Daredevil (Daredevil 2003)


 * This page is about the incarnation of Daredevil from the 2003 movie. The mainstream version can be found here: Daredevil or if you want the incarnation of Daredevil from Marvel Cinematic Universe, it's right here: Daredevil (Marvel Cinematic Universe).

"They say your whole life flashes before your eyes when you die. And it's true--even for a blind man."

- Matt Murdock/Daredevil's opening lines

"Hell's Kitchen is my neighborhood. I prowl the rooftops and alleyways at night, watching from the darkness. Forever in darkness. A guardian devil."

- Daredevil

"I hope justice is found here today, before justice finds you."

- Matt Murdock

Daredevil (real name: Matthew "Matt" Murdock) is the titular main protagonist of the 2003 Marvel superhero movie of the same name. He is a blind laywer who protects those who are not handled well by the Justice System and in the nights, he is a costumed superhero vigilante known as Daredevil.

He is portrayed by who would later portray another super hero Batman (Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice).

Daredevil
Note: These are scenes that were in the Director's Cut.

Matthew Murdock was a boy who was threateningly bullied by three kids on the streets of New York City. He was forbidden by his father, Jack "the Devil" Murdock to be a fighter like him and tells he should stay in school and focus more on books.

One day after school, Matt first stopped by at his father's job in the construction site so he can tell him the how good he was doing in school. So he asked one of the workers if he is there, the worker said no and tell him to get lost.

Matt dropped his report card on a puddle, Matt was on his way home until he heard someone getting mug. He walked towards the ally and was stun as he saw his father mugging an innocent man.

Couldn't stand the fact of what he saw his father doing, he ran away as his father try to stop him.

Matt stopped as a truck was about to hit him which caused the truck to make a detour, piercing some toxic waste canisters, spilling the waste into Matt's eyes, which caused him to go blind.

He woke up at the hospital as he heard loud sounds and has a strange vision like a thinking a car was going to hit him.

He was nervous and didn't seem to know what was going on. Later Jack came in and Matt explained that he is blind after over hearing what the doctor said to his father. Jack apologized and Matt gave him a hug.

Matt now wheres sun glasses due to his blindness and reads in Braille. He soon discovered that despite losing his sight his four remaining senses function with super human sharpness like a radar sense.

He demonstrated by punching on a mini punching bag. He soon discovered he has more flexibility and the entire city was his playground. He even the ability to stand up against the kids who bullied him he became the boy without fear.

One fateful night, he watched his father in the ring fighting with an opponent he was suppose to let win but Jack didn't want to disappoint his son, so he won the fight and said that it was for Matt.

Outside, Matt waited for his father who walked out in an ally and was beaten by a gang after he won the fight he was suppose to lose.

With his hearing sense, Matt hear his father go through beating after beating and a big one showed up and gave Jack a punch which lead to his death. Matt ran and saw the body of his father down on the ground and broke down.

At this moment on, he vow the vengeance against the man who killed his father as well as promising that he will serve justice believing that no one else would.

Years later, Matt has grown up and become a lawyer. He was assign to prosecute a man by the name of Quesada who was accused of raping an innocent woman.

When Quesada was telling his view point of the story, Matt could already tell that he was indeed perjuring due to hearing his heart. However, he considered innocent and got away scott.

Upset about Quesada's realized, Matt decided to go out to the night as Daredevil and find Quesada. He found him at a club and tooked down most of his men which lead Quesada to run away in panic.

He chased Quesada down to the subway and stringed his neck until he heard a the sound of the train causing his own power to be his weakness.

Quesada pointed a gun on him and said to go to hell, but Daredevil said that Quesada will beat him there. He caused Quesada to tripped and plummet at the train tracks. With another that was gonna run over him.

Going home bruised, he listen to the message that his girlfriend sent him claiming that she is breaking up with him for not being there for her.

As he was about to sleep in his coffin he heard the sound of a woman getting shot by an unknown person.

The sound was so close to Matt as it's like it was coming from his apartment. He lie on his coffin and fell a sleep. He had a vision of a nun visiting Matt at his hospital bed as a child.

One morning, he and his friend Foggy Nelson were at the coffee shop explaining about Daredevil. It was interrupted as Matt smell some perfume coming this way and there he saw a beautiful woman entering the coffee shop. Matt made numerous attempts to find out her name.

