The Accountant is a 2016 American action-thriller film directed by Gavin O'Connor, written by Bill Dubuque and starring Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, J. K. Simmons, Jon Bernthal, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Jeffrey Tambor, and John Lithgow. The storyline follows Christian Wolff, a certified public accountant with autism who makes his living uncooking the books of criminal and terrorist organizations around the world that are experiencing internal embezzlement.
The Accountant premiered in Los Angeles on October 10, 2016, and was theatrically released in the United States by Warner Bros. Pictures on October 14, 2016. Receiving mixed reviews from critics, the film grossed $155 million worldwide. It received praise for Affleck’s performance and the action sequences featuring pencak silat, an Indonesian martial art.
Plot
A man who goes by the alias 'Christian Wolff' is on the autism spectrum. His mother wants to send him to Harbor Neuroscience, a treatment center, but his father disagrees. Unable to handle Christian's needs, his mother abandons their family. His father begins training him and his brother Braxton in various martial arts while also encouraging Christian to acclimate himself to stimulus that triggers him rather than avoiding it.
In the present, Christian operates a small accounting office in Plainfield, Illinois, that serves as a front for his money laundering enterprise. His criminal clients contact him via an unnamed woman, who also organizes his business. Chris is hired to audit the firm Living Robotics after the company's CEO Lamar Blackburn and his sister Rita learn of accounting irregularities. They assign in-house accountant Dana Cummings to assist Wolff as she discovered the issue.
Meanwhile, Treasury Director Ray King meets with a data analyst named Marybeth Medina who has a criminal record as a juvenile but failed to disclose this on her employment application. King warns Medina she faces prison if he chooses to reveal the information, and he assigns her the task of finding Wolff's real identity before King retires in a few months. She uses this information provided by King along with tax records to locate Wolff's office.
Wolff reviews more than a decade of the company's financial records in one night and finds that $61 million has been embezzled. He informs Rita of the total but admits he does not know who the thief is. That night, Living Robotics CFO Ed Chilton is forced by a hitman to overdose on his insulin. The next day, Lamar pays Wolff the rest of his contract money for the audit and tells him to leave.
Hitmen attempt to kill Wolff but he easily subdues them; one reveals that Dana is the next target. He arrives at Dana's apartment in time to stop more hitmen from killing her. He takes her to his storage unit, which contains an Airstream recreational vehicle filled with artwork and valuables that he has accepted as payment. He then hides Dana at an expensive hotel and goes to confront Rita but finds her murdered, causing him to suspect Lamar is the thief.
King, Medina, and a group of agents search Wolff's home. After everyone else leaves, King tells Medina what he knows of Wolff and reveals that he began getting tips from Wolff. He asks Medina to take over when he retires and to continue accepting Wolff's information. She refuses, unable to justify taking tips from a murderer like Wolff. The phone in the empty house rings, and Medina answers. Wolff's partner gives her a tip about Living Robotics.
Wolff goes to Lamar's mansion, where a team of hitmen await. He fights his way inside but is shocked to find his brother Braxton is the one protecting Lamar. The brothers fight and then reconcile, and afterwards Lamar appears and tries to justify his criminal actions. Christian kills Lamar and makes arrangements to meet up with Braxton in a week before leaving.
Another set of parents visit Harbor Neuroscience. They meet Justine, the daughter of the clinic's director, who is revealed to be Wolff's partner. Medina accepts her new role as Wolff's contact and speaks at a press conference on the Treasury investigation into Living Robotics. Dana receives a framed copy of Dogs Playing Poker, but discovers an original Jackson Pollock painting hidden underneath it. In the final scene, Wolff is shown driving on a country road with his Airstream in tow.