当汤米·尼克斯（特别介绍新星 乔·科尔）在一个武装团伙的野蛮袭击事件中失去了他的女友（金伯利·尼克松 饰）和未出生的孩子，他发誓报仇。当这伙歹徒被判刑入狱时，他​​没有选择，只能跟着他们一同进入监狱，并不惜一切代价来惩罚那些毁了他生活的人。怒不可遏的他将毁掉所有那些阻拦他的障碍。

Prime Video has given a series order to Criminal, a drama based on the multi-Eisner Award-winning graphic novel series created by Ed Brubaker, who writes the comic, and Sean Phillips, who illustrates it. 　　Criminal is described as an interlocking universe of crime stories. As Brubaker explained to Deadline in a 2019 interview, “Criminal tells the interweaving saga of several generations of families tied together by the crimes and murders of the past.”

该片定级R级，充满强烈的暴力、粗口、性内容，从预告片也可以看出影片相当硬核，描写了一个黑暗、罪恶的黑社会。