He even play fight with her at the park where kids were witnessing. She had the upper hand and said her name: Elektra Natchios and she and Matt immediately hit it off.

She left as her limousine appeared and promise Matt that she will find him. Once she left, Matt realized that he was late for court as he felt the timer on his watch that it was pass noon which he was suppose to be there by noon.

At the court house Matt and Foggy were assign to help a client name Dante Jackson who was accused of murdering a prostitute by the name Lisa Tazio. Matt come to the conclusion that he is innocent after checking with the sense of his heart.

Matt and Foggy went to Lisa Tazio's home and investigated on the shooting. Matt felt something written on her wooden table which was spelled M, O, M, and the numbers where 6-8.

Foggy wrote it down on his paper and jumped to the conclusion that her mother killed because he just want to get out of here.

At the court house, Matt struggles to claim that his client is innocent, as the prosecutor: Officer Robert McKensie proves he is guilty.

Matt stumbled to a conflict that he was McKensie was telling the truth as well. Then both Matt and Foggy witnesses reporter Ben Urich sitting at the back of the courthouse wondering what he was doing here.

Later that night, Matt bumped into Elektra and took her to the roof as the rain came and Matt could see her through the rain saying that she was beautiful. The two shared a kiss until Matt heard someone getting mug far away from where they are.

This led him to leave Elektra behind confused as Matt went on as Daredevil to stopped thug. The thug witness Daredevil from a huge shadow behind him and ran away.

Daredevil chased the thug to an apartment room and beat him down. He then saw a kid who witness to whole thing in front of him and was scared to death. Daredevil try to explained to the kid that he is not the bad guy. He then repeat himself saying it on the roof.

The next morning, he went to church where the persist said that they open on Sunday, but Matt said that he like it when it is silence and demonstrated when he hears noise coming from outside. The persist claims that he like the loneliness.

He left church and went into his office as one of the workers, Karen Page gave him an invention that was sent by Elektra, for Matt to join the party that her father Nikolas Natchios is hosting.

At first, Matt refuse in going after the night before and intends to end his relationship with Elektra.

He attended anyway after getting some encouragement from Foggy, and they met with Wilson Fisk who is a friend of Natchio's and Fisk's assistant Wesley Owen Welch.

Matt sense Elektra on a balcony and approached her and apologized for leaving the other night.

They went downstairs and danced until Elektra spotted her father walking away. They followed him outside as Natchios went inside his limousine. Elektra went inside despite her father telling her not to go, leaving Matt behind confused and concerned.

As suspicious as he is, Matt went out as Daredevil and followed Natchios' limousine. In the middle of the road, Bullseye appeared and killed the driver. Daredevil appeared and had a small fight.

He discovered that Bullseye has one of his weapons and used it on Natchios to kill him which in turns frames Daredevil.

He went home angry that he failed to keep the promise he made to his father. The next morning, he attended to Natchios' funeral to comfort Elektra, but Elektra wanted revenge.

Matt tries to explain that it will not make the pain go away and offers her to stay with him, but she refuse and went into her limousine leaving Matt depress.

As he was heading to take a cab, Urich came and insist on helping him with the Lisa Tazio case for his Kingpin story and told him that his client Dante Jackson is innocent.

He also told him that he has a cousin who runs a mersadise and sold his 500 SL to Officer McKenise, which proves that McKenise was lying.

The same night, Matt interrogated McKenise, by driving his mersadise to get him to talk.

Matt discovered that McKenise made a deal with the pacemaker, but McKenise informs him that he works for the Kingpin and if he comes across him he is going to kill everyone he cares about.

Taking this to heart, Matt returned home and put his Daredevil suit on to track down Bullseye.

He was unfortunately attack by Elektra, whom she believes Daredevil killed her father, but Daredevil tried to explain that he was framed by Bullseye, but she doesn't believe him.

She stabbed him with one of her sais and unmasked him realizing that it was Matt, and apologized. She was confronted by Bullseye went on a duel, but she couldn't match Bullseye agility and so Bullseye killed her with one of her sais.

Angry for losing the woman he loves, Daredevil went to church incredibly wounded and was unmask by the priest, as it was revealed to him as Matt. Bullseye stepped in and demanded a duel with Daredevil as the priest left in Daredevil's wishes.

