Plot summary

After a botched-up bank robbery attempt, skilled getaway driver Carl "Luke" Lucas finds himself sentenced to the maximum security correctional facility named Terminal Island to fight for his life in the Death Match: the Weyland Corporation's profitable pay-per-view gladiator TV series. However, in search of even greater profit, the steely TV producer September Jones comes up with the idea of the Death Race: a lethal car race where the most dangerous inmates compete against each other in heavily modified vehicles. Now Carl has a choice: win five races to get his freedom, or forever rot in prison. Will his decision mark the beginning of a new era and the birth of the ultimate Death Race driver, Frankenstein?—Nick Riganas