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The Crow

On Devil's Night in crime-ravaged, decrepit Detroit, a young woman, Shelly Webster, is raped and mortally wounded, while her rock musician fiancé, Eric Draven, is shot and thrown to his death from the window of their loft apartment. Police Sergeant Daryl Albrecht accompanies Shelly to the hospital, where she eventually dies from her injuries. A narration recounts the legend of a crow that carries souls to the land of the dead; if a person dies under tragic circumstances, the crow can resurrect their restless spirit to set things right.

One year later, Shelly and Eric's graves are visited by Sarah, a young girl the pair cared for due to her neglectful mother. A crow lands on Eric's gravestone and taps on it, resurrecting him. Disoriented and distressed, Eric returns to their ruined loft and experiences flashbacks of the murders: a gang of men—Tin Tin, Funboy, T-Bird, and Skank—attacked the couple because they were protesting forced evictions in their apartment building, which the gang’s leader, the ruthless crime boss Top Dollar, intended to seize. Realizing that any injury he suffers heals instantly, Eric dons black-and-white face paint and sets out to avenge himself and Shelly, guided by the crow.

The crow leads Eric to Tin Tin, whom he stabs to death. He next visits the pawn shop where Tin Tin had pawned Shelly's engagement ring. Eric recovers the ring and blows up the shop but spares the owner, Gideon, so he can alert Top Dollar's men that Eric is coming for them, only for Top Dollar to kill Gideon. Albrecht begins investigating the apparent vigilante disturbances, while Eric finds Funboy taking drugs with Sarah's estranged, addicted mother, Darla. He gives Funboy a fatal overdose and purges the drugs from Darla's body, telling her that Sarah needs her.

Eric visits Albrecht and confirms his suspicions about the vigilante's identity. Albrecht tells Eric that he stayed with Shelly until she died, witnessing the thirty hours of suffering she endured. Eric touches Albrecht, absorbing the pain Shelly felt. Later, Eric saves Sarah from being hit by a car, revealing to her that he has returned. Eric next targets T-Bird, killing him in an explosion.

The following morning, Sarah and Darla reconcile, and Sarah reunites with Eric at his apartment. Top Dollar holds a meeting with his associates to discuss plans to burn the city to the ground on Devil's Night. Eric arrives for Skank, but a gunfight erupts, ending with Eric throwing Skank from a window to his death. Top Dollar, his lover and half-sister Myca, and his right-hand man Grange escape. Myca deduces that the crow is the source of Eric's immortality.

Satisfied with his vengeance, Eric gives Shelly's engagement ring to Sarah and returns to his grave. Grange abducts Sarah on her way home and takes her to an abandoned church, where Myca and Top Dollar await. Top Dollar takes Shelly's ring. The crow alerts Eric to Sarah's plight, and he rushes to rescue her but is ambushed by Grange, who wounds the crow and renders Eric vulnerable. Albrecht arrives and kills Grange, while Myca attempts to seize the crow for its power; it claws out her eyes, causing her to fall to her death from the bell tower. Top Dollar retreats to the church roof with Sarah, where he fights and badly wounds Eric, and reveals that he ordered T-Bird and his men to clear their apartment, making him responsible for Eric and Shelley's murder. Eric transfers Shelly's pain into Top Dollar, causing him to stumble off the roof and be fatally impaled on a gargoyle.

Sarah and a wounded Albrecht are recovered from the church, while a dying Eric goes to Shelly's grave, where her spirit arrives to comfort him and return his body to rest. Some time later, Sarah visits the graves, and the crow gives her Shelly's ring.