Plot
James Dalton is a professional bouncer working security for a club in New York City. Although stoic and cool-headed, Dalton is tormented by memories of a man he killed in self-defense by ripping out his throat. Frank Tilghman, a businessman, recruits Dalton to take over security at his club "Double Deuce" in Jasper, Missouri. Tilghman plans to invest substantial funds into the dilapidated club and needs Dalton's highly regarded skills to tackle the endemic violence and rough customers. Dalton agrees in exchange for full authority over the club's operations and immediately fires several employees for poor behavior, theft, and drug dealing. For privacy, Dalton stays in a sparse barn owned by a farmer named Emmett, unaware that the mansion on the adjacent lake belongs to Brad Wesley, a crime lord who controls the town through bribery, intimidation, and violence.
Wesley's nephew Pat McGurn, who is one of the fired employees, attempts to intimidate Tilghman into giving him his job back, but fails. Pat later attacks Dalton, who, with the help of his new bouncers, badly injures Pat and his accomplices. Receiving a knife wound in the process, Dalton visits a hospital, befriending Dr. Elizabeth Clay, to whom Wesley is also attracted. After sending his henchmen to unsuccessfully try to disrupt business at the Double Deuce, Wesley offers to hire Dalton himself. Dalton refuses, and Wesley uses his connections to prevent the Double Deuce from purchasing alcohol from any suppliers. Dalton uses his own connections to secure some supplies and reunites with his mentor Wade Garrett, an aging bouncer who arrives in town after a disconcerting phone call from Dalton. Wesley sends his men to destroy the Double Deuce's supplies, but Dalton and Garrett defeat them.
One evening, the auto shop adjacent to the Double Deuce — owned by Elizabeth's uncle Red Webster — is destroyed by arson. After Dalton and the crowd return inside the Double Deuce, they find Wesley awaiting them, who deploys his henchman, Jimmy Reno, to instigate a massive brawl with the Double Deuce bouncers. When Dalton intervenes, Wesley calls an end to the fight and leaves the bar. Wesley continues tightening his grip on Jasper by sabotaging other businesses while the local owners discuss their futile efforts to stop him. Garrett and Elizabeth both attempt to calm Dalton, trying to assuage his guilt about killing in self-defense and his frustration at being unable to end Wesley's campaign. Tensions peak when Reno blows up Emmett's home. Although Emmett is saved, the enraged Dalton fights Reno, killing him in self-defense by ripping out his throat when Reno draws a gun, much to Elizabeth's shock and disgust.
Later, Wesley contacts Dalton, threatening to kill either Elizabeth or Garrett by coin toss: Heads for Elizabeth, Tails for Garrett. A badly beaten Garrett arrives at the Double Deuce, while Dalton leaves to check on Elizabeth, who is safe but unwilling to leave with him. Dalton returns to the bar to find Garrett slumped on the bar. Assuming he's drunk, Dalton attempts to wake him before turning him over and discovering he's been stabbed to death, with a note pinned to the knife reading "It was Tails". Distraught, Dalton storms Wesley's estate, kills most of his henchmen, and defeats Wesley, but refrains from killing Wesley himself. Elizabeth arrives and reconciles with Dalton, but Wesley recovers and attempts to shoot him before being shot dead by the locals, including Emmett and Red. The police arrive, but all who are present claim they saw nothing.
Sometime later, the modernized and refined Double Deuce bustles with customers while Dalton and Elizabeth swim together in a lake.
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