The film opens inside a ash-filled forest. A corpse lies decaying on the ground and a malnourished cat climbs on top of it and begins nibbling on its feet. An arrow shoots into the cat, murdering it instantly. Eli (Denzel Washington) walks over to the cat, plucks away the arrow and bags it on behalf of dinner.
Eli walks through the abandoned road taking part in a post-apocalyptic 2043. He is a drifter and roaming out West. He finds an abandoned household and searches it in support of anything that can come about of use. He tries to fill his canteen with water, but the sinks don’t operate. He checks a closet and finds a deceased body. He takes the corpse’s boots and clears his weapons while listening to an ancient 1st Generation iPod. He roasts the cat and eats it, sharing a tiny portion with a mouse that runs by him.
The next morning, Eli wakes up and finds that his iPod is almost out of power. The car battery rig he uses to charge it is almost out of juice. Eli continues his journey West and encounters a woman with a busted cart. She asks him on behalf of help, but Eli calls out to the marauders trouncing nearby since he can smell them. The leader pushes Eli around, in need to take from him, but Eli cuts off his hand with his blade. He at that moment fights 5 marauders at the same moment and kills them all. He after that kills the leader, robs the corpses of their swag and walks away, continuing his journey West.
While he continues his journey, his iPod runs out of juice. He continues on his journey and ends up next to the edge of a destroyed high way ramp. Underneath, a pair is attacked by a assembly of bikers. The bikers murder the guy, rape the woman and take all of their books. They drive off, leaving Eli shaken but resolute within his determination not to become involved. He ponders which direction to set out in and after that ends up walking into a town. He finds the Engineer (Tom Waits) and trades him a number of wet naps and a lighter in place of a revive on his battery. While he waits, he asks if nearby is a place somewhere he can fill his canteen. He crosses the street to the bar across the street.
The bikers who killed the pair arrive by the bar and relinquish the books and items they stole from the couple to Carnegie (Gary Oldman), the mayor of the crude town. Carnegie is looking on behalf of a paperback, so he sends his illiterate henchmen to gather all the books they can. He sees the books they bring and is less than delighted. He commands that they take place burned. He takes a bottle of shampoo and tells Redridge (Ray Stevenson), his right hand guy, that the bikers are to be rewarded in favor of such a discovery. He goes to his concubine, Claudia (Jennifer Beals), and shares the shampoo with her.
Downstairs, Eli trades his gloves and a blanket in place of a full up canteen of water. The bar tender gives the canteen to Solara (Mila Kunis) and sends her out back to obtain some water. She goes out back to obtain the water, but Redridge steps appearing in front of her. She makes him move aside and fills Eli’s canteen. Inside the bar, a cat steps on his bag and he nudges it away. The head Biker approaches Eli, eager to fight him. Eli subdues him with no trouble and decides to leave lacking collecting his water. However, the whole with the exception of attacks him. He fights and kills all but one biker, who Solara begs to be spared. Redridge and Carnegie’s men control Eli by gunpoint and bring him to Carnegie.
Carnegie is impressed to encounter Eli. He recognizes Eli’s immense skill and the actuality that he is furthermore an educated guy who knows scripture. He tells Eli and that men like him, who are older but know things, are the future. He asks Eli to stay so that Carnegie can make use of his fighting skills to keep control above the town. Eli tells Carnegie that he has no significance within staying but Carnegie forces him to stay the night.
Redridge sends Claudia to serve Eli food. He recognizes that Claudia is blind and asks her if she was blind her entire life or else blinded by “The Flash”, an event which occurred at some stage in the Last Great War. She confirms that she was blind her entire life. He thanks her on behalf of bringing him water. Carnegie decides that the greatest way to keep Eli inside town is to get Solara, Claudia’s daughter, sleep with Eli. Claudia begs him not to use Solara, but he sends her anyway. Eli doesn’t choose to have sex, but Solara begs him to keep her inside the room since she is scared on behalf of her mother’s life. Eli and Solara munch together and she sees that Eli has a Bible, but doesn’t recognize what it is. Eli teaches her to pray and the two go off to bed.
