Street Fighter

MADISON KANE is an Afghan War veteran living on the streets with her heroin addicted friend ELLIE. An alcoholic who struggles with PTSD, Madison competes in fifty-dollar street-fights organized by low-level mobster DUKE to keep her and Ellie in drugs and booze.

When Madison sees a (closed) store being robbed and petrol-bombed, she braves the flames to steal “supplies,” but the store owner JACK CHARLEGRAND arrives.

He tries to accost Madison but she fights back and Jack is knocked out. Madison can’t leave him to die, so she drags him out and flees into the night.

But in the altercation, Jack has snagged her dog-tags and resolves to track her down to thank her for saving his life.

He finds her at a streetfight where he watches her get beaten into unconsciousness. Jack intervenes – to the displeasure of Duke’s boss and local kingpin CORBYN RAINES. But Jack – an ex special-forces operative – makes short work of “security” and takes Madison to his place.

Ellie makes her way to “the drugs house” to procure heroin. Here, Duke is recruiting women to work at Raines’s new Fight Club. Raines has ambitions above these back-alley brawls and wants to hold high end competitions (and make more money).

Ellie is young, pretty, desperate and an addict – she’s perfect fodder and Duke recruits her, offering her pay and a place to live.

Madison regains consciousness at Jack’s and Jack offers to help her get clean by way of thanks. She rebuffs him because she has Ellie to look after. However, on returning to their tent, she finds Ellie gone. Madison goes to the drugs house and is informed by the dealer that Ellie “took off.”

Feeling abandoned, Madison returns to Jack – who has money problems of his own due to the shop insurance not paying out fast enough. The two strike a deal – Jack will train Madison and help her get clean: in return, they will split the fight purses.

With Jack’s help, Madison climbs the ranks quickly. There is more to Jack’s offer to help is more than pure altruism: Jack sees it as a chance for redemption.

He brought his own demons back from the Gulf War in the 90s, demons that caused his own slide into alcoholism, demons that caused a furious row with his wife who fled the house with their young child.

Demons that caused his wife and child to be killed in a car accident. If he hadn’t been drinking – they never would have left that night.

He confides in Madison who in return, reveals her own trauma. When her armored column was attacked by the Taliban she ran away: She could have saved some lives, but she fled and now considers herself a coward. The guilt she carries has broken her.

The two damaged former soldiers help to heal each other as Madison’s fight career progresses. After defeating a ranked out-of-towner, Duke offers an injured Madison a chance to fight at Raines’s Fight Club. She accepts and wins her fight – but in doing so, her already cracked ribs are damaged further.

After the fight, Raines is showing her around and she sees ELLIE.

Ellie is working as hostess-cum-escort. After an overdose where she was rushed to hospital, she now owes Raines thousands and is “working it off” (with all that that entails).

Madison resolves to buy her friend out. This time she can save someone… maybe this time she won’t be a coward.

Raines sets up a fight with the reigning champion SKYLAR STONE, but when Jack learns that Madison has cracked ribs, he wants to call it off. But Madison refuses – she can’t abandon Ellie to his and there will be no second chances with Raines.

It is the fight of Madison’s life, a fight where she has to push herself further than she’s ever gone, a fight that nearly kills her.

Battered, bruised and broken, she defeats Skylar with an incredible display of courage: she put it all on the line to save someone else and proves to herself that she’s not a coward after all.

Raines, true to his word, frees Ellie: She, Jack and Madison leave the Fight Club to begin anew.