It’s been ten years since Russell Baze (Christian Bale) buried his brother Rodney and tried to leave behind the violence of his past. Now a quiet steelworker living a reclusive life in the rusting outskirts of Braddock, Pennsylvania, Russell spends his days in silence, welding and watching the smokestacks burn against the gray sky. He’s older, slower, but still haunted by what he did. But peace doesn’t last forever.
When the body of a young woman — brutally beaten and left for dead — is found in the same woods where Russell once spilled blood, the crime rocks the small town. The victim is Sarah DeGroat, niece of the late meth kingpin Harlan DeGroat, the man Russell killed.The DeGroat family wants revenge.A new threat emerges: Wyatt DeGroat, Harlan’s younger cousin — recently released from a federal penitentiary. Cold, calculating, and far more dangerous than his predecessor, Wyatt returns to Braddock under the radar, gathering old loyalties and building a new drug empire in the shadows. He blames Russell for everything, and he’s not coming for justice — he’s coming for war.
When Russell’s long-lost half-sister Emily — a recovering addict trying to turn her life around — disappears, the town knows who took her. But no one dares speak Wyatt’s name. Faced with a corrupt sheriff’s department, a community paralyzed by fear, and ghosts from his past, Russell must do what he swore he’d never do again: pick up a gun and go back into the furnace.
With the help of John Petty Jr., son of the old fight promoter who once dragged Rodney into the underground ring, Russell sets out on a brutal, relentless journey through the underworld of Appalachia. Every punch he throws, every man he takes down, costs him a piece of what’s left of his soul. But this time, Russell isn’t fighting for vengeance. He’s fighting for redemption. And when the cold winds blow and the steel mills finally shut down, the fires of justice will burn hotter than ever.
