The Wachowskis stated that their script was completely rewritten by Helgeland and that they tried to remove their names from the film but failed.

[5][6] Assassin Robert Rath plans to retire, haunted by the memory of murdering his mentor Nicolai several years ago.

As Rath tries to figure out who sent Bain, his contractor offers him a lucrative job that could allow him to retire: kill a notorious computer hacker named Electra along with four Dutch buyers of a computer disk she possesses, then retrieve the disk.

Electra has set up CCTV cameras and an elaborate mechanism for remotely moving items between rooms in the building where she is based.

After surviving the attempt on his life, Rath is told by Electra that she swapped the disk, unsure if he would come back.

Rath demands a greatly increased fee from his contact for the genuine disk, with the money to be wired to a bank in Puerto Rico.

Rath and Electra travel to the bank, where he concludes that Bain will use an adjacent abandoned hotel as a sniper post.

With Bain seemingly dead, Nicolai appears and reveals that he had worn a bulletproof vest when Rath shot him years earlier.

Electra puts on her sunglasses, allowing Rath to use the reflection to aim a shot backwards through his own jacket, killing Bain.

The script was similar to the final film, but with a more developed love story between Rath and Electra and a briefer ending without the character of Nicolai.

[7] The film was shot in Seattle, Washington, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Portland, Oregon.