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Lord of War

In the early 1980s, Ukrainian-American restaurateur Yuri Orlov witnesses a gunfight amongst the Russian mafia in his area of Brighton Beach. The incident inspires him to begin trafficking arms for personal profit. Through a contact at his father's synagogue, he acquires an Uzi and makes his first sale, eventually convincing his reluctant younger brother Vitaly to become his partner in crime.

The two brothers get their big break with the Lebanese Civil War following the 1983 Beirut barracks bombings. As he prospers financially, Yuri increasingly witnesses his activities directly enabling atrocities and war crimes, and is relentlessly pursued by Jack Valentine of Interpol; Valentine represents a unique and persistent threat to Yuri's business because he has a particularly strong moral compass and cannot be bribed or coerced into backing down. Meanwhile, an arms deal with a Colombian drug lord ends with the brothers being forcefully paid off with a large shipment of cocaine, to which Vitaly soon develops a severe addiction. Yuri checks him into a rehabilitation center and continues building his empire in his absence. He uses his profits to seduce and marry a supermodel named Ava Fontaine. She later gives birth to their son Nikolai.

Upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Yuri flies to Ukraine and meets his uncle Dmitri, a Soviet general who is overseeing the distribution of the assets of the Soviet Armed Forces. As he illegally supplies Yuri and rebuffs his competition, Dmitri is killed in a car bombing orchestrated by rival arms dealer Simeon Weisz. Yuri then expands his empire to Africa and starts doing business with Liberian dictator André Baptiste. As a "gift" to honor their alliance, Baptiste captures Weisz and offers Yuri a chance to execute him; Yuri refuses, but Baptiste puts the gun into his hand and pulls the trigger. Yuri is disturbed by Baptiste's appetite for bloodshed, including his use of child soldiers, but remains undeterred from selling weapons and ammunition to him.

Valentine tells Ava that her husband is an arms trafficker, prompting her to confront him. In response, Yuri starts trading timber and oil, but quickly becomes frustrated with the lower profits of legitimate work. In 2000, he returns to crime after Baptiste visits him in person and offers him the largest payday of his career: a stash of blood diamonds. Suspicious of his behavior, Ava tails Yuri, unaware that Interpol is tracking her, and discovers the shipping container that holds his arms-dealing office.

Yuri takes Vitaly to Africa to help him during a deal with a Sierra Leonean militia, which is allied with Baptiste and is preparing to destroy a refugee camp. There, Vitaly watches as a woman and a child are hacked to death by Baptiste's fighters, and subsequently pleads with Yuri to cancel the sale. Yuri refuses, stating that the sale's impact on the refugees is not their concern and that Baptiste's men would kill them if they called off the deal. Unable to quell his distress, Vitaly steals a pair of grenades and destroys a truck full of weapons, also killing Baptiste's son, before he is gunned down by the Sierra Leonean militants. Yuri is spared and receives half of the diamonds in exchange for the remaining truckload. He pays a Liberian doctor to remove the bullets from Vitaly's body and forge a death certificate, but a missed bullet is found by U.S. customs officials, who promptly arrest Yuri. Ava takes Nikolai and leaves Yuri, while his family disowns him.

Valentine detains Yuri in anticipation of his trial and conviction, but Yuri, while dejected, is unfazed. He tells Valentine that a high-ranking military officer will soon knock on the door and insist on his release. He explains that while he is a criminal, he sometimes serves the interests of the U.S. government by covertly arming the enemies of its enemies. Valentine hears a knock at the door, looks at Yuri for a moment, and rebukes him.

Yuri is released and returns to the illegal arms trade. The film concludes with a statement that the world's largest arms suppliers—the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, China, and France—are also the Permanent Five of the United Nations Security Council.