THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE

On returning to Sweden after nearly a year living abroad, Lisbeth Salander reconnects with her ex-girlfriend Miriam Wu and offers her free use of her old apartment. Later, Salander confronts her sexually abusive former guardian Nils Bjurman after hacking into his email and discovering that he has an appointment booked with a tattoo removal specialist. She warns him at gunpoint not to remove the tattoo that she etched on his abdomen exposing him as a rapist.

Mikael Blomkvist hires journalist Dag Svensson to work at his magazine, Millennium. Dag is writing an exposé on prostitution and human trafficking in Sweden, while his girlfriend, Mia Bergman, is writing her doctoral thesis on sex trafficking. Dag and Mia are about to go on a holiday and ask Blomkvist to come to his apartment and collect some photographs; he also asks Blomkvist to inquire about someone called "Zala" who may have a connection to his article.

At the apartment, Blomkvist finds the two murdered, and soon traces the handgun used to kill them to Bjurman, who has also been murdered. Salander is the prime suspect because her fingerprints are on the gun. After initially resisting his help, Salander tells Blomkvist that she did not kill anyone and that they need to find the mysterious "Zala".

Salander's boxing trainer and friend, Paolo Roberto, contacts Blomkvist and says that he can find her by reaching out to Miriam. Near her apartment, Paolo witnesses Miriam being kidnapped by Ronald Niedermann, a career criminal with ties to a human trafficking ring. Paolo follows Neidermann to a deserted barn, where he hears him torturing Miriam for information about Salander. Paolo tries to rescue her, but Niedermann beats him up and sets the barn aflame, although Paolo and Miriam manage to escape.

News breaks of the attack, and Paolo gives his account to the police. After Blomkvist leaves information that he has discovered about the case on his computer for Salander to hack into and read, she leaves a message to him saying, "Thank you for being my friend." He realizes that she intends to set out alone to find the man who framed her and that she may not survive.

A disguised Salander visits Miriam in hospital to apologize for getting her involved. Salander confirms the police sketch of Niedermann with Miriam and then disappears. Miriam calls Blomkvist and gives him keys that Salander dropped during her visit. Noticing that one of them is for a post office box, Blomkvist is able to access and read Salander's mail and locate her apartment. Meanwhile, Salander stakes out Neidermann's post office box, eventually seeing someone retrieve his mail and following him to a small house near Gosseberga. Reading the material in Salander's apartment, Blomkvist finds a video of Bjurman raping her.

Paolo meets with Blomkvist and explains that he tracked down Niedermann and learned that he has congenital analgesia, which makes him unable to feel pain. They trace Niedermann to a company owned by "Karl Axel Bodin." Blomkvist has his Millennium colleague and lover Erika Berger forward documents to Bublanski and sets out to find Salander.

Salander enters the Gosseberga house, but Niedermann has been alerted by motion detectors and knocks her out. She awakens to see her father, Alexander "Zala" Zalachenko, whom she has not seen since she set him on fire and disfigured him as a child. Zalachenko dismisses her mother as a whore and belittles her rape at the hands of Bjurman. He reveals that Niedermann is her half-brother and that Niedermann killed Bjurman to prevent him from revealing Zalachenko's secrets.

They lead Salander to a shallow grave in the woods. She tells him that the police will find him soon and all that he has said has been published online through her hidden cellphone. Seeing through her bluff, he shoots Salander several times as she attempts to escape and buries her alive. Salander digs her way out and buries an axe in Zalachenko's leg. She keeps Niedermann at bay with Zalachenko's gun as Blomkvist comes coasting up the driveway. An ambulance arrives to take away Salander and Zalachenko, who are both seriously injured.

Lisbeth Salander confronts her estranged father, Alexander Zalachenko, and his henchman Niedermann. Despite being badly injured, she survives the ordeal and is eventually rescued, clearing the way for her name to be cleared.

The ending resolves Lisbeth’s struggle to clear her name and confront her violent past. By surviving a direct showdown with her abusers, Lisbeth reclaims agency over her life, setting up justice against those who wronged her. The film closes on a note of survival and resilience, with the central mystery resolved and Lisbeth’s relationships—especially with Mikael—deepened by shared adversity.