Daredevil is a 2003 American superhero film written and directed by Mark Steven Johnson, based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name created by Stan Lee and Bill Everett. The film stars Ben Affleck as Matt Murdock, a blind lawyer who fights for justice in the courtroom and on the streets of New York as the masked vigilante Daredevil. Jennifer Garner, Michael Clarke Duncan, Colin Farrell, Joe Pantoliano, Jon Favreau, and David Keith also star in supporting roles.
The film began development in 1997 at 20th Century Fox and in 1999 transferred to Columbia Pictures, before New Regency acquired the rights to the character in 2000. Johnson shot the film primarily in Downtown Los Angeles despite the Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan setting of the film and comics. Rhythm and Hues Studios were hired to handle the film's CGI. Graeme Revell composed the score, which was released on cassette and CD in March 2003, whereas the various artists' soundtrack album, Daredevil: The Album, was released in February.
Daredevil was released in the United States on February 14, 2003, by 20th Century Fox. The film received mixed reviews from critics. It became the second-biggest February release to that time and went on to a worldwide total gross of $180 million against a production budget of $78 million, becoming a box-office success. In 2004, an R-rated director's cut of Daredevil was released, reincorporating approximately 30 minutes of the film, and reviews were more positive than for the theatrical version.
A spin-off film, Elektra, with Garner reprising her role as Elektra Natchios, was released in 2005 to critical and commercial failure. The rights to the character eventually reverted to Marvel, who rebooted him in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) with Charlie Cox in the role, starting with the Netflix self-titled television series. Garner reprised her role as Elektra in the 2024 film Deadpool & Wolverine.
Plot
In 1982, young Matt Murdock is accidentally blinded by radioactive waste. This is shortly after he witnesses his father, washed-up boxer Jack "The Devil" Murdock, extorting money for local mob boss Eddie Fallon. Despite this, Matt's remaining senses are dramatically enhanced, giving him superhuman agility and sonar-like hearing.
Feeling responsible for his son's accident, Jack is inspired to abandon his life of crime and recommit to his boxing career. This leads to a dramatic comeback. Later, after Fallon reveals that he enabled Jack's comeback by bribing his previous opponents to let him win, he attempts to bribe Jack to throw his next match, then has him murdered once he refuses.
20 years later, an adult Matt works as an attorney in Hell's Kitchen with his friend Franklin "Foggy" Nelson, providing legal representation pro bono to clients whom he believes are actually innocent. By night, he fights crime as the costumed vigilante "Daredevil". Ben Urich, a New York Post reporter who chronicles Daredevil's exploits, attracts attention for a series of articles on "The Kingpin", a shadowy underworld figure who allegedly controls all of the city's organized crime. Unbeknownst to Urich, the Kingpin is actually Wilson Fisk, a brutal mobster who poses as a legitimate businessman.
Matt falls in love with Elektra Natchios, a Greek-American woman skilled in martial arts, unaware that she is the daughter of Fisk's lieutenant Nikolas Natchios. Later, when Nikolas attempts to end his relationship with Fisk, Fisk hires Bullseye, a hitman with preternatural aim, to kill him. Bullseye steals Daredevil's weaponized baton and impales Nikolas with it, killing him and framing Daredevil. Afterward, Urich deduces that Matt is Daredevil after realizing that he disguises his baton as a white cane.
Meanwhile, Bullseye is next assigned by Fisk to kill Elektra. Believing Daredevil to be responsible for her father's murder, she attempts to take revenge by killing him. Elektra tracks him down and challenges him to a fight before incapacitating him by stabbing him through the shoulder. Daredevil protests that he did not kill her father, but she does not listen until she forcibly unmasks him and realizes that he is Matt. Moments later, when Bullseye finds Elektra, Matt is helpless as the assassin seemingly kills her.
Wounded, Matt takes refuge in a church, but Bullseye ambushes him by exploiting his weakness to loud sound. When the police swarm the church, Bullseye reveals that Kingpin killed Matt's father, leaving behind a rose on his body as a calling card. Soon, Matt gains the upper hand and throws him from the bell tower after an NYPD ESU sniper shoots him through both hands, depriving him of his powerful aim.
Determined to avenge Elektra and his father, Matt ambushes Fisk in his office. In the ensuing fight, he ultimately triumphs against Fisk's brute strength by using his sonar hearing to see him after he is drenched in water from a sprinkler head. During their confrontation, Fisk admits that he killed Jack on Fallon's orders and that Elektra's death was nothing but a casualty. As the police arrive to arrest Fisk, he threatens to reveal Daredevil's identity to the world, but Matt points out that no one will ever believe that Daredevil is a blind man.
Some time after Elektra's death, Matt visits the roof of his apartment, where the two of them first kissed. There he unexpectedly finds Elektra's necklace with her name engraved upon it in braille, hinting that she might still be alive. Urich prepares to publish an article revealing Daredevil's identity, but decides against it at the last minute, finally accepting that Daredevil's efforts have improved the city.
Urich exits the New York Post office into the night outside and sees Matt on a roof, saying "Go get 'em, Matt", to which Daredevil nods his head and takes off, leaping off the building to pursue his nightly crimefighting routine. Elsewhere, a heavily bandaged Bullseye awakens in a heavily guarded hospital room and kills a fly with a syringe needle.
