In 2012, private corporations own and manage the prison systems. Getaway driver Carl "Luke" Lucas (Luke Goss) is arrested after a robbery for his crime boss Markus Kane (Sean Bean) goes wrong. As his accomplices are robbing the bank, two police officers casually enter the building. Luke tells his accomplices to abort, but they refuse; Luke intervenes, resulting in the death of one of the three accomplices. Luke shoots and kills one of the officers and dumps off his accomplices in order to fulfill Markus's wishes. In doing so, Luke is eventually captured by the police following a high-speed chase and sentenced to serve time on Terminal Island.
Terminal Island is a prison under the control of The Weyland Corporation, which hosts Death Match, a televised pay-per-view competition where two dangerous convicts are chosen and then forced to fight to the death or submission. The prisoners are given access to weapons or defense items to use during the fight by stepping on a marked plate in the arena. Luke meets the men who eventually become his pit crew in the Death Race: Lists (Frederick Koehler), who annoys him by over-analyzing everything, Goldberg (Danny Trejo), and Rocco (Joe Vaz). The host of Death Match is September Jones (Lauren Cohan), a former Miss Universe who lost her crown due to allegations of having a sexual relationship with all of its judges. She now works for The Weyland Corporation to create profit from the pay per view subscribers of Death Match. When a convict tries to stab Lists (because of his nature and weakness, as he was convicted only of swindling), Luke takes it upon himself to defend him.
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