Genetically engineered assassin
Agent 47 (
David Bateson) is ordered by the International Contract Agency (ICA), to kill his former handler Diana Burnwood (
Marsha Thomason), who, for unknown reasons, has betrayed the organisation: Diana had sabotaged funding streams and publicized their database, bringing undesired attention to the Agency. 47 infiltrates Diana's
Chicago estate and reluctantly shoots her in the bathroom. Whilst
bleeding out, Diana reveals she betrayed the Agency to prevent a genetically engineered teenage girl named Victoria (
Isabelle Fuhrman) from becoming an assassin like 47. She asks 47 to protect Victoria, leading 47's new handler, Benjamin Travis (
Powers Boothe), to brand him a traitor. As the Agency knows all of 47's
safe houses, 47 hides Victoria at the Redwood Orphanage before meeting a disgraced ICA informant known as 'Birdie' (
Steven Bauer). 47 and Birdie broker a deal in which 47 agrees to kill a local
crime lord called the 'King of Chinatown' and trade his famous
Silverballer pistols for information. After 47 meets his end of the deal, Birdie tells 47 about a man named Blake Dexter (
Keith Carradine), an international arms dealer. 47 sneaks into the air ducts adjacent to Dexter's room in the Terminus Hotel and learns that Dexter and his secretary/mistress Layla Stockton (
Traci Lords) intend to kidnap Victoria and sell her to the highest bidder. Before he can confront the pair, 47 is knocked out by Dexter's genetically engineered bodyguard, Sanchez (
Isaac C. Singleton Jr.), who resists 47's
piano wire. Dexter frames 47 for the murder of a hotel
maid before setting the hotel suite alight, from which 47 narrowly escapes. Pursued by police, 47 evades an extensive police presence by escaping through an abandoned library into a
hippie commune and then out through the Chicago subway network. 47 then kills one of Dexter's informants, a mobster named Dom Osmond (Jon Curry), at his
strip club. 47 discovers that Dexter has hired a group of mercenaries led by Edward Wade (
Larry Cedar) to ensure the capture of Victoria. Wade subsequently dispatches Bill Dole (Nicolas Roye), Larry Clay (James Sie), and Frank Owens (Jeffrey Johnson) to capture Birdie and find Victoria. Though 47 successfully kills Dole, Clay and Owens during a
Chinese New Year celebration, Birdie is caught by Sanchez and trades Victoria's location for his life. 47 rushes back to the Orphanage and eliminates Wade and his assault team. However, Dexter's son Lenny (Shane Stevens), managing to be in the right place at the right time, grabs Victoria and escapes. After obtaining Lenny's location from a bartender during a
bar fight, Birdie provides 47 with the address of a gun store holding his 'Silverballer' pistols. From there, 47 moves onto the town of Hope, South Dakota, unaware that Birdie has also contacted the ICA and Detective Cosmo Faulkner (
Jonathan Adams) of the
Chicago PD, culminating in several attempts to kill 47 by the Agency throughout the remainder of the game. Despite the town being firmly under Dexter Industries' control, 47 is able to covertly kill the entirety of Lenny's gang, the Hope Cougars. In doing so, 47 disrupts the gang's plan to sell Victoria to a rival weapons corporation for a significant payout. 47 then kidnaps Lenny and interrogates him in the
desert, before either killing or abandoning him. 47 then continues on to a Dexter Industries' facility, infiltrating its laboratory and eliminating key leadership within the science division tasked with examining Victoria, and destroys their research. 47 also discovers an unlicensed
mixed martial arts bout taking place on site at which he is able to kill Sanchez. 47 recuperates at a
Hawaiian-themed
motel named Waikiki Inn, but is suddenly attacked by an Agency division led by "The Saints", Travis' all-female personal hit squad. 47 moves through the motel, eliminating the majority of the Saints before escaping out of the grounds and into the neighboring farm land. There, he identifies a mobile
command post and finishes off the remaining Saints before tracking Victoria to Hope Courthouse jail, run by corrupt sheriff and Dexter ally Clive Skurky (
Jon Gries). However, 47 is captured and tortured instead. As 47 escapes from the jail, Travis summons Dexter to a meeting in which he seeks to buy Victoria back for $10 million. The ICA launches a full scale assault on the town. 47 evades the Agency and eventually corners Skurky in a church, who reveals that Dexter and Travis will be meeting to sell Victoria at Blackwater Park, Chicago. 47 kills Skurky, infiltrates Blackwater, makes his way into Dexter's residence, and kills Layla before finally hunting Dexter himself to the top of the park. As Dexter's men rig the building to explode, 47 successfully prevents Dexter's escape via helicopter, mortally wounding him. After lamenting the loss of his son and money, Dexter is left to die alone. Several months later, Travis and the ICA exhume Diana's grave at the Burnwood crypt in
Cornwall, suspecting she has faked her death. Working with Diana, 47 kills Travis' assistant Jade (
Shannyn Sossamon) and his elite "
Praetorian Guards" before mortally wounding Travis himself. Travis rants at him for wasting Victoria's potential for the ICA, and asks whether Diana is really dead, to which 47 responds "You will never know" before finishing him off. Sometime later, 47 observes Diana and Victoria from a rooftop across
Lake Michigan via
sniper rifle, confirming that Diana did fake her death with 47's help and is now looking after Victoria. The game ends with a message from Diana to Agent 47 welcoming him back to the ICA and thanking him, as his actions have helped purge the ICA of internal corruption. In the final scene, Detective Cosmo Faulkner, who has been tracking 47 since the Terminus Hotel fire, is having trouble discovering 47's identity until Birdie appears and offers to help him for a price as the door slowly closes. ==Development==