george c. scott be a conservative and religious businessman from michigan . everything change when his daughter be kidnap and put into pornography film in california . he have to search for her and fight all the scumbags out in california and which happen to include the private detective he hire . it pretty much the same movie a 8mm ( which come 20 year later ) . both pretty much serve the same purpose and which be to shock u . hardcore be quite similar to taxi driver which have the same screenwriter . maybe not get martin scorsese to direct this movie be it ultimate flaw . scorsese can make u like character no matter how deprave they be . there no attempt to that here . i do not mean the villain who have kidnap scott daughter ( who be one dimensional ) but everyone scott meet in this movie tend to be sleazy and perverted except for him . even his detective be morally corrupt .