The subsequently morning at breakfast, Solara tries to perform the prayer with her mother but forgets the “Amen”, which Carnegie supplies. He beats Claudia in front of Solara in order to discover if Eli has the paperback he seeks. Once Solara symbols him the cross on the cover, Carnegie commands Redridge to bring the book to him. As soon as they progress to the room, they notice that Eli snuck away. Redridge kills the guard on duty and gathers the men to locate him. Across the street, Eli gathers his battery and prepares to leave.
Carnegie goes over to Eli and begs him to stay and present him the Bible. He tells Eli that he isn’t fearful to murder Eli and take the Bible, since he thinks that it is the greatest way to keep the town under his control with “the words which can keep people righteous.” Eli tells Carnegie that he dreams of discovering a town where the folks need the book, but he tells Carnegie that it is not at this juncture. Carnegie commands Redridge to kill Eli while he walks away but Redridge misses twice. A shootout ensues and Eli kills the majority of Carnegie’s men and wound’s Carnegie’s knee. Redridge sees Eli being fearless and begrudgingly lets him leave. Behind the scenes, Claudia tells Solara to track Eli, since she will transpire safer away from Carnegie.
Carnegie gets his leg treated by a “doctor.” The bullet and shrapnel are detached and he is bandaged up. He tells Redridge to make ready the vehicles to pursue Eli and recover the book. Redridge tells Carnegie that the majority of their men are deceased and decides to use the book as power to obtain Solara being his concubine. Carnegie humorously, albeit reluctantly, agrees.
Eli travels down the road until Solara catches up to him. She wants to join him but she is rejected from the start. She offers to take him to the water supply Carnegie uses taking part in replace for the right to work being his companion. He tricks her and locks her inside the watering cell. She scrams and calls him a fraud but Eli insists that he isn’t, wishing her well and leaving on his way.
Solara breaks away of the storage area and continues to move taking part in the direction Eli was departing. She doesn’t locate him, but instead finds the woman who worked with the marauders from beforehand with her wrecked cart. She tries to help the woman, but the woman insists that she leave to keep from getting raped and killed. Two marauders attack Solara and merely such as they are approaching to rape her, Eli shoots one through the testicles with an arrow and after that shoots the other through the throat. Solara hugs Eli and the two move off on their way.
Carnegie and Redridge’s men discover the bodies of the marauders. They reckon that Eli can’t transpire further than a few miles ahead. Redridge finds a chunk of Solara’s custom clothing and tells Carnegie with displeasure. Carnegie asks if Redridge still wants her and walks back to the car. One of their henchmen suggests that they call it a day, since their cars will give them away by night and they may possibly drive completely by the duo.
Eli and Solara sleep inside an old nuclear power plant. Eli reads the book and Solara asks Eli to read it to him. He recites a small piece of it and after that puts the book away. She asks him to teach her how to read it but Eli doesn’t respond. Once she thinks he’s sleeping she goes to take a look at the book inside his bag. She sees (but can’t read) an old K Mart tag which says “Hi, my name is Eli.” Eli grabs the bag away from her and makes her move back across the room, cocking his shotgun to make her know how serious he is.
The next daytime the duo set off and hike West. Solara asks him regarding the planet prior to the War. He tells her that people had more than they wanted and threw away things that others murder for nowadays. She asks him why he keeps the book and Eli explains that it is the solitary bible left inside the planet since it was singled out meant for extermination throughout the War. He at that moment explains why he keeps bearing west, which perplexes Solara but she eventually comes to acknowledge that Eli is acting on his “faith.” He explains how he found the Bible, insisting that a Voice told him where to move and that he would remain protected. Solara thinks that Eli is delusional but says nothing.
