Plot

Kraven's complex relationship with his ruthless father, Nikolai Kravinoff, starts him down a path of vengeance with brutal consequences, motivating him to become not only the greatest hunter in the world, but also one of its most feared.

In Siberia, the prisoner Sergei Kravinoff kills the drug lord Semyon Chorney in a maximum-security prison and flees to meet his partner that is waiting for him in an airplane. While traveling back home, Sergei recalls his saga sixteen years ago, when his father Nikolai Kravinoff travels with his brother Dmitri "Dima" to Tanzania for a hunting trip to prepare them to take over his drug trafficking business in the future. When Nikolai hits a lion, the wounded animal will attack Dima, but Serge protects him. Seriously injured, a girl named Calypso finds him, gives a potion to him and calls assistance, saving his life. She leaves a tarot card with him, and Sergei is miraculously healed. When his father shows the head of the lion as a trophy, Sergei leaves him and goes to the sanctuary that belonged to his mother in Russia. Nowadays, Sergei is a vigilante and urban legend known as Kraven, the Hunter, who hunts criminals. During Dmitri's birthday, Kraven travels to London to celebrate with his brother. But Dmitri is kidnapped and Nikolai refuses to pay the 20 million-dollar-ransom. Now Kraven has to find the man behind the abduction. Aleksei "Rhino" Sytsevich is a powerful competitor of Nikolai that participated in an experiment that gave him the power and strength of a rhinoceros. He hired mercenaries and the Foreigner-who uses hypnotism to defeat his enemies. He has plans to destroy Kraven by using his brother as a bait however Kraven teams up with Calypso (who is now a lawyer in London) to help him in his quest to release Dmitri from his captors.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Following the death of his mother, Sergei Kravinoff (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and his half-brother Dmitri (Fred Hechinger) are taken by their father Nikolai (Russell Crowe) to prepare them to take over his drug trafficking operations. Sergei and Dmitri were studying at an upscale academy in New York when Sergei's mother committed suicide. Nikolai says that their mother was of a weak mind. Sergei resents Nikolai and holds his responsible for his mother's death. Sergei is the strong one and Nikolai respects him and considers Dmitri to be the weak one.

Nikolai takes the boys to a hunting trip in Ghana. Nikolai is hunting a legendary lion named Zar who is rumored to have killed 3000 men and is known as the one who cannot be killed. Nikolai wants to kill Zar and become a legend himself. Aleksei Sytsevich was on the hunting trip and wanted to make a partnership with Nikolai but is rebuffed as Nikolai does not see him as an equal.

Sergei and Dmitri get separated from the hunting group, when they are confronted by Zar. Sergei stares at Zar but does not shoot him and neither does Zar attack. But Nikolai arrives and shoots Zar, who attacks Sergei. Sergei is injured protecting his brother from Zar, even as Zar is hit 3 times by Nikolai. Zar carries Sergei away and brings him to a girl named Calypso (Ariana DeBose), who heals him with a serum that seemingly brings the bloods of Zar and Sergei together, and calls for rescue, leaving a tarot card behind. Calypso was trained to be a tarot card reader by her grandmother, who also gave her the serum saying only that she would need it very soon.

Sergei soon discovers his physical attributes have become animal like. Nikolai takes Sergei and Dmitri to London where he declares Sergei to be his successor. Sergei had read letters from his mother, asking him never to become like his father. When Nikolai reveals he killed the lion to teach his sons a lesson, a disgusted Sergei flees to a sanctuary owned by his mother in Russia. He takes the tarot card and the bottle of serum, which still had a little serum left in it.

Sergei realizes his enhanced powers and agility. He is stranded in the middle of a Wildebeest stampede and yet they do not attack him, recognizing him as one of their own. At the sanctuary, isolated and alone, Sergei learns to use his powers. Sergei starts by hunting poachers who kill wild animals.

