- When the courts fail to keep behind bars the man who raped and murdered her daughter, a woman seeks her own form of justice.
- Karen McCann's eldest daughter is raped and murdered whilst on the phone with her. When the case against Robert Doob, the perpetrator, is dismissed because of a technicality, she starts following him and sees how he checks out his next victim, a woman he delivers groceries to. She tells the police, but is only warned she must stop following Doob. When she tries to warn the woman, she is shooed out of the house. Doob, having found out that Karen is following him, threatens to do something to her youngest daughter. She then seeks help from a group of vigilantes connected to a support group, in order to shoot Doob. However, a friend from the support group turns out to be an FBI agent investigating the very vigilante activity Karen is involved in and warns her that she will go to jail for the rest of her life unless it is self-defense. In the meantime, tension grows between Karen and her husband Mack, because he finds out she has secretly been taking self-defense classes and has been learning how to use a gun. When Doob makes another victim and is again released for lack of evidence, she finds a way to lure him into her house and kill him in self-defense.—gerd86
- Karen McCann lives in Santa Monica, California, and her husband Mack McCann is the owner of the McCann construction company. Karen works in a museum, and she has two daughters. They are 5-year-old Megan and 17-year-old Julie. Mack is Megan's biological father, and Julie was born from Karen's previous marriage. Mack still loves Julie like she's his own daughter. Karen is on her way home from work one day, when she calls home on her cell phone, and Julie answers. Julie is preparing for Megan's 6th birthday at the time of the call, and Karen is still talking to Julie...when a man suddenly breaks into the house and rapes and kills Julie. Karen rushes home as fast as she can, and is devastated by what she sees. Detective Sergeant Joe Denillo is put on the case. Days later, Joe calls Karen and tells Karen that Julie's killer is Robert Doob, a supermarket deliveryman who has been in and out of jail for most of his life. In court, Karen is understandably enraged when Robert is released on a technicality, and Mack is restrained when he lunges at Robert. Robert later starts harassing Megan, and when Karen starts checking out the neighborhood Robert lives in, Robert threatens to go after Megan unless Karen stays away from Robert's neighborhood. When Karen joins a support group for parents of violence victims, she discovers that within this support group, there is a secret society of parents, led by bereaved parent Sidney Hughes, who kill killers that the extremely flawed system has failed to adequately deal with. Karen joins this group and is soon undergoing training at a local firing range. After Robert rapes and kills a woman named Maria, Robert is once again arrested, but he is again released on a technicality. This is when Karen sends Mack and Megan to visit some relatives, and forms a plan to do what the courts can't do...stop Robert once and for all. In matters like these, the system has a habit of giving people like Karen absolutely no choice but to solve these kinds of problems themselves.—Todd Baldridge
- Distraught over her oldest daughter's rape and brutal murder, and the fact that the murderer was turned loose on a technicality, Karen McCann seeks vengeance. She learns self-defense and becomes an expert marksman with a pistol and sets out to seek and destroy. Robert Doob is the cocky killer and she must stop him before he can kill again.—Richard Jones <rjo339@swbell.net>
- After the assault, rape and murder of her 17-year-old daughter at home, Karen becomes obsessed with putting the rapist behind bars. What Karen soon finds is that the criminal justice system is more interested in procedure than justice and soon frees the killer of her daughter on a vague technicality. Karen finds that she has no options but to proceed with her own plans for justice as the system has again failed to protect the innocent and the victims.—Tony Fontana <tony.fontana@spacebbs.com>
- Karen (Sally Field) and Mack McCann (Ed Harris) are a happily married couple living in Los Angeles with two daughters, 17-year-old Julie (from Karen's previous marriage) and six-year-old Megan. One afternoon while Karen is out shopping, Julie is violently raped and murdered in a home invasion by an unseen assailant, which Karen overhears on the phone. Detective Joe Denillo (Joe Mantegna) assures the McCanns there is enough DNA evidence to find and convict the killer, and encourages Karen to seek counseling.
At a support group, Karen meets people in similar circumstances, including Albert and Regina Gratz (William Mesnik and Rondi Reed), and Sidney Hughes (Philip Baker Hall), the moderator. During the meeting, Karen overhears Albert talking to Sidney about something which alarms Regina. Meanwhile, the DNA tests reveal Julie's killer to be Robert Doob (Kiefer Sutherland), a delivery driver with a criminal record. However, at a pre-trial hearing, the judge dismisses the case due to a legal loophole because the defense did not receive a sample of the evidence from the prosecution for testing. Karen and Mack are distraught as Doob walks free. When Doob makes sly remark to Karen and Mack, he physically assaults Doobs in open court and is quickly restrained by the bailiffs while the smarmy Dobbs is roughly escorted away.
Mack is desperate to return to a normal life, but Karen cannot stop thinking about Doob. She finds out where he lives and keeps detailed records of his movements. Karen follows Doob while he goes out on deliveries and attempts to warn a female customer, but the woman only speaks Spanish and does not understand her.
One day, Karen learns that the murderer of the Gratzs' son has been killed in a drive-by shooting, just days after being released from prison. Angel Koskinsky (Charlayne Woodward), also in the self-help group, tells Karen the best way to get over her grief is to focus on having good experiences with her living daughter, making Karen realize she has been so fixated on Doob that Megan has been deprived of her attention.
Doob discovers Karen is stalking him and goes to Megan's school. When Karen comes to pick Megan up, Doob deliberately intimidates her and threatens to harm Megan if she continues following him. Worried for Megan's safety and with her own sanity declining, Karen approaches Sidney, who admits that he and several members of the support group, including Martin, set up the drive-by shooting. Karen demands their help and Sidney agrees to find a weapon, train her, and plan the murder as well as cover it up and give her any alibi, but Sidney also tells her she has to carry out the murder herself as their "eye for an eye" code for the conduct of the vigilante killings that the support group has been operating. Karen agrees and they begin plotting. She also joins a self-defense class, which increases her confidence, helps rekindle her sex life with Mack, and improves her relationship with Megan. Sidney gives Karen a gun.
One day, Angel reveals to Karen that she is really an undercover FBI agent investigating the vigilante activity within the support group, and warns Karen not to kill Doob. Karen then calls Sidney to tell him she cannot go through with it, but later changes her mind when she learns the Spanish speaking customer she tried to warn was raped and murdered in her apartment. Karen is furious when Doob once again walks free because, as the grocery delivery man, his fingerprints and hair/carpet fibers belong in the house. He even wore a condom to prevent leaving DNA, something he didn't do with Julie.
Karen sets a trap to lure Doob into her home while Mack and Megan are out of town so that she can say killing him was self-defense. Karen breaks into Doob's apartment and trashes it, knowing that he will come after her. Karen's plan works when Doob shows up at the house and assaults her. Despite Doob's attempts to fight back, Karen ultimately shoots Doob dead after a vicious struggle. Detective Denillo arrives on the scene and tells Karen that he knows the truth and that she has not fooled him, to which she angrily replies, "Prove it." He decides to tell his colleague that it is a "clear case of self-defense." When Mack arrives, he sits beside her, holding her hand, also knowing what she has done, but he says nothing.
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