Die Trying recap

Jack Reacher is accidentally abducted with FBI agent Holly Johnson and chooses to protect her rather than escape alone. Their captors deliver them to Bo Borken's fortified Montana militia, which plans to declare independence while using Holly's ties to General Johnson and the President as leverage. Reacher and Holly resist from inside as federal officials struggle with a leak, political restrictions, and stolen Stinger missiles. Reacher destroys the militia's mobile missile capability, rescues McGrath, exposes Brogan as Borken's mole, and kills Borken before Holly can be executed. Holly kills Milosevic after he takes her hostage and admits paid cooperation. The militia siege proves to be cover for Stevie's dynamite attack on a Federal Reserve branch in San Francisco. Reacher destroys the bomb truck on an empty highway, the enclave is dismantled, Holly later lives with McGrath, and Reacher leaves alone.

Jack Reacher happens to be helping an injured stranger outside a Chicago dry cleaner when armed men seize them both. He judges that resistance would endanger pedestrians and realizes the woman, not he, was the intended target. The captors transfer them from a sedan to a panel truck, burn the car, and take them to a rural barn. The woman identifies herself as Holly Johnson, a new FBI special agent. Reacher conceals his own military background while demonstrating enough skill to escape his restraints. He refuses to leave Holly behind because her knee injury prevents her from following safely. Meanwhile, an unusually large commander oversees construction of an escape-resistant room at a remote compound and kills workers who could identify it. An undercover observer manages to transmit a warning. In Chicago, Holly's missed conference alarms McGrath, Brogan, and Milosevic. FBI director Harland Webster personally escalates the disappearance after learning of it.

Webster brings the matter to senior military leadership, and the investigation is confined to McGrath, Brogan, and Milosevic. Holly is the daughter of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, though Reacher does not yet know that connection. McGrath's team reconstructs her regular visit to the dry cleaner and obtains its time-lapse security recording. In captivity, Reacher analyzes the kidnappers as dangerous but inexperienced amateurs and remains committed to Holly rather than using a solo escape route. Holly recognizes that he is a trained soldier rather than the doorman he claims to be. Reacher begins undermining the captors' control by demanding food and better conditions. One nervous kidnapper gives his name as Stevie. The captives are placed back in the truck, while the FBI advances the recording to the moment Holly leaves the shop and is about to see what happened outside.

The recording shows four men abduct Holly, and enhanced images give the FBI faces and a vehicle. Investigators find the stolen sedan burned with its owner dead inside, then recover an earlier pickup used by the crew. Reacher admits that he was an Army military police major and explains his rootless life after leaving the service. Holly reveals that her father is General Johnson, the nation's senior military officer, confirming Reacher's belief that she was selected as leverage. After a long drive, the captors stop at another isolated horse farm. The unnamed driver returns alone and attacks Holly, repeatedly targeting her injured knee. Reacher uses the timing of Holly's resistance to tear his restraint from the wall. He is now free inside the barn and able to intervene, while Holly remains chained and the other two captors are nearby.

Reacher kills the driver and hides his body, but cannot get Holly away from the farm. When Stevie fires into the barn, Holly redirects the remaining captors toward flight and saves Reacher from immediate execution. Both prisoners are loaded into the truck again. The FBI links paint supplies and a fingerprint to Wayne Bell, identifying him as the driver involved in disguising the stolen white Ford Econoline. A nationwide alert appears to succeed when law enforcement surrounds a matching truck in Arizona. The stopped vehicle, however, still carries its original company markings and contains migrants headed toward Chicago. It is unrelated to the abduction. McGrath recognizes that the vehicle theory was wrong, while Reacher and Holly continue westward in the actual truck with their location still unknown.

The kidnappers deliver Holly and Reacher to an armed mountain community. Vehicle evidence independently leads the FBI to Bo Borken, a militia leader in northwestern Montana, while Wayne Bell is found dead in North Dakota. At the enclave, Holly is locked in a reinforced courthouse room and Reacher is placed under Fowler, the militia chief of staff. Borken decides whether Reacher will live, while Loder faces punishment for the kidnapping team's mistakes. A scarred militia guard secretly tells Holly that he is an undercover FBI agent and proposes an escape. She refuses to leave without Reacher. Guard Joseph Ray tells Reacher they are near the abandoned town of York and describes Borken's separatist movement. He also reveals that old dynamite surrounds Holly's cell and that the militia intends to declare independence on July 4. Holly is therefore both a hostage and a deterrent against an assault led by her father.

The FBI confirms that Borken's inner circle includes Stevie, Tony Loder, Fowler, and the late Wayne Bell. The suspected militia valley lies close to a former Stinger site, giving the investigation a new weapons concern. At York, Reacher's tactical perception persuades Borken to keep him alive temporarily and consider using him as an emissary. Holly starts dismantling her bed to make an escape tool. Borken's independence plan rests on Holly's value as General Johnson's daughter and on the explosives built around her room. Fowler prosecutes Loder before a staged tribunal for endangering the operation. Stevie testifies, the jury convicts Loder, and Borken executes him. Military police then identify the large man seen in the kidnapping footage as Jack Reacher, a decorated former Army military police major and expert marksman. Federal officials now know his identity but wrongly suspect that he may have joined the kidnappers.