Sixteen years later, Sergei, now going by Kraven, is a vigilante who hunts criminals. Sergei gets himself arrested by the Russian police and is taken to an obscure and isolated prison, in the middle of nowhere. The inmates try to bully Sergei, but he is able to stand up to them. It is clear that Sergei has enormous strength, and the inmates are no match for him physically. It is revealed that Sergei got him arrested so he could get access to Semyon Chorney (Yuri Kolokolnikov) a Russian crime lord who was in the same prison. Semyon is a arms trafficker, and Sergei knows that his weapon kills thousands of women and children every year, all over the world. Sergei introduces himself as Kraven to Semyon as he unleashes his attack.

After killing Semyon in a Russian prison, Kraven escapes prison. With his strength, he can bend iron bars, he can jump over long distances, climb walls, run really fast and accomplish other feats of power and agility.

Kraven meets Calypso who is now working as a lawyer in London. Calypso recognizes Kraven as the boy saved by the lion. Kraven says that he hunts criminals now and proposes a partnership to Calypso in which she would provide details of criminals being served by her firm, and he would hunt them down. Meanwhile, Aleksei Sytsevich is expanding his criminal empire and takes over Semyon's assets and operations. Aleksei finds the prison CCTV footage and realizes that Nikolai's son Sergei is the mystical "Hunter" who has a list of criminals that he is eliminating systematically.

Kraven travels to London for Dmitri's birthday. Their reunion is short-lived when mercenaries abduct Dmitri. Kraven chases the kidnappers all over town, but they manage to get away. When Nikolai refuses to pay the ransom of $20 million, Kraven meets Calypso again and convinces her to help. Calypso finds the identity of the mercenary who carried out the kidnapping and his current location in a monastery in Turkey. But this was a set up by Alexei, who had discovered Kraven's connection to Dmitri, and had deliberately lured him to a monastery in Turkey. Aleksei hires the Foreigner (Christopher Abbott), an assassin who uses ocular hypnosis to disorient his targets, to kill Kraven. The Foreigner is obsessed with Kraven as he was responsible for the death of Foreigner's mentor.

Meanwhile, Dmitri meets the man behind his kidnapping, Aleksei Sytsevich (Alessandro Nivola), who took part in an experiment granting him the strength and visage of a rhinoceros. Aleksei proposes an alliance to overthrow Nikolai. Aleksei convinces Dmitri that Nikolai would never spend $20 million on his illegitimate son whom he never wanted. Aleksei also reveals Sergei identity as the Hunter to Dmitri. Aleksei also reveals to Dmitri how he used genetic experiments to acquire rhino properties in his body.

Kraven survives the ambush by Alexei and retreats to his sanctuary in Russia with Calypso. The Foreigner finds a toxin in the monastery in Turkey, which only comes from a particular plant in Siberia. At the sanctuary, Calypso finds that Kraven is trying to recreate the serum, but she says that she has none left.

Tracking Kraven and Calypso to his sanctuary, Aleksei and the Foreigner ambush Kraven when he leaves the sanctuary to fight them. Drugging him with Neurotoxin, the Foreigner attacks Kraven but Calypso kills him with a crossbow and revives Kraven with another vial of the serum that her grandmother had left her. He then uses a buffalo stampede to trap Aleksei, who, despite turning into the Rhino and briefly overpowering Kraven, is killed.

Discerning that Nikolai was the one who revealed his existence to Aleksei, Kraven tracks his father for answers. Nikolai reveals that he knew Aleksei was targeting him and manipulated his sons to remove him. Nikolai leaves for a bear hunt. Kraven steals ammunition from Nikolai's gun so that his father will be killed by a bear.

One year later, Kraven visits Dmitri and is shocked that he has willingly inherited their father's criminal empire. Having gained shape-shifting abilities from the doctor who experimented on Aleksei, Dmitri reveals this to Kraven, disowning him, stating that despite his claims of being morally superior, he and Nikolai were the same: hunters searching for their next great trophy. At home, Kraven discovers a note from Nikolai along with a vest made from the skin of the killed lion from long ago, which he puts on.