The duo arrives by an old dwelling with a sign with the intention of says “No Trespassing”. Eli tries to ajar the door, but a trap opens up and the two fall into a gap. They observe themselves by the mercy of Martha (Frances de la Tour) and George (Michael Gambon), an elderly pair who have lived inside their household for years. They ask why they didn’t comply with the sign and Eli apologizes, saying he didn’t notice it. They hand Eli and Solara tea and at that time reveal them a graveyard overflowing with the individuals who attacked their household. Eli tells Solara that it’s time to move out, insisting that the couple are cannibals who ate their victims and may possibly have drugged the tea. While they leave, Carnegie’s caravan passes and sees the duo exiting the household. Eli and Solara re-enter the household and George and Martha draw out their gun supply from under the couch.
A stand off ensues. Carnegie tells Eli to throughout the book. Everybody is prepared for the gunfight. A covered book is hurled through the window. Redridge looks at it and realizes it’s a bomb, throwing it away and running for cover. Two cars explode, murdering several men. Eli and company fire their weapons until Redridge pulls out an RPG missile and blows half the household up, murdering Martha. George starts shooting wildly, murdering men left and right until Carnegie’s men bring out a gattling gun and blast him away along with the majority of the household. Eli and Solara are surrounded and dragged away of the household.
Carnegie threatens to execute Solara, to the dismay of Redridge. Redridge entreats Eli to give up the book and Eli tells Redridge where he hid it. Redridge recovers the book and gives it to Carnegie, who releases Solara. He says “God is good.” and Eli responds “all the time.” Carnegie responds “Well. Not all the time” and shoots Eli into the stomach. He puts Solara inside one van with Redridge and a driver and at that moment takes the book with him inside the other.
Inside the other van, Redridge puts Eli’s blade on the dash and chuckles to himself now that Eli is no more. Solara ties her shoelaces together and chokes the driver until the car flips over. The driver is killed and Carnegie’s men circle around to move to the crash. Solara throws a grenade, blowing up the third car. Solara goes to the driver’s seat and sees Redridge was impaled by Eli’s blade. He pulls the blade out and steps out of the vehicle with poise. Collapsing on his knees taking part in penance, he dies. Solara drives away and Carnegie opts not to go off after her since he has the book.
She returns to the household and finds that Eli is missing. She finds him walking West, zealously repeating his need to move West. She puts him inside the car and he treats the gunshot wound with duct tape. She apologizes on behalf of losing Eli’s book but Eli responds that it’s moment in time he put the teaching he learned to use: “to do more for others than you do for yourself.” They drive to the leftovers of the Golden Gate Bridge and Eli says that they are close. He gets a row craft and starts to row headed for Alcatraz Island. He gets weak, so Solara takes over. An armed guard calls out to the duo and Eli responds that he has taking part in his possession a King James Bible. The guard lets him inside.
Eli is taken to Lombardi (Malcolm McDowell), the curator of Alcatraz, who has been gathering all sorts of old items, such being books, vases, paintings, and storing them inside the cells until they are equipped to rebuild and reestablish society. Lombardi tells Eli that they have been missing a text of the Bible, so Eli tells him to get a piece of paper and pen. He starts to rehearse the Bible word for word, having memorized it over the preceding 30 years.
Back inside town, Carnegie tries to unlock the bible but realizes that he didn’t take Eli’s key to the book. He calls the Engineer inside to unlock the book and after it’s unlocked we perceive the truth. The Bible is appearing in braile. Eli is blind. A focus on his eyes reveals that they have been inactive since the Flash and that he has been roaming, fighting and reading through aid of his other senses. Carnegie tries to make Claudia to read it but she cruelly lies and tells him that she’s forgotten. She tells him that his leg stinks and that he’s feverish: Symbols of an infection. Meanwhile, Carnegie’s hardly any lingering men are killed and it becomes apparent that during his quest on behalf of the book, Carnegie has lost control. He collapses within despair.
Inside Alcatraz, Eli shaves all his hair and changes into a white robe. He recites the Bible to completion while Lombardi writes it down word for word. Eli dies from his gunshot wound but completes his task. Upon completion he utters one final prayer in support of Solara and the planet before he dies. He is buried inside Alcatraz’s court yard garden. Solara pays her respects, takes his blade and iPod and leaves Lombardi to return back home and locate her mother, presumably furthermore scattering the word on the order of Alcatraz and Eli during the process.
The End.