Mikael Blomkvist is a journalist for Sweden's 'Millenium' magazine, a monthly publication that has a decent amount of readers. After publishing a shocking expos' on a billionaire businessman, he is sued for libel but loses the highly publicised case and is sentenced to three months in prison.
Once out of jail, Mikael gets a letter from Henrik Vanger, once the CEO of Vanger Enterprises. Henrik needs Mikael's help in solving a 40 year old case - the mystery of his missing daughter, Harriet.
Mikael is reluctantly joined on the case by a young hacker called Lisbeth, who hacked into Mikael's computer in order to run a background check on him. But Lisbeth, too, has problems of her own. Her new legal guardian, Nils Bjurman, asks for sexual favours in return for the large sum of money in Lisbeth's bank.
While Lisbeth may not want to work alongside Mikael, what started out as an investigation into a dysfunctional family history soon turns nasty and Lisbeth is forced to save Mikael's life.
Directed by: David Fincher
Starring: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Embeth Davidtz, Robin Wright, Stellan Skarsgard, Christopher Plummer, Geraldine James, Joely Richardson, Yorick van Wageningen, Alan Dale, Goran Visnjic, Steven Berkoff, Julian Sands, Joel Kinnaman, David Dencik