In 1931, during the Great Depression, Michael Sullivan, Sr. is an enforcer for Irish mob boss John Rooney in Rock Island, Illinois. Rooney raised the orphan Sullivan and loves him more than his own biological son, Connor. Rooney holds a wake in his home for the brother of an associate, Finn McGovern. McGovern is clearly agitated and indirectly suggests the Rooney family is responsible. Rooney sends Connor and Sullivan to meet with McGovern, under orders just to talk, but Connor shoots him, resulting in Sullivan gunning down McGovern's men. Sullivan's twelve-year-old son Michael Jr. has hidden in his father's car and witnesses the event. Sullivan swears his son to secrecy and Rooney gets his own personal assurance. Rooney pressures Connor to apologize for his reckless action.
That night, Rooney sends Sullivan to collect a debt from a speakeasy owner, Tony Calvino. Connor, jealous of his father's preference for Sullivan over him and afraid Michael Jr. might talk, sends a letter with Sullivan for Calvino. When Calvino reads it, he moves to shoot Sullivan, who kills him and his bodyguard first. When Sullivan reads the letter, it says "Kill Sullivan and all your debts are paid". Fearing his family is in danger, he rushes home. Connor has gone to the Sullivan home and murders Sullivan's wife, Annie and younger son, Peter. He fails to kill Michael Jr., who received detention at school for fighting and when he returns home, hides from Connor.
Sullivan and Michael Jr. flee Rock Island and head to Chicago in hopes of meeting with Al Capone for work and learning the location of Connor, who has gone into hiding....
Directed by Sam Mendes
Produced by
Richard D. Zanuck
Dean Zanuck
Sam Mendes
Screenplay by David Self
Based on
Road to Perdition
by
Max Allan Collins
Richard Piers Rayner
Starring
Tom Hanks
Paul Newman
Jude Law
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Stanley Tucci
Daniel Craig
Music by Thomas Newman
Cinematography Conrad L. Hall
Edited by Jill Bilcock