
She briefly uses him to learn what he would look for at a murder site, while he seems genuinely infatuated with her. He has problems of his own, but is soon drawn into Erica's world when they speak at the scene of one of her murders, which she explains away by stating her radio credentials. On the case to solve these vigilante killers is Det. Emboldened by this act, she soon finds herself seeking out the neighborhoods and situations where she can be thrust into danger again.

Shortly there after, coincidentally timed to moved the movie along, Erica is in a bodega when a murder is committed and she ends up murdering the murderer. She is finally driven to buying an illegal handgun as a means to feel safer about herself and to give her the strength to leave her apartment. The Mickey Mouse mask of the "safest big city in the world" has been ripped off and she has glimpsed the darkness that lies beneath. Upon her release she is frightened to even leave her apartment. Erica herself is injured quite badly and ends up in the hospital for three weeks.

Jodie Foster stars as Erica Bain, a New York radio host whose fiancée is killed in an attack in Central Park by a group of drunk gang members. This modern update of Charles Bronson's Death Wish is well acted, well directed and for the most part, well written. And as is usual in these cases, one of the movies is far superior to the other and in this case it is clearly The Brave One. Such is the case with the recently released Death Sentence and now The Brave One. Every now and then Hollywood seems to release two very similar movies at the same time ( Armageddon and Deep Impact leap to mind).
