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A Rust Belt ex-con seeks redemption by avenging his brother's murder in this drama from Crazy Heart writer/director Scott Cooper. The glimmer of a better life always just out of reach, Russell Baze (Christian Bale) dreams of starting a family with his girlfriend Lena (Zoe Saldana), and resolves to earn an honest living working in the same mill where his dying father did. Meanwhile, Russell's volatile younger brother Rodney (Casey Affleck) decides to serve his country by fighting in Iraq. Despite Russell's best intentions, however, his future starts to look grim when he is sent to prison following a deadly drunk-driving accident; at the same time, Rodney begins competing in illegal fights for local bar owner John Petty (Willem Dafoe), who owes a sizable debt to the very dangerous Harlan DeGroat (Woody Harrelson), a fight organizer/meth dealer who's way too into his own product. Later, after Russell is released from prison having missed his father's funeral, he is heartbroken to learn that Lena has become seriously involved with the local police chief, Wesley Barnes (Forest Whitaker). But heartache turns to anger when the desperate Rodney also gets mixed up with DeGroat, and winds up dead along with John Petty. Informed by Chief Barnes that Rodney's body has been found by a hunter, Russell, believing he has nothing to lose, recruits his loyal uncle Red (Sam Shepard) to help him seek revenge.