The film begins at the conclusion of The Girl Who Played with Fire. Computer hacker Lisbeth Salander is airlifted to a hospital in Gothenburg, to recover from gunshot wounds inflicted by her father, crime boss Alexander Zalachenko. Journalist Mikael Blomkvist, who Salander helped on a previous case, resumes his efforts to clear her of several murder charges, knowing that she was framed by the “Section,” a group within the Swedish Security Service that illegally sheltered Zalachenko after he defected from the Soviet Union.
Section members Evert Gullberg and Fredrik Clinton decide to silence Zalachenko and Salander to preserve their secrets. Gullberg arrives at the hospital and kills Zalachenko, but is unable to reach Salander; he then commits suicide. Clinton plans to have Salander recommitted to the mental hospital where the Section had her institutionalized as a child after she nearly killed Zalachenko. His collaborator in this plan is Dr. Peter Teleborian, the hospital’s administrator, who “treated” the young Salander by putting her in restraints for the smallest infractions.
Blomkvist persuades her doctor to sneak an Internet phone into Salander’s room, whereupon Salander contacts her fellow hacker, Plague, to see if he can find something on Teleborian. She then tells Blomkvist that Annika Giannini, her lawyer and Blomkvist’s sister, has permission to use a video showing her state-appointed guardian Nils Bjurman raping her; Bjurman, a former Section employee, is one of the people she is accused of murdering.
Starring: Noomi Rapace, Michael Nyqvist, Annika Hallin, Sofia Ledarp