After putting his mask back on, Daredevil went on a duel with Bullseye. As they were fighting Bullseye discovered his weakness which is loud noises. Bullseye also revealed that Fisk is the Kingpin and was hired to kill both Natchios and Elekra, but would do Daredevil for free.

As Bullseye was about to stab him, Daredevil hear the sound of sniper wield by an officer standing on a roof top across from them. Daredevil used it as he advantage for the sniper to shot at Bullseye's hands and threw him out of a window landing on a police car. Daredevil left church and went into Fisk's office to confront him, but due to Fisk's weight and strength, he was no match for him. Fisk unmasked him, and was surprised to see that his enemy is blind Matt Murdock.

Matt outsmarted Fisk by breaking the glass that was contain with water, so he be able to see Fisk, just like how he saw Elektra in the rain. Matt was about to use Fisk's cane against him, but place it in front of him as Matt said that he is not the bad guy.

They heard police sirens, and Fisk said that they are coming for Matt, but Matt claims that word is out on the Kingpin after Foggy discovered that M.O.M. and 6-8 it spelled upside down as it was written 8-9 and W.O.W. which it initials Wesley Owen Welch as the murderer and 8-9 is the date of the murder of Lisa Tazio was August 9 and tells Urich on the phone who passed on to Detective Nick Manolis which he interrogated Welch.

Fisk tells Matt that he will be coming for him when he gets out and Matt said that he will be waiting and left.

The next morning, Matt and Foggy congratulate Dante for his release, and went into the coffee reading the paper of Fisk's reveal as the Kingpin.

Later on Matt stopped by at the church until Urich came as he thank him for his help, but Urich told him he is writing another story in that he knows that he is Daredevil after seeing the weapon that was used on Natchios and with Matt having something similar to his cane at Natchios' party, but later decided not published after the strong friendship he and Matt build and accepted him as Daredevil.

Personality
Toward his enemies as Daredevil, Murdock is brutal, unrelenting and even cruel. He openly shows no mercy however as Matt he was capable of giving them a chance to go to jail on their own terms or at least the city's.

Matt isn't completely immoral and was never seen actually seen killing an opponent but the closest he came was allowing Jose Quesada to be run over by a train, while taunting him almost sadistically. However his mercilessness can make him feared by the people he encounters, such as a little boy who saw him beat a low-down thug to a pulp.

He shows absolutely no concern towards the wellbeing of opponents which was probably brought on by his own father being killed without compassion, he threw Bullseye out of the church window and caused him to land on a nearby police car albeit he did survive but was horribly incapacitated.

Murdock can be something of a hypocrite at times, as such when he claimed towards his priest (in the theatrical version) that what he was doing was in the name of justice it was in reality a personal vendetta.

Matt does seem to hold justice in a high regard but despite his he himself has commites breaking and entering and manslaughter.

Murdock's traumatic past make it difficult to trust people, coming off as emotionally closed and distant which was probably brought on by his "daddy issues", seeing Jack Murdock mugging a person which causes him to run away which causes the loss of his sight.

After this Murdock was asked to dock a fight however he refused for the good of his son and then was beaten to death by Wilson Fisk which made him feel tremendous guilt.

Murdock has difficulty maintaining a relationship which was shown when his girlfriend, Heather broke up with him after three months, the longest standing relationship he has had with a woman was with Elektra Natchio but tragically she was killed by Bullseye.

Matt does seem to have a sense of humour, such as while choking Quesada he asks "how you doing!" And when he was helplessly laid across the trian asks, mockingly says "that light at the end of the tunnel, that's not heaven. That's the C-Train!"

A difference between Murdock and his partner, Foggy Nelson was more concerned about getting money and earning clients than Matt was about declaring people's innocence, proving depsite him being a superhero he was a lawyer inside and out.

Trivia

 * Although Ben Affleck is a fan of the character, acting him out was such an unpleasant experience that, in November 2006, Affleck stated that he'd never reprise the role, having felt "by playing a superhero in "Daredevil", I've inoculated myself from ever playing another superhero. Wearing a costume was a source of humiliation for me and something I wouldn't want to do again soon." It is believed that the Daredevil costume was very uncomfortable to wear. However, in 2013 Affleck accepted an agreement to play Batman starting with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016).
 * Ben Affleck had to wear heavy duty contact lenses during filming, which obscured most of his vision.
 * This version of Daredevil is confirmed to be similar to Frank Miller's take on the character due to director Mark Steven Johnson to be a fan of that version.