Trama

Matt Murdock (Ben Affleck) is a blind lawyer in New York City's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, where he runs a firm with best friend Franklin "Foggy" Nelson (Jon Favreau). As a child, Matt was blinded by a toxic waste spill while walking home from school after discovering that his father, former boxer Jack "The Devil" Murdock (David Keith), had become an enforcer for a local mobster Eddie Fallon (Mark Margolis).

The accident enhanced Matt's other senses and gave him sonar to "see" via sonic vibrations. Matt trained himself in martial arts. Blaming himself for Matt's disability, Jack stopped being an enforcer, returned to boxing. Later, after Fallon reveals that he enabled Jack's comeback by bribing his previous opponents to let him win, he attempts to bribe Jack to throw his next match and has him murdered once he refuses. After his father's death, Young Matthew promised to stop all crime that controlled Hell's Kitchen, New York as the vigilante crime-fighter "Daredevil".

Years later, an adult Matt works as an attorney in Hell's Kitchen with his friend Franklin "Foggy" Nelson (Jon Favreau), providing legal representation Pro Bono to clients whom he believes are actually innocent.

Ben Urich, a New York Post reporter who chronicles Daredevil's exploits, attracts attention for a series of articles on "The Kingpin", a shadowy underworld figure who allegedly controls all of the city's organized crime. Unbeknownst to Urich, the Kingpin is actually Wilson Fisk, a brutal mobster who poses as a legitimate businessman.

In the present day, Matt meets Elektra Natchios (Jennifer Garner), a Greek-American woman skilled in martial arts, unaware that she is the daughter of Fisk's lieutenant Nikolas Natchios (Erick Avari), a businessman who has dealings with Wilson Fisk (Michael Clarke Duncan), a rich executive. When Nikolas tries to bail on his dealings with Fisk, the mobster hires the Irish hit-man Bullseye (Colin Farrell), who has preternatural aim, to kill him.

Meanwhile Elektra and Matt develop a friendship that blossoms into romance. Matt doesn't reveal his alter identity to Elektra. Matt takes Elektra to a roof that has a beautiful view of the city. There he gifts Elektra a necklace, but with braille engravings instead of English.

Matt handles cases of defenseless folks from Hell's kitchen & realizes that most crimes are committed by rich white folks, protected by the Kingpin. Matt is invited to party by Elektra, where Kingpin privately threatens Nikolas. Nikolas leaves the party in haste with Elektra, when he is attacked by Bullseye.

Matt tries to stop Bullseye, but Bullseye ultimately succeeds in killing Nikolas and framing Matt in the process. Bullseye steals Daredevil's weapon converted baton and impales Natchios with it, killing him and framing Daredevil. Elektra only sees Daredevil on the scene & vows to exact revenge, while reporter Ben Urich (Joe Pantoliano) discovers his secret identity. Afterward, Urich deduces that Matt is Daredevil after realizing that he disguises his baton as a white cane. Believing Matt to have done good things for Hell's Kitchen, Urich tells Matt that Bullseye is going after Elektra next.

Matt tracks Bullseye, but is attacked by Elektra, who plans to use her own extensive training in martial arts to avenge her father's death. Elektra tracks Daredevil down and challenges him to a fight before incapacitating him by stabbing him through the shoulder. Daredevil protests that he did not kill her father, but Elektra doesn't listen until she forcibly unmasks him and realizes that he is Matt.

Moments later, when Bullseye tracks Elektra down, Matt is forced to watch helplessly. Forced to fight Bullseye alone, Elektra is overpowered and killed by the hit-man. A wounded Matt makes his way to a church, where he is looked after by his confidante, Father Everett (Derrick O'Connor), who knows his secret identity.

After recovering slightly, Matt fights Bullseye, who had followed him to the church. Bullseye discovers that loud noise is Matt's weakness and prepares to kill him with a spiked piece of wood after incapacitating him. Bullseye reveals that Kingpin killed Matt's father, leaving behind a rose on his body as a calling card. Matt blocks the attack and hears an FBI sniper stationed on the neighboring building preparing to fire (The FBI arrived at the search after reports of gun shots coming from the church). As the bullet is fired, Matt moves out of the bullet's path and pulls Bullseye's hands into it, depriving him of his powerful aim. When Bullseye pleads for mercy, Matt throws him from the church's bell. Bullseye lands on the hood of Urich's car, wounded but alive.

Upon discovering Fisk is the Kingpin and Bullseye's employer, Matt makes his way to Fisk's office. Fisk proves to be a surprisingly powerful combatant due to his size and brute strength, overwhelming Matt for most of the fight. Lying on the floor, Matt questions Fisk as to why he killed the people Murdock loved, including Jack Murdock years before; Fisk replies it was just business.

Angered, Matt regains his strength and uses his sonar hearing to see Fisk after he is drenched in water from a sprinkler head. Matt breaks Fisk's legs, but refrains from killing him, instead allowing him to be arrested by the police, who have discovered his criminal connections. Before being taken away, Fisk - who had also discovered Matt's secret identity after overpowering him - swears revenge on Matt, who points out that Fisk cannot reveal Matt's secret identity because he will be humiliated by being beaten by a blind man.

Sometime after Elektra's death, Matt visits the roof of his apartment, where the two of them first kissed, and unexpectedly finds Elektra's necklace with her name engraved upon it in braille, hinting that she might still be alive. Urich prepares to publish an article revealing Daredevil's identity, but decides against it at the last minute, finally accepting that Daredevil's efforts have improved the city. He exits the New York Post office into the night outside and sees Matt atop a roof, saying "Go get them, Matt", to which Daredevil nods his head and takes off, leaping off the building to pursue his nightly crime-fighting routine.

Elsewhere, a heavily bandaged Bullseye awakens in a heavily guarded hospital room and kills a fly with a syringe needle.