The Killer's Game 2024

The film opens at a dance performance in Budapest. Hitman Joe Flood (Dave Bautista) kills several guards before making his way to his target on the balcony. The target pleads for a few seconds to finish watching the show, but Joe shoots him in the head before ordering his captive female attendant to leave. Before everyone else notices the dead man, his other guards come out, and Joe has to kill them. The gunfire leads to a panic, causing everyone to run. Joe spots a fallen dancer, Maize (Sofia Boutella), and helps get her out safely. She tries to thank him, but Joe starts to suffer a headache and leaves before Maize can help him.

Joe goes to get tests done because of his headache. He confides in his handler/close friend Zvi (Ben Kingsley) that he is questioning why he does what he does. He goes to a dance studio where Maize has classes to return something to her. She has taken interest in him after he saved her, so Maize gives him her number to take her up on a dinner offer. Joe initially considers throwing the number away, but he realizes he is indeed attracted to Maize, so he decides to go for it.

Joe and Maize have dinner, where she talks about her love for dancing and a desire to open up a dance school, while Joe says he works in “retirement planning”. The two eventually start dating and get serious, with Joe actually falling in love with Maize. However, he gets the results of his tests back, and his physician, Dr. Kagan (Raffaello Degruttola), tells him that he has Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a neurodegenerative brain disorder that will eventually cause his motor functions to shut down, with roughly three months to live.

Worried for Maize’s future, Joe goes to Zvi to have a contract put out on him so that Maize can collect life insurance money off of Joe’s death. Zvi refuses to do so since he cares so much for Joe, so Joe goes his last resort. He goes to a woman named Antoinette (Pom Klementieff), another skilled assassin who now assigns contracts to any willing killer. She also has a personal grudge against Joe because he killed her father even though he mentored Joe. He tells Antoinette to put a $2 million hit on him to go in effect at midnight. She happily agrees and sends the hit out. First she contacts seasoned hitman Lovedahl (Terry Crews), but he turns it down because he thinks $2 million is too low. Antoinette then contacts Korean assassin Goyang (Lee Hoon) and his crew, plus two Hungarian brothers who kill together.

Joe meets with Maize to break up with her, making up an excuse to get her to hate him and make it easier on him for when he’s dead. He goes home and gets drunk, leaving Maize an emotional voice message explaining his diagnosis and that he really does love her. Moments later, Dr. Kagan calls Joe to urgently inform him that his test results got mixed up with another patient and that he is most definitely NOT sick. Joe then looks at the clock and realizes he is screwed.

Goyang and his gang arrive and make it to Joe’s apartment. They proceed to attack, with Joe killing each of them one by one until he jams one of their weapons into Goyang’s head. The last assassin is killed when Joe intentionally triggers a booby trap, causing a bomb to go off that sends her flying out the window. The Hungarian brothers show up on their motorcycles, but Joe smashes one brother’s skull under his boot while sending the other one flying. Joe calls Antoinette to tell her that he has changed his mind and wants to cancel the contract, but she refuses and is now doubling the hit just to ensure that Joe dies.

Antoinette proceeds to make good on her word and contacts every available hitman in Europe. Lovedahl joins the hunt now that the price has gone up, and he is forced to work with an aspiring British assassin Money (George Somner), who is a bumbling idiot. Scottish brothers Angus and Rory Mackenzie (Scott Adkins and Drew Galloway) accept the contract after a few drinks. British strippers Ginni and Tonya (Lucy Cork and Shaina West), AKA the “Party Girls”, kill off their targets and then go for Joe. Finally, a dancing assassin called Botas (Marko Zaror) joins the game.

Joe goes to get help from Zvi and his wife, the latter who gives Joe a good enough massage that it fixes his headaches and bad vision (the source of his physical pain earlier). He then goes with Zvi to a nearby castle to set up traps and lure the other assassins there to finish them off all at once.

Lovedahl and Money track down Maize to her apartment after Joe has sent her a message warning her not to go back to her apartment. When the two try to accost her, Maize kicks Money in the balls and knocks him on his ass before Lovedahl knocks her out cold and takes her with them.

The Mackenzie brothers are the first to arrive on the castle property to confront Joe. They confidently come in for the kill until Joe steps out to brawl with them. Joe sets off a booby trap that sends Angus flying into the antlers of a deer head, impaling him, while Joe stabs Rory through his neck. The Party Girls show up with their guns drawn, firing at Joe. He causes Ginni to walk into a trap, and when she is down, he pulls one of the pins off her grenade belt and throws her in Tonya’s direction, blowing them both up. Botas then makes his attempt on Joe’s life, only for Joe to set off a C4 explosive that blows Botas to chunks.

Lovedahl contacts Joe through Maize’s phone to let him know that she’s been taken, and he tells Joe where to meet him. Meanwhile, Maize convinces Money to let her out of the car to stretch her legs, and she hits him over the head. When Joe arrives at the cemetery where Maize is, she takes the car and runs into Lovedahl before taking Joe with her. A hit squad, led by Antoinette’s right hand man Max (Daniel Bernhardt), shows up and tries to shoot at Joe, but Max claims he got a shot in. Lovedahl is not happy about Antoinette sending them since they are already getting paid. He demands that Antoinette up the contract to $6 million (he is later told that she said no).

On their way out, Joe confesses the nature of his actual job to Maize and that he was misdiagnosed, but he is also willing to leave the assassin life behind for Maize. She then tells Joe that she is pregnant and would not want to raise a child with a murderer. She then starts to pass out because one of Max’s bullets hit her shoulder. Lovedahl also ditches Money because of how useless he is.

Joe brings Maize to a church for sanctuary and to tend to her wound. The priest (Dylan Moran) shelters them, and after Maize wakes up, Joe proposes to her. The priest agrees to marry them there even though they are totally unprepared, but Joe has to do a confessional first. The priest ends up mortified hearing about Joe’s extensive murder history, but he decides to officiate just to get them out of there. Max and his goons show up, shooting the priest in the shoulder (he’s fine) before Lovedahl shows up. Joe kills most of Max’s goons before pinning Lovedahl under some scaffolding. Max corners Joe and tries to kill him, but Maize blows off Max’s head first, to her horror. Joe takes Maize out of the church and leaves Lovedahl there (he is also fine).

Antoinette attempts to skip town after learning Joe has killed everyone that she sent. Zvi gets the drop on her first, reminding her that she broke the rules of “the game” by sending a mercenary squad during an open contract, thereby dishonoring the assassins’ agreement. Zvi executes Antoinette with a bullet to the head.

Joe and Maize later get married for real with their friends in attendance (including the priest). While Joe promises to make good on his word to retire from the assassin life, Maize considers how expensive raising a child will be, so she suggests not giving it up entirely.