Hardcore

In December 1977, Kristen Van Dorn disappears during a church-sponsored trip to Bellflower, California. Jake Van Dorn, a devout Calvinist businessman from Grand Rapids, is devastated and begins a long, fruitless search as months pass with no leads.

In May 1978, Andy Mast presents Van Dorn with a shocking discovery: an 8 mm stag film purchased in a Los Angeles sex shop, depicting Kristen engaged in a sexual act with two men. The footage convinces Jake that his daughter has been kidnapped and trafficked into sex work.

Jake flies to Los Angeles to confront private investigator Andy Mast, only to find Mast distracted by a porn star he was supposed to investigate. The encounter makes Jake realize Mast is not going to help him.

Frustrated with Mast and the LAPD's indifference, Van Dorn fires Mast and decides to take matters into his own hands, plunging into the city's seedy underbelly to pursue clues about Kristen.

Van Dorn adopts a ruse as a pornography producer and places an ad in the Los Angeles Free Press to lure informants, hoping to uncover Kristen's whereabouts. The move marks a turn into undercover work.

Respondents flood Jake's motel room, including 'Jism Jim.' After a violent interrogation, Jim directs him to Niki, a streetwise prostitute who may know Kristen. The encounter pulls Jake deeper into the porn world.

Jake pays Niki to guide him through California's porn circuit, forming an uneasy alliance as they begin to follow leads and navigate a world that challenges his beliefs about sexuality and power.

Unknown to Jake, his brother-in-law Wes rehires Mast, who tails the two as their search intensifies, bringing additional pressure and surveillance to their mission across the state.

Their uneasy partnership carries them from Los Angeles to San Diego and finally to San Francisco, with Niki and Jake slowly bridging their ideological divides as they travel.

In San Francisco, Niki connects Van Dorn to Tod, a dealer linked to Ratan, a sadistic pornographer rumored to produce snuff films, deepening the danger of the search.

In a dimly lit sex shop, Van Dorn endures a screening of Ratan's latest film—a gruesome murder of a Mexican sex worker in Tijuana—traumatizing him, though he is relieved the victim isn't Kristen.

Jake pressures Tod's address from Niki, who fears abandonment if Kristen isn't found, and he strikes her to secure compliance, pushing their uneasy alliance toward a crisis point.

Jake tracks Tod to a bondage dungeon and brutalizes him into revealing Ratan's hideout: a nightclub hosting live sex shows, where he hopes to find Kristen. The discovery escalates toward a dangerous confrontation.

Inside the nightclub, Van Dorn confronts Ratan and discovers Kristen in the audience; Mast then shoots Ratan in the back from across the street as police arrive. Kristen reveals she fled voluntarily, rejecting her father's rigid upbringing, and agrees to return home. In the crowd, Van Dorn spots Niki and, though grateful, their bond remains severed as Niki vanishes and the two depart for Grand Rapids.