop fight.

The final battle takes place at Kingpin's Manhattan penthouse. Canonical-Daredevil confronts Bullseye-and-Kingpin simultaneously. The Bullseye-fight is choreographically-intricate — both characters use improvised weapons (Bullseye throws paperclips with perfect-aim; Daredevil uses his billy-club). Bullseye is defeated when Daredevil drops a billy-club through Bullseye's throat from a height. Bullseye is rendered paralyzed but canonically-alive.

Daredevil confronts Kingpin in single-combat in the penthouse. The confrontation is physically-asymmetric: Kingpin is depicted as canonically-massively-muscled, canonically-violent, and canonically-experienced in physical-combat. Canonical-Daredevil's superhuman-senses allow him to anticipate Kingpin's attack patterns. The fight is approximately 6 minutes of screen-time. Canonical-Daredevil defeats Kingpin by using Kingpin's-own weight against him in leverage-based combat-techniques.

Canonical-Kingpin is defeated but not killed. Canonical-Daredevil delivers Kingpin to the NYPD authorities — refusing to kill Kingpin despite the emotional-vengeance for Elektra's death. The moral-restraint is Daredevil's foundational superhero-character thesis. Canonical-Kingpin goes to prison; the Kingpin-criminal-empire is dismantled. Bullseye is institutionalized at Bellevue-Hospital.

The film's epilogue. Canonical-Matt Murdock returns to his day-time defense-attorney work. Canonical-Foggy Nelson remains unaware of Matt's Daredevil-identity. Canonical-Matt is depicted in mourning for Elektra's death; he visits Elektra's grave at Manhattan's cemetery. Canonical-Daredevil continues his Hell's-Kitchen vigilante-work — night-time rooftop-patrols continue. The double-life template is preserved.

Canonical post-credits scene. Canonical-Bullseye, institutionalized at Bellevue, throws a needle at a fly with perfect-aim — killing the fly from across the room. The implication: Bullseye's aim has been canonically-restored, and he will canonically-return as a future-Daredevil antagonist. The setup was intended for a sequel that was canonically-never-produced.

Commercial and critical reception. Daredevil (2003) grossed $179 million worldwide on a $78 million production budget — modest commercial success. Critics were largely negative (Rotten Tomatoes 44%); Affleck's casting was canonically-criticized as tonally-inappropriate. The cinematography was canonically-criticized as music-video-derivative (director-Mark-Steven-Johnson had background in music-videos before feature-direction). The Daredevil franchise was stalled after Daredevil; Elektra (2005) — a Garner-led spinoff — was commercial-and-critical-failure. The Daredevil property was canonically-revived through Netflix's Daredevil television-series (2015-2018, then-Disney+-Born-Again 2025).