Reacher and Holly conclude that someone inside the Chicago FBI office supplied the kidnappers with information. Holly identifies the undercover guard as Jackson, and Reacher quietly warns him that the leak could expose him. Fowler shows Reacher a fortified, well-stocked community with substantial weapons, funds, and defensive preparations. Borken learns Reacher's identity and cancels the plan to send him outside. Federal officials review Jackson's earlier reports but are denied permission for immediate intervention because the White House fears the political consequences of attacking a militia. Holly obtains the guard's submachine gun and escapes the courthouse into the forest. General Johnson and McGrath quietly establish surveillance and a roadblock near York despite the official delay. Radio contact with a nearby military missile team is lost, raising a new threat.

Holly reaches Reacher's public execution and threatens her own life to force Borken to spare him. Borken reveals that she is also the President's goddaughter, then makes Reacher prove his value in a long-range shooting contest. Reacher deliberately places six shots in a distant tree, winning temporary survival for both captives. On punishment detail they find Jackson tortured and dead. Reacher buries him, and the two narrow the possible Chicago leak while federal observers continue to misread Reacher's actions. Reports of a missing missile unit deepen the crisis, but the President still withholds overt intervention. McGrath, Brogan, Milosevic, and General Johnson establish a command post near York with aerial surveillance. General Garber, Reacher's former commander, joins the response. The federal team can watch the valley and contain its road, but the missile unit is now treated as lost.

Reacher deceives Joseph Ray into releasing him, then learns that many people in Borken's community are prisoners and may face forced mass death. At the mine complex he finds the stolen Army air-defense unit, murdered soldiers, and plans for attacks involving Washington, New York, and Atlanta. Trapped inside the weapons shed, he escapes through narrow mine passages and returns to Holly. He tells her what he found, including the missiles and the danger to the captive community. Holly confirms that she killed the lunch worker during her earlier escape. Together they enter the communications hut, where Holly sends McGrath a fax warning that the militia has the missing missile unit. Before they leave, Reacher disables Borken's shortwave antenna, cutting the covert radio link he believes is being used by the informant inside the investigation.

Borken's declaration reaches the authorities as the unbriefed Chinook approaches York. Reacher uses a cigarette to attack Fowler, kills him and two guards, and sees a militia gunner launch a Stinger. Reacher kills the gunner too late, and the missile brings down the helicopter. With intervention now urgent, federal planners find the destroyed bridge and ravine impassable to their armored vehicle. Reacher heads for the mines and disables all four missile trucks by shooting their tires, limiting the militia's ability to move the weapons. He remains armed inside the compound while Borken begins direct negotiations through Jackson's recovered transmitter. Borken confirms Jackson's murder, threatens Holly, demands restored communications, and rejects a hostage exchange. He then forces eight Marines into an exposed position on the damaged bridge and orders Webster and General Johnson to join them, gaining control of the immediate federal response.

McGrath, Brogan, and Milosevic separately enter militia territory to rescue Holly. McGrath realizes their plans were leaked, is captured, and is displayed for execution. Reacher kills his guards and frees him. After seeing Reacher's restraint mark and hearing Garber's support, McGrath accepts that Reacher is an ally. They conclude that either Brogan or Milosevic supplied Borken with information. Although Borken publicly identifies Milosevic as the traitor, Reacher sees that Brogan had slowed the investigation and recognizes the accusation as cover. Borken stages Brogan as a prisoner in the punishment hut, but Reacher exposes the concealed trap by shooting through the wall. Brogan emerges armed, confirming his betrayal, and McGrath kills him. Holly meanwhile arms herself with sharp pieces of tile. Reacher and McGrath still need to free her without striking the dynamite believed to surround the courthouse.

Reacher realizes the York confrontation is meant to distract attention from another attack. When Borken displays Holly as a target, Reacher shoots Borken from long range to stop Garber's dangerous line of fire. Garber also fires, and his three rounds penetrate the courthouse without causing the expected explosion. Reacher's shot kills Borken. The dynamite has been removed from Holly's room and loaded into a truck. Milosevic takes Holly hostage and admits that Brogan paid him to cooperate, but Holly breaks free and kills him. Reacher, Holly, McGrath, Garber, and General Johnson pursue Stevie's disguised bomb truck by helicopter. They identify a Federal Reserve branch in San Francisco as the intended target, locate the repainted vehicle, and Reacher detonates it on an empty highway. Stevie dies and the mass-casualty attack is stopped. Military forces dismantle the militia enclave and recover its weapons. Holly returns to FBI work and later lives with McGrath. Reacher parts from her, resumes travelling alone, and reaches Wisconsin.

Reacher kills Bo Borken before Borken can execute Holly, and McGrath frees her. The supposed dynamite barrier around her room is gone because it has been turned into a mobile bomb. Milosevic then takes Holly hostage, admits accepting money from Brogan, and is killed by Holly during her escape. Reacher, Holly, McGrath, General Garber, and General Johnson pursue Stevie by helicopter. They identify a Federal Reserve branch in San Francisco as the intended target, locate the repainted truck, and Reacher detonates it on an empty highway. Stevie dies and the public attack fails. Military forces secure and dismantle the militia enclave, recover its weapons, and remove the missile unit. Holly receives treatment, returns to the FBI, and later lives with McGrath. Reacher says goodbye and resumes travelling alone, reaching Wisconsin.