Japan in the near future. Six prisoners, male and female, in prison, who have signed a "Special Pardon Pledge" are taken to a secret room covered in concrete with no way out. They are brought to a secret room covered with concrete with no way out. There are monitors on the walls and several surveillance cameras on the ceiling. The room is lined with boxes of various sizes with locks on them. There is only one condition to pass the special pardon examination: to escape from the room by using the items in the boxes given to each person.

Nathan Algren is an American hired to instruct the Japanese army in the ways of modern warfare, which finds him learning to respect the samurai and the honorable principles that rule them. Pressed to destroy the samurai's way of life in the name of modernization and open trade, Algren decides to become an ultimate warrior himself and to fight for their right to exist.