Wanted
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Rated: R
Wesley Gibson works at a dead-end desk job with an overbearing boss, takes anti-anxiety medication for panic attacks, and has a live-in girlfriend who cheats on him with his best friend. One night in the pharmacy, Wesley is told by a mysterious woman named Fox that his father was a recently murdered assassin, and the killer, Cross, is behind him. Cross and Fox engage in a shoot-out followed by a car chase in the streets of Chicago. Gibson is brought to the headquarters of The Fraternity, a thousand-year-old secret society of assassins. The group's leader, Sloan, explains that Wesley's panic attacks are actually the untrained expression of a rare superhuman ability; when stressed, the drastically increased heart rate and adrenaline levels result in bursts of superhuman strength, speed and reflexes. The Fraternity can teach him to control this ability, so Wesley can follow in his father's footsteps as an assassin, beginning by inheriting his fortune. Wesley is initially reluctant and returns to work, only to finally snap when discovering more than 3 million dollars in his bank account. He tells off his boss in front of the entire office and on his way out, hits his "friend" Barry in the face. Fox is waiting outside to take him back to the Fraternity headquarters - an unassuming textile mill.
Wesley is then subjected to brutal training; among other forms of combat, he learns to curve bullets fired from smoothbore firearms around objects. Afterward, Wesley is shown the Loom of Fate, a loom that gives the names of the targets through binary code hidden in weaving errors of the fabric. Those the loom identifies apparently will cause tragedy in the future; but only Sloan sees and interprets the names "Fate" wants to kill. Wesley is initially reluctant about killing people. Then Fox reveals that in her childhood, a hired killer burned her father alive in front of her—and said hitman was supposed to be killed by the Fraternity. She now considers preventing such tragedy her mission.
After several routine missions and a chance meeting with Cross, in which Wesley is shot in the arm with a deliberately traceable bullet, Sloan grants Wesley's wish to avenge his father and sends him after Cross - but then secretly gives Fox a mission to kill Wesley, saying that Wesley's name had come up in the Loom as well. Analyzing the bullet that hit Wesley, it is discovered that the manufacturer was Pekwarsky, a bullet-maker living in eastern Moravia. Wesley and Fox travel there and capture Pekwarsky, who arranges a meeting with Cross. Wesley faces Cross alone on a moving train. Fox steals a car and crashes it into the train, eventually causing a derailment. After Cross saves Wesley’s life by preventing him from falling into the ravine, he is shot by Wesley. Before dying, Cross reveals that he is Wesley's real father. Fox confirms the truth and explains that Wesley was recruited because he was the only person that Cross wouldn't kill. Fox then reveals the kill order on Wesley and raises her gun, but Wesley escapes by shooting out the glass underneath him and plunging into the river below.
Wesley is retrieved by Pekwarsky, who takes him to his father's apartment, located across the street from Wesley's old home. Pekwarsky explains that Sloan started manufacturing targets for profit after discovering that he was targeted by the Loom of Fate, and didn't tell the Fraternity members that they were now nothing more than paid killers. Cross discovered the truth and went rogue, and started killing Fraternity members to keep them away from his son. Pekwarsky departs stating that Wesley's father wished him a life free of violence. Wesley, however, decides to take out Sloan after discovering a secret room containing all of his father's weapons and maps.
Upon entering Sloan's office after killing nearly every Fraternity member, he reveals Sloan's deception to the master assassins present in the room. Sloan then states that all of their names had come up in the weaving, and that he had merely acted to protect them. Were they to follow the code, every one of them should kill themselves on the spot. Otherwise, they should kill Wesley. Fox, who believes in the code more than anyone due to her own experience, turns on her fellow assassins, and "curves" a bullet that kills every Fraternity member in the room, including herself. Knowing that Wesley would attempt to save her, Fox distracts Wesley by throwing her gun towards Wesley, everyone in the room dies besides Wesley. Sloan manages to escape.
Wesley, penniless once again, does not know what to do with himself. While Wesley provides a voice-over, the audience sees a man sitting in front of a computer much like Wesley did at the beginning of the film. Sloan appears and points a gun at back of the man's head. At that moment, the man turns around and is revealed to be a decoy. Sloan is then killed by Wesley using a long-distance untraceable bullet. Similar to the comic, the film ends with Wesley turning to the camera and breaking the fourth wall, saying, "This is me taking back control of my life. What the fuck have you done lately?"