Cast Ben Affleck as Matt Murdock / Daredevil: An attorney-at-law who was blinded as a youth in an accident with bio-waste that drastically heightened his remaining senses and gave him a "sonar-sense", which allowed him to perceive his surroundings, and makes a silent promise with his father to "stick up for the long shots". His father is killed not long after, and at that moment, he vows to seek justice. At night, he becomes a devil-modeled vigilante who takes justice into his hands. Affleck was cast in October 2001. Vin Diesel was considered to portray Daredevil before him, but he opted to take a role in The Fast and the Furious. In a February 2011 interview, Guy Pearce said that he was offered the role but turned it down, stating that "comic-strip stuff isn't really my cup of tea, really." Matt Damon also revealed that he was offered the role. He claimed that he and Ben "loved that comic book but I just didn't quite believe in the script or the director at the time." Edward Norton, Matthew Davis and Colin Farrell (who would play Bullseye), were also considered until Affleck signed. As a fan, Affleck made sure he had read every single issue of Daredevil, commenting that it was about taking what he knew as a fan and faithfully getting it on the screen. Joe Quesada considered it "serendipity in action" that Affleck is the lead role, as when he and Kevin Smith created the Guardian Devil series, they had modeled it on Affleck. Affleck said Daredevil was his favorite comic book as a child, and explained why he took the role by saying "Everybody has that one thing from childhood that they remember and that sticks with them. This story was that for me." Additionally, he said, "I didn't want someone else to do it, because I was afraid that they would go out and do it different from the comic and screw it up." Scott Terra as Young Matt Murdock: Terra was officially announced as a part of the cast in March 2002. Jennifer Garner as Elektra Natchios: The daughter of billionaire Nikolas Natchios and the love interest of Matt Murdock. At a very young age, she witnessed the murder of her mother, and since then, her father has had her become highly trained in martial arts. For the role of Elektra, many actresses were looked into with considerations including Kate Winslet, Penélope Cruz, Salma Hayek, Natalie Portman, Lucy Liu, Jessica Alba, and Katie Holmes. A short-list was eventually made, giving the choices of Jennifer Garner, Jolene Blalock, Mía Maestro and Rhona Mitra, with Garner finally becoming the actress to land the role while having known in the television series Alias. Garner said of the character, "I think she's strong and cool and beautiful and smart. She'd be a good role model." Garner noted the costume would be different, as Elektra in comics often wears red satin but in the film wears black leather. Garner explained, "[T]he red would never have worked for hiding a harness, and I know this sounds ridiculous, but you have to protect your skin a little bit. They throw me around so much on the rooftop [that] I got cut through the leather, so imagine if I hadn't had anything." Garner would reprise her role in the 2005 film Elektra and later in the 2024 MCU film Deadpool & Wolverine. Michael Clarke Duncan as Wilson Fisk / Kingpin: By appearance, he is an overweight corporate head that takes the name Wilson Fisk, but in fact, he is the sole person running organized crime, under the moniker of Kingpin. Kingpin is the murderer of Matt's father and the man responsible for the hiring of Bullseye, with the intention of having the Natchios family murdered. Michael Clarke Duncan signed on for the role in January 2002, though he had been attached far earlier. When Duncan was cast, he weighed 290 pounds. He was asked to gain 40 pounds for the role in order to fit the physique of Kingpin. To do this, he would lift weights for 30 minutes a day, and power-lifted with one or two reps a day, as well as eating whatever he wanted. Duncan's biggest concern was that he was black, while Kingpin has always been portrayed as white. Also, Duncan provided the voice for Kingpin in Spider-Man: The New Animated Series. He spoke on the fan's loyalty to the source material by saying "they watch movies to say, 'Hey, that's not like the comic book.' But I want them to get past that and just see the movie for what it is and see me for what I am—an actor." Colin Farrell as Bullseye: An assassin with perfect accuracy and deep-rooted pride of it who is hired by Kingpin to kill Nikolas and Elektra Natchios, but when Daredevil gets involved and causes him to miss his target, he makes it his own personal vendetta to take Daredevil down. Farrell was attached to the role in December 2001. Mark Steven Johnson credits Joe Quesada with talking him out of using the traditional Bullseye costume for the film, and Farrell was encouraged to keep his Irish accent as this version of Bullseye is from Ireland. Farrell had to read Frank Miller's Daredevil comics to understand Bullseye "because the expression on the character's faces in the comic books, and just the way they move sometimes, and the exaggerations of the character I'm playing [...] he's so over-the-top that you do draw from that. But it's not exactly a character you can do method acting for ... you know, running around New York killing people with paper clips." Joe Pantoliano as Ben Urich: An investigative journalist whose articles notably relate to Daredevil, and the Kingpin. During the film, he goes on to uncover a lot of information about the two. Pantoliano was cast in March 2002. Urich works for the New York Post rather than the fictional Daily Bugle as in the comics, because the film rights to the Bugle were held by Sony Pictures at that time due to it being associated with Spider